We have something special for our readers today: a heartfelt letter to Disneyland from a former cast member who worked with some of the most iconic leaders Disneyland has ever known.
Doug Lipp worked closely with Disney Legends Van France and Jim Cora, who each played pivotal roles in developing Disney’s cast member training program, known as Disney University.
As envisioned by Walt Disney, Van France, Jim Cora, Dick Nunis, and a host of others, the Disney University was created in concert with the Operations team to ensure Disneyland’s culture of friendliness and cleanliness never wavered. All were matter-of-fact leaders who never accepted “good enough.”
Doug started as a college intern working under the incomparable Van France. He went on to become a trainer at Disneyland for Disney University and then helped develop the Disney University program at Tokyo Disneyland as part of the start-up team. When he returned, he led the Disney University training team at the Walt Disney Studios.
Today, Doug is a consultant and public speaker on the importance of training and customer service excellence. He has fond memories of Disneyland and the opportunity of a lifetime to work with some of Walt Disney’s most legendary leaders in their heyday.
A Heartfelt Letter from a Friend – Part One
Dear Disneyland, Happy 69th birthday. We’ve known each other for over 60 of your years. You are my friend, and I love you. Yet, to be honest, I’m starting to worry about your health.
The excitement surrounding Anaheim City Council’s recent approval of DisneylandForward, the sweeping expansion plan for Disneyland Resort, ushers in a decade filled with promises of unprecedented growth and possibilities. Congratulations to you, and all who invested so much time, creativity, and energy in helping this dream get closer to reality!
This three-part letter celebrates our long-standing relationship and my hope for your vibrant future. However, it also contains a tough love message I’ve been pondering for many months: my concern about your current state of health.
I do not yearn for a melancholy return to the past, but wish you a brighter future by embracing the cultural foundation upon which you, Disneyland, were built. I’m reflecting on two quotes for my book, Disney U, provided by my friend (and former boss) Disney Legend Marty Sklar, former Vice Chairman of Disney Imagineering.
When I asked Marty to describe Walt Disney, Marty instantly provided the following nuggets of wisdom:
“Walt Disney had one foot in the past and one foot in the future.”
Marty elaborated:
“Walt didn’t strive to remain in the past, but he used the history of the company (its successes and failures) as a springboard to the future.”
Marty would know, as he worked for Walt from 1955 until Walt’s death in 1966.
In the nine years since Disney U was published, many of the iconic Disney Legends who worked with Walt, and at Disneyland, have passed on. While their legacies are revered via the iconic Windows on Main Street tributes, I’ve grown increasingly worried about how their leadership lessons might be fading away.
Disneyland, while you rightfully celebrate the potential of DisneylandForward, I steadfastly plead that you maintain a laser focus on exceptional experiences for Cast Members and Guests by paying tribute to those approaches that have served you so well since your founding: A deft blending of the cultural foundation laid by Walt Disney, combined with your vision for the future.
This blend will form a springboard for your growth and enduring success.
With equal parts optimism and trepidation, my friend, I’ll share some observations I’ve made the past few years that make me wonder… are your decades of success leading to arrogance and complacency? Or, are you still willing to critique and plus every detail of your show… from the uniqueness of your facilities to the friendliness of your Cast Members?
Setting the Stage
Disneyland, after I left you for other opportunities, my career as a leadership consultant to leaders in corporations around the world revealed far too many instances of the following:
Once powerful, market-leading companies “suddenly” becoming less relevant; their good employees and loyal customers begin drifting away. Perhaps through a degradation of quality—either of their service or product—the employee/customer loyalty once enjoyed by the former “king of the hill” is no longer guaranteed. Or perhaps the arrival of an aggressive competitor willing to fill the void left by the former market-leading organization sparks a change in loyalty.
Disneyland, the key word in the previous paragraph, is “suddenly.” Honestly, this rarely happens overnight. Leading organizations don’t instantly lose great percentages of market share, or employee and customer loyalty. It’s not a massive flood of dysfunction that instantaneously dooms the great multinational organizations…
… It’s the drip, drip, drip of dysfunction—or indifference—that can bring the greatest to their knees.
