What Disney World’s New Ride Can Teach Us About Compromise
On social media last week, a disappointed guest visiting Disney World shared a photo of steel-clad walls that now comprise the new Ratatouille ride in Epcot’s France World Showcase pavilion. A photo of steel-clad walls should be otherwise unceremonious; however, the photo showed the backside of the ride. In other words, the guest was able to clearly photograph the “backstage” area of the renowned theme park, something Disney has always been masterful at covering up.
For example, when Imagineers first constructed the Haunted Mansion, they quickly realized it was impossible to fit a large-scale attraction inside the confines of a Victorian mansion. So, they reinvented ride mechanics and hid a massive space out of the park visitor’s eye to create the illusion that guests were always within the confines of the visible mansion. It was all part of Disney magic; maintaining the illusion of the impossible was insisted upon by Walt himself.
The magic – or in real terms, the creative engineering – is what keeps guests coming back year after year. Walt knew he had a successful business model if every customer left the park asking themselves, “how did they do that?!” It meant they’d come back, and more than once if they were able to stump the guest with new material every visit. Magic, along with masterful storytelling, was the secret ingredient of the Disney theme park business model.
Disney’s parks were hit hard by the pandemic, not unlike the scores of other organizations that rely upon in-person patronage. As such, they had to find ways to make ends meet. They laid off scores of staff, they ended some popular guest perks, they shortened park hours, and as evidenced by the disappointed guest’s social media post, they apparently compromised on Disney magic by showing guests part of the recipe for their new attraction.
When pressed in challenging times, compromise is all but essential for survival. It’s like a sailboat that suddenly becomes too heavy in a storm: what items do you throw overboard? Businesses will always have to make difficult choices as the tides of hardship ebb and flow. They should reflect, through active inquiry, on the compromises they are willing to make. But equally important – perhaps even more so – businesses should also reflect on the compromises they are unwilling to make.
Revealing “backstage” for excited guests eager to try a new ride is concerning for Disney parks. Compromising on extra guest hours in the Magic Kingdom is one thing but removing magic – your signature ingredient – from the guest experience has the potential to drive guests elsewhere when planning their next vacation.
Businesses can learn from Disney’s misstep. By engaging in the Think Talk Create process, they can not only identify and reinforce whatever their version of magic may be, but they will have also identified the compromise they are unwilling to make when times get tough.
That way, if you brand yourself as the place “where dreams come true,” you’ll be able to deliver on that promise for generations to come.
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Co-authored by David Brendel and Ryan Stelzer, Think Talk Create: Building Workplaces Fit for Humans was published by the Hachette Book Group under the PublicAffairs imprint on September 21, 2021. Now available to order!
