Mousify your culture. Magnify your results.

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Hi, everyone, and welcome to today’s webinar, Mouseify Your Culture. Magnify Your Results., hosted by HRDQ-U, and presented by Lenn Millbower. My name is Sarah, and I will moderate today’s webinar. And the webinar will last around one hour. If you have any questions or comments, please type them into the questions box on your GoToWebinar control panel, and we’ll be using that questions box a little bit today. So if you could open that up, and just type in a hello where you’re coming from, get comfortable with using that, and locate that there for me.
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And you can also download today’s handouts under the Handouts drop-down on your control panel, as well.
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And today’s webinar is sponsored by HRDQ. For 45 years, HRDQ has provided research-based, off-the-shelf, soft skills training resources for classroom, virtual, and online training. From assessments and workshops to experiential hands-on games, HRDQ helps organizations improve performance, increase job satisfaction, and more. You can learn more at HRDQstore.com.
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And today’s webinar is presented by Lenn Millbower, The Mouse Man, and author of Care Like a Mouse. Lenn teaches Walt Disney inspired service, leadership, innovation training, and success strategies. Everything Disney touched seems magical but it isn’t, it’s method, and Lenn saw that up close. He spent 25 years at Walt Disney World as an EPCOT operations trainer, Disney/MGM Studios Stage Manager, Animal Kingdom Opening Crew, and Disney Institute, Disney University, and Walt Disney Entertainment Management. Now he shares his methodologies that will help you make your own magic. Thanks so much for joining us today Lenn!
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Glad to be here, Sarah. Good morning everybody.
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Welcome and let’s get started.
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It was November in 1963.
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Walt Disney is flying with his brother Roy over what would be the Disney World property. And he identified the spot where the Magic Kingdom would be located and, of course, flow was very creative. Sort of guy. So, it’s kind of appropriate that he chose this spot, because if you look at this lake, which is, they, like, in the center of the photo, it looks like there’s an ear up to the left, there’s an air up to the right and there’s a nose in the center off to the right. But that was where the magic kingdom was built. And, of course, we don’t know it looking like that. We know looking like this and this is the hub.
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At the Magic Kingdom and after that first park was built for more were built.
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Of course, the magic kingdom than Epcot.
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And then Disney MGM Studios now Disney’s Hollywood studios and Disney’s animal kingdom.
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And I certainly saw a lot of those parks in my 25 years there. So, without getting too deep into it, on the upper left is me and the Land boat ride with a lot more here, and a lot less metal being a Lead, a lead Grandly attractions that horizons, and most of the future of attractions, getting my manager certification, becoming the Stage Manager for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles working at the Hollywood Studios calling the … Caravan Parade.
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Then, I got into training over at epcot, when those are the characters on the bus in the middle. Right.
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Opening just this animal kingdom, going to Disney Institute and writing that just new approach to quality service and the new approach to loyalty and receiving my partners in Excellence Award.
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It’s the Lifetime Achievement Award from the mouse.
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So a bit of legalese. This presentation is in no way authorized by endorsed by or affiliated with the Walt Disney Company or Walt Disney World.
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And everything I say is my opinion.
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Now. Yes, it’s true that I did work there, but I’m not speaking on behalf of the mouse and am not on behalf of current leadership. I’m just sharing my observations, so I haven’t gotten that out of the way.
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Let’s get ourselves started here.
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It appears these days, and you may notice that Disney is in a slump.
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And I’m endlessly amused by the reasons that are being given for for why the Mouse is in a slump, the one of the reasons I’ve heard this month as well as Hot and August, so it’s hotter than it’s been. So people aren’t coming.
4:31
The problem with that recent is the bookings are made way in advance, maybe a year or two in advance, and the fact that it’s hot in Florida is not going to dissuade people from coming here. In fact, Sarah just told me, it’s, it’s in the nineties in Philadelphia today, so so that would not be a reason. There’s less vacationers come in here.
4:53
Well, like Universal Studios, attendances way up.
4:57
So, that’s not a good risa Neither, they, the current price, they say, Well, it’s fair, it’s, it’s comparable.
5:05
But there’s some rumblings and grumblings about what, what some tourists are calling, Nickel and Diming, where it seems like think things are being charged for, that used to be free. And it’s true, there is some of that happening.
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Families are not attending the movies, Bah, demario movie, Barbie and and Top Gun.
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All did really well at the theaters.
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Another thing we’re hearing is, of, Florida Political climate that the feud between our governor and the CEO of Disney, is, is impacting everything. But Florida tourism is stable.
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It’s just seems to be the mouse that is suffering.
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And then live streaming, they’re saying, well, the churn is normal, people leave after a period of time, but just a plus did increase the price and added ads. And that has further that.
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And then there’s the point about DEI and that attract investors, the stock price is down 50%.
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Now, let me, let me say, clearly, I hope that I’m not taking a political position at all with regards to the, the fight between Disney and the governor.
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I’m just talking about the point of what what Disney has done well successfully throughout the cheers and how that can relate to you.
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So, having said all that, I’d like to ask you a question. What do you think the most important thing a leader should know about his organization is, or her organization. What’s the most important thing a leader should know? And, I’m going to turn it over to Sarah and explain how we’re going to do this.
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This is where you can go to your questions panel there, and I’m just to end to type in your answer, and we’ll share some of the responses that we receive.
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Um, we’ll give you a moment to do that.
7:08
So we have Barbara saying, about the employees.
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Katie says, purpose.
