August 19, 2009 – Day 3
When I heard that the Disney Institute was going to take us through new employee orientation (called “Traditions”), I was skeptical. I’ve been in the HR field for over 15 years. I’ve participated in and facilitated countless orientation programs and I was not looking forward to this.
Surprisingly, I saw something done that I have not seen before and it was brilliant.
Our pre-work was to choose a position within Disney where we would like to work and pretend that we were new employees. At the very beginning of the program, before we got into any content, our Traditions facilitator asked us a question: “What was your very first experience with Disney?” For me it was seeing Bambi and Sleeping Beauty as a little girl. I remembered crying when Bambi’s mother died. I remembered feeling so happy that Sleeping Beauty had fairy godmothers who would protect her and help her find her prince. What was your first experience with Disney? Do you have one in your mind? Now imagine a room full of 40+ people telling their first Disney experiences. We heard dads talk about how their fathers took them to Disney World and how special it was. We heard about people who watched the Mickey Mouse Club back in the black and white days. People were emotional and a couple of them even cried because of wonderful Disney memories with family who have passed on. By the end of this exercise, you could almost see the pixie dust floating in the room. Most of us were taken to a happy, special moment in time. I looked around and it dawned on me what Disney was doing. What do you think it was?
They were making a powerful, positive, emotional connection with their new employees.
Why was this important? Because Disney recognizes that if they want loyal employees, they need to get their employees emotionally invested in the company as quickly as possible. This is one of Disney’s retention strategies and guess what? It is also branding.
How Can Business Owners Brand Like Disney?
Your job as a business owner is to get your customers emotionally invested in your product/services immediately. Granted, you’re not Disney and you may not have the depth and breadth of fantastic family or childhood memories that Disney creates. But, you do have a story.
Just as I wondered whether or not this exercise was accidental or purposeful, one of the facilitators quoted Erin Wallace, Disney’s SVP of Operations “Our goal is to turn a rational commitment into an emotional commitment.”
What does this mean to you?
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Very fascinating. How do can companies not as well known as Disney create the same emotional connection during orientation?
Great question Linda and it’s a question I asked myself throughout the 5 day program. I believe that every company has a story, a reason for existing. When a company is able to articulate this, they are able to create a sense of pride and commitment from their new hires.
This idea also goes beyond orientation to customer experience. Do our customers know our stories? Are they emotionally tied to our products or services?