Developing a Disney Vision Is a Process That Sticks

Last week, a Disneyland employee told us about a new “Operations” division at the park. Normally, a corporate reorganization would rank right up there on the Interest Chart with monthly rainfall totals from Ecuador, but not this time.

A corporate memo included a “Vision” statement from a Disney official.

But not just any vision statement.

This was the Gettysburg Address of vision statements.

Intended for Disney employees, the memo’s scope and grandeur warrant a wider audience. Indeed, the employee noted that the rank-and-file greeted the memo with “total hysterics and awe.”

Who could blame them? Here, in its entirety, is the vision statement for the new streamlined Operations Division:

“Enable our cast to deliver a premier world-class guest experience by providing actionable business, financial and scheduling solutions in a growth environment through truth-seeking analytics, A-Z processes that stick, and targeted training materials and communication.”

I’m trying to imagine how a statement like that got crafted. Did it start off as a doodle, a sketch, notes on a cocktail napkin, a thought in the night?

More likely, a top Disney official asked an underling to draft a vision statement and to have it done by 3 o’clock. From there it probably went like this:

Boss (excitedly): Sock it to me. What’s our vision statement?

Underling: Show People a Good Time.

Boss (mouth drooping): Show People a Good Time? That’s our vision statement?

Underling (shifting weight nervously): Show People a Really Good Time?

Boss: I’m not sure you understand. I want a vision, not a bumper sticker. Inspire our people to greatness.

Underling: Maybe if you got me started--

Boss: OK, look out that window. What do you see?

Underling: Garden Grove.

Boss: No, I mean farther than that. Beyond the horizon. Don’t set limits. That’s what vision is. What do we want our people to do?

Underling: Help the company make a lot of money?

Boss (sighing): No, no. We want them to deliver a premier world-class guest experience.

Underling: Oh.

Boss: And how do we do that?

Underling: Uh, by coming to work a half-hour early and skipping lunch?

Boss (frustrated): You’re confusing policy with vision. No, we deliver the experience by providing solutions in a growth environment.

Underling: Solutions to what?

Boss: Solutions to problems, of course.

Underling: What kind of solutions?

Boss: Off the top of my head, I’d say actionable business, financial and scheduling solutions. In fact, write that down before I forget it.

Underling: I like the way you combined the “solutions” thing with the growth environment. I haven’t seen that done before.

Boss: But it’s still not all the way there, is it? It’s not a total vision, is it?

Underling: No, sir. It sounds incomplete.

Boss: We can’t just tantalize people with talk of solutions. That sounds like something our competition would do.

Underling: With all due respect, sir, I doubt our competition would have the foresight to get even this far with a statement.

Boss (chuckling): That’s what separates us from everybody else. We need ways--powerfully stated ways--to arrive at solutions. I could probably come up with 10 or 12, but, if only to maintain the rhythm of the statement, I wonder if we shouldn’t limit it to three.

Underling: Four would be too many. Two not enough. Three is perfect.

Boss (tapping pencil on desk): OK, so three ways to provide solutions in a growth environment. Any ideas?

Underling: How about something like, “provide solutions in a growth environment through daring, compassion and good old-fashioned horse sense?”

Boss: That leaves me a little cold.

Underling: It needs punching up.

Boss (scribbling furiously): Maybe something like, “through analytics, processes and materials and communication?”

Underling: Short, catchy.

Boss (impatiently): No poetry, though. Nothing to make people want to run through a wall. What if we jazzed it up to say, “truth-seeking analytics . . . A-Z processes that stick . . . and targeted training materials and communications?”

Underling: Uh-huh, that’s stronger. Fleshes it out a bit. What are truth-seeking analytics?

Boss: Analytics with heart.

Underling: And A-Z processes that stick. Stick to what?

Boss: Stick to everything.

Underling: I’d end the statement right there, sir. May I say that I don’t mean to sound obsequious, but I feel like I just watched Picasso paint.

Boss: You’re too kind. Anything else?

Underling: With the new vision statement, will we still have to come in early and skip lunch?

Boss: I’m afraid so.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com