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Alice says, there are people. Maria also says, about their employees.
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A few more about their employees coming through, And I’ll definitely have a few more here.
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We have a vision of the company, know their staff and the climate’s employee and leadership from many.
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No, those are all very good.
7:38
So I agree with all of them. I do think the one thing, though, is the one that Katie hit on, and whoever should vision of the company head on as well. And what we’re going to talk about today, and this comes out on my blog, ….
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We’re gonna focus on five areas: purpose, priorities, people, platform, and process.
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And it’s my contention that these five areas are what have made Disney, so successful, and what can make you or any organization successful as well.
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It’s a case of developing the right culture, and let’s talk about purpose.
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I have a few quotes here that will help eliminate purpose, and what Disney has always felt about purpose.
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Walt said, The important thing is the family if you can keep the family together and that’s the backbone of our whole business Caterina families. That’s what we hope to do.
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Now, when I achieve 10 years of service, and at the mouse in 19 95, I was given this plaque. And if you look closely at this plaque it says, for 10 years of outstanding service helping became the name, Walt Disney, the finest and family entertainment.
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Michael Eisner, follow Walt Disney into the leadership of the company. And Michael and his his book, Work in Progress and Watch Genius has been to make Disney Simonton synonymous with the best in family entertainment.
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Now, Eisenhower did expand the company he had to. Because if the company remained the small, loose company, it was, it would have probably been swallowed up by somebody else.
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So among other things, Michael bought the Muppets.
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He bought the ABC, really, it was capital cities, ABC, and that brought ESPN on board, and many of the entities you see listed here, like, as an example of a biography, channel, came with the ABC by.
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So he expanded the company, but he kept those entities separate from the Disney brand, and what wanted it that way.
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At one point, they wanted to put his people wanted to put a true biography of Walt in the Annual report.
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And here’s what Walter down, here’s what he said, I’ve worked my whole life to create the image of Walters. It’s not me, I smoke. I drink. My whole life has been devoted to building this organization that is represented by the name Walt Disney.
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I don’t want anyone breaking back.
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Another interesting thing, this one came from Alan Horn, He was the president of the Walt Disney Studios from 2012 to 2021.
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So he was largely responsible for the first success, but it’s like Pirates of the Caribbean.
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And this, look at this quote.
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The thing about Walt Disney Studios is that when someone goes to one of our films, they may not know what they’re going to see.
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But they don’t know what they’re not going to see.
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So, in other words, there’s no smoking or drinking, so to speak, in the GSB films.
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Um, then, you have the more current CEOs, Bob Iger, and then Bob …, and then Bob Iger again.
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And I’ve checked they said, Disney is a lifestyle brand.
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I collect Disney quotes. So I listen to and read everything that Bob shape. Because said being interviewed or talking or giving a speech.
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I never heard him refer to, well does the man, I’ve heard him talk the Walt Disney Company.
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But he seemed very disconnected to a wall.
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Now, Bob Iger said that I’m worried that people are falling out of love with Disney, and I assume you still so worried about that. Although, he said that a couple years ago.
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But the reason people it’s important that people stay in love with Disney is Disney’s purpose and Disney purpose.
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As always, fan.
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We create happiness.
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I think what has happened to Disney and why there is so much difficulty with the stock price and patrons these days.
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It’s because one of the companies and Michael bought.
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And Bob Iger bought Lucasfilm, Marville and 20th century, And they’re all excellent purchases.
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And they’ve done love for the company.
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They weren’t aligned with the old way of doing things.
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And in fact, the ABC Executives, especially thought uyghur, who started out as an ABC weatherman are now the people in charge. And I think they’re just not attuned to Disney’s original purpose.
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It’s keeping the family together, making families happy.
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These other, these other companies are marvelous companies, but I don’t think they understand what well on to put together.
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Now I have an example for you.
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Back when I was working at Disney University, I was an instructional designer writing training programs. And we have this class we had to write for the housekeepers.
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And it was called Partners and Cleanliness.
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And we think that to a detector, to take a bite out of grime. Who can solve the crime scene of the crime.
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And we wanted to use Disney characters to start this program, and what we’re going to do was run video, in this case, Marilyn.
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And Aurora, whose Cinderella and Snow why sweeping up or cleaning up to run the video, and then we would say to the participants, Now, this is what our guests think happen. This. And everything and Disney is magical and we know it’s not magical. You have to solve the crime.
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So we ask for permission to use these three characters and clips from their movies in this program.
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And we’ve got a sighted, no snow white.
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They wouldn’t let us touch no light, even for an internal internal project. Because snow white was the Crown Jewel as a company. It was sacred to the company.
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So, oh, it’s kind of, it’s kind of silly.
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Sometimes in those days, and I started thinking, well, what could we possibly do?
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two rooms, no why.
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And there was this group. My prior career was as a musician, and we played songs from this group. They were called the village people still exist.
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And they had several hits, YMCA, macho man. And their big hit, which you probably know is YMCA. It’s fun to say at the YMCA with everybody, spelling the letters on their head. And so I said, well, the worst thing we could do is snow white and the village people.
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And everybody laughed at that, and much to my surprise, last month I see this image that is coming from the remake of snow white.
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The oldest thing would not have touched. Now, the New Jersey is touching it.
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And these are magical creatures are homeless people from San Francisco.
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Or I’m not exactly sure what they are, but I’m sure that it’s it’s a long way from the original purpose.
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So what’s all that Tiree say?
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Well, a company should know its higher purpose.
