Cartoons and Systems

If you haven’t seen Phineas and Ferb yet…I’m sorry.

Do yourself a favor and go find yourself the Disney Channel and sit back and watch.  But just don’t watch one episode!  You need to watch three or four in a row and see what you learn.

The show is amazingly simple.  These producers tapped into what the Roadrunner people knew…what the Scooby Doo people knew…and what many good carton producers still understand.

People like a format they know.

People like surprises.

People like surprises within a format they know.

Segment One of Phineas and Ferb is always the boys deciding what they are going to do.  It always ends with “Where is Perry?”

Segment Two then is unveils the plot by the Evil Dr. Doofinschmirtz to the secret agent (Perry…their pet platypus).

Segment Three….etc. etc. etc.

Here’s my point.

Do you know your segments when it comes to programming?

When you do, amazing things happen when it comes to planning your environment.  Imagine how much easier and more effective it is to sit down with a group at a creative meeting and fill in the segments for Phineas and Ferb as opposed to asking the general question “So, what should this episode be about?” Imagine what it would be like to sit down and plan your environment, and there is already a structure there…to organize your thoughts around, to organize good unused ideas around…to organize people (especially volunteers) around.  I had some ideas about how this effects us and our programming.  Here they are…

Here are the 101 level ideas.

• The basic segments create a structure.  I bet you already have them…You just need to name them.
• This is the structure you organize your creative meeting around.
• This is the structure you use to assign different tasks.

Here are the 201 level ideas…once you figure it out.

• This is the structure your small group leaders learn to expect and maximize.
• This is the structure where you start to ask “Does this segment lead into the next?”
• This is the structure where you start to ask “Do the segments build or did I use it all up too early?”

Here are the 301 level ideas.

• This is the structure you mess with for the big surprises.  Once everybody is used to a structure you can mess with it.  But only do it on purpose!
• Can you make the small group discussion part of the structure of the program?
• Are you setting your small group leaders up for good conversations?  Whether you do your small groups with the program or days later…I think it’s a great question.
• Is Small Group the point of your previous segments?

What do you think?  Let me know.