Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World

Sunday 31 May 2015

It's about Communication and Teamwork. Oh yeah, and the Gungans. Definitely about the Gungans too.

Here, allow me to raise Brett 1.0's blood pressure by about 50% with a single image:



Sure, it's easy to hate on Jar Jar.  I mean, he does seem to be essentially responsible for intergalactic civil war and indirectly responsible for the destruction of an entire planet (alderaan).  But what if I told you that he was really just a patsy?  What if I told you that, in addition to be an absolutely unintelligent and unintelligible character, he was also a foil?  The walking personification (or in this case Gunganification) of the opposite of good communication and leadership.  Because it's true.

First, let's take a look at a good example of communication and leadership:



Ah yes, Team Balls.  Now there is a group of smart young people that just ooze teamwork.  No really, between the humidity, all of Joe's sunscreen, and that GW hand sanitizer, there was definitely some oozing going on.

Here's the point (now that you've already read this far, I figure you have a bit of a sunken cost).  The biggest takeaway we had from our Disney guests regarding our presentation was the importance of seamless teamwork.  The handing off of communication, in that case speaking to the audience, in a seamless manner like a baton at a relay race.  When it works well, everyone is happy and thinks you did a good job.  That, or they're still distracted by your colorful slides from a prominently featured upcoming Disney film release.  I'll let you decide.

So we've soon the good side of communication and teamwork.  What's the bad side?  I refer again to my friend Jar Jar up there.  The Naboo people, of the planet Naboo, oppressed the Gungan people for generations.  After the Jedi finally showed up and laid some anti-apartheid knowledge on them, the Gungans had their first opportunity to send a representative to the Galactic Senate, a trip that should have been just a Free Vacation - Oh Boy!  But, they forgot to actually communicate with the Naboo, and amongst their own people.  They certainly didn't have any teamwork.  Poor dimwitted Jar Jar was just sent off planet on his own, without any fellow team members to help him out in big scary space.  Sure, he was with Queen Amidala sometimes, but can we really expect her to understand what the hell he was saying?

So lacking any team framework, and no communicated direction from the  Boss Nass, the leader of the Gungan High Council, Jar Jar went ahead and acted on his own.  Proposing unlimited powers for Emperor Palpatine with one stupid "Mesa propose..." and essentially, with what would later become known as "The Jar Jar Motion," started one big Crazy Train of events that resulted in Han Solo being frozen in carbonite, C-3PO being dismantled at least two separate times, an entire planet being destroyed, and even worse: a brother and sister kissing each other on screen.  Ewwww.

So kids, remember, you need teamwork and communication.  If you don't have these things, you might just cause an intergalactic civil war.

-Brett 2.0

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