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And should state that purpose and epiphany phrase should aggressively continually communicate that purpose to the team should align everything to it and should make.
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Now, this is a key point, make product for everyone, but don’t expect everyone to like every product.
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If you want to make a product for a certain type of audience, by all means, make that product.
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But don’t try to shoehorn a product so that every person is going to love that product because you’re doing a failure.
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The key is to know what your purposes and for Disney, the purpose was always We create happiness for people of all ages and mostly families everywhere.
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OK, so let’s talk about Priority, one of the things that the mouse didn’t really successfully was set up, set it up, so that any cast Member, and that’s what Disney calls its employees.
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Any cast member, any location in any need, can figure out how to respond to any situation.
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Now, listed on the screen here, I have five words in alphabetical order, Curtesy: Efficiency, Inclusion, Safety, and Show what we’d like you to do.
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Put these in the right order. And by the way, we all: we assume that safety is going to go first.
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So, you don’t really need to worry that much about safety, But I’m going to leave it to Sarah to explain what we’re going to do.
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Great, so now we have the poll launched.
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You can take a few moments here to select the correct choice, and once we have your votes, and we won’t get the results on the screen to discuss.
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Great, I see responses streaming, and we’ll give you 15 more seconds here to submit your answer.
17:45
OK, great, now, let’s get those results up. Do you see those on your side when I do?
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Awesome.
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Um, the correct answer is the top one.
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The one that 47% of, you guess, either you’re very shrewd or you’ve attended some of my sessions before. But that is the correct answer. And, again, we put safety first, because safety is always going to be first.
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Now, I’m going to move us forward and I want to explain these two.
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So here we have a picture of Mark at the hook to do musical review dinner show at Fort Wilderness at Walt Disney World. And by the way, if you’ve never done this show, it’s just a marvelous show. I highly recommend it.
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It’s, uh, it’s cornbread and corn on the cob and Ribs and Fried Chicken, and Mark right there as holding the strawberry shortcake dessert.
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Now, let’s see how Mark would react to a situation with his Strawberry shortcake dessert.
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At this point, in the show, he is delivering strawberry shortcake to his table.
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So states got five tables, and let’s say he’s coming to our table and one of our table means Denise grabs his left arm, which is the arm usually close to him, and grabbing his arm, the strawberry shortcake falls on the floor.
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Now, what Mark doses immediately think, because it’s a safety issue. Is this a courtesy issue and inclusion, and show and efficiency issue?
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Well, it’s a safety issue because now there’s strawberry shortcake all over the floor and somebody could trip, it’s a courtesy issue, because Denise obviously wanted something from him.
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And it’s an inclusion issue. If he ignores her.
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It’s a show issue because you heard this clanging on the floor and it’s an essential issue because Mark Scott for other tables to deliver to, and now everything’s on hold because safety is the most important.
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So, Mark has to, first, figure out how to secure the area, so, nobody trips on the strawberry shortcake, and then, he can continue on.
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Now, let’s change the scenario a little bit.
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Instead of the strawberry shortcake dropping, Mark manages to maintain that strawberry shortcake, so, he set it on the table, what Denise has grabbed his arm, so, we obviously want she wants something.
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Mark finds out she wants a photo.
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So it picks the strawberry shortcake up impose, because it’s not a safety issue.
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Now, it wouldn’t have inclusion issue.
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If he’s ignoring her, it’s only a minor chau issue.
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Mean, and so on a momentary end, it’s an efficiency issue, but only for Mark.
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Now, let’s change this situation again.
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Let’s say that instead of the strawberry shortcake dropping, or Mark, having to stop for a second for a photo, Denise wants the entire table to stand up and stand around Mark while he’s holding a strawberry shortcake.
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Is it a safety issue?
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Perhaps, maybe other servers can’t get by.
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Is it a currency issue?
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Yes, there, they’re blocking the show for other gifts.
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Is it a show issue, yes, for that same reason that they are interfering with the show, and marched efficiency has gone way up. So I’m Mark says, in that case, after running through these and his head, he says to Denise, I can’t right now but after the show, I’ll pose with you.
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If Denise really insists she wants her shortcake Now Kansas shortcake to her grabs the camera takes a picture himself very quickly.
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And this way, any cast member in any situation can decide how to respond by by first saying to the asking themselves if it’s a safety issues courtesy inclusion.
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So I suggest to you that Disney was so sure footed during the covert crisis because they use this matrix because this Matrix also works for, for senior leadership too.
21:53
So, the obvious safety thing was to close the parks.
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The currency issue was to keep in touch with, guess, via YouTube and other videos. Another point of courtesy and of inclusion was that Disney continued to pay its cast members until such time as the government benefits kept them took over.
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And although Disney did Sandwich College program, students home for safety, and did not employ any, any seasonal folks or part-time folks, they’re full-time employees maintain their health insurance all through the furlough.
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And during the closure, closure time, management spent a lot of time figuring out how they can run a show, will covered restrictions and, um, they were ready, very open because they’d done that.
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In Disney’s nomenclature, efficiency happens when you have safety, curtesy, inclusion and show all working at peak value.
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So efficiency for Disney, his last words, it’s interesting, a lot of my clients, I find the safety and efficiency are the things I worry about most.
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But the reality is if you’re if you worry about courtesy and inclusion and maintain a good show, the efficiency to take care of itself and you certainly make more money.
23:24
Other organizations I’ve worked with, I have tried to get the concept of priorities to them but tried to steer them away from what Disney has done.
