VAL H.
USLE RA (CA), LEED AP
KIMBLE CREEK CONSULTING, LLC
Val Usle is a Themed Environment Design Management Consultant.
With over four decades of service to The Walt Disney Company he worked
on nearly all major projects – both domestic and international that
Walt Disney Imagineering pursued during this time. The body of
experience that emerged created skills and knowledge that will allow
clients to benefit in three major areas:
DEVELOPING AND MANAGING A PLAN. Theme park project teams are
short-lived entities that require their leaders to assemble a diverse
group of people, quickly align their talents with the ‘Big Idea,’ and
help them focus on a DELIVERY PLAN that effectively balances with
business constraints. Typically, the plan does not stay balanced
for long, as each day brings scope, schedule, and/or budget
challenges. In this environment, being a leader means your team
relies on you to be a PROBLEM MAGNET. This does not mean that
every issue can (or should) be solved by leadership, but it does
require an obligation to listen closely, stay engaged, and assist where
it is vital and most rational. Val’s insight on the critical
nature of up-front planning, as well as managing the realities that
press upon the plan during its execution, was gained over time from
leading progressively larger and more complex projects.
INTEGRATION. The number of diverse professional disciplines
involved with theme parks can easily exceed that needed for comparably
complex projects such as hospitals. But beyond the number of
varied skillsets, the inclusion of creative talent makes the industry
unique. Unlike the Sistine Chapel, where all the beauty flowed
through one hand holding a small brush, themed entertainment requires
the vision to flow through the hands and brushes of many.
Avoiding ‘Tower of Babel results’ from so many different and passionate
people mixed in the same arena is accomplished only through DEEP
INTEGRATION where everyone has an understanding of the overall plan,
while at the same time owning and mastering their part of it.
Theme park integration cannot simply be mailed in and Val understands
and appreciates that a leader’s job is to be the NUMBER ONE FACILITATOR
OF INTEGRATION.
PROCESS. Having the intuitive ability to see and explain the
human physics and milestones needed in an artistic organization to move
a team from initial concept to turnkey operation in easily understood
terms is paramount to any themed project. Imagineering’s
leadership leveraged Val's project experience, teaching skills, and
appreciation for how things work ‘behind the curtain,’ when it tasked
him to be one of the authors of Imagineering's original PROJECT
MANAGEMENT GUIDE as well as a subsequent major refresh, THE TRIANGLE OF
SUCCESS. Even in today’s world of virtual design and fast-paced
construction, every Imagineer still applies the matrix management and
life cycle principles co-authored by Val nearly three decades ago.
Val culminated his Imagineering career being the lead Design Manager
for the new Star Wars Lands being built in California and
Florida. Each of these fourteen acre sites will host the most
intense and deeply thematic settings Imagineering has ever attempted,
and Val successfully led both through their master planning
efforts. Since leaving Imagineering, Val has established KIMBLE
CREEK CONSULTING, LLC to offer services leveraging his thematic design
experience to assist clients’ internal staff in the following areas:
•
Project Planning and Mobilization
• Progress Assessments
• Facility, Show, and
Ride Integration
• Delivery and Resource
Strategies
• Work Plan
Development
• Programming and Scope
Development
• Request for Proposal
Preparation
• Process Coaching
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