CHAPTER 3

The Magic of Cast

It only takes a quick browse through the business section of any bookseller to see that there are countless texts devoted to the power and ability of fully engaged employees and the indispensable role they play in the achievement of organizational goals. In fact, the vital need for a fast-thinking, highly motivated workforce seems so logical and commonplace that it is hard to imagine that our beliefs about people at work were ever any different. But in the 1930s, employees did not hold as respected a place in the organizational scheme as they do today.

Even Henry Ford, who in 1914 had outraged capitalists everywhere when he nearly doubled plant employees’ wages to $5 a day and in his 1922 autobiography wrote glowingly of the capacity of the American worker, had soured on the merits of the workforce by the 1930s. “The average man won’t really do a day’s work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it,” said the inventor of the moving assembly line in a 1931 interview. He backed up this mean-spirited declaration with the force of the Ford Service Department, a group of strong-arming supervisors and security guards that, under the direction of Harry Bennett, intimidated and physically attacked Ford laborers who did not toe the company line. 1

In stark contrast to the mechanistic gray of Henry Ford’s beliefs about employees, Walt Disney’s vision was awash in color and energy. As the roaring 1920s gave way to the depressing 1930s, the financial and critical success of the company’s first Technicolor cartoons and Walt’s dream of creating the first feature-length animated movies were driving growth at Disney’s Hyperion Avenue studios in Burbank, California. Walt knew that the key to the studio’s continued prosperity was its workforce. So he began an ambitious expansion plan that enlarged the six-person staff to more than 750 people, and he started thinking seriously about training and development.

If you were a young animator at Disney in 1931 and you didn’t own a car, there was a good chance that several nights a week Walt himself chauffeured you and a group of your colleagues to Los Angeles for company-paid classes at the Chouinard Art Institute. In late 1932, as the attendance at these classes expanded, Walt quit driving and hired Don Graham of Chouinard to teach at the studio. “I decided to step out of their class,” Walt quipped, comparing his company to the competition, “by setting up my own training school.” 2 Accordingly, on November 15, 1932, the first session of the Disney Art School was held, with twenty-five students. Attendance grew quickly, particularly after word spread about the nude models Don had hired to pose in the life drawing class.

By 1934, the in-house school was running on a full-time basis. Newly hired animators were taught drawing in classes held at local zoos and learned production techniques in studio classes. Early in 1935, Walt analyzed the characteristics of a good animator to guide Don in the development of “a very systematic training course for our young animators . . . and a plan of approach for our older animators.” 3 Soon, outside lecturers were appearing and Disney animators were learning from distinguished speakers, including architect Frank Lloyd Wright and drama critic Alexander Woollcott.

At the same time the company’s first training programs were being established, Walt was formalizing the major elements of the corporate culture. Hard work and creativity were rewarded with bonus checks. The use of first names and casual dress contributed to an open atmosphere. Uninhibited story sessions, sometimes held after work in Walt’s home, added a democratic element to a system based on adopting the very best ideas, no matter where they originated.

The first big payoff for all of the company’s training and development efforts came on December 21, 1937, when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in Hollywood to a standing ovation from the industry’s elite. Composed of two million drawings, the critically acclaimed, eighty-three-minute feature film broke attendance records at New York’s Radio City Music Hall and won a specially made Oscar that featured one regular-size statue accompanied by seven dwarf Oscars. Within six months, the receipts from the film had paid off all of the company’s bank loans, and, in its first run, Snow White earned $8 million. This was “a phenomenal sum,” wrote Disney biographer Bob Thomas, “considering that the average price for a theater admission in the United States in 1938 was twenty-three cents—and a heavy percentage of those seeing Snow White were children admitted for a dime.” 4

Walt made a similar investment in the training and development of people in the mid-1950s in Disneyland. In 1955, he created Disney University, the first corporate university, to make sure that new cast members understood and delivered the service he envisioned at the unique new park. And in 1971, five years after Walt’s death, when Walt Disney World opened in Florida, a new branch of the University was established along with it. By then, there was no debate about the investment. Everyone knew Walt had been right when he said, “You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world . . . but it requires people to make the dream a reality.” 5

Whatever we have accomplished is due to the combined effort. The organization must be with you, or you can’t get it done . . .

