The Language of Success: Creating a Culture of Happiness

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Bob Adams

Throughout my career, I had found that most people want to be involved in something greater than just being paid for a job. My basic story is about the two men laying bricks. When asked what he is doing, one man says, ‘I’m laying bricks.’ The other man performing the same task says, ‘I’m building a cathedral.’ – Van France, Disney University founder

Beginning with the original orientation at Disneyland in 1955, Van’s goal always remained the same: instill a sense of pride among cast members about where they work and the jobs they perform. Van was determined to make Disneyland a place where customers and cast members experienced second-to-none service.

photo by glassslipperconcierge.com

One of his strategies involved creating a whole new language that would reinforce the dignity of every job in the park.

What’s the difference between treating someone like a customer, and treating someone like a Guest?

The obvious analogy is that we do things differently when we bring Guests into our home. We spruce up the house. We dress up. We prepare something special to eat. We host them. We take care of their real needs.

Disneyland is a huge stage, so Van leveraged this by introducing show-business term. He reasoned that a new vocabulary, coupled with strong organizational values, could bring pride and energy to the job.

Employees became cast members, hosts, and hostesses
Customers became Guests
Good show was a job well-done
Uniforms were costumes
On-stage are actions visible to Guests
Backstage are the actions taken out of sight of the Guests.

However, merely changing nouns or verbs won’t ensure world-class customer service or create a motivated and engaged workforce – in any organization. Catchy words for Guests and team members have no value without leadership support.

The values instilled by Walt Disney and perpetuated by Van France at the Disney University are reflected in the daily actions of cast members at every organizational level.

What you do here and how you act is very important to our entire organization. We have a worldwide reputation for family entertainment. Here at Disneyland, we meet our world public on a person-to-person basis for the first time. Your every action (and mine also) is a direct reflection of our entire organization. – Walt Disney

Applying Van France’s Four Circumstances to ChurchWorld Guest Experience Teams

Innovate – Support – Educate – Entertain

Putting People First

What is the culture of your organization?
How is respect conveyed to team members?
Do they know they are valued?
How are Van’s Four Circumstances (Innovate, Support, Educate, Entertain) used to communicate your culture?

Words Reflect Culture

Does your organization use unique words to identify team members and Guests?
Does the culture of your organization support those words?
How are organizational values reflected in words and actions?

Inspired by and adapted from Disney U by Doug Lipp

Get the book TODAY to learn invaluable lessons for your Guest Experience Teams

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Disney U is one of the most significant resources related to the Disney organization, leadership, team development, and Guest Experiences available. In honor of the one year anniversary of the release of Disney U, this is a look back at a series from the book that originally ran last year.

Beyond Orientation: Executive Team Development – Moving from Silos to Synergy

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Bob Adams

Walt was very firm in stating that Disneyland – the dream – was the star. It was his way of controlling the people with their outsized egos who thought that they or their divisions, departments, or functions were responsible for our success – Van France

The entrepreneurial and highly innovative culture created by the Disney organization had an unintended consequence: divisional and communication silos.

People were so focused on their areas of responsibility that they didn’t consider their impact on other divisions and departments. Executives lost sight of the big picture, and as a result, lost some opportunities for synergy.

To counter that, the Disney University team created an experience for the executives that borrowed from Van France’s timeless model for any training program:

Make it simple, not simplistic
Make it enjoyable
Design experiential activities that make it memorable

The result: Disney Dimensions, a training program for 25 senior leaders throughout Disney. It was designed to give them a full-immersion, 7-day experience of the California and Florida theme parks, as well as Disney Studios and Imagineering (the design geniuses behind the parks).

Essentially, the executives were exposed to every business unit in the company and had them solving each other’s problems.

Disney Dimensions captured the essence of a Van-France inspired educational event. It informed. It engaged. It was fun. It accomplished its business goals. The leadership program also enjoyed each of the Four Circumstances Van identified as crucial to the success of the Disney University:

Innovate – the multiday, multivenue design exposed the participants to every area of the company. Until then, most executives hadn’t ventured beyond their own area of expertise.
Support – Disney Dimensions received the overt, enthusiastic support of top management, who had a hand in choosing the participants and didn’t hesitate to sing its praises.
Educate – combining executive-level attendees from each operating division in the unique and interactive environment created a forum in which participants educated one another.
Entertain – every training event is an opportunity to be creative and interesting rather than the opposite: dull and academic.

The living laboratory experiential activities that led to advanced levels of cross-functional collaboration and creative problem solving are worthwhile goals for any organization.

