Training Magazine - July 2008 - (Page 26)

★TALENT MANAGEMENT ISSUE★ We’re ﬂexible. Keys to the Kingdom, PART 1 At Element K, we use the word “or” a lot. DISNEY INSTITUTE ATTENDEES FOUND OUT THEY HAVE LOTS IN COMMON WITH EACH OTHER AND DISNEY. Flexible business models. Select a subscription plan, or a usage plan, or a combination of both. You choose a model that ﬁts your business needs. Flexible content. Choose content collections from Element K, or premier providers including Harvard Business Publishing and Safari Books Online, or both. Engage us to develop new courses or use our authoring tool to develop your own. Flexible delivery. Deploy our e-Learning courses, or our printed courseware designed for the classroom, or use our blueprints to blend them. Add online reference materials or vLabs to enhance the learning experience. If you’re with SkillSoft or another e-Learning provider, consider switching to Element K. We give new meaning to the word, “ﬂexibility”. delivery, Pearsall explained.“We’re trained to want to exceed your expectations,” she said.“We try to get all the little things during your day 1 percent better,” she noted. “Sometimes we make something 10 percent better, but it’s more likely it’s just a little ‘wow.’’” That night, as we did throughout the program, we saw Disney service in action. We were taken to “Norway” in Epcot, followed by a viewing of the Illuminations fireworks display. Luckily, we were back to our hotel fairly early since we were expected back in the Grand Republic Ballroom by 7:30 the next morning. DAY TWO After breakfast, we reviewed the multifaceted nature of customer service, which Brock compared to snowflakes. We each have individualized service needs, or our own customer service snowflake. For that reason, Disney empowers its employees to use their judgment to deliver what they perceive as the right service for each guest. The company also listens to what they have to say. In addition to customer surveys and regular viewing of Disney blogs, the company asks supervisors to hold meetings before every shift to review the day’s schedule, award recognition to deserving workers, and ask if there are any thoughts or ideas any would like to share. This process is formalized on a much more extensive scale through an annual employee attitude survey. With that in mind, we were given headsets to transmit the sound of our tour 1.800.434.3466 www.elementk.com © 2008 Element K Corporation guide’s voice, boarded shuttle buses, and headed to the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World’s primary park. As we walked the grounds, past famed rides such as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain, Matheson, my tour group’s guide, gave us an example of a frontline employee-driven initiative. Hating to turn children away from rides because they don’t make the 40-inch height requirement, employees working one such safety checkpoint pitched the idea of an alternative ride, playgroundlike, and filled with small tunnels that only children under 40 inches would be allowed to use. In addition to access to this alternative ride, these children would be given a certificate autographed by Mickey that when they reach 40 inches, they will be allowed to go to the front of the line of the ride they’re now too small to be given access to. The feelings of small children are spared, and when they reach the required height, they remind their parents it’s time to go to Disney to use their special certificate. Successfully implemented, Matheson said that’s just one example of the innovation of frontline workers generating “repeat business” at the park. We made our way down “Main Street, USA,” an area of the park designed to recreate the look and feel of an idealized 1800s-era American street, with Matheson saying hello to fellow employees, whose titles she’s as likely as not to forget. This, like everything at Disney—such as the trashcans placed precisely 26 paces apart (research indicating that’s how long guests w w w. t r a i n i n g m a g . c o m 26 | JULY / AUGUST 2008 t r a i n i n g http://www.elementk.com http://www.elementk.com http://www.trainingmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Training Magazine - July 2008

Training Magazine - July 2008 Contents Online TOC Editor’s Note Training Today Soapbox How-To World View Managing the Magic Keys to the Kingdom Good Job! Personalities & Performance Hidden Potential The Executive Entrance Live & Online No More Revolving Door Questions for Covey TMI Brochure

Training Magazine - July 2008

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