The second greatest human fear

Most people know this, the second greatest human fear is the fear of death.

What’s the top human fear?

The only thing scarier than dying is public speaking.

So yeah, no, i never wanted to be a public speaker.

No dream.

No wish.

Not even a remote thought that just randomly came and went.

No desire nor interest ever happened before the day Carol called.

After that, the idea of being a Disney professional speaker consumed my thinking.

Like a broken record, i kept repeating the same question over and over, “Why me?”

Never thought about becoming a Disney Organizational Vibrancy expert.

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You’ve got the wrong Jeff

It was a typical day at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.

Busy.

Crazy busy, you could say.

In the Main Building, the Concierge Building, The Disney Company’s highest level of service, for any of our Resorts worldwide, was delivered exclusively here.

When it’s all you know, and all 1,400 Cast Members (including 100 leaders) have the same understanding of and commitment to the Disney Mission, you adapt and thrive in spite of the relentless pressure to be excellent with every breath you take.

So when the phone rang, i didn’t have time to answer it, and all the back office phones are internal numbers, so i knew it was a Cast Member.

i normally let internal calls go to voice mail on a super busy day, because if it’s urgent, they can page me – this was 1998, in the pre-mobile phone era.

“May I speak with Jeff please, this is Carol from Disney Institute.”

“This is Jeff?”

“I need to schedule a lunch meeting with Steve Heise.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’ve got the wrong Jeff.”

“You’re Jeff Noel, right?

“Yes. But i have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Carol said she’d investigate and call me back.

Sometime later we spoke again, and she proceeded to share how my first Disney Supervisor, Neal McCord, had lunch with a Disney Institute (DI) hiring manager and Neal recommended me as a potential speaker because of my 15 years of Disney Operations experience. DI was looking for someone with those exact credentials.

Steve Heise was the DI Director and he wanted to meet me.

i was so confused.

“Why me?”

All i could think about after Carol’s phone call was, “God must want me to become a preacher or a comedian, and i’ll need this public speaking experience.”

rethink, reprioritize, recommit your Business Chain of Excellence beliefs

Where do we begin when we are fed up with the past and dissatisfied with our inability to break through the everyday business excellence grind?

Cliche, but what about keeping it simple?

The ultimate sophistication is simplicity.

What’s first?

Three steps.

In prioritized order:

1. rethink
2. reprioritize
3. recommit

Great leaders never underestimate the power of being clear, concise, and compelling.

Life and work are too complex to try to lead without clarity around the most important issues.

Life and work are too complicated to achieve organizational vibrancy without irrefutable priorities.

Life and work are too intense to ever show up without world-class Organizational Vibrancy commitment.

There’s no room for average business chain of excellence at Disney

None.

Zero.

It’s a crying shame, isn’t it?

Because you’ll never know.

Never know what might have been.

Never know how effective your impact could have been.

Never lived up to the hopes your leaders had for you.

Never lived up to the hopes you had for yourself.

Satisfaction is dangerous.

They say only the mediocre are at their best every day.

The antidote is obvious.

Seek out timeless Organizational Vibrancy wisdom.

Embrace simple, profound, industry-neutral Cultural Vibrancy insights.

Begin today to rethink, reprioritize, and recommit your time and effort.

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Detouring to wonder why

To wonder why?

Detour.

A different route to get somewhere; usually unplanned, unexpected, often scary and inconvenient.

What if we detoured in our journey to understand, and practice, the world-class, Organizational Vibrancy key drivers required to become and stay a remarkably successful business enterprise?

The “what if” usually has an ending sounding like this, “I’ll never know?”

Why?

Because it’s safer, more convenient, and easier to manage the unexpected and unplanned if we just get back to the job at hand, which is to maintain the current level of operational efficiency.

It’s Not The Business Excellence Magic That Makes It Work

It’s the hard Disney Organizational Vibrancy work that makes it Magic.

It comes down to being focused and disciplined.

1. Focused on the basics.
2. Disciplined to never take our focus off the basics.

Seems ridiculously simple right?

It is.

Remember, though; simple doesn’t mean easy.

If focus and discipline were easy, we’d all be outdistancing ourselves from our competition and achieving “the impossible”, competitive immunity.

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Disney’s Single Biggest Business Excellence Secret Revealed

Disney over-focuses on the same things other businesses under-focus on or ignore

Disney’s Organizational Vibrancy banks on being intentional where others are unintentional.

This is the key to Disney’s long-term success.

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The Five World Class Business Excellence Basics, Disney Style

1. Leaders
2. Employees
3. Customers
4. Reputation
5. Improve

Never get bored with the basics.

Focus and discipline.

Excellence.

Exceeding expectations.

All day.

Every day.

Never be satisfied.

The road to excellence has no finish line.

If the Business Chain of Excellence, Disney Style, doesn’t make perfect sense, nothing i say will matter

When you believe in something all the way, no convincing is necessary. When you don’t, no amount of convincing will be enough.

If what Disney Organizational Vibrancy does, how we do it, and why we do it doesn’t make perfect sense, no amount of my content will ever be enough to convince you.

The good news?

It’s not worth it for either of us to convince the other of anything different.

There’s irrefutable evidence in the form of historical Customer and Employee loyalty that needs no defense.

That said, may you and your business endeavors bring you the personal vibrancy and organizational vibrancy every great leader dreams of.

Ps. In the off chance, you’re feeling compelled to take a risk, the worst that will happen is you’ll have lost an hour of your life to “what might have been.”

An hour.

Two 30-minute “Big Bang Theory” reruns. Almost makes the chance seem worth it, no?

The Why of Disney’s Business Chain of Excellence

Why does Disney focus on the positive ripple effect driven by great leadership?

Here’s how easy the answer is; if you could only pick one of these two, which would you pick?

1. A team of good and very good leaders.
2. A team of excellent leaders.

Sometimes, the answer is that obvious.

Why does Disney focus on employee engagement?

Here’s how easy the answer is; if you could only pick one of these two, which would you pick?

1. An employee culture architected by design.
2. An employee culture that happens by default.

Sometimes, the answer is that obvious.

Why does Disney focus on delivering world-class customer service?

Here’s how easy the answer is; if you could only pick one of these two, which would you pick?

1. Consistently exceeding customer expectations at every touchpoint.
2. Focusing on meeting customer expectations and occasionally exceeding expectations.

Sometimes, the answer is that obvious.

Why does Disney focus on creating powerful and lasting emotional connections?

Here’s how easy the answer is; if you could only pick one of these two, which would you pick?

1. A legendary customer service culture reputation every employee believes is worth defending.
2. A customer service culture that can never seem to go from good to world-class.

Sometimes, the answer is that obvious.

Why does Disney focus on continuously improving it’s products and expanding it’s offerings?

Here’s how easy the answer is; if you could only pick one of these three, which would you pick?

1. Stay with the industry pack.
2. Lead the category.
3. Become the category.

Sometimes, the answer is that obvious.