23:35
and they seem to end up in somewhat the same space.
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Much to my surprise, the Hamilton health care system in Georgia ended up with the same exact words, safety, course sheet that uses a primer in a hospital.
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Courtesy, because people are scared when they go in the hospital, they need to know what’s going on.
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Show, and I would have not thought this would work in a hospital, but scrape the walls and taped up signs that are ripped up.
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Imply, germs, and disease.
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And then, of course, you need to be efficient and then environment.
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But a prioritization system like this is extremely helpful for any entity.
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So what are my suggestions? Know your service expectations.
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Prioritize those expectations.
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Communicate those priority expectations to your team and support your team members who make decisions based on prioritization.
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So it’s incumbent on the leader to say, now, Bob, when you did that, how did that fit within the prior? So what were you thinking?
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And if, if the team member responds with something that isn’t quite right, you, you’ll have to educate them, and hopefully they, they do better next time, and they’re able to think for themselves.
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And most importantly, if a team member says, Well, in my judgement, courtesy, what’s at stake, so therefore, I had to do this, you dump on the team member.
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They’re not going to pay any attention to those priorities ever again. They’re going to look for self preservation.
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So you have to support them and champion people who make decisions based on prioritization.
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So that’s purpose. Know who you are. Know what you’re selling.
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I have a clear vision of the company.
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Priorities. Know what your priorities are. Teach them to your folks and live by them.
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The next one is people and this is a big one.
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For the milestone, it should be big for everybody.
25:43
This is a quote from Bob Iger He says, I want this entity admired and respected by the employees cast members, as we finally because we call them finally. Because it really ultimately are going to be admired and respected by our shareholders and by our customers.
25:59
It has to start at home and I actually think that Disney is probably listening too closely to its cast members at the expense of its, its guest, it’s customers, but they have a valid reason for doing that. And this is what I call it …, Customer Care Formula.
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A great leader delivers a satisfying cast experience.
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…
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members deliver a satisfying customer experience or guestroom Disney’s lexicon, satisfied, I guess, become a lawyer, Spend more money, Tell other people about it, rave about you, and come back again and again, and business profits result.
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Now this formula works for any organization, a hospital system that we talked about earlier.
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So for instance, if you’re having a heart attack, you’re probably going to be taken to the nearest hospital.
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But if you’re having a baby and you have time or any sort of testing procedure, you’re gonna go to the place you’d like to go to.
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So, a great leader.
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Delivers a satisfying nurse technician, doctor experience, satisfied, nurses, technicians, doctors, and protect the citizens food service, because that’s really important.
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And a hospital delivers a satisfying permission and patient family experience.
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Profits to the hospital go up there, H CAHPS scores, which is how hospitals are rated based on how well people liked the care they got, their H CAHPS scores go up. And as their scores go up, the government pays pays them back more money in reimbursement.
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So, this formula can work for virtually any business, but it means you have to take care of your people.
27:53
So what do you think Disney cast members would want from their leaders?
27:57
And I’ll turn it over to Sarah again for our explanation on how we’re going to do this one.
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And, again, you can take this one into the questions box. So take a moment there. Think about your answer there and job that in the questions, and we’ll share of some of the responses that we received.
28:15
And we’ll give you a moment to do that.
28:21
We have Tamara thank transparency and trust, Veronica saying initiation. Maria says, Communication and supports. Elise said, Caring and supports. Katie says honesty. Tina, Set clear expectations. Julie says compassion and empathy. Barbara says listening. Kendra says, leading by example. And we have so many coming through here, So I’ll read off to more. We have Sean, thank honesty, and man, he’s saying, model expectations and show your value.
28:57
Well, those were all really good.
29:01
Guess you folks could actually teach us. That’s just excellent stuff, and we’re going to talk about all the ups and in this segment here.
29:12
So, I can distill it down this way.
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two, a acronym.
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See what I believe, and what Disney found, although they didn’t use this acronym, was that cast members want to be taught.
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They want to be engaged, they want to be appreciated.
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They want to be manage. Teach me, Engage me, Appreciate me management. And if you think about what Sarah said, and what you folks just type in what you read for much. I think that’s everything you’ve said fits within these categories. So we’re going to talk about those, and the first thing is teaching.
29:48
Well, I was obsessed with the idea that you’re continually go to school. You’ll never reach any plateau of finished perfection in any practice it, and everything you did. That was his, his brother, Roy Disney explaining that.
30:02
And so when Disney was filming bambi or going to film bambi, they had like deer on the studio lot. So the animators could see what alive derelict like.
30:15
Disney, if you look at the in the upper right behind them, you can see a Picture pinocchio while it’s acting out the story of pinocchio for his animators. So he’s probably doing Stromboli, the the villain of the piece and Roth was very much one-on-one with people.
30:35
He he would never say that, that really stinks.
30:40
hey, which I want to have you consider trying this.
30:43
Likewise, he never said, That’s brilliant, You’re just wonderful. He in something.
30:48
It’s like something you did, he would say, Well, that’ll work.
30:52
But it was not smoking people so to speak.
30:55
It wasn’t praising them and it wasn’t belittling them, it was working with them and he was some not so about school that he actually funded a college Cal Arts College for Farina animators and for other artistic environment. avenues for people to learn like dance and all those other avenues that didn’t mean it used to use. I suspect the labor market in Central Florida has gotten so tight that I suspect they’re not doing this as much as they used to do.
31:30
But they used to set up what you call an opt out opportunity.
