Employee Engagement time out, Disney-Style

Four world-class employee engagement basics i learned from 30 years at Disney.

Do the basics brilliantly.

Never get bored with the engagement basics.

Hire, train, inspire, care.

Bonus: History, customs, icons, values.

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Employees

Let’s review the suggested cultural blueprints implementation plan.

The Building owner is the CEO.

Deliverables from Leader Champions are shell, walls, roof.

Critical note: History, customs, icons, and values are deeply integrated into the primary Human Resources processes: Hire, Train (orientation, On-The-Job, On-Going), Inspire Daily Communications to every employee), Value (Support and Recognition).

History: Founder’s Story. History, milestones, highs and lows, acquisitions.

Customs: Behaviors, traditions. The cultural behaviors that you are proud of and maybe even famous for. The traditions that continue to this day; how they came to be and why, and what they mean to today’s workforce.

Icons: Images, words, phrases, acronyms, quotes. Harvest and harness the power of language and symbols, from the founder(s) to today.

Values: Internal. Core, foundational values for how employees treat each other. This is invisible to the customers.

All collaborative efforts by executive leaders and the cross-functional teams should revolve around simple, focused, energetic, creative, visionary, and scalable outcomes – blueprints for an organizationally vibrant culture.

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How to execute next steps to convert theory into reality

Big picture involvement:

Five foundational ownership tracts; 19 total blueprints.

One owner of everything, the CEO.

Up to ten Champions selected from CEO Cabinet; two Champions for each of the five ownership tracts (Leaders, Employees, Customers, Reputation, Improve). Some Cabinet members may be responsible for two ownership tracts.

Ten assistant champions selected from your best, most passionate leaders in Human Resources, Labor Relations, Employee Relations, Compliance, Employment, Marketing, Public Relations, Communications. Assistant Champions should only focus on one ownership tract.

From 15-30 advocate teams selected from every employee, at every level, in every department. This is three to five team advocates per ownership tract.

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Owner

• CEO

Champions

• C-Level Executive (always have two, to solve for unexpected absences)
• Provides vision, inspiration, commitment

Assistant Champions

• Cross-functional pair from Human Resources, Labor Relations, Employee Relations, Compliance, Employment, Marketing, Public Relations, Communications.
• Always have two, to solve for unexpected absences
• Provides involvement, accountability, commitment
• For unexpected absences, always be grooming the replacement from the Advocate Team.

Advocate Teams

• Created from any employee, at any level, in every department
• 3-6 total per team recommended
• Cross-functional
• Provides energy, enthusiasm, effort, commitment

Final blueprint

• Create action steps
• Review, organize notes
• Create plan
• Discuss
• Summarize
• Create final blueprint
• Present to CEO and Cabinet

Develop and deliver campaign

• Goals/deliverables
• Assign roles
• Timeline
• Accountability

Misc

• Manage project scope creep
• Prepare contingency plans for project disruptions
• Always be grooming replacement/succession

Continuous Improvement

• Manage health of all teams
• Grow team bench
• Measure
• Celebrate
• Share
• Historian documents growth, change, transformation

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This website is about our BODY. To read today’s post about our SPIRIT, click here.

Cultural Transformation Next Steps after Executive engagement (2-days with 19 cultural blueprints)

Traditional blueprint assignments:

Leaders: CEO, Human Resources, Labor Relations, Employee Relations; one of these four owns total responsibility.

Employees: HR & Marketing (Employment, Training & Development, Communications, Recognition)

Customers: CCO (Chief Customer Officer), HR (Orientation, OJT, Ongoing Training)

Reputation: HR (Training) Marketing & PR (Communications)

Improve: CEO, HR, Marketing

Notes:
We started with senior leadership because you are the most connected and experienced with the organization’s strategy. You know things no other levels know.

Recommend creating a corporate Historian (including video/photo library) to work with and assist all other areas to make key links and connections to the founder’s story, heritage & traditions, traits and behaviors, language and symbols, and shared values.

The most natural things to feel about uncharted territory: doubt, fear, anxiety, confusion, excitement, joy, relief, hope, motivation.

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This website is about our BODY. To read today’s post about our SPIRIT, click here.

EMPLOYEES (shell, walls, roof)

5. (History) Full-blown founder’s story capturing the organizational DNA (and an historian identified)
6. (Customs) Long list of company heritage as well as traditions (ongoing historical management)
7. (Icons) Comprehensive guide to corporate language, symbols, phrases, tag lines, etc (ongoing historical mgmt)
8. (Values) Categorize unique traits & behaviors your culture is famous for.
EMPLOYEES: Deep and broad integration with your 4 HR practices: Hire, Train, Inspire, Value.

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This website is about our BODY. To read today’s post about our SPIRIT, click here.