Training Lessons Learned from Disney

Excerpt from the expanded third edition of “THE DISNEY WAY: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company” by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson (McGraw-Hill; April, 2016).

Actors, musicians, athletes, and others who perform in public must train and practice. Otherwise, they risk embarrassing themselves and incurring the displeasure of spectators. Also of great importance is the teacher or coach who tells the musician he’s hitting the wrong notes or advises the athlete about running form, and so on. Without such helpful feedback and the benefit of the more experienced mentor’s knowledge, a performer’s career is likely to be short-lived.

The same is true in business. To perform at their best, a company’s employees must be thoroughly trained, and they need the help of more experienced staff members. Moreover, to maintain their competencies, training can’t be a one-shot thing; it must be ongoing.

Perhaps because of his background as an artist, Walt Disney fully understood the essential part that training and practice play in the development of an individual’s talents. Add in his well-known penchant for perfection, and it’s hardly surprising that he adamantly insisted on rigorous and continuous training for all of his Cast Members. After all, common sense dictates that everyone, from the back-stage crew to the performers out front, must be thoroughly rehearsed in order to put on the really “good show.”

But like so much else at the Company Walt built, training takes on a special quality not found in most other organizations. In planning his original studio-based school of the 1930s, Walt wrote an eight-page memo to Don Graham, the legendary art instructor at the Chouinard Art Institute in downtown Los Angeles, that outlined “a very systematic training course for young animators, and also outlined a plan of approach for our older animators.” With Walt’s detailed plan for developing the finest artists in the industry, Don Graham carried forth the creation of a curriculum that included courses on drawing, comedy, music, dialogue, and motion, and intertwined them in a holistic fashion.

Today, the students of Disney University enjoy the most exciting campus of any educational institution in the country. The required coursework is brief, but it’s famous for its intensity. The freshmen are all new members of the Disney family. Some are there to prepare for a summer job; others are being readied to assume a permanent position.

Disney University—which is a process, not an institution—was conceived by Walt Disney himself prior to the opening of Disneyland in the 1950s. Today, every new Cast Member, from senior executives to part-time desk clerks and tour guides, is required to undergo training prior to embarking on her or his day-to-day responsibilities. And in typical Disney fashion, the training process leaves nothing to chance, imparting knowledge not only about specific job skills and competencies but also, and perhaps more importantly, ensuring that every Cast Member has a thorough understanding of the Disney culture and traditions.

Thus, what is euphemistically called “Human Resources” at many organizations—which often views training as no more than an expensive but necessary evil—is given top priority in the Disney universe because Walt considered training an essential investment in the future of his Company.

Obviously, not every organization has access to the facilities and resources that comprise Disney University (Disney U), but every organization can adopt the attitude that underlies the Disney approach to training and developing its culture. In this chapter, we examine that attitude and help you distinguish between training that is purely perfunctory and the kind that will enable your employees to perform at their peak.

Training—Whose Responsibility Is It?

A few days before Disneyland was scheduled to open in 1955, a 12-year-old young man was working in the mailroom (at that time, child labor laws were not what they are today). He interrupted a meeting in Walt Disney’s office to deliver a package. He told Walt, “I have a confession to make. I really do not want to work in the mailroom. I wish you would consider me for the role of Tom Sawyer on Tom Sawyer’s Island, and the casting is tomorrow.”

Walt looked at the young man, turned to his vice president of casting and said, “This young man has red hair and freckles. He looks a little bit like Tom Sawyer. What do you think?”

So the vice president, taking the signal from his leader, hired the little boy as Tom Sawyer.

Two days after the Park’s opening, the vice president barged into Walt’s office to explain a situation. He said, “Do you remember that Tom Sawyer you hired? We have to fire him!”

Walt asked, “Why, what did he do?”

The vice president told him, “That young man has literally become Tom Sawyer.”

And Walt said, “Well, what’s wrong with that? Isn’t that why we hired him?”