—Walt Disney

Accordingly, in the Quality Service Compass, cast members are the first critical delivery system of the common purpose and quality standards. At the Disney parks and resorts, for example, we believe that “our front line is our bottom line.” The truth in this becomes clear when you consider that guests in our parks come into contact with cast more than 2.5 billion times per year.

“It might surprise you, but in our research, people cite interactions they have with our cast as the single biggest factor in their satisfaction and intent to return,” said Tom Staggs, who took on the role of Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts in January 2010, in an investor call in early 2011. “What I’ve really come to appreciate this past year is that our cast’s commitment to guest experience is holistic—from designing our parks, attractions, and resorts, to creating our entertainment offerings, and even down to the food that we serve—we want to wow our guests with every interaction.” 6

CASTING THE FIRST IMPRESSION

It has been said before and it is worth repeating: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. At Disney, all cast members know about the importance of first impressions. They understand that guests will form a first impression in seconds and how important it is to make sure that impression is a positive one. First impressions are strong and lasting ones. But customers aren’t the only people who get fast and firm first impressions. So do employees.

Before we start exploring the first impressions that new cast members get at Disney, take a moment to think about what most new employees experience when they arrive for their first day of work. What was the first thing you did on your first day on the job? It was probably some kind of orientation. Almost all large organizations offer a formal new employee orientation program. It is the most common kind of training offered. 7

Here’s one more question: What is the first impression that most new employees get on that first day on the job? Those few who don’t participate in an orientation program probably get a hodgepodge of impressions over which their new employers have little control. They just go to work and get to work. Those new hires who do get an orientation are mostly treated in a mechanistic fashion. They are imprinted with varying degrees of information that usually involve an official welcome, statements of the organizational mission and values, explanations of benefits and policies, paperwork processing, and, perhaps, a code of the ethics along with a menu of the penalties that code violators might expect. A few hours later, they are marching off to their new jobs, and their employers have missed a golden opportunity to begin creating a workforce capable of delivering world-class service.

Disney hires thousands of people annually. The Casting Center at Walt Disney World, for example, often handles 150 to 200 applicants each day, and as many as 100 jobs, including transfers and promotions, are filled daily. Prior to 1989, casting was conducted in an ad hoc series of offices and trailers. But in 1989, when today’s center was opened, the ability to make a memorable first impression on prospective and new cast members was greatly improved.

The Walt Disney World Casting Center was designed by renowned architect Robert A. M. Stern, who immediately understood the power that the finished building would have to impress new hires. To the new cast member, the Casting Center, Stern explained, “may be the only time you experience the total identity of the corporation. It’s very important symbolically.” Accordingly, he created an entry point to the organization that is at once elegant and playful, one that architecture critic Beth Dunlop described as “otherworldly and fanciful, as if it had dropped from the pages of a picture book; a stop frame in an animated film.”

Impression-making is an integral part of the design. As prospective cast members enter the building, they grasp doorknobs patterned after the talking doorknobs in the Disney film Alice in Wonderland. The receptionist’s desk is on the second floor at the back of the building. As you travel toward it on your own trip down a rabbit hole, you get a symbolic tour of the company through hallways and rotundas of ever-changing shapes and perspectives. Gilded figures of cartoon characters sit atop columns, scenes from Disney animated films are painted on the walls and ceilings, and the waiting room features a model of Cinderella Castle surrounded by free-form seating. “Bob [Stern] was adamant that you enter on the ground floor, and the first time you can ask for a job is at the other end of a hall on the second floor,” explained Disney project director Tim Johnson. “He said, ‘Let them wander. Let them get a taste for Disney before they get there.’” 8

Disney’s casting centers aren’t the only place future cast members get their first impressions of us. Like many companies, in recent years Disney has transferred portions of its casting process to the Internet, and we use job fairs, recruitment programs, and many other methods to staff our company. But no matter what the method, we always use our brand and culture to make a good first impression and to ensure that potential cast members understand what will be expected of them as early as possible in the hiring process.

