Once Upon A Time: Chain Of Excellence Prologue

Mountain wilderness

Once Upon A Time: Chain Of Excellence Prologue

In a world full of cookie cutters, Walt Disney was a craftsman.

In a world full of complexity, Disney works hard to simplify its key, repeatable messages.

We live in a world where every answer is a click away, and yet common sense isn’t so common.

Here’s common sense at it’s finest:

Leaders impact the employee experience; employees impact the customer experience; customers affect the financial experience; creativity is the DNA for continuous improvement at every stage.

Disney’s Business Chain of Excellence: Leaders -> Employees -> Customers -> Business Loyalty -> Creativity & Innovation.

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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HOME, click here.

Business Excellence Next Steps Activity

Business Excellence Next Steps Activity

Strike while the iron is hot. Iron is easily malleable when hot, and impossible to shape when not. 

Now (yes, right now) is the time to write down some important, top-of-mind business excellence thoughts.

Make a few lists and don’t fuss over minute details – this is high-level, very rough-draft thinking. Have fun, and don’t over-analyze. This should be quick:

Who (whom should you involve):

What (what needs to be done):

Where (where will the work occur):

When (when will the work happen):

How (how will the work be accomplished):

Why (why is this important; what’s to be gained by doing it, what’s to be lost by doing nothing):

How’d that feel?

Have you perceived what’s happened in the past few minutes?

You’ve just started planting, on paper, the seeds of intentional business excellence behavior that will facilitate the slow and steady path forward to business excellence transformation.

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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HOME, click here.

Disconnect From Hope And Enthusiasm

Disconnect From Hope And Enthusiasm

Hope is a great strategy, but a poor tactic.

Actions speak louder than thoughts and words.

We judge ourselves on our intentions, others judge us on our behaviors.

That last sentence is the single most important personal leadership insight in this book.

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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HOME, click here.

The Best Business Excellence Analogy I Can Make

The Best Business Excellence Analogy I Can Make

You improve one of the five Organizational Vibrancy pillars, the other four benefit.

You neglect one of the five Organizational Vibrancy pillars, the other four suffer.

Now, improve two. Or improve three. What if you improve four? The fifth pillar stands no chance at remaining average.

Now neglect two. Yikes! Or neglect three. What if you neglect four? The fifth pillar literally becomes invisible, a non-entity.

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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HOME, click here.

Forward & Acknowledgements

Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary began October 1, 2021. Departed Glacier for Walt Disney World on October 5.

Forward & Acknowledgements

Forward:

Keep moving forward. – Walt Disney

The road to excellence has no finish line.

Acknowledgements:

  • Personal
    • My wife who served 36 years as a Disney HR executive.
    • Our son who serves as a reality check for prioritized priorities.
  • Professional
    • The Walt Disney College program for recruiting at West Chester State College in 1981.
    • Lorraine and Judy, the 1981 Disney College Recruiters who interviewed me and gave a thumbs up.
    • Thom Murphy, an unofficial Disney legend who modeled world-class Cast service in 1982.
    • Neal McCord for recommending me to Mary Witt at Disney Institute (DI).
    • Dick Nunis (Chairman of Walt Disney Attractions) for always and with conviction, honoring and putting the entire Cast on a pedestal.
    • Judson Green, Dick Nunis’s successor as Chairman of Walt Disney Attractions, for envisioning and implementing Performance Excellence (PE) in the early 1990’s. PE is the single greatest cultural improvement i experienced in 30 years at Disney.
    • George Kalogridis for demonstrating Disney Leadership development and front line Cast Member development.
    • Lee Cockerell for keeping Performance Excellence alive with his creation of Disney’s 10 Great Leadership Strategies.
    • Richard Parks for asking me about the solo cross-country bicycle tour during the Disney Institute panel interview. His question and my answer was the key to being selected.
    • Guy Smith for teaching me facilitation every time we were together.
    • David Mulvey for teaching me how to do free-style co-facilitation in 2001.
    • Wayne Gagne, my leader in 2007, for telling me in a one-on-one meeting, “Not everyone on the (DI) Executive Team likes you. When we are in meetings, zip it.
    • JB Adams for challenging my thinking for clarity, conviction, and breakthroughs.
    • Dennis Frare (whom i nick-named ‘Dr. Feelgood’) for his remarkable enthusiasm for me pushing the limits in a relentless pursuit to improve content usefulness.
    • Walt Disney for proving that crazy minds and high bars can be a gift to our world.

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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HOME, click here.