31:35
So, you go to the casting bill, and this is a casting belly, and watch a film Felt that would say, your hair has to be cut, no beards, unmanned, no, no hoop earrings on women. And then you’d have a preliminary interview, and the guy, or gal interviewing, you would say, OK, now you know, you’ll have to shave their beards, OK, Now you know, you can’t wear those arendt’s, right.
32:00
And it goes all out now, nowadays.
32:02
The Cast members have as long hair as they want, and beards and earrings. and so, a lot has changed.
32:10
But what the point is, they kept asking you, if you are willing to follow the rules, and then you come back for a later interview. And maybe you come back for another interview after that.
32:22
And by the time you are hired, you knew what was expected, and if you still want for it. And you don’t want to live by what was expected is a shame on you.
32:33
But an example of this process comes from Lowes Foods where I worked with Lowes Foods for a few years. They wanted to turn their grocery chain into the Disney grocery chains. And they came up with a bunch of activities that they would do.
32:50
one of them was the chicken dance when chicken came out of the oven at the kitchen and the only thing they didn’t figure out is why they did the chicken dance.
33:00
So it was up to me to figure out the whys behind things and teach people how to do the chicken dance, and what kind of personality, or they’re supposed to have, so finally I figured out the chicken, you do check them dance, because the chicken, just so good it makes you want to dance, which seems simple, but they hadn’t figured that out.
33:18
So so in the hiring for somebody to work at Lowes Foods, what would have the hiring manager do is say, OK, now we’re going to chicken kitchen, We’ll have to do the chicken debts. Are you OK with that?
33:32
And most interviewees would say yes, because they want the job, that’s why they’re there.
33:40
But at that point, the manager would stand up with the CD player, star playing the chicken dance, and get the prospective employee to do the chicken dance with them. Now, wanted two things is going to happen, is that employee is going to say, Man, this is great.
33:53
This is unlike any supermarket I’ve ever been to, I want to be here, or they’re gonna say, these people are crazy, I’m not doing this, you know, before that person tired.
34:05
So, so when somebody is higher, they, they go through a program called Traditions and traditions, talks all about the purpose of the company and why the company exists, and the history of the company, and how your job is the main team, that history of the company.
34:22
And once you’ve gone through Disney University, the next step is you go to your local area, where here you see Joe is training Samantha. And Samantha has a red ribbon on her name tag that says, Earning my Ears.
34:37
That does to take it, take some pressure off her.
34:41
Because guests, if they’re observing at, all will notice that. she probably doesn’t know everything yet. So maybe they’ll sparrow her, and a lot of guests have a lot of sympathy with so they the sequences.
34:55
Rehiring opt out opportunities multitude of them.
34:59
traditions, which is a global orientation.
35:03
And then, when I said local applications, I didn’t include the fact that each of the Park Chaser on orientation, and then on the job training with a trainer. Now, when I was a trainer, one of the things and we’ll see it in a minute or two that, that we’re always a bug about, was picking up trash.
35:21
So, when I met my trainee at the Wardrobe building …
35:26
and we walked onstage, the first thing I did was look for a piece of trash to pick up.
35:31
Because I was establishing a norm at the very start of training.
35:38
And beyond training, you want to provide tools so that somebody who is brand-new, shouldn’t have to learn everything and the firstly.
35:48
In this case, this fella Lewis is a college program, uh, Hungary, so he’s only there for a few months, and the big Thunder Mahmoud Railroad has broken down.
36:01
Now, rather than having a memorize, every place, a guest could go to use what they called at that time, a fast passage, a ticket to get it in the right.
36:13
Rather than having to remember them all, he just held up the sign that listed all the places Now that is management, having foresight and so that they’re teaching properly, in a way that they’re not hanging the sky out to dry, giving them the information he needs when he needs it. Not sooner.
36:34
So for teach the verified for hire, Take the time to teach the culture, train the local applications, use a trainer or buddy system, and give them post training tools as needed.
36:47
And that’s known as engagement.
36:48
And I know several of you said, clear, expectation Lead, by example, Model expectations, This is one of the things that Disney does really well. Let’s call it Track Talk. Now.
37:01
The reason it’s called Attract Talk was because it started out in operations at ride, tracks before opening, the crew would get together, and the lead, the person in charge of the traction, with sharing information. So, it’s very rare to find a picture of this, because it’s not usually in gao’s view.
37:22
In this case, this track talk was happening right inside the gate, right before … got open.
37:29
And I wouldn’t expect you to recognize the costumes. But I can tell you, there are ticket folks there. There are guest relations folks there are photographers there, there’s custodial.
37:41
And there’s even somebody from the parking lot there, And the leader is sharing information about what’s going on that day. Maybe not exact attendance numbers, but how crowded they expect the place to be, what the weather temperature will be like. If there’s any celebrities coming into the park, if there’s any particular, or specific tickets or situations they need to know about, all that stuff is shared, in about 10 minutes. And, most importantly, a guest complement, or our guests complaint that’s common, is read and discuss.
38:15
And if any of the cast members are having work anniversaries or birthdays or wedding anniversaries, if the leader knows about that, those are shared as well.
38:28
I can tell you is a very effective tool, and they would do it more for the morning crew, and they would do it for the afternoon group.
38:35
Now, another thing you said is seeking and seeking information from the cache and opinions from the cache.
38:44
Disney has a long history of doing that. As an example, this is a picture of the Magic Kingdom at Christmas time. It used to be, we close the Magic Kingdom at 5 or 6 0 PM in the evening on Christmas Eve.