Now picture yourself walking through that wonderful, fanciful building dedicated solely to the casting process at Walt Disney World. What kind of message does the fact that the company has invested so much effort in its design and materials say about how we value our cast? How will such a company expect its cast members to behave? Now ask yourself, what kinds of messages do your employment settings and experiences send to job applicants and new hires?

OUTFITTING THE CAST FOR SERVICE DELIVERY

You might think that Walt Disney World pays a premium for extra-courteous and friendly employees or that cast members are really Audio-Animatronic figures manufactured using some secret formula cooked up by the Disney Imagineers. In fact, our cast members are hired from the same labor pool as every other organization, and they are paid the going rates. When we are successful at modeling the Disney culture and sharing the conditions of employment, we are able to hire people who are the right fit and predisposed to deliver great service. Our not-so-secret tip for providing friendly service is to first hire friendly people. Our not-so-secret method by which friendly people are then transformed into Disney cast members can be found in the way they are trained.

After a successful audition (yes, Disney-speak for a job interview) for a role, the first thing that new cast members do is begin learning how to deliver Disney’s brand of Quality Service. Our parks and resorts worldwide use a multi-tiered approach to preparing the cast for service delivery:

All newly hired cast members start their tenure at Disney with Traditions, a one-day orientation program taught by Disney University, the internal training arm of the company.

At Walt Disney World, for example, the average class size is forty-five people, and there can be nine classes each week on average, with as many as fourteen classes per week in peak hiring seasons. Traditions is taught by existing cast members who serve in the role of training facilitators. Each year, a voluntary casting call is made for Traditions Assistants, a role that is considered an honor. Those cast members who are chosen leave their daily jobs at regular intervals to teach the course. (By the way, the extra depth of knowledge and refresher training acquired by the Traditions Assistants in the course of facilitating the program is an added benefit of using veteran employees to deliver training.)

The goal of Traditions was well stated by a veteran Disney Institute facilitator who said, “We don’t put people in Disney. We put Disney in people.” 9 Toward that end, the program utilizes a variety of training techniques, including lectures, storytelling, video, exercises, large and small group discussions, and field experiences. Traditions is designed to accomplish four major purposes:

We have already briefly mentioned the use of Traditions as the initial communicator of the common purpose and quality standards, but it does much more than that. It explains how they are put into practice in the resorts and parks. Thus, it serves as an introductory course in Disney showmanship.

Traditions, for example, explains why the cast members must have a “timeless” appearance that enables them to reflect the setting and story when they are entertaining guests. The Disney theme parks have often been complimented on, and criticized for, their strict guidelines regarding the personal appearance of cast members. While some observers have tried to politicize the issue, policies regarding hair, jewelry, cosmetics, etc. are in place for sound business reasons. They are directly and clearly related to the quality standard of Show and they are designed to ensure that we fulfill the fundamental principles of Quality Service: paying attention to the details and understanding guest expectations.

Of course, for policies like this to be legal and fair to employees, they must be consistently interpreted and applied. Disney cast members are not only informed of appearance guidelines throughout the employment process, they are informed before they even fill out an application. And without exception, no new cast member is allowed to participate in the Traditions class and thus start work until his or her personal appearance is in compliance. With all this focus and attention to detail, changes in the appearance policy are not undertaken lightly, especially since neither employees nor the legal system would look kindly on a return to a stricter policy once it has been eased. In 2000, for instance, the Disney parks amended their guidelines to allow men to wear mustaches; in 2010, it allowed women to forgo pantyhose when wearing skirts. But it made these changes only after numerous focus groups with cast members and guests determined that they did not detract from “the Disney look.”

Traditions also extends our common purpose of creating happiness through entertainment into the very language that cast members speak. You have already been exposed to the show-based vocabulary used at Walt Disney World; Traditions is where cast members learn it.

