My only early photo with Mickey at Disneyland. A picture with the Mouse was usually a mob scene. Photo by Jeff Kober.
Disney and I go back a long ways. My earliest memories of my father was carrying me in his arms exiting Disneyland after the fireworks. In my youth, I gave up all other Christmas gifts for a copy of Christopher Finch’s newest work, The Art of Walt Disney. I had a lawn mowing business as a teenager in order to save and pay for family trips to Disneyland from my childhood home in Phoenix, Arizona. Trips to Orlando in those days seemed a far off dream. But I did dream.
Attending college, I could never figure out what vocation to pursue. All I knew is that I wanted to work at Disney. A number of experiences I won’t share today led me to an advanced degree in the development and delivery of training. While many factors contributed to that decision, my fascination with The Disney University was one of them. On advice of a wise professor, I was told as I came up with a topic for a graduate thesis that it should be centered on the very thing you love, because you’re going to hate it by the time it was completed. Given that insight, I wrote a thesis analyzing Disney educational media. I spent weeks in Burbank at The Disney Archives doing research. How awesome was that! And from that experience, I learned that building on my own unique passions was what mattered most.
In time career offers took me across the country to Orlando, where I worked in a training and development capacity for a variety of organizations, large and small. Eventually I joined the Walt Disney World Company as a leader with The Disney Institute. Many of you may associate it with gardening, cooking, spas or rock climbing. But my involvement was with professional development programs that invited people to come from around the world to learn Disney best practices in customer service, people management, and leadership. In my role, I truly had the best job ever.
A better shot with Mickey year’s later along with friend, co-facilitator, and Walt Disney Leader, Judi Daley. Photo by Jeff Kober.
While most cast members were located to one theme park or resort, I had the opportunity to work across the entire organization meeting incredible people and showcasing outstanding experiences throughout the resort. In time, the models, concepts, and examples of the programming we had created were introduced to corporate America in Be Our Guest, a popular benchmarking title published by The Disney Institute, with a forward by Michael Eisner.
Through these years and since then I’ve worked with a range of organizations large and small to make their organization more magical. Now I enjoy being the owner of two organizations focused on improving the workplace experience of businesses everywhere. Performance Journeys allows me to work 1:1 with organizations directly in providing organizational, training, and development solutions. I also partner with two other former Disney Institute leaders to provide World Class Benchmarking. Here we offer an incredible array of business workshops in Central Florida to those who want to not only learn about Disney, but other best-in-industry groups like Nordstrom, Celebration Health, and Ritz Carlton. We offer people a great reason to come to Orlando to better develop themselves professionally.
In either role, I play a sort of Mary Poppins in helping other organizations get to where they need to be.
Hosting leaders from a major European company at Disneyland Paris. Photo by Jeff Kober.
This column celebrates the best in business ideas across the entire Walt Disney Company and applies them to your organization. It also showcases how others have practiced those same ideas. It is not a critical commentary on the misses and failings of the company. However, we will discuss examples that can help individuals like you to learn what they must do in their own organization to improve it.
Let me share an example of this. One of the things that draws us to the Disney parks is the attention to details. Hidden gems we had not noticed before of design, theming, art and architecture lead us to “wow” moments even when we have visited many times.
And some of those details have purpose and meaning, such as the windows on Main Street that honor the names of Disney leaders past and present. These are what I refer to as Culture Clues. They not only offer a form of recognition, but they remind cast members of what the culture represents. I know during my tenure there and even today, I would see those windows as a reminder of those cultural foundations which make Disney truly unique.
In a quiet corner, lies a barrel belonging to the Lost Boys? Photo courtesy of Mark David Jones.
But some clues serve a more practical business purpose. Have you ever noticed at the Magic Kingdom a barrel between the exit of Mickey’s PhilharMagic and the FastPass for Peter Pan’s Flight? On it reads the following:
Photo courtesy of Mark David Jones.“Fire Chief W. Ray Colburn
Lost Boys Fire Brigade”
Take a closer look. Is it just another Disney detail? Or is it something more?
Just another piece of theming in Fantasyland? Yes. And no. What you may not realize is that the individual listed is a recognized leader of Reedy Creek Fire Department. Why is he honored here? Well it isn’t so much an honor, but a signal to tell fire officials where to find the fire hydrant. Don’t lift up the barrel, but take my word for it that beneath this crate is an unsightly plumbing fixture. Rather than expose an ugly hydrant to park guests, it’s disguised as part of the theming for Fantasyland. And it’s easy for fire officials to find it, because all they have to do is look for the name of the boss.
Culture clues abound—even at TGI Fridays. Photo by Jeff Kober.
Culture clues offer direction and inspiration to employees internally. Many times they are embedded reminders to the employees of the service they should offer. Here’s another example: When’s the last time you were in TGI Fridays? Did you know that in nearly every restaurant you will find a rowing scull, along with a pair of saddle shoes and a champagne bottle placed inside? It’s a story that’s been told throughout their company for years. In fact, it’s a reminder to every TGI Friday’s employee about the importance of teamwork, leadership, and celebrating success. When you go inside next time, ask any of the servers to tell you the story about the rowing scull.
A rowing scull, a pair of saddle shoes and a champagne bottle. Theming, or something more? Photo by Jeff Kober.
This is just a small example of what I share when I’m helping organizations to improve. I’ll ask questions like:
- What culture clues can you find embedded in your place of work?
- How can those culture clues be arranged so that they provide a meaning to your employees every time they are seen?
- What role can they play in establishing your culture?
So this column, “The Business Behind the Magic,” is about Disney while learning about how to improve your own place of work. That means you can take a few minutes in work to spend time on MousePlanet and better develop yourself as an employee. Our travels will not only take us throughout the wonderful world of Disney, it will give you an opportunity to learn new ideas for creating business magic within your own workplace.
Board a plane next time with us as we journey to the Emporium in Disneyland Paris. We’re going to talk about organizational trust. But we’re also going to see something few people recognize when they’re shopping at the park’s busiest store.
