Getting Stuck in the Middle Seat™ on a long flight is the worst possible place. You have no room to stretch, can’t read your book without being mercilessly bumped and you can just forget about opening up a newspaper.  It’s easy to get frustrated in this type of situation: You have no control over where the airline placed you and you didn’t get to choose your seatmates.

There are striking similarities between being stuck in an undesirable seat on an airplane and how many people address the challenges of real life – very few options, with nowhere to go and no control − or so it seems.

This victim mentality (“woe is me, look what they did to me”) allows us to conveniently blame others, without taking responsibility or positive action to improve our situation.  It doesn’t have to be this way. Your life will move in amazing directions when you welcome change and take control. Unfortunately, the flip side, being afraid to change and losing control is the default state of mind for far too many.  From top-level executives to front-line employees, fear of change and fear of failure leads to any number of negative results, including: failed businesses, dysfunctional teams and even splintered families.

Instead of becoming paralyzed and doing nothing but complaining, address the following four questions.

1)                  What does being Stuck in the Middle Seat™ mean in your life?

2)                  Where are you stuck in your personal growth?

3)                  Where are you stuck in your professional growth?

4)                  What small steps could you take, as soon as this afternoon, that might make a difference?

Consider the options. When metaphorically Stuck in the Middle Seat™ we can gripe about where the airline (boss, parent, competitor or coach) placed us, or we can choose to make the best of the situation. We can strike up a conversation with our seatmates. Certainly, time will fly by. Better yet, we might learn how best to avoid getting stuck in that lousy seat in the future.

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This last week, The Walt Disney Company reported a 53 percent surge in operating income at Parks and Resorts. What is the “magic” of Disney Parks and Resorts?  How can they thrive while others founder?  Although there are many answers, here is one secret that has proved invaluable for almost 60 years: Disney simplifies the very complex.

A theme park is like a giant factory. With literally millions of moving pieces and heavy equipment, it is a complex and potentially dangerous environment. In addition to the machinery is the cast; thousands of employees, both on-stage and backstage, taking care of the show. Into this environment of machinery and employees—the “factory”—enters the guest.

Providing The Happiest Place on Earth involves boiling down park operations into the following four priorities, representing values driving every business decision. There is no need for a multi-page handbook as a reminder: every cast member knows these marching orders:

1)      Safety – This is the most important priority for guests and cast members. Often, cast members must protect guests from themselves. Guests in vacation-mode can become distracted by the colors, sounds, and activity. They aren’t necessarily taking care of their own safety. Guests, distracted by the beautiful architecture, might walk straight into lampposts and walls. Every operations and design decision must first address Safety.

2)      Courtesy – The second most important priority after safety is Courtesy. Cast members know the value of smiles on their faces and in their voices, and the importance of engaging guests. Directing a guest, with an open hand and a smile, is far more effective than pointing with one finger and scowling. A lack of cast member Courtesy will poison the safest and most interesting environment.

3)      Show – Once Safety and Courtesy are assured, attention turns to Show. Well-maintained attractions and facilities, populated by well-groomed cast members, ensure good show, a condition Walt Disney passionately promoted.  The antithesis is the Disney taboo, bad show.

4)     Capacity/Efficiency – Finally, this last priority refers to the number of guests enjoying the attractions, restaurants and retail shops. This is the “hard numbers” portion of a business. By placing numbers last, the SCSE model makes a clear, somewhat paradoxical statement; accomplishing the first three priorities ensures this fourth is sustainable in the form of happy and loyal cast members and guests.

Each priority in this SCSE model is indispensable and its position non-negotiable. Although Efficiency occupies the lowest rung on the priority ladder, it is by no means ignored. In fact, Disney Parks and Resorts invest heavily to ensure the maximum number of guests can enjoy facilities. The clarity of the SCSE model ensures Safety, Courtesy and Show aren’t sacrificed to attain more Efficiency (more guests and higher profit).

What is happening at your company?  Does everyone know their “marching orders”… without having to look them up in a multi-page operations manual?