38:57
When Michael Eisner came in, they quickly realized that what we’re doing our guests, this service, we weren’t making them happy, and the reason we’re doing a disservice was although we’re closing the park, so the Cast Members can be home with their families.
39:10
We had all these tours stuck in hotels without anything to do, because back then there really wasn’t a lot of build-up around around the Disney property.
39:19
So, it was decided that we probably needed to stay open later for Christmas Eve but rather than just doing effective immediately, they, they held focus groups. They had team members involved in dialoguing with what other ways could be done.
39:36
And very early on, before the next Christmas, they announced that the parks would say, open later, because our mission, our purpose, is to great happiness, and we weren’t creating happiness, and there was hardly complain about it because we all understood that we’ll just have to have a different time with our families because the guests were the most important.
40:01
Another thing that the mask does really well for recognition is a service fanatic.
40:07
It’s a simple program, basically anyone hello in any location can decide that somebody needs to be recognized for something they did for them. Now, the catch is, if you’re a frontline person, you attempt to get a manager to sign off. But these tickets are so highly praise that often they don’t even get turned in, but I think I turned, and they go on your record card. They go into a drawing or once a month, or a fabulous prizes. We transfer that over to other other companies as well.
40:44
So definitely utilities has a program which is equivalent to the Service Fanatic and the winner of the most programs wins the hero honors award at the end of the year and on the right you can see Lowes Foods.
41:00
Y’all’s third card, and y’all stands for your Local Legend, and this Girl Care, I just got an y’all card and so she’s proudly holding it up.
41:11
Recognition is important, it’s important to engage. Explain hard decisions. Meet team members. Write regularly, reward employees who serve others involved in plays and recognition.
41:22
Program governance.
41:25
OK, Teach me, Engage me. Appreciate me.
41:29
Disney does a lot of cast activities. Now, I realize, you probably don’t have a quorum at your disposal or zoo for a private writer, but these are just some of the activities I was involved in when I was at the mouse private rights through the Safari Backstage Tour of Vessel The Lion King, scuba diving in, the living, sees saying, how the trains work.
41:54
And, of course, something else, at the mouse does, team events, is voluntary. And that is where everyone gets together and pitches.
42:00
This is cleaning up, and setting up a park on the lake, OK.
42:05
So you don’t have an aquarium. I get that. However, I saw this example at my wife’s doctor’s office.
42:13
It’s a marvelous example of a team activity you can do without having a xun nearby.
42:19
They had each of the employees select a decade that they liked, and post pictures, and info about themselves, and that decade. And even the doctor to part. That’s my wife’s doctor. So, she like the …, so she was a flapper. And they posted this, and they post to this where both the gas and the patrons and the employees could say, so, appreciate hosting experiences, host community, service events. Celebrate employee our anniversaries and on an excellent performance.
42:52
Manage me, it’s the last one.
42:54
And I have to tell you nothing, drags the person down or grimes people more than A employee who’s not doing their job and not being accounted for. Here, we have …, who is the vice president of that car, so she runs Epcot.
43:13
And as the Disney later, she is responsible to be these things. I choose responsible to hold her, her direct reports to this thing, and cast members are responsible for this. To me later, I am positive.
43:27
I demonstrate a positive attitude and commitment to my team, I am knowledgable, I know about the operation, and share information with the team. I am accountable. I recognize and hold my cast Members account.
43:43
So, how often do you think you senior leaders in the field? one of the things you mentioned in your list of things that’s been out there, Sarah, I’ll turn it back to you.
43:54
We have the poll now launched. So you can select your vote, and we’ll give you some time to do so before we get the results up on screen.
44:10
I see responses streaming as perfect, but I’ll give you about 15 more seconds here to submit your answer, if you have yet to do, sir.
44:23
Yeah, what I’m seeing numbers is pretty normal.
44:27
Great, well, got those results up on the screen now.
44:30
Oops, sorry, they disappeared from my screen. I don’t know if the group consume or not.
44:37
Yes, it should be up on their screen to me to share those with you.
44:40
Lynn, no, no, I’m good.
44:45
It’s hard to be out in the area.
44:47
However, you learn very little in the office. It’s when you’re out and about that. You learn things and I see it. Like 42% say, 25% of the time. It’s.
44:58
So, that’s about normal.
45:01
But while expected you to be out there and get your hands dirty, there’s a story about when he first walked his managers through.
45:07
Then, we built Disneyland and they asked where their offices where.
45:11
He says, Aren’t going to be no office building material out there for the guests sen.
45:17
one example, I mentioned this a little earlier is trash.
45:21
Disney’s walking through tomorrow land one time with the supervisor and he points out that a waste a wastebasket is full and of course the supervisor says wrong turn I’ll call custodia, well you know Walter, he went over there and picked up stuff. So now candidly, this is not a picture of that, but it is an actual picture of Walt Disney picking up trash himself with this morning, Coffee Cup in hand.
45:46
And to this day, leaders still pick up trash, you see these these operations scales at Disney, Hollywood studios. They have their grammar so they can pick up trash and everybody picks up trash. This picture here, the guy on the right is Josh, GMR, and the guy on the left is Jeff Valley, who was President of all Walt Disney World at that moment in time, and that’s just starting coven, and they’re still out and about, in the area.
46:13
And if you know what you’re looking for, you can see leaders at the mouse out, and about all the time, and the reason you do, they go out and about, is because, rather than do a one-on-one, would, later, and direct report in an office, they do walking through the parks.