Disney-Speak

Attractions: Rides, shows

Cast Member: Employee

Guest: Customer

Onstage: Guest areas

Offstage/backstage: Behind the scenes

Costume: Uniform

Audition: Interview

Role: Job

Host/Hostess: Frontline employee

At first glance, Disney’s language may seem contrived or inconsequential. But words create images and corresponding assumptions in people’s minds. Take the word guest. An unhappy guest and an unhappy consumer create two very different images in an employee’s mind. Guests are welcome visitors, whom you host; consumers are statistics. If someone is your guest, don’t you feel a greater obligation to ensure his or her happiness? The word performance also creates a singular image. If you are performing in a show, are you likely to be operating at a higher level than when you are busing tables at a restaurant? How we talk about work does make a difference.

Don’t underestimate the power of a good orientation program to create a portrait of the organization and its culture in the minds of new employees. While the history, mission, and values of your business may be as familiar as a favorite childhood story to you, chances are good that your new employees have never heard them, or have heard versions of them that may not be accurate.

When St. Louis–based Dierbergs, Inc., a chain of twenty-three supermarkets employing more than five thousand people, decided to revamp its new-employee orientation process, it first studied how Disney communicates its heritage and culture. “We were doing a traditional rules-and-regulations thing,” recalls Fred Martels, then Dierbergs’ senior human-resources executive and now head of People Solutions Strategies, a consulting firm. “We told people what they could and couldn’t do and what would get them fired. But that doesn’t motivate people. We needed to speak to their hearts, not just their brains.”

To accomplish that goal, the company created a new program that emphasized its 157-year history, the four generations of family management, and its heritage and culture of Quality Service. The orientation includes pictures from the company’s history and stories of great customer service. Instead of spending all their time on company policy, a handbook of rules is given to employees. They are asked to read it after the class and return a signed statement agreeing to abide by the rules.

North Carolina–based Montreat College designed its first orientation program after its administrators visited Disney Institute for a program cosponsored by Washington, D.C.’s Council of Independent Colleges, a national association of more than five hundred private liberal arts institutions. Montreat College, a Presbyterian not-for-profit with three satellite campuses and about 1,500 students, appears to grow out of the mountains of western North Carolina. Founded in 1916, many of the buildings on its main campus are built from stone and timber harvested from its land, and the school’s logo, a seven-stone arch featuring a keystone in the center, is patterned after one of the campus’s prominent architectural features.

That logo provided the inspiration for the college’s first-ever orientation program, aptly named Keystones. Like the school’s logo, the new half-day program was built around seven modules: history and traditions, values, educational experience, academics, student life, courtesy, and efficiency. During the training, new employees were organized into teams of six and given a six-piece jigsaw puzzle that formed the image of a graduating student, a symbol of the ultimate goal of the school. Each kept a piece of the puzzle, and every six months they came back together for another two-hour training session that highlighted another aspect of the seven modules.

Instead of sending a trainer to Montreat’s satellite schools, those staff members came to the main campus for classes. “We had a lot of people who just didn’t understand our heritage,” former Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Lisa Lankford explained at the time. “They didn’t understand that their jobs were an important part of the entire educational show at Montreat. Now they are starting to see.”

So when new employees at Dierbergs Family Markets hit the aisles or new cast members at Walt Disney World step onto their stage or new professors at Montreat College stand in front of their first class, they all have a sense of the community they have joined. The next goal of orientation is to link that picture to specific behaviors.

THE BEHAVIORS OF QUALITY SERVICE

Over the past decades, as Disney’s parks and resorts have defined and refined their four quality standards, the Traditions program has also devoted more and more time to teaching cast members how to achieve them. The class introduces all of the standards, but is particularly focused on the elements of those standards that can be applied universally throughout the organization. That means training in core safety procedures and the basic elements of courtesy.

These universal procedures and behaviors are taught using a simple role-playing exercise for judging the guest experience called “Good Show/Bad Show.” A Good Show is anything leading to a positive guest experience and a Bad Show is . . . well, you’ve surely guessed the definition of that. The phrases “good show” and “bad show” have spread throughout the resorts. So when a cast member performs well, she is likely to get a thumbs-up from her supervisor and a hearty “Good show!” Conversely, when someone misses a service opportunity, he is likely to be asked how to improve the “bad show.”