Applying Van France’s Four Circumstances to ChurchWorld Guest Experience Teams

Innovate – Support – Educate – Entertain

How is executive development handled in your organization?

What is being done to fully engage executives in organizational collaboration? Who does it and how frequently?
How could this strategy improve?
How are real-time ministry issues used in training and development programs?
Are there examples of ministry hits and misses that can be transformed into case studies for senior leadership team development?
Does the senior leadership team in our organization openly assess ministry successes and failures?
How can leaders in your organization lend their support to training initiatives?
In your organization, what needs to be done to promote and perpetuate senior leadership team development?

Inspired by and adapted from Disney U by Doug Lipp

Get the book TODAY to learn invaluable lessons for your Guest Experience Teams

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Conclude the Disney U experience on 4/24/14 with The Language of Success

Keep Plussing the Show: No Room for Excuses

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Bob Adams

We have to keep plussing our show. If we ever lose our Guests, it will take us ten years to get them back.

–Walt Disney

Sometime during the 1940s, Walt Disney coined the term “plussing.” Walt used the word as a verb – an action word. To “plus” something is to improve it. “Plussing” means giving your customers more than they paid for, more than they expect, more than you have to give them. Disney historian Les Perkins recalls an incident at Disneyland during the early years of the park. Walt had decided to hold a Christmas parade at the park – a $350,000 extravagance.

Upon hearing of the parade plans, the accountants approached Walt and said, ‘Why spend money on a Christmas parade? It won’t draw people to the park; they will already be here. It’s an expense we can do without. No one will complain if we dispense with the parade, because nobody’s expecting it.

courtesy matterhorn1959

Walt said, ‘That’s just the point. We should do the parade precisely because no one is expecting it. Our goal at Disneyland is to always give people more than they expect.’

Walt spent the last decade of his life plussing the Disneyland experience. He would continually tell cast members, “Every cast member is responsible for the impression we make,” and “take five minutes a day to make a magical memory for one of our Guests.” Disney would walk around the park with a roll of five dollar bills in his pocket to tip any cast member who worked extra-hard to plus the experience for the Guest.

During the decade after Walt Disney’s death in 1966, and as the excitement of Disneyland and Disney World began to wane with new entertainment options, Van France, founder of Disney University, was determined to reignite the can-do culture of Disney. With Walt Disney’s admonition to “keep plussing the show” in mind, France prepared a refresher course for park management entitled “Gentlemen, This is a Guest!”

Through these sessions, he identified a need to reignite the passion and can-do attitude among managers. Using nothing more than a 15-page memo and a series of short, open forum-style meetings with park management, Van helped a discouraged team reconnect with its roots by emphasizing Disney’s bottom line: a happy Guest. He reminded the managers of their roles by encouraging them to do the following:

Think teamwork – thinking “we” is much more powerful than thinking “they,” “them,” etc. Blaming is a bottomless pit.
Think audience and Guest – Guests are the audience, paying money to be entertained and find happiness. Guests aren’t “units” or “per capita”; they are human beings.
Think happiness for others – Guests come to Disney parks seeking happiness; it is their brief escape from daily frustrations. Walt Disney’s dream of separating the frustrating outside world from the Disney world ensures Guest Happiness. Maintaining an environment of fantasy is the cast member’s job.
Practice being friendly – smile and be friendly with each other. Say good morning to other cast members backstage will transfer to friendliness on-stage.
Think quality and pride – both are essential in Guest courtesy and showmanship, throughout our backstage activities as well as those on-stage.

Plussing the show is as much about attitude as it is about budget.

France was ardent in challenging excuses for not conducting training for all cast members. He believed that training didn’t have to be a big-budget extravaganza or be limited to activities in a training room. Some of the best training in the world occurs during on-the-job-training sessions conducted by mentors, not trainers. Mentoring, OJT, and role modeling were much more useful and significantly less expensive than classroom training. Jim Cora, retired chairman of Disney International, sums up the training rationale he successfully used during his 43-year career at Disney:

Marketing is the time and money you spend to get people in the door. Training is the investment you make to get Guests to come back and cast members to stay; it creates loyalty.

Plussing the show calls for a keen eye, the ability to focus on the root issues, and a refusal to accept mediocrity. No matter what business you are in, your success depends on your commitment to excellence and attention to detail. If you deliver more than people expect, you will turn Guests into fans. If you go out of your way to make people feel special, they will go out of their way to buy your product or service.

