When a CEO “gets caught picking up trash”, a buzz is created.
Why?
Because she’s setting such a great example, right?
Here’s my point (again), why would this ever become newsworthy? Isn’t the CEO always picking up trash? In my world, this should never astonish and inspire people.
Why?
Because everyone should be picking up trash all the time.
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i’m fascinated by what the general public accepts as legitimate, and the blurry lines between two similar looking things that are actually polar opposites.
Shared the above Facebook update yesterday, not realizing it was from Lou Mongelo.
i friend texted me asking if i know Lou – that’s when i doubled checked the source.
Thought it was written by a former Disney colleague.
This got me thinking.
Lou has carved out raving fans with his WDW Radio enterprise. Incredibly entrepreneurial and successful from a popularity metric.
He’s also venturing into the business side of Disney.
Here’s my aha, which is challenging to explain why it’s weird for me to hear non-experts stake a claim as an expert.
For 30 years, i picked up every speck of trash i passed as i covered thousands of miles across Disney property.
And in Disney retirement, the first couple times visiting the Parks, i was torn.
Do i continue to pick up trash?
i mean, as a Cast Member, there’s no way i could ever justify not picking up trash.
(Note: The exceptions are when you’re in the middle of an urgent Safety or critical Guest Courtesy situation.)
Has an expert, like Lou, spent a lifetime – 30 years – learning it, doing it, and teaching it to other Cast Members?
Do you know how challenging it is to get humans to pick up trash? Humans are never taught, ever, to pick up every speck of trash. We are taught the opposite – don’t litter.
So how do you create, and maintain, an “everyone at Disney picks up trash” cultural phenomenon?
There are only two things – i know them, and i’ve never heard anyone else frame it up the same way.
Only a lifetime insider-expert who has been trained and entrusted to teach “outsiders” how it works can share it with a “been-there-done-that certainty”.
PS. Looking for a part-time, contracted, Marketing expert. Call or text 407-538-4341
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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HQ, click here.
If you want to stay on this site and read more posts from this Blog, click here.
The companies that have the longest term employee and customer loyalty – like Disney and Apple – earn that admirable reputation because of their focus and discipline on the smallest details.
It’s baked into their hardware (like trash cans) and manifested in their software – their insanely helpful employees.
It’s rare, hence valuable.
The recipe is simple.
Be nice to everyone, all the time.
And the unspoken part is this – whether they feel like it or not.
An historical moment of truth…2009 Master’s World Championships…
Yesterday’s post, lying dormant for 18 months was cathartic to finally publish. The other option would have been to simply move it to ‘Trash’, never to be seen by anyone except in a foggy personal memory.
In leaving a trail for our young son, it hit me that a trail needs clues, cues, milestones, insights.
And right before hitting delete, I came up with a new title and hit ‘Post Publically’.