Since the first priority of Quality Service is safety, new cast members are first taught exactly how to respond if an accident should occur. Then they learn accident-prevention procedures ranging from evacuation routes to the use of fire extinguishers to emergency first-aid techniques. Even the safe use of gestures is discussed; we don’t assume everyone knows to not use the tools, golf clubs, or other instruments in their hands to point out directions.

Disney University has also spent a good deal of time defining courtesy in action and exploring how courtesy contributes to a positive guest experience. The result of these efforts is embodied in a list of actions called “performance tips,” which every cast member learns in the Traditions program.

Performance tips are a set of generic behaviors that ensure that cast members know how to act courteously and respect the individuality of each guest. The training addresses such topics as how to make a good first impression and offer a warm welcome. It explores the effects of posture, gestures, and facial expressions on the guest experience. And it explains how tone of voice and the use of humor can contribute to—or detract from—service delivery.

While the phrase “performance tips” may sound relatively innocuous, these tips pack a punch. At Hong Kong Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, for example, they have been translated into a set of behavioral actions called Guidelines for Guest Service. The guidelines are summarized in seven sentences and serve a variety of purposes. First, they define behavior in terms of the guests. They create a common baseline for interaction with guests and demonstrate the elements of performance that perpetuate courtesy, Disney-style. Second, the guidelines communicate employee responsibilities. They make the company’s expectations for service delivery clear to new cast members and they provide a basis for accountability. Fulfilling the performance guidelines is an expectation. Cast members who do not use them are subject to progressive disciplinary actions.

Disney’s Guidelines for Guest Service

Make Eye Contact and Smile!

  • Start and end every guest contact and communication with direct eye contact and a sincere smile.

Greet and Welcome Each and Every Guest

  • Extend the appropriate greeting to every guest with whom you come into contact.

“Good morning/afternoon/evening!”

“Welcome!”/“Have a good day!”

“May I help you?”

  • Make guests feel welcome by providing a special differentiated greeting in each area.

Seek Out Guest Contact

  • It is the responsibility of every cast member to seek out guests who need help or assistance.

Listen to guests’ needs

Answer questions

Offer assistance (taking family photographs, for example)

Provide Immediate Service Recovery

  • It is the responsibility of all cast members to attempt, to the best of their abilities, to immediately resolve a guest service failure before it becomes a guest service problem.
  • Always find the answer for the guest and/or find another cast member who can help the guest.

Display Appropriate Body Language at All Times

  • It is the responsibility of every cast member to display approachable body language when onstage.

Attentive appearance

Good posture

Appropriate facial expression

Preserve the “Magical” Guest Experience

  • Always focus on the positive, rather than the rules and regulations.
  • Talking about personal or job-related problems in front of our guests is unacceptable.

Thank Each and Every Guest

  • Extend every guest a sincere thank you at the conclusion of every transaction.
  • Extend every guest a thank you or similar expression of appreciation as he/she leaves your area.

Guest service guidelines serve yet another important purpose. They showcase ways to customize service to individual guests. Practices such as smiling, greeting, and thanking guests are all well and good, but if these actions are restricted to rote, mechanistic behaviors, their effectiveness is severely limited. They are more properly seen as minimum expectations and a guide to the creation of customized service for individual guests.

The stories of how Disney cast members tailor service based on unique circumstances of their guests are legion. For example, there is the couple with the sick child who returns to their room and finds a personalized get-well card from Mickey. It is the guest service guidelines that provide the jumping-off point for that level of service. Cast members use them to craft unique service moments for individual guests—not a bad return on seven short sentences.

Sometimes the structure of a company can present a challenge to communicating the behaviors that will support its common purpose and standards. For example, in the late 1990s, Start Holding, a temporary employment agency based in Gouda, Holland, with more than 5,100 employees in 650 storefront offices located mostly in Holland, Spain, and Germany, underscored the importance of its service quality initiative by positioning it as a leadership initiative that would ultimately cascade to all of its international and domestic operations. 10 To launch its leadership initiative, the company brought its leadership team, board of directors, and four groups of district managers to the Disney Institute and then took more than five hundred branch managers to an Institute program held at Disneyland Paris.

Start adopted a common purpose (We create careers) and four quality standards: Accessibility, Reliability, Service Provision, and Efficiency. But the company still needed to develop and communicate the performance behaviors that would help its widespread network of branch employees to deliver its brand of Quality Service. Start’s answer was to create a system called the Service Box.