Applying Van France’s Four Circumstances to ChurchWorld Guest Experience Teams

Innovate – Support – Educate – Entertain

Plussing the Show How is plussing the show handled in your organization? How are Van’s Four Circumstances used to differentiate your organization from the “competition” through improved Guest experiences and leadership effectiveness? How are you addressing each of the following five challenges?

Doing more with less
Keeping team members engaged and motivated
Reducing team member turnover
Improving Guest experiences
Differentiating from the competition

How creative is your organization in taking training out of the classroom? How can you reignite the flagging spirits of your team? Can you create a similarly effective low-budget program that helps plus your Guest Experience?

Inspired by and adapted from Disney U by Doug Lipp

Get the book TODAY to learn invaluable lessons for your Guest Experience Teams

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Continue the Disney U experience on 4/22/14 with Beyond Orientation

Gather Facts and Feelings – Walk the Park for a Fresh Perspective

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Bob Adams

He didn’t have a particular schedule, but his agenda was always the same: connect with and interact with as many guests and cast members as possible.

Walt would regularly walk through the Park, looking for problems or things to improve. He was good at it and always welcomed suggestions. I copied his routine. I continually walked through the Park, looking for different things, people problems. Facts are easy to identify; I was looking for feelings that were bothering Cast Members.

– Van France, founder of Disney University

Walt Disney knew the value of learning as much as possible about the front lines by spending time on the front lines.

courtesy of designingdisney.com

His strategy of walking the park dates back to the construction of Disneyland. He regularly visited the construction site to assess the proportion or size of buildings. A common site was Walt squatting down and then looking up at a building from a lower angle. His determination to view the storefronts and buildings from the vantage point of children ensured that the needs of this large population of guests – an often overlooked but very influential group – were addressed.

courtesy of Disney Imagineering

Walt Disney never stopped looking at Disneyland from the perspective of the guest, even years after the park opened.

Van France, like Walt, favored walking the park to gather information. Often armed with his camera, Van tirelessly sought the opinions and thoughts of cast members and guests.

Bill Ross, a former manager of Disney University, says, “More than anyone I’ve ever known, Van put his ear to the ground to get ideas. He had a wide circle of friends and a strong network. If Van were with us today, he would love using social media.”

Walking the park helped Van clarify the problems and then visualize a process by which to bridge the gaps.

After the park had been open for seven years, Van realized the 1955 model of orientation and cast member training that had been so successful during Disneyland’s early years was no longer sufficient. He faced a paradox: preserving the past while preparing for the future.

Van knew that he needed to identify and preserve the components of orientation and training that had led to such heady success during Disneyland’s first seven years:

Friendly environment
Creative presentations
Useful content

He had to balance these fundamentals while preparing cast members – including managers – for a much more complex future, driven by the following factors:

Consistency – everyone must attend the new-hire orientation program
Systems – specific on-the-job training must follow the orientation program
Continuing education – supervisors and managers needed leadership and communication-skills training

The time was right for Van to build a bridge to the future of training for Disneyland. The time was right for the Disney University.

Applying Van France’s Four Circumstances to ChurchWorld Guest Experience Teams

Innovate – Support – Educate – Entertain

Gather Facts and Feelings

In your organization, can you identify the equivalent of Van’s Four Circumstances that support walking the park and keeping in touch with the front lines? How do you apply those circumstances to gather facts and feelings from team members and Guests?

Walk the Park

What is the equivalent of walking the park in your organization? Who does it, and how frequently?
How could this strategy be improved? More people involved? More frequently?
If leaders aren’t walking the park, what is the excuse?
Walt Disney could carve time out of his day to walk the park. Why can’t every leader do that?

Mind the Gap

Is there a reality gap between the ideals espoused in your organization and training programs and the realities of the job?
How is the effectiveness of your training assessed? With what frequency?

One Foot in the Past, One Foot in the Future

How is the history of your organization kept alive? How could this be improved?
How does your organization balance history and legacy with current and future needs? Who supports this?

Inspired by and adapted from Disney U by Doug Lipp

Get the book TODAY to learn invaluable lessons for your Guest Experience Teams

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Continue the Disney U experience Thursday 4/3/14 with Be Willing to Change or Be Willing to Perish: The Birth of the Disney University

Want to know more about learning from the front line?

Capturing the Hearts and Minds of Your Team is the Foundation for Excellence

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Bob Adams

A maxim of the movie industry is that it takes a happy crew to produce a happy show.
Van France

A constant reminder of the Disney organization’s legacy and success are the posters, pictures, and artwork from Academy Award-winning movies and Tony Award-winning Broadway plays lining the walls of the hallways and training rooms.

courtesy of drawntobebad.tumblr.com

Creating the Happiest Place on Earth is a fine balance of values and things, along with a lot of hard work.

