“Let it go!” – Day 3 – The Disney Institute

[Yes, Day 3. Unfortunately we were unable to attend Days 1 and 2, but you can gain a terrific perspective on the value of those programs by visiting the blogs of both Michael Long and Alicia Sanera.]

Let’s begin with a short primer on Disney language. Employees are “cast members”. When you are in the park you are “on stage” and when you are outside the public areas you are “off stage”. And this is where we begin…

We entered Epcot off stage in a Disney Institute van, our driver the gracious host of this visit, Stacey Thompson. She shared many interesting tidbits as we passed through the highly secure backlot (complete with raised blast ramps should someone attempt to ram their way through). For example, not one section of the off stage area is visible to the general public. The only signage informing guests that they’ve wandered off course reads “Cast Members Only” (that and a very un-Disneyesque decorative taste). The magic dust stays inside the park, that much is clear.

Today’s meeting room was located in a fairly nondescript location.  A wicker-hatted security guard checked our badges and pulled the rope aside for us to enter the building. The room boasted one way glass looking back into the park. and Inside you would find approximately 50 attendees for this week’s course, Disney’s Approach to Business Excellence.

The participants represent a wide variety of public and private sector industries, are evenly split between men and women, average around 40 years of age and appear to be at a managerial level in their career progression. Although it’s not immediately clear what each hopes to take away from this experience, they are fairly well engaged by the team of moderators.

In fairness to Disney, I’m going to wait until close of Friday to share my opinions. In the interim, let me provide a few tidbits that I found to be quite interesting:

• 66,000 cast members work in Disney World;
• “Operational Participants” are third party vendors who run portions of the park (e.g., the Mexican Pavilion in Epcot). They hire and fire their own employees, but they must adhere to the strict regulations governing cast members for them to retain their operational licenses.
• Disney has extremely strict codes of personal hygiene and presentation, including piercings, tattoos and hair length. Due to these guidelines, cast members can use the Hairport International Styling Shop for a $10 cut on site.
• Disney owns and rents apartment buildings to those cast members who desire housing.
• They run child care facilities supporting up to 700 children, the payment plan of which direct correlates to your seniority and pay scale (e.g., hourly workers pay less than executives).
• Epcot alone has 150,000 garments for over 200 operational wardrobes (excluding character costumes). Cast members have the option of checking out clothes for each shift, for the week, or semi-permanently via a program called “Cast Zooming”. Every single item is bar coded so they can track who has which garments, and Disney is currently testing RFID to further streamline this process.
• Perhaps not surprisingly, Disney boasts the largest laundering facility in the world.
• Cast members can leverage eighteen separate “Cast Service Centers” to check their email, pick up their paycheck, borrow a business book or get any other employee need addressed. Interestingly, these service centers do not report into the HR department. Instead, they roll up to the heads of their respective parks.
• The cafeteria has an area called “Company D” where cast members can buy stamps, get something notarized, buy movie tickets, etc. The general feel of the cast area is that virtually any need can be cared for on site.
• Disney boasts over 3,000 job descriptions.
• 104 languages are spoken on stage, with Disney translating their cast member materials into only 4 (sorry, didn’t catch which ones).
• Cast members expressed their Top 4 preferences for personal recognition, including (in order) – 1) Guest satisfaction; 2) Performance; 3) Behavior; and 4) Longevity.
• When a new job is posted, existing cast members are given a seven day advantage to apply. Disney makes no bones about the fact that they prefer to hire and promote from within. More on that later in the week.

Sorry for the brain dump, but I thought many of you would find these points to be intriguing. Be sure to continue to follow our live coverage on Twitter. Tomorrow we will go underground, followed by a dinner with the Institute’s management team.

At the end of each exercise, the Disney facilitators have the participants clap their hands while simultaneously chanting, “Let. It. Go!” This signals us to transition forward. So try it at home tonight and see if you can transition forward. It may not work, but at least it will keep the conversation going.