Mickey Mouse Motivates

Behind the magic, the sparkle, all the fantasy, fireworks, adventure, and discovery is one of the most impressive showcases of management you will ever see run by a mouse. Recently, I had the privilege of looking behind the magic curtain to travel underground to Mickey’s domain and invade the infamous “Small World” of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. There I learned some valuable principles of management that Mickey Mouse and his entire cast live by.

Walt Disney World strives to understand the kind of people that they are servicing. The bottom line of Disney World’s success is management by story telling. People’s lives are stories, the things they say, and the lives they live. Disney says that success is achieved by successful relationships with people. To establish a good relationship with someone is to understand his story.

Disney World puts its people through a management-training program that consists of telling stories. They tell stories about the people that epitomize those who are their guests. For example, consider the trainee who will be in charge of Dumbo the Flying Elephant. He is not only trained in how to operate Dumbo, but also about the people who are going to ride it. He learns about the little boy who has leukemia and his last wish is to somehow get to ride Dumbo the Flying Elephant. Now when the operator sees a little kid in line, he doesn’t think about operating the ride, he thinks about the little boy with leukemia whose dream is to ride Dumbo the Flying Elephant.

The secret of Disney World is not the methodological and the mechanical; the secret is the people and their spirit on the inside that makes Disney World’s mission important.

I have found that our personal success lies in stories as well. True success is to live our story and enable others to live theirs. We should all have some stories to tell in our companies, our churches, our synagogues and our families. We should also be stories in progress. By the way, thanks for reading my story about Disney and welcome to my stories about life. I have discovered that illustration is more personal than instruction. Stories make the instruction personal and therefore powerful. Humor moistens the needle. It lowers the defenses. So most of these stories are jokes. They’re really jokeries (combines stories and jokes). Since people have told me most of them, forgive me if I tell one of your jokes and I will give you permission to tell some of mine. I hope you find yourself going from “ha ha” to “hummmm and from hummmm to aha”. Be careful, these jokeries could change your life.

http://www.freecomicbelief.com