Disney World: It’s Not Magic, It’s Work

Disney World, the size of Manhattan, is the largest tourist destination in the world, and its 59,000 cast members make it the largest single-site employer in the world. Cockerell, its manager for 15 years, reveals the management principles he’s followed to make it a success.

#1 Remember, Everyone Is Important

Inclusion is important at Disney World, Cockerell says, and it’s more than just hiring diversely and respecting differences. It’s about engaging and involving your employees and showing them that each one is important.

Disney uses the acronym RAVE for Respect, Appreciate, and Value Everyone. Know your team and let your team get to know you, Cockerell says—what moves you, what excites you, what you struggle with.

Greet people sincerely, reach out to everyone, and be available. Forget about chain of command, he says.

#2 Break the Mold

Cockerell says that Disney’s structural changes have opened many opportunities for the company and its employees. For example, he says, in the beginning, the hotel operations were separate from the parks’ operations. After they combined the two organizationally, they realized great gains. Before that change, he explains, the hotels were always busy for breakfast, and the parks were busy for lunch. Once the two combined, workers could float from one area to the other as needed. If it rained and people flocked back to the hotels for lunch, park food service workers could flock along with them.

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#3 Make Your People Your Brand

When hiring, Cockerell says, start out by defining the perfect candidate. What qualities and skills do you need? His tips:

• Don’t settle for a clone of the incumbent.


• Don’t settle for “best available.”


• Look for people in unlikely places.


• Involve the team in the selection process.


• Select by talent not résumé.


• Keep in touch with people who leave.

#4 Create Magic Through Training

Training and development, says Cockerell, permeate every level of the company and they are the primary reason that the Disney brand is synonymous with service excellence. All new cast members begin with a course called “Traditions.” Only after they “begin to feel the pixie dust” do they start learning how to do their particular jobs. Cockerell suggests that you:

• Give people a purpose, not just a job.


• Take your role as a teacher seriously, and teach by example.


• Become a COACH (Care, Observe, Act, Communicate, Help).


• Teach people where to be. (When ballroom doors open, be in the ballroom, not in your office; when the restaurant opens, be in the dining room, not the wine cellar.)


• Train for Take 5 (how to do something special for a customer that just takes a few seconds or minutes, but that makes a lasting impression).

#5 Eliminate Hassles

One responsibility of leaders, Cockerell says, is to identify problems in the way things are done and act quickly to fix them. His approach:

• Always ask “what” rather than who (that is, before blaming someone, see if it’s a process problem).


• Listen to customers (their complaints often reveal process problems).


• Learn firsthand what’s working and what’s not.


• Ask employees for solutions.


• Try an audit exchange plan (have your managers audit each other’s operations). They provide fresh ideas and they learn something they can take back, Cockerell says.


• Keep up with technology—it can remove a lot of hassles.

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#6 Learn the Truth

Great leaders are always in the learning mode, Cockerell says. Get out and about routinely. Try these methods, he suggests:

• Ask your managers to take the customers’ role. Use the guest parking lot, wait in lines, etc., to see what your customers’ experience is like.


• Do a thorough tour of your facilities. Make sure managers know that you expect problems to be fixed before you tour again. (Cockerell takes a thorough daily tour.)


• Meet with your direct reports regularly to go over the four P’s—people, processes, projects, profits.

In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll present the next four tips from Cockerell, and we’ll take a look at a unique product just for HR managers in small or even one-person departments.