The vice president explained, “Remember Mark Twain’s novel about Tom Sawyer? He has to prove to everyone that he is the toughest kid around. The kid is beating up all your guests. We have to fire him.”

Walt was so upset over a situation that he shooed everyone but the casting executive out of his office and closed the door. Walt said to the vice president, “You don’t understand what we are trying to do here,” to which the vice president replied, “No, apparently not.” Walt clarified, “That little boy is being the best Tom Sawyer he knows how to be. It’s our job to make him the best Tom Sawyer for Disney. Now, go do your job.”

The incident, which had been forgotten until it was recounted by the then-retired vice president at a celebration honoring the little red-headed boy for his 30 years of service to the Company, illustrates the underlying belief that led to the evolution of Disney University becoming a world-class training program. Because Walt Disney believed so strongly in the Company’s responsibility for training its Cast Members, students at Disney U now receive a complete orientation called Traditions, which includes an explanation of the Company’s values, traditions, and culture.

Once Traditions is over, Cast Members receive additional days of themed orientation for their specific locations and for their specific “roles” in the “show.” For example, during EPCOT’s Discovery Day, new hires learn about the importance of embracing all cultures and keeping abreast of new technology. They are immersed in Walt Disney’s original vision for the Park through a video that has long inspired the organization to continue evolving and growing.

The story of the red-headed boy suggests that Walt Disney understood the detrimental effects the sink-or-swim mentality can have on the workplace. Under this approach, which unfortunately is prevalent in far too many companies today, people are thrown into new jobs and left to discover the rip tides on their own—hopefully before they are dragged under by them. If someone is deemed worthy of being in your employ, why not take the time to pilot him or her through dangerous currents? After all, if you buy a $30,000 piece of equipment, you likely would follow the manufacturer’s break-in procedure.

Consider the situation in which an orientation program is the recommended break-in procedure for new employees. Drawing on the expertise of its veterans, Disney designates trainers in each department to oversee and guide the work of new Cast Members. Frontline Cast Members at Disney also serve as facilitators in most training sessions, sharing their on-the-job experiences with newcomers. Believing the adage that “to teach is to learn twice,” Disney thus accomplishes the dual goal of instructing new staffers while reinforcing Company values and traditions among old hands. Such contact with senior staffers also makes clear to new Cast Members that opportunities for advancement are available.

But perhaps the thing that most distinguishes the Disney training approach is its initial concentration on making each new Cast Member feel as if his or her efforts will make a real difference to the Company as a whole. When they are thoroughly grounded in what is expected of them and believe their organizational leaders have confidence in their abilities, new employees begin their jobs with an amazing degree of self-assurance. Consequently, they will perform their “roles” much better right from the start, increasing their value to both their employers and their customers or guests.

At a recent investor conference, Disney COO Tom Staggs, proclaimed, “Maintaining this culture of excellence across all the various disciplines required in our business is extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, for others to replicate. The Guest service orientation of our business does require a significant labor commitment, and operating labor comprises about a third of the segment’s cost base. But when so many of our Guests single out interaction with our Cast as the most important part of their visit, we know this continued investment is worth it.”

Excerpt from the expanded third edition of “THE DISNEY WAY: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company” by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson (McGraw-Hill; April, 2016). For more information, visit http://capojac.com/

Bill Capodagli co-founded Capodagli Jackson Consulting in 1993, and has since become one of the most requested keynote speakers on the corporate cultures of both Disney and Pixar. He is also an expert on customer-centric culture transformations in which he guides leaders to adopt Walt Disney’s timeless success credo.

Lynn Jackson is a co-founder of Capodagli Jackson Consulting and has been helping leaders and teams to embrace the principles of Disney and Pixar for more than 20 years. She holds an M.S. degree in organizational development and instructional systems technology, and develops workshops based upon Walt Disney’s Dream, Believe, Dare, Do principles.