Beware the Indifference Culture
Indifference drips tend to appear as behaviors and attitudes that are, metaphorically, the tip of a far larger (and troubling) cultural iceberg. Reasons vary, yet the most common precursors to a culture of indifference include:
- Market Dominance: Resulting in an attitude of; “We’re the best, if we build it, they will come.”
- Legacy & History: Revealing inflexibility; “That’s how it’s always been done.”
- A Lack of Viable Competitors: Sadly, these companies become the “vendor of NO choice” and lose their competitive spirit. Some even begin accepting mediocrity as the new normal.
- Mismatch of Leadership Behavior & Corporate Values: Leading to mistrust; If leaders’ behaviors don’t reflect company values, the organization’s foundation is compromised, and the crumbling begins.
Precursors of Cultural Indifference abound. Sadly, one of the most telling is found in the following quote I’ve heard executives express far too many times:
“Our profits are up, and customers love us!”
Disneyland, you know this better than anybody … no one has more passionate fans than you! But, being blessed with a wildly supportive customer base is a double-edged sword that can subvert the desire to continually improve.
Will You Plus the Show?
Disneyland, the warning signs of Cultural Indifference I shared above can plague any organization, large or small. In my career I’ve seen some bounce back, yet sadly I’ve also seen too many ignore the signs and lose a precious brand built upon the blood, sweat, and tears of many generations of employees.
I’m writing this to you as a former Cast Member, blessed to have learned The Disney Way from many of your iconic leaders. I’m also writing this to you as someone who has a long career “outside the berm,” learning additional success secrets from leaders around the world.
Disneyland, you know very well about Walt’s admonition to “keep plussing our show,” his way of saying, “keep improving product and service.”
The brilliance of “plussing” isn’t limited to Walt, however. In my post-Disney consulting career, I’ve come to know many leaders who reflect Walt’s insistence on constantly improving.
Particularly memorable is my work with Andrew Grove, the former CEO of Intel Corporation.
Like Walt, Andy never accepted mediocrity … and was quick to challenge those who did.
Disneyland, I encourage you to reflect upon, and own, the wisdom contained in the following Andy Grove quote:
“Success breeds arrogance. Arrogance breeds complacency. Only the paranoid survive.”
I genuinely hope your DisneylandForward expansion plans include details for maintaining a balanced plussing the show strategy: Improving and expanding Cast Member attention to Guest needs as much as you plan to improve and expand facilities and attractions.
My basic concerns for you remain, however. Disneyland, I’ll share more with you and include observations I’ve made in recent years that make me wonder … are your decades of success leading to arrogance and complacency? Or, are you still willing to plus the show while maintaining the balance espoused by Walt Disney?
“To try to keep an operation like Disneyland going you have to pour it [money] in there. It’s not just the attractions, but keeping it staffed properly, you know … never letting your personnel get sloppy. Never let them be unfriendly.”
Disneyland, the closing to one of Walt’s famous quotes,
“… it requires people to make the dream a reality,”
reminds me of yet another lesson I learned from Andy Grove at Intel Corporation. Like Walt, Andy embraced employee training and development.
I’ll always remember Andy telling me how he challenged other Silicon Valley executives of Hi-Tech companies when they complained to him about the risk of investing in employee training:
“Andy, what if I train them [employees] and they leave?”
To this day, Andy’s unambiguous response resonates loudly:
“What if you don’t train them … and they stay!”
As a close to Part 1 of this letter, here are a few ideas for you to consider, my friend:
Disneyland, as you look forward from your 69th birthday to a limitless future, I hope your leaders and your Disney University team embrace Cast Member development as much as facility development!
Does your Disney University training budget allow all Cast Members, Leads, Supervisors, and Managers to reconnect with what makes you The Happiest Place on Earth? Are they learning new skills that make them confident and proud in their jobs?
How about your Directors and Vice Presidents … are they exemplary mentors and role models of service … as great as the Disney Legends that used to walk your Main Street and tirelessly trumpeted your splendor?
Does every executive understand what it feels like to be both a guest and a front-line cast member?
If you can’t answer these questions with an adamant “Yes,” you have some soul-searching to do.
Next Week: Part 2, Getting to Know You … As a Guest, and As a Cast Member
Get to know Doug a little better and his thoughts on the legends of Disney University on this walk down Main Street with Dusty Sage: