Our Children’s Shows Aren’t Just for Children, They’re for Organizations Too

This is the second of a five-part series, Working with COVID: A Five-Part Guide to Work-Life Integration during the Pandemic.

I have always been interested in what entertainment and media trends can teach about business and organizations. During the pandemic, when work got physically closer to life for so many and there was a massive uptick in streaming services, my curiosity ran wild. In my house of four daughters, the pandemic meant a lot of new children’s programming. But could these children’s shows teach lessons about business?

Research shows we use our memories, emotion, and learning (MEL) to support us through transitions in our lives. In the workplace, this means through times of change such as new technology, new leadership, new roles, or new strategy, we will depend on MEL and this can get us stuck. During times of change, we need to let go of our memories of the past and the emotions we associate with old ways of doing things to create new memories of newly learned behaviors. The more we engage in a full sensory experience in this process, the more we can activate emotions that will support learning new behaviors and create positive emotions associated with new memories.

Children’s entertainment often overlays simple lessons with color, motion, and music to drive home the central theme of a story. This is effective not just for children, but for adults as well. A total sensory experience helps immerse anyone in the process of building new memories and connecting these memories with emotions, supporting our overall learning. Music is often more memorable for people than just words, storytelling is more powerful than presentations, and images can stick longer than a thought. When we put all three together, it is powerful.

During the pandemic, several programs helped our children through times of change. New stories through a familiar medium create a sense of comfort in unfamiliar times. While the stories were written for children, often the lessons were there for adults to hear (and perhaps internalize) as well. Here are three examples that really hit home for me:

Bluey – The Australian show Bluey streams on Disney+. Every seven-minute episode features a unique soundtrack that guides the blue and red heeler dog family as they struggle through their daily life and often learn a valuable lesson. The two sisters, Bluey and Bingo, go about their days like most children — imaginative, energetic, sometimes mischievous, and always earnest. The two pups are surrounded by a colorful cast of characters, a large extended family, and two supportive and often playful parents.

• How does this connect to the workplace? Many of the episodes teach the simple lessons of ethics and morality that we want our children to learn at a young age — such as how to share, how to discuss our differences, and how to be inclusive. These support better children and, in due time, better organizations. But some of the episodes look right past the children to parents. In “Handstand,” we watch the Bingo, the younger sister, struggle to get someone to watch her do a handstand at her own birthday party. Simultaneously, we see her grandmother struggle to help the family with party planning, with many people telling her, “you just relax.” Both need someone, and both have an important purpose in the big cast of characters gathered for Bingo’s birthday. When Bingo finally lands the handstand, she believes no one is watching — but her Granny is. We see how important each generation is to support the life and growth of any family or organization.
• In the playfully named “Baby Race,” Bluey’s mom retells the story of how Bluey first learned to walk. As she tells the story, we see that it is not Bluey struggling, but her mother. She is comparing Bluey’s development to the other children and letting that affect her mood as a parent. In a very touching scene, a mother of over a dozen children (they are dogs, after all) tells Bluey’s mother, simply, “You’re doing great.” It’s a lesson so many could use over these trying few years! From here, Bluey’s mom tells Bluey it is not important when you walk, but that you “run your own race.” It’s another lesson for adults couched in the simple story about this lovely dog family.

Encanto

• In Disney’s magical film Encanto, the Madrigal family of Colombia are all born with a set of powerful gifts that allow them to support the family and the community around them. The ability to grow flowers, affect the weather, hear far better than anyone else, and heal people with food are just a few of the gifts that family members bring to the dinner table. The storyline is paired with powerful and sweeping music from Lin-Manuel Miranda to create a unique and beautiful story of family and community.
• The parallels to organizational life are uncanny. How often do we struggle to use our gifts in an organization? As a leader, how often do we struggle to “fit” certain people into the team? Without any spoilers, the film teaches us some valuable lessons about re-thinking what it means to have gifts and use them in our community.
• Additionally, the film includes an amazing song that, like Bluey, may sneakily connect children and parental feelings in a couple of concise verses. One of the characters, Luisa, has the gift of super strength. As she sings about her experience, she fears that she will always be under “Surface Pressure” to carry everything for the family. Again, this feels like a common theme from the pandemic put on full display in a children’s film. Check out these words from Luisa’s manifesto:

Vivo

• The Netflix movie Vivo brings to life a kinkajou (a small, raccoon-like animal that lives in the rainforest mammal) in the musical streets of Havana and Miami. Again, the soundtrack is provided by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who voices the kinkajou, named Vivo. Vivo finds a lifelong friend in a musician, who dies suddenly before sharing a song he wrote with the love of his life. Vivo decides to follow through where his friend could not and get the song to the musician’s long-lost love.
• Like all great adventure stories, Vivo finds a sidekick and is helped and hindered on his journey by many. Of course, the film includes many twists and turns that make it unclear whether Vivo will accomplish his goal. There is a veil of loss over the entire story, as Vivo’s departed friend is what drives him on this quest. In one of the songs, he sings at a point of complete hopelessness:

How many times during the pandemic have you thought something like this — Just keep the beat? To reference Finding Nemo, an older Pixar creation, the character of Dory says, “Just keep swimming.” It’s an important and healthy lesson for someone struggling with loss and the challenges of the modern day, but also for business. When we are struggling to move forward with work, sometimes taking the first step is what matters most. Sometimes, getting back in rhythm is all you can do to get started.

In short, these shows and movies are teaching our children well. They help create memories and learnings through emotional sensory experiences. But these are not just lessons for children, they are also reminders for parents. For many parents working from home or relaxing after an incredibly stressful day out of the house, shows like these might be the soundtrack for the pandemic.

We can learn two important lessons from these shows. On the professional level, when you need to drive change in your organization, think about the experience you are creating. If you help create new memories for your colleagues and team that use a full sensory experience, you will support learning and behavior change. On a personal level, your children are getting some powerful lessons from these shows that might help us all. Sit down and enjoy the shows with them. As Bluey mistakenly exclaims in one episode, you might just get “a valuable ‘lime’ lesson.”

Patrick McCreesh, Ph.D. is the Managing Partner of Simatree, a strategy, analytics, and technology consultancy. He leads teams through digital transformations and has developed analytics programs across the public sector and Fortune 500 clients. He also serves as adjunct faculty at Georgetown University and George Mason University Business School. Along with Dr. Victoria M. Grady, he’s the author of Stuck: How to Win at Work by Understanding Loss.