The Service Box included a series of training and motivational videotapes, issued to leaders every two months, which explained and explored another aspect of one of Start’s four quality standards. Each office scheduled a training meeting for its staff coinciding with the tape’s arrival. Interestingly, the videos are relatively short, less than fifteen minutes each, and are designed to serve only as a launching point for further learning. The remainder of each training session was devoted to brainstorming ideas for putting its contents to work on a day-to-day basis.

All of the ideas in the staff and operational area were then collected and communicated via what Start called Service Platforms—communication tools designed to leverage the creative effort of employees by sharing each office’s solutions throughout the company.

THINK GLOBALLY, PERFORM LOCALLY

Anyone who has vacationed at the Disney resorts knows that they are a lot like huge multiplex theaters screening a variety of living, interactive movies at the same time. The movies are all entertaining. They are also all related by common production values. But each one tells a different story and utilizes a different theme. Within Walt Disney World, the Contemporary Resort has a radically different story and theme than the BoardWalk Resort. Epcot’s Future World tells stories different from the 1940s Hollywood as re-created in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. And so on.

The first tier of cast-delivered service training, which includes the orientation program and service guidelines, unites all cast members with common goals, language, and behavior and offers a broad outline of what is meant by Quality Service. This tier helps create the multiplex theater that is a Disney park. But to manage all the different films playing in the theater, the common purpose and quality standards must be driven down to the local level. That is done with the creation and communication of performance cultures.

A performance culture is a set of location-specific behaviors, mannerisms, terms, and values that direct and enhance a cast member’s role in any particular show. Performance cultures are developed and nurtured by the management and cast at Disney’s resorts and parks. Each performance culture includes its own mission, vision, and performance values (which are, of course, aligned with the larger purpose and quality standards of the business as a whole).

It might seem like a waste of time to create localized cultures in addition to an organization-wide culture, but there are some very good reasons for the practice. As we’ve already mentioned, the larger and more diverse the organization, the more difficult it is to create a single coherent culture that will make sense to everyone. A strong local culture speaks more directly to the day-to-day responsibilities of employees, and it strengthens the sense of ownership and involvement in the business unit. Like the performance tips, a local performance culture also can be very detailed about the behaviors that the local cast will share. And perhaps most important for the delivery of Quality Service, it establishes and reinforces the local show by tapping directly into the story and theme of the area. The result is a more memorable experience for guests.

One of the notable performance cultures at Walt Disney World can be found at the Polynesian Resort. The Polynesian was part of Walt’s original vision for his new park in Florida, and, open since 1971, it is one of the property’s first hotels. Most recently renovated in 2006, it is an 847-room resort set on a prime location near the Magic Kingdom. The South Seas theme and the style of the Polynesian are particularly relaxed, and it is a favorite among our guests for weddings and honeymoons.

A guest staying at the resort would surely be surprised to learn that the Polynesian has not always enjoyed the stellar reputation it has today. In fact, in the early 1990s, an assignment to perform there was usually not greeted with much enthusiasm by cast members. The property was not scoring high marks in terms of guest satisfaction. What turned the Polynesian around? The cast, and its successful effort to create and maintain its own unique performance culture.

Under the leadership of then–General Manager Clyde Min, the cast of the Polynesian undertook the challenge by taking cues from the style and theme of the hotel itself to build a new performance culture. They studied the island cultures of the South Pacific and created new connections between traditional island values and the performance culture of the hotel. The result was a new level of service based on ho‘okipa, a word that describes Polynesian-style hospitality and the willingness to welcome and entertain guests with unconditional warmth and generosity.

The cast of the hotel created its own mission statement (“Our family provides a unique hospitality experience by sharing the magic of Polynesia and spirit of aloha with our guests and lifelong friends”) and its own vision of the future. That vision called for a resort that would be a “lush tropical paradise known for creating magical lifetime memories.” It also specified that the Polynesian would be a benchmark in its industry and a place where guests and cast members would be willing to sign up on waiting lists for an opportunity to visit and work.