Excerpt from

Disney U:

How Disney University Develops the World’s Most

Engaged, Loyal and Customer-Centric Employees

Published by McGraw-Hill Professional

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Training comes in all shapes, sizes and budgets, and is vital to organizational health. But, training isn’t the answer to every problem.  Jim Cora, the retired chairman of Disneyland International, sums up the training rationale he successfully used during his 43-year career at Disney:

Constantly improving products and services (referred to at Disney as Plussing the Show) calls for a keen eye, the ability to focus on the root issues and not accepting mediocrity. Picture, for example, the bales of hay in Frontierland at Disneyland. Strategically placed as props to enhance the western feel, they are a vital component of the show. Now imagine weeds sprouting from those same bales; this is bad show … a Disney taboo. Is this a “training situation” in which the grounds keepers need additional training on the proper trimming of weeds? No. Jim explains when training isn’t the answer to Plussing the Show. “If weeds are growing out of the hay bales in Frontierland, then the bales should have been replaced long ago.”

Clearly, training isn’t always the issue; the elixir of training can’t solve every organizational ailment. At times, the tight-fisted leaders who wantonly cut corners and budgets—without concern for customers and employees—need to own the problems.

 Excerpt from:

Disney U

How Disney University Develops the World’s Most

Engaged, Loyal and Customer-Centric Employees.

By:

Doug Lipp

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“Why do we have to grow up? That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don’t remember what it’s like to be twelve years old.” Walt Disney

What are you and your team doing to keep your sense of adventure, creativity, curiosity and, yes … risk-taking?

If you aren’t doing anything, what are your reasons, (excuses)?

If you are, how have you benefitted?

Growing up and maturing as an organization needn’t result in, as Van France, the Disney University founder said, “hardening of the mental arteries, cirrhosis of the enthusiasm and arthritis of the imagination.”

Now, go out and have some fun.

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Sweat is pouring into my eyes, but I can’t wipe them.  I’ve lost all sense of direction.  I can barely see where I’m going, yet know I’m surrounded by people.  Oh, yeah, there’s one more thing that scares the heck out of me, a fear that is all-consuming … I hope I don’t step on someone’s child. Finally, my “handler” guides me away from the crowds and through the door that leads the backstage dressing room.  I’m exhausted.

As I recover from my ordeal, I reflect on the last few hours and come to an amazing conclusion: Being Tigger isn’t exactly a walk in the park.  This job wasn’t nearly as easy as I thought it would be.  It took some convincing, though.  I had to spend several hours encased in 20 pounds of bacterially-challenged fur. Better yet, I had to maintain my balance while supporting the massive helmet that covered my head.  On top of that, I had to endure the endless pokes and prods from customers vying for my attention … pokes and prods that occasionally hit some sensitive areas … I guess they thought they were poking Tigger’s belly-button.

I, along with several other employees, got to be “costumed characters” as part of a job-sharing program at Disneyland.  In addition to the time we spent in those amazingly confining costumes, we also got to meet the professional actors who work as the characters, full-time.  We heard about the hours and hours of training they receive to learn how to “become” the characters they are portraying.  We listened to their many stories of unique customer interactions with a newfound sense of respect and compassion.  We asked a lot of questions: How could they do this job during those blistering hot mid-summer days?  How did they maintain their sense of humor while being jostled by thousands of customers on a daily basis?   After being Tigger for a day, I had a newfound respect for those employees who, at first glance, seemed to have the easiest job in the world.  After all, no one ever yells at Mickey Mouse when the weather is lousy or when a ride breaks down, right?  We learned a lot.

Job-sharing is a powerful tool for building strong teams.  Hearing about or, better yet, doing the job of a colleague who is on a different shift, or who works in a different division, is a powerful leadership and customer service tool.  At a minimum, job-sharing can reduce the barriers that often develop between employee groups−the infamous silos that can destroy collaboration and communication. It can minimize or eliminate the inevitable “grass is greener on the other side” petty jealousy traps that plague so many teams.  In some work environments, job-sharing can be used as a cross-training tool. And, it can be as simple as a noontime brown-bag-lunch event where employees share the pros and cons of their jobs.

You can make job-sharing as complicated or as simple as you want.  The benefits are endless and I’ve never heard an excuse for not doing it that couldn’t be overcome … with a bit of creativity and flexibility.

After my day of being Tigger, I went back to my regular job at the Disney University with a new sense of appreciation and motivation.  Yes, there would certainly be tough days and challenging meetings, but I was overjoyed knowing that I wouldn’t have to endure the character challenges: the unbearably hot costume, the streams of sweat attacking my eyes and, most important … no more pokes in the “belly-button.”