The Disney University has a set of crystal-clear values that are aligned with and fiercely supported by the company leadership.

Disney’s organizational values drive the strategies, which in turn drive Disney’s success.

The Disney University makes certain that every employee is properly introduced to the company and understands the importance of the brand: Disney values, Disney history, and Disney traditions. This context further enriches the specific on-the-job training sessions conducted by the operations team that employees must attend immediately after orientation.

Everyone at Disney knows his or her role in keeping the parks friendly, well maintained, and efficiently operating. This way of business – also known as the Disney Philosophy and the Disney Way – involves a huge investment of time, training, and money that not many others are willing to make.

The Disney Philosophy is not just a nice thing to do, but a must do.

Even the lowest-tech, bare-bones, and budget-challenged training program will get the job done as long as hearts and minds are captured. Training programs reflect organizational values and health.

The content of training programs, the individuals who teach, the team members who attend, and the way the team members are supported outside the classroom reveal much about organizational culture.

The Disney University’s success is due to its uncanny ability to capture the hearts and minds of the thousands of cast members it serves.

You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world but it requires people to make it a reality.
– Walt Disney

It may have all started with a mouse, but Disney has come a long way since then.

Applying Van France’s Four Circumstances to ChurchWorld Guest Experience Teams

Innovate – Support – Educate – Entertain

Capture Hearts and Minds

Can you identify the equivalent of Van France’s Four Circumstances (components) that support highly trained, well-prepared and motivated team members? How do you apply those “circumstances” to capture team members’ hearts and minds?

How Does your Organization Balance Values and Things?
• What is your equivalent of Mickey Mouse, your claim to fame?
• How do you balance these things with values?

Pulling Back the Curtain
• Are your training goals aligned with your organizational goals?
• Are all your different departments engaged in your training efforts?

It’s Everyone’s Job (Starting at the Top)
• Does your Leadership Team demonstrate unwavering support of team member development and training efforts?
• Is there a culture of learning and training?
• Who promotes your organizational culture? Who is your equivalent of Walt Disney or Van France (i.e. role models of excellence for aspiring chief cultural officers)?

Inspired by and adapted from Disney U by Doug Lipp
Get the book TODAY to learn invaluable lessons for your Guest Experience Teams

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Continue the Disney U experience on Thursday 3/27/14 with Delivering a Great Guest Experience is a Balance of Art and Science

Disney U is one of the most significant resources related to the Disney organization, leadership, team development, and Guest Experiences available. In honor of the one year anniversary of the release of Disney U, this is a look back at a series from the book that originally ran last year.

Setting the Stage for Success

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Bob Adams

The Disney University is a name that carries clout and evokes images of excellence.

How does Disney develop the world’s most engaged, loyal, and Guest-centric employees, year after year?

photo by glassslipperconcierge.com

The simple explanation for the Disney University’s success can be attributed to the levels of support and clarity of purpose found in the Four Circumstances, the organizational values Van France identified as vital to the success of the Disney University.

Training cannot be limited to ‘Here’s what you need to do, now go do it.’ That’s not good enough. Training needs to instill a spirit, a feeling, an emotional connection. Training means creating an environment of thinking and feeling.

– Van France, founder of Disney University

> Van’s Circumstance #1: Innovation

Backstory: Van France’s background included experience as a trainer in manufacturing and the military. He disliked the idea of a “training department,” but felt that the idea of a university was exciting. Historically, a university was ahead of the times, leading people into exciting adventures.

Van’s focus on being innovative created an ever-evolving learning culture.

> Van’s Circumstance #2: Organizational Support

Backstory: Dick Nunis, Director of Operations at Disneyland when Disney University was founded, had an education degree from USC. Nunis saw the advantages of branching out from a simple orientation program, and backed the concept of Disney University from the start.

Van knew that unless someone from the highest ranks of management backs an idea, it won’t happen. Leadership must be intimately involved and has to set the tone.

> Van’s Circumstance #3: Education

Backstory: Walt Disney established his own unique school for training the Disney animators when traditional art schools couldn’t provide the quality he was looking for. In 1932, Disney began required evening classes, eventually adding ½ day classes as well.

This is the foundation of Disney University: Walt’s long-standing value of providing employees with a tailored, relevant training and educational experience. Van France built on that foundation, creating a unique school with a different type of artist. These “Disneylanders” would major in the fine art of creating happiness and receive a special curriculum in human relations and Disney philosophy.