Disney’s Polynesian Resort Values

Aloha We love our fellow cast members and our guests unconditionally.
SAMPLE BEHAVIORS: I will take an interest in my trainees and fellow cast as individuals beyond work. I will greet and welcome every guest and cast member I meet with warmth and sincerity.
Balance We strive for stability and vitality in our personal and professional lives.
SAMPLE BEHAVIORS: I will organize my day to accomplish everything and stick to my plan. I will assist others who need help if I finish early.
Courage We pursue our beliefs with strength and perseverance.
SAMPLE BEHAVIORS: I will follow through with every dissatisfied guest or problem until completion. I will give honest and caring feedback and coaching to others and accept it myself.
Diversity We seek, value, and respect differences among our fellow cast members.
SAMPLE BEHAVIORS: I will respect and learn about the diversity of my fellow cast and guests. I will translate important information for cast members who only speak my native language.
Honesty We deal with each other in a sincere and straightforward manner.
SAMPLE BEHAVIORS: I will turn in all items found and encourage others to do the same. I will be true to myself and admit when I am wrong or need help.
Integrity We act in a manner consistent with our words and beliefs.
SAMPLE BEHAVIORS: I will be a positive role model at all times and adhere to departmental guidelines. I will replace negativity and criticism with a positive attitude.
Kina‘ole We provide flawless guest service of our Polynesian Product.
SAMPLE BEHAVIORS: I will keep informed and updated on new information and procedures. I will do my job to the best of my ability the first time and every time consistently.
Mea ho‘ okipa We welcome and entertain our guests with warmth and generosity.
SAMPLE BEHAVIORS: I will smile and start conversations with guests and cast and use their names. I will introduce my trainees to my fellow cast members and show them around the property. I will go out of my way to make each guest feel special with personal touches and interactions. I will assist and accommodate any guest need or request to make them feel at home.
‘Ohana We treat each other as a family member, supporting, encouraging, and helping.
SAMPLE BEHAVIORS: I will encourage and motivate others to make our cast and guests feel special. I will be an available resource to support my trainees and fellow cast members.
Openness We share information freely.
SAMPLE BEHAVIORS: I will make every effort to communicate to others who speak a different language. I will give recognition to my trainees and fellow cast when a job is done well.
Respect We treat others with care and consideration.
SAMPLE BEHAVIORS: I will respect the opinions, ideas, and feelings of others. I will pull my own weight to avoid impacting others in a negative manner. I will allow others to grow and learn from their mistakes.

To support the resort’s new mission and vision, the cast adopted a series of values that furthered the themed nature of the resort by mixing traditional corporate values, such as diversity and openness, with true Polynesian values, such as ‘ohana (family) and aloha (love and warmth). These values were then linked directly to cast behaviors.

The cast also identified and attacked barriers to guest satisfaction. Concerned that the check-in was taking too long and that guests were not arriving to an experience that welcomed them properly to the warm and rich culture of the Polynesian islands, the cast redesigned the process. Front Desk, Bell Services, and Valet cast members partnered to create a new check-in sequence that incorporated a cast-led tour of the lobby providing plenty of information about the amenities of the resort and an opportunity to ask questions. No additional costs were incurred, and the time each guest stood at the front desk was significantly reduced along with the corresponding wait for service.

The effort to revitalize the Polynesian Resort quickly bore fruit. Guest satisfaction measures improved across the board, registering increases from 21 percent to 68 percent. The number of repeat guests rose far enough to put the property in the running for a first-place finish in Walt Disney World’s Guest Return rankings. Cast satisfaction ratings rose from percentiles in the 70s into the high 90s, and the resort’s costs in terms of workers’ compensation and safety accidents dropped until they were the lowest in Walt Disney World. Here’s another statistic that speaks volumes for how cast attitudes toward the resort changed: On Bring Your Child To Work Day in 1996, only eight children visited the property; two years later, 113 children came to see where their parents worked.

Further, Disney has almost completed building another island-themed performance culture at its newest property, Aulani, a vacation resort and spa in Ko Olina on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Imagine the power of a performance culture like that of the Polynesian Resort located in a spot where the setting and culture are indigenous to the story.