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Van France, the founder of Disney University was the first person to challenge the many excuses for not conducting training. Similar to Walt Disney, Van rejected the notion that economic malaise warrants abandoning efforts to improve the product or service. Van firmly believed in employee development activities and didn’t let a slim budget get in the way. Many Disneyland managers learned the following lesson from Van, “Money might be tight … creativity is free.”  Even more direct is Van’s message in his report titled Disneyland: The Exciting New Era 1980-2005, “The budget has become the scapegoat for every possible negative action and rejection of any suggestion for improving things. It is the coward’s way out of any problem.”

Training doesn’t need to be a big-budget extravaganza; training is not limited to activities in a training room. Some of the best training in the world occurs during on-the-job-training (OJT) sessions conducted by mentors, not trainers. Mentoring, OJT, and role-modeling can be much more useful, and significantly less expensive, than classroom training. Weekly staff meetings and five-minute, pre-shift/post-shift “huddles” provide tremendous training and learning opportunities.

What creative strategies are you using to provide employee development programs … despite budget constraints?

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Leadership Courage is a trait sorely lacking in many organizations. Too many leaders and managers are afraid to ask the tough questions and challenge the status quo.  Too many people are simply afraid to stir the pot.

Van France, the man hired by Walt Disney to start the Disney University, wasn’t afraid to stir the pot. Here are a few choice words from a memo Van wrote to Disney leadership when proposing making some changes at Disneyland. Despite Disneyland’s success, Van saw some emerging problems … and he addressed them.

“Are we growing with the show, or just getting older?  The trouble with people is that we get hardening of the mental arteries, cirrhosis of the enthusiasm and arthritis of the imagination, along with chronic and sometimes acute allergies to supervision, subordinates, the whole darned system.  Is it possible that what we have gained through experience, we have lost through habit, and that what we have gained through organization, we have lost in enthusiasm?”

Van France stirred the pot. Van France helped Disneyland grow and thrive. Does your organization have the equivalent of a Van France asking the tough questions, demonstrating leadership courage?

Excerpt from:

Disney U:

How Disney University Develops the World’s Most Engaged,

Loyal and Customer-Centric Employees

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“Marketing is the time and money you spend to get people in the door. Training is the investment you make to get guests to come back and cast members to stay; it creates loyalty.”

Jim Cora, retired chairman, Disneyland International

 Yet …

The word “Training” has a nauseating effect on most employees! Why?? Because most organizations don’t enjoy the Four Circumstances of success that drive the Disney University.

What is the secret behind the success of Disney’s world famous employee development organization, the Disney University? Why are its training programs valued and well attended? How does Disney University create employee development programs that avoid the dreaded training trap of being viewed as a “necessary evil,” or worse … “nauseating!” These Four Circumstances are another name for organizational values … Specifically they are:

Innovate: Leaders must be innovative and comfortable with risk. Get out of your comfort zone!

Support: Leaders must provide overt, enthusiastic and sustained support; be cheerleaders of training!

Educate: Employee education and development must be useful and woven into organizational culture.

Entertain: Training … ranging from the front lines to the executive suite … must be entertaining, engaging and memorable … not boring and forgettable!

The wild ride on the economic roller-coaster quickly gets out of control when any one of these four values is jettisoned and excuses start flying. Absent any one of these Four Circumstances, training and development initiatives are destined for failure. Which of the Four Circumstances does your organization enjoy? Which need to be strengthened?

As the founder of the Disney University, Van France taught many Disney executives, don’t blame the budget:

“The budget has become the scapegoat for every possible negative action and rejection of any suggestion for improving things. It is the coward’s way out of any problem.”

 Excerpt from:

Disney U:

How Disney University Develops the World’s Most Engaged,

Loyal and Customer-Centric Employees

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Do you attract, but can’t retain customers and employees? Consider the following advice from one of the most respected Training and Operations gurus in the world:

“Marketing is the time and money you spend to get people to get people in the door. Training is the investment you make to get guests to come back and cast members to stay; training creates loyalty. If ‘show’ was affected, I never cut corners to save money. I never cancelled a training program if it helped our show.”

Jim Cora, former chairman, Disneyland International

  Contributor of Foreword in “Disney U: How Disney University Develops the World’s Most Engaged, Loyal and Customer-Centric Employees.”

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What will readers learn from Disney U?

How does Disney U differ from other “Disney” books?

Why did I write “Disney U: How Disney University Develops the World’s Most Engaged, Loyal and Customer-Centric Employees?

What was the most difficult challenge I faced while writing Disney U?

These answers … and more … are all in the attached video blog.

Disney U officially appears in bookstores on Friday, March 29, but thousands have already been sold! I couldn’t be happier with the overwhelming response of the marketplace. Thank you!

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