46:30
Now, if it’s really sensitive, of course, you want to do that in an office, but by and large, it’s usually a park walk.
46:36
And if you know what you’re looking for, you can see them out there, and it’s important that you model the behavior you want as you, you, yourself set.
46:45
Because really hard to convince me to get into the outfit, the guy on the right is wearing, but he can do that.
46:53
Because the guy on the left who’s a leader, although he’s, in his own clubs, is demonstrating the same. Certainly no same spirit as the guy on the right.
47:04
Now you remember a few minutes back we talked about doing the Chicken Dance.
47:08
Well this is the senior senior leadership of Lowes Foods And they are at the groundbreaking for a New Lowes food store. And they are all doing the Chicken dance 10 or any spring chickens over those bonds are hurting but they’re still there doing the Chicken Dance because if you can’t do, like, you can’t expect your team do it.
47:30
one more example for Dalton, utilities, doesn’t fire Mark Buckner at first when he was promoted.
47:37
He spent his first few weeks out in the field with his team, and they loved him for a mark is now the Chief Operating Officer of the company, because he was so close, Who’s frontline curve. So what’s the message? Knowing our operation via presence, don’t stay on the pitch in.
47:55
Ask what’s going on.
47:57
Listen to what they say, and follow up, OK? Platform M process.
48:04
This thing has a saying that I call show hit or show mess, and let us show message when something looks wrong and show here’s when something looks right?
48:12
So when Disney was repainting Main Street, they went to great lengths to hide the paint job. Now they couldn’t hide the contractors drop and hammers on their feet. But they could hide the buildings.
48:25
How about this guy here?
48:26
This, this up looks terrible, However, he’s actually doing its job.
48:33
He’s standing next to a queue, and it looks like he’s on the phone. But what he’s doing is getting a readout of what trash cans, trash cans, now communicate electrons. Like he’s getting a readout, what trash cans need to be cleaned up next.
48:48
I just wish he wouldn’t do it in front of the guests, because it look terrible, And it’s the idea of performance theme, mute. You have a theme for your area, and you live within that theme.
48:59
So for instance, at the Haunted Mansion gift shop, this gloomy woman on the left, she’s holding them roses. And I asked her to smile for me so I can take the photo, and that’s a smile.
49:11
I got this woman on the right, literally, right across the street, this ring inner But, I’ll say, a futon come and get at CISA she’s a town crier, And she’s just happy to be banned. She’s playing Colonial.
49:25
The lady on the left is Planning dooms Spooky, Performance theme at Lowes Foods.
49:33
I worked it out so The Chicken Kitchen folks, you’ve already seen a picture, but these guys on the right there, the sausage professors and nobody knew exactly what a sausage professor was, saying. I said, Well, they’re kinda like, when’s the last scan, honey? I shrunk the kids are the geeky guys from from.
49:55
My main, my mind just went blank, Sheldon, and all those guys, whatever today because I chose or Abby Shuto and C I S And you say, These are people I’ve never even met. This is after I left and given them all the stuff they could do. And say they’re having the time in their life and their sauces professors.
50:14
So the last thing let’s talk about process.
50:19
Walt said I’m convinced that there’s a scientific approach to this business and I think we shouldn’t give up until we found out all weekend. And he was continually trying to get better.
50:30
Lowes Foods apply that.
50:32
By the way, they actually had a process for how to talk to a guess.
50:37
You would greet them. You’d say, hey, what’s for dinner tonight?
50:40
Then you’d ask questions. They say, well, we’re having State. Then you’d ask questions about what kinds of stake they want. And you take them to the places that offer solutions. And you say that this mate was grown locally and blah, blah, blah, blah. You didn’t say, oh, by the way, if you considered having some green beans along with it and what they did a signature solute was put both hands together in front of them cells and the hand, the item to the guests as if it were gold and thank them and they want to say thank you for shopping, they’d say. Thank you for visiting. You come back anytime.
51:17
Now, Disney is a huge bug on process improvement, and there was this problem.
51:22
The problem was, yeah, you’d enter the park through the Turnstiles.
51:28
You’d see the train station beyond you and then above you, as you walk to the stroller area.
51:34
You’d want to bring a stroller on the train, but they would tell you that the … follow, so you cannot put them on the train or vary.
51:44
Many myths satisfied guess because they just rented a stroller so that they could either they couldn’t take the train. Or they’d have to give up the stroller. They just run it.
51:53
Just me put a team together and they follow a process like this.
51:58
The first step was to identify a problem. Clearly, there was a problem. There were a lot of complaints happening every day.
52:05
They then, looked at the numbers, and realized that, it absolutely was a problem.
52:09
And the problem was with strollers, they decided to try some sun, they tried one thing that didn’t work. I tried to another thing, didn’t work. They tried another thing.
52:18
It didn’t work finally, cast members said, you know, when somebody rents a solar stroller, we give them a card with their name on it, and they put that in in a slot, in the stroller.
52:31
They’re not actually renting the stroller. They’re running access to a stroller.
52:36
So what did we tell them at the train station to take the card with them and leave the stroller?
52:43
They decided to implement that, so they try and retrain the cast members at the train station to do that.
52:52
They worked it out with the merchandise folks to come and get the strollers that were left at the train station and bring them back to stroller rental which replenish their supply, was a nice bonus.
53:03
They made sure that we’re strollers at all the other exit to the train.
53:08
They evaluated them after a couple of weeks.
53:12
The amount of complaints I had are they had virtually none.
