Building and reinforcing a strong, positive corporate culture is a keystone of Disney’s success in Cast engagement and Guest happiness.
 
From the moment that Cast Members apply with the Company, they are greeted with reminders of Walt’s vision that continue long into their employment, reminding them and inspiring them to uphold the culture. This is intentional, and drives a trickle-effect that Guests notice.
 
Earlier this week, we discussed three values for culture change, the Disney way. You learned to keep it simple, by leaving room for individuality, make it global, and encourage all levels to buy in, and to make it measurable, by creating specific guidelines that can be assessed.
 
There are, however, three more values that we uphold at the Company, to ensure that culture is made a constant priority:
 
4. Provide training and coaching. Incorporate the elements of the culture into employee training and ongoing performance coaching. Encourage peer-to-peer coaching.
5. Solicit feedback and ideas from the team. Foster a sense of ownership, and expand the pool of creative input by allowing employees to contribute to the show.
6. Recognize and reward performance. Build employee motivation through formal and informal reward and recognition programs.
 
Using these values, we coach each other to live by the mission that Walt laid before us—and Guests notice. Our intentional culture-reinforcement is what encourages Cast Members to go above-and-beyond for Guests, and inspires us all to remember Walt’s vision.
 
Consider your company culture—are there ways that you can reinforce it? Start with your hiring process and think about every touch point that candidates have with your brand. Each step in the process is an opportunity to demonstrate your culture. How can you improve it?