Trip Background
First, I'll warn you that there'll be a couple "I told you this, to tell you that" scenarios here. A little wordier of a background story than normal for me, but I promise, I'm trying to get to the point asap.
Like most of you, we are pretty much a Disney family… To get her doses of the magic, Stephanie regularly listens to Disney related podcasts when she's working in the kitchen and doing household chores.
Some of her favorites include:
A while back, Stephanie was listening to a Lou Mongello (WDW Radio) podcast where he interviewed Lee Cockerell, retired Executive Vice President of Disney World Operations.
(Link to show.) She really liked what Lee had to say, so she read his book, "Creating Magic - 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies From A Life At Disney - Based on the principles taught at the renowned Disney Institute." (Yeah, that's mouthful.) Stephanie is such an avid reader, that I really keep up with what she's reading… and I had no idea that she had read this book.
Anyway…
I'm an IT Manager and I'm actively participating in some company-wide strategic planning initiatives at work. Last summer, I mentioned some of the challenges that we are facing, and Stephanie suggested that I read Lee's Creating Magic book. I was skeptical at first, "How could a Disney book apply to what I’m doing?" I reluctantly followed her recommendation, and it turned out to be a tremendous help! Like in a major way. I was floored by it. After I finished it, I gave it to my boss and he loved it too. He gave it to our HR Director. Not sure what she did with it, but I hope she's since passed it on to someone else.
And who's Lee Cockerell again?
If you aren't already familiar Lee, then here's a blurb from his bio on
www.leecockerell.com:
Lee Cockerell is the former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World Resort. "As the Senior Operating Executive for ten years Lee led a team of 40,000 Cast Members and was responsible for the operations of 20 resort hotels, 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, a shopping & entertainment village and the ESPN sports and recreation complex in addition to the ancillary operations which supported the number one vacation destination in the world."
Lee worked at WDW from 1993 to 2006, and before that he was a VP at
Disneyland Paris from 1990 to 1993. He had a HUGE impact on making WDW great in the late 90's and early 00's. And much of the magic that we've all experienced as guests in the last 20 some odd years can be attributed to the policies and procedures that he put in place. I think he's most known for his "Disney Great Leader Strategies", which was used to train leaders at WDW. Since his retirement, he writes books, speaks on leadership, management, and customer service, and creates an awesome weekly podcast.
So yeah, I read Lee's Creating Magic book and LOVED it. You really should consider reading it too! It's great, even if you aren't a leader in business, you'll still find all kinds of useful tips that you can apply to your own life. And as a Disney fan, you'll find it interesting to see that many of our "magical moments" aren't really random at all. They are formally a part of the strategy where cast members are encouraged, even expected, to make magic happen. He explains that many of the topics in the book are explored in more detail in Disney Institute training courses, and he highly recommends them.
OK. Told you all that, to tell you this…
Last fall, I was comparing notes on the book with my boss and I said to him, "Wouldn't it be awesome to attend one of the Disney Institute training courses that Lee recommends in his book?" My boss said something along the lines of, "Yeah, that would be great. Let's budget for it and see what happens." I'm excited to say that it was approved.
If you are unfamiliar with the Disney Institute, here's the one liner from their website, "As one of the most recognized names in professional development, Disney Institute provides professionals from the private, public, and social sectors worldwide an opportunity to experience courses grounded in the time-tested success and insights from The Walt Disney Company." (They also do custom consulting too.) From an individual perspective, they focus on leadership, employee engagement, and customer service topics… with various courses on each . In addition to classroom training, they often take you behind the scenes to interact with cast members and see the ideas in action. (Now that I have firsthand experience, I can say that this is just too cool!)
My particular course, Disney's Approach to Leadership Excellence, was a four day class held at the Boardwalk Inn. Once, I got everything locked and loaded with the course registration, it was time to decide if Stephanie wanted to tag along. (No brainer for her, actually.)
The only thing was, we are going to Hawaii later this month and all of our vacation allowance was earmarked for that trip. As a result, we needed to do this on the cheap. I was able to drive instead of fly, so this meant that Stephanie could tag along without adding any costs to our personal budget. We'd only need to pay for her meals and any activities. She planned to not purchase park tickets and wanted to spend her four days exploring the resorts. That still sounds like a lot of fun!
And finally, getting to the family aspect portion of the trip…
"Hey kids… we wanted to let you know that mom and dad are going to Orlando for some Disney training at the end of May. You'll be staying with your grandparents while we are away." Of course they responded, "That's not fair. Why can't we come too?" And we replied, "Well, we aren't actually visiting the theme parks. There just isn't money in the budget for it since we are already going to Hawaii this summer. Plus… Mom will be exploring resorts and stuff, which you guys have had no interest in doing with us in the past. And I'll be in classes all day." We received something like the following in return, "Well…. in that case, OK, I guess. But still, no fair." And I replied, "Hey, just remember that you'll get a dose of Disney when we visit Aulani in June."
And then we started feeling guilty about doing all this without the kids. Hmmm… our youngest hasn't been to WDW as much as the older two. (Most of her WDW trips were when she was little.) That's not fair to her, right? Oh, and she turns 9 in June. This is our last chance to get her in at kid prices. True. And wait, the Boardwalk Inn actually sleeps five. That's a rarity in Disney hotels. It might be good to capitalize on this opportunity. Oh, and we are driving instead of flying, so there's no extra costs there. And finally, remember those discounted park tickets? Those are really a great deal. Almost too good. At this point, we'd be foolish and irresponsible not to take the kids right? (Following TheMaxRebo's line of thinking from one of his trip reports.
http://www.disboards.com/threads/wa...gust-14-pre-trip-report-updated-8-24.3241418/ ) OK. OK. I guess we could raid the rainy day fund just enough to make this happen. We gotta eat on the cheap though, no table service meals, limited soft drinks, souvenirs, etc. Right! We can do this!!!!
The fun thing is, we let the kids believe that we'd be going without them. Which is what they thought was happening until we drove past the exit to Grandma's….
Such a cool opportunity and I look forward to applying what I learned to my daily responsibilities at work.
