THE DISNEY WAY:
HARNESSING THE
MANAGEMENT
SECRETS OF
DISNEY IN YOUR
COMPANY
PRESENTED BY
Participant Notebook
ROCKHURST AUDIO
CONFERENCE SERIES,
A DIVISION OF ROCKHURST
UNIVERSITY CONTINUING
EDUCATION CENTER, INC.
0207
S O M E T H I N G
N E W
T O D A Y
Copyright 2007, Rockhurst University Continuing Education Center, Inc.
Participant Notebook
Walt Disney’s Secret for Success
Why Was Walt Disney Successful?
His ability to allow his cast members to discover their own greatness
What Was His Definition of Leadership?
The ability to establish and manage a creative climate where people and teams are selfmotivated to achieve long-term goals in an environment of mutual respect and trust.
What Was His Definition of Managing?
Not getting work done through people, but developing people through their work and, at the
same time, having fun.
Six Reasons to Use Disney as a Role Model
1. Consistent vision and direction
2. Creation of an environment of mutual respect and trust
3. Low turnover rates
4. Legendary customer service
5. Innovation and creativity
6. Long-term financial results
Caution
You need to innovate, not imitate. Use the Dream, Believe, Dare, Do principles as guidelines,
then define the culture that is right for your organization.
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Participant Notebook, continued
DREAM
Lesson
Leaders must be master communicators. They must not just communicate the dream,
but enthusiastically bring that dream alive. Expound upon your dream in a manner that
exhilarates people.
Actions for DREAM
1. Hold annual off-site dream retreats for your leadership group to develop the vision or the
story of what the organization would look like five years from now if you were the
“Disney” of your industry.
2. Communicate your vision or story to all stakeholders. Use storytelling to help
communicate the dream.
3. Once the vision is set, be persistent and consistent. Never compromise your vision. Don’t
just celebrate your vision, live it.
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Participant Notebook, continued
BELIEVE
Lesson
Establish your set of core values. Believe in them and use them as the gauge for all your actions
and as the basis for all decision making.
What Are Core Values?
Core values are the very small set of guiding principles that have a profound impact on how
everyone in the organization thinks and acts.
Why Establish Core Values?
• When values are clear, there is no need for rules.
• Core values allow you to trust your people to use their common sense and trust them in
terms of how they do their job.
• Core values create a climate of mutual respect and trust.
Caution
Values cannot be mandated rules. They must be internalized beliefs.
Actions for BELIEVE
1. Assemble your leadership team and ask each member to list three to five of his or her
most important values.
2. Ask team members to pair up.
3. Have the members of each pair present and discuss their respective lists. Then have them
jointly create a single new list of three to five values.
4. Combine the groups of two to create groups of four.
5. Present and discuss their respective lists. Then have them jointly create a single new list
of three to five values.
6. Continue combining teams until a consensus is reached with the entire team.
7. Repeat this exercise with the next level of the organization.
8. Compare results with the leadership team and reconcile differences.
9. Repeat the procedure with the next level of the organization.
This process works well if you have five or fewer layers in your organization.
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Participant Notebook, continued
DARE
Lesson
Great leaders dare to make a difference and know how to “fail forward fast.” They quickly try
things, learn, and then react to correct their mistakes.
Actions for DARE
1. Celebrate failure.
• Give a monthly reward for the biggest mistake of the month.
• Encourage people and teams to openly discuss failure and to learn from the
experience.
2. Dare to be different.
• Take the risk to provide your customers a memorable experience.
• Don’t just meet customer expectations. Fulfill your customers’ dreams and solve your
customers’ problems.
3. Find new ways to have fun.
• Throw out bottom-line management and replace it with frontline management.
• Look for ways to engage your customers in the fun.
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Participant Notebook, continued
DO
Lesson
Vision without execution is like a plane without wings; it just won’t fly.
Actions for DO
1. Look for the “little things” that may send mixed messages about the Dream, Believe,
Dare, Do culture and change them.
2. Improve the orientation process.
• Orientation must last at least two days.
• Focus on the vision, values, and culture of the organization.
• Put more emphasis on core values and less emphasis on policies.
3. Enhance customer participation.
• Make your customers part of the show.
• Treat customers as you would a guest in your home.
4. Create a show mentality. Redefine your product to fulfill customer dreams and solve
customer problems. To produce your show, ask the following questions:
• What’s the story? How are you going to engage the audience?
• How is the staging or setting contributing to the overall image or mood?
• How are the actors’ performances (that is, the role of the employees) contributing to
the entire show?
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