POOP AND PIXIE-DUST

Walt Disney World required newly hired employees to attend an orientation full of magical pixie-dust. Custodial new hires were awed by the program. They cleft thinking their job was to talk to guests all day long. No one told them that they would also have to empty trash, watch for sharps, and clean up vomit and poop.  Disillusionment came quick. Thirty day turnover was in the 40% range. The challenge was to bridge the gap between the magical and disgusting. Lenn injected a feeling of whimsy into the custodial-specific training. The re-themeing started with a cartoon montage demonstrating how guests expected everything to be cleaned magically (with magic being employed, songs being sung, and animals chipping in). The trainees then went to an employee break area to identify items to be cleaned. The trainer then made the point that magic is hard, and that all of these new employees should be honored to be the magic makers. As a segue, the trainer then stated, “For the rest of