BUILDING YOUR PERFORMANCE CULTURE

Building cultures is not a science. In fact, it is a fairly mysterious process that when done well is capable of uniting the energy and emotions of the entire workforce into a laserlike focus. Anyone who has ever been exposed to such a culture can tell you that magical levels of service can be achieved. But just as often—maybe even more often—culture-building efforts fail, leaving behind high-minded statements that do not reflect any existing reality. While we can’t give you a guaranteed formula for creating a performance culture, we can give you some insight into the systematic Disney approach to developing them and show you living examples of their powerful effect on business results.

If you take a closer look at the work that produced the performance culture at the Polynesian Resort and the performance culture being developed at Aulani, you will see that the implementation efforts were accomplished in three phases. First, new visions and missions are designed to align the workforce to the business unit in a more powerful way. Second, the values connected to the mission and vision are identified, articulated, and linked to behavior on the job. And finally, the workforce is turned loose to achieve the Quality Service vision it had designed.

To create a new vision and mission capable of uniting everyone working within an organization or business unit, it only makes sense that everyone, or at least a team that represents everyone, be enlisted in the effort. Employees themselves need to define their work in relation to customers and the common purpose and decide what role they will play in the accomplishment of that purpose. As an example, think about the ways in which the Polynesian’s mission is similar to, and at the same time unique from, Walt Disney World’s common purpose. The team also needs to consider how employees relate to each other and how they relate to customers. At the Polynesian, the cast decided to be a family, and customers became guests and lifelong friends. Finally, they need to cut the tethers that hold them to earth and dream about how their unit would look if it could become anything they wanted. This blue-sky thinking becomes the basis for a shared vision for the future.

The creation of a set of shared performance values is intimately connected to the establishment of vision and mission. Some management thinkers believe values precede mission and vision; others suggest the opposite. In either case, creating shared performance values is an important foundational element from which employee behavior and actions will follow. Identifying values should also be a team effort. The team needs to consider what values are already at work in the organization, what new values are required to support the culture, and how well they will meet the service needs of customers. As the cast of the Polynesian did, they also must consider how to link values to action by establishing behaviors that reflect the values and how those behaviors will be measured.

Six Tips for Culture-Building

  1. Keep it simple. everyone must feel comfortable with the culture. Leave room for individuality and personality.
  2. Make it global. everyone at the site, including management, must buy in.
  3. Make it measurable. Create specific guidelines, and make them a part of the performance-assessment process.
  4. Provide training and coaching. Incorporate the elements of the culture into employee training and ongoing performance coaching. encourage peer-to-peer coaching.
  5. Solicit feedback and ideas from the team. Foster a sense of ownership, and expand the pool of creative input by allowing employees to contribute to the show.
  6. Recognize and reward performance. build employee motivation through formal and informal reward and recognition programs.

The final phase of building a performance culture is to give employees the freedom to begin living it. They need to consider how they will achieve their mission and vision, how their jobs impact service delivery, and how they can improve that delivery. Witness the reinvention of the check-in process at the Polynesian. Employees also need to begin the never-ending work of translating mission and strategy into action and the practicing of behaviors that reflect the performance values. Only then will the work of building a performance culture begin to produce results.

Quality Service Cues

Make a memorable first impression: First impressions are lasting ones. Start sending the right messages to prospective and new employees from the very first point of contact.

Communicate the heart and soul of the organization first: your heritage, values, common purpose, and quality standards are more important than the paperwork associated with new hires. Use new-employee orientation sessions to communicate your organizational vision and culture.

Speak a service language; wear a service wardrobe: how you look and how you speak communicates an image in the customer’s mind. make sure that your appearance and language reflect your brand of Quality Service.

Establish a set of basic performance guidelines: The guidelines are a set of behaviors that ensure that employees know how to act courteously and respect the individuality of each guest. They form the baseline for delivering and measuring Quality Service performance.

Build a performance culture: performance cultures are sets of location-specific behaviors, mannerisms, terms, and values that direct and enhance an employee’s role in a specific business unit. They use shared values, visions, and missions to help the workforce optimize and customize service delivery.