53:15
So that became the process, and they champion that to the rest of the organization. And the team that came up with the solution, they got a pizza parlor party.
53:26
And eventually, when the strollers had to be replaced, they replaced them with falls and strollers.
53:32
But that solution would not have come up with the suit sitting in a room.
53:36
You needed frontline cast members to tell you, and you needed to get them greatly involved.
53:44
And that’s the process. So a question for you would, Pardon me. I’m going to have to move something on my screen as, well. Do you have a process improve? Do you have a process improvement program? A place where you are?
53:56
Always, usually, sometimes, or rarely.
54:01
Again, the poll is open, and I’ll give you a quick moment here to submit your answer, and then share those results on the screen.
54:10
Oh, and the results are streaming in fast here, will give you 10 more seconds to submit your vote, if you have yet to do step.
54:25
OK, great, let’s get those results up on the screen now.
54:31
There we are.
54:35
Yeah, these are common numbers, too.
54:38
I often, and sometimes seem to get the most of them sometimes works.
54:46
But it doesn’t necessarily solve all your students. And one of the things that, that doesn’t mean it’s been marvelous about over the years is paying attention to their guests and giving their guess what they weren’t in such a way that it seems like magic, and certainly not magic the guest told them.
55:04
But they pay attention.
55:06
And you can’t do that in the office, you have to be out and about.
55:14
So, advice for this component, staging environment, aggressively maintain the show.
55:22
Independently, fix show issues, if somebody points initial out to you.
55:26
That’s the infection.
55:28
Otherwise, that’s the last time they will report the point something up. Reward, performance theming.
55:34
Customers. If somebody is really fit in the role, you want to want to acknowledge them and praise them.
55:40
Codify the response to every situation. Just took this from a military. They do something called an After Action Review, where they’re always identifying what worked and what didn’t work, and what to do better next year.
55:53
So, for instance, guessing the thing: Disney, Christmas, decorations come up overnight. They don’t, they actually come up over a period of two weeks.
56:03
The work didn’t start before it right before Thanksgiving when these decorations go up. The work I actually started when they took the declarations down in January.
56:13
The, the, at the start of the year because then they, they listed everything that work, everything they don’t work, they codify what they were going to do next year, then replace the items needed to be replaced, seller when the week before Thanksgiving came around, they were ready to rock and roll. And speaking of which, it’s the Big Bang Theory was the name of the show, I couldn’t remember there for a minute. So, so also developed an aggressive flushing process and plots everything every time.
56:43
You usually don’t notice this.
56:46
But often, little things happen a dizzy, like a curve is replaced with a ramp because guests are tripping on that curve.
56:54
They’re continually continually enhancing the experience.
56:59
So, what success came from, having a clear purpose, having clear priorities, focusing heavily on people, making sure the platform communicated, what he’s trying to communicate, and continually aggressively fixing process.
57:23
Now, this is about at the end of our time, but shame on me, if I don’t ask you.
57:29
How can you apply, or do you already apply what we’ve talked about today? What can you do with this stuff?
57:38
You can let us know in the Questions box there.
57:47
And we will give you a moment to do that and Maryanne ask a question in the meantime if you will get the audio recording and the slide deck Mariann. There is a version of the handouts that you can grab there that do include some of the slides, and the audio version will be available on each R D Q dot com.
58:06
And Maria says that be in the field to identify point zero points to improve.
58:15
And we have Larry’s saying, have a safe to fail environment.
58:19
That’s, yeah.
58:20
Pearl saying, Already apply Lean six Sigma process improvement but I like the additional step for clarifying after identification.
58:32
Leans’ a good process.
58:38
What else do we have here?
58:43
We have a quiet group today, teams one We have morning briefings from Check. Minae says, Share information with their supervisor on ways they can improve their environment as to employee’s happiness with their job.
59:05
All right, we love her outlook thing.
59:07
I’ll read one more here, We have a few more coming through. I know we’re approaching the top of the hour, but Larry says constantly working to improve the process, what can we do better? And Mandy said track meetings and there I will conclude that the answers for that.
59:21
Yep, good, good, very good stuff.
59:24
So here are some other things you can do. I would encourage you to visit the parks and observe these techniques. You won’t see clean shaven anymore though that’s just kinda go the way of the dodo. E-mail me anytime – lenn@likeamouse.com. My book, Care Like a Mouse is available on Amazon, or on my website. It’s in its second edition, which is always nice when you can go that far. And, most importantly, continue to attendees HRDQ-U You events because they’re just wonderful things to learn stuff from.
1:00:02
In closing, I would like to, pardon me, I have to move something out of the way for myself. So I’d like to leave you with a quote from Walt. He says… well, I should put this quote in context. He was asked what the company survive his death.
1:00:19
He said, well, I think by this time, my staff are convinced that Walt is right.
1:00:23
I think they’re convinced. And I think, no, hang on after.
1:00:27
As you say, well, after Disney, they had for 100 years. And I hope they do for 100 more.
1:00:39
And with that, before we let you go here, thank you all for participating in today’s webinar, make sure that you join me for next week’s session, The Synergy of AI and EQ: Five Emotional Intelligence Strategies Every Leader Should Implement. And check out our podcast, HRDQ-U InReview, where we interview our presenters, and talk a little bit more about the content that we learned during the webinars. And with that, we will let you all go today. Thank you so much, Lenn, for your time today.
1:01:06
Oh, you’re welcome and thank you everybody for attending and in the words of a famous mouse. “HaHa… See You Real Soon!”