> Van’s Circumstance #4: Entertain

Backstory: France had many friends in the Art Department at Disney. As a result, the handbooks and training aids were always creative and interesting, rather than the opposite – dull and academic.

On this point, Van France and Walt Disney were in strong agreement: it was possible – no, required – that Disney University both entertain and educate. Entertainment used as a training strategy is a powerful tool that increases engagement and ensures the retention of new concepts.

Secrets of the Disney University

The message from Van France and the many who worked with him is unwavering. Success is predicated on the following:

Having a seat at the leadership table
Being a valued part of the organizational culture
Moving well beyond providing merely short-lived programs
Being incessantly creative and willing to try new approaches to keep the message relevant, fresh, and engaging

The Four Circumstances also greatly influenced Van’s leadership lessons, which are applicable to all organizations and are as relevant today as they were back then.

Applying Van France’s Four Circumstances to ChurchWorld Guest Experience Teams

Innovate – Support – Educate – Entertain

What Are Your Circumstances?

Identify: How do you set the stage for success to ensure sustained enthusiasm for team development? What values in your organization are nonnegotiable? Identify them.

Why are those values in place?
What benefits do the values provide your organization and team members?
Which values are the strongest? Which are the weakest?

Apply: How are the values of your organization brought to life?

How are they communicated to team members? How often? By whom?
Does everyone know the values?
What happens when these values aren’t upheld? Are there consequences? Exceptions?
How can the values be more effectively conveyed throughout your organization?

Inspired by and adapted from Disney U by Doug Lipp

Get the book TODAY to learn invaluable lessons for your Guest Experience Teams

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Continue the Disney U experience on Tuesday 3/25/14 with Capture Hearts and Minds

Always Remember Your Guest Gets to Make the Call

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Bob Adams

When it comes to measuring the success of your Guest’s experience, you don’t get to make the call – your Guest does.

No matter how hard you prepare, no matter how well you execute, and no matter how extraordinary the experience, in the end, it’s your Guest who decides if the experience was a success.

What do you do, then?

The best, the only thing you can do, is set the stage for success.

And that is accomplished through people – your Guest Experience Teams.

Are you looking for help in developing friendly, knowledgeable, passionate Guest Teams that deliver a WOW Guest Experience every time?

Maybe it’s time for you to go back to the university – but not just any university…

One year ago today, one of the most significant books related to the Disney organization and Guest Experiences was released. Entitled Disney U, it’s a very powerful and personal story by Doug Lipp, former team leader of the acclaimed Disney University. Lipp mentored under a number of Disney University visionaries, most notably Disney U founder Van France.

In honor of the one year anniversary of the release of Disney U, I will be revisiting a series from the book that originally ran last year.

Disneyland will never be completed. We’ve certainly lived up to that promise. But what about the people who operate it? Are we growing with the show or just getting older? The trouble with people is that we get hardening of the mental arteries, cirrhosis of the enthusiasm, and arthritis of the imagination, along with chronic and sometimes acute allergies to supervision, subordinates, and the whole darned system.

Is it possible that what we have gained through experience we have lost through habit, and that what we have gained through organization, we have lost in enthusiasm?

Van France, Introduction to his “Proposed Program of the University of Disneyland, 1962-1963

Your Guest Experience Teams are the foundation of the measure of success of your Guest’s experience.

Disney U will give you that foundation.

Next: Begin the Disney U experience with Setting the Stage for Success

energized by the steady, deliberate journey in generational learning

Tag Archives: Van France

The Language of Success: Creating a Culture of Happiness

Beyond Orientation: Executive Team Development – Moving from Silos to Synergy

Keep Plussing the Show: No Room for Excuses

Plussing the show is as much about attitude as it is about budget.

Gather Facts and Feelings – Walk the Park for a Fresh Perspective

Walking the park helped Van clarify the problems and then visualize a process by which to bridge the gaps.

Capturing the Hearts and Minds of Your Team is the Foundation for Excellence

Disney’s organizational values drive the strategies, which in turn drive Disney’s success.

The Disney University’s success is due to its uncanny ability to capture the hearts and minds of the thousands of cast members it serves.

Setting the Stage for Success

The Disney University is a name that carries clout and evokes images of excellence.

Always Remember Your Guest Gets to Make the Call

Are you looking for help in developing friendly, knowledgeable, passionate Guest Teams that deliver a WOW Guest Experience every time?

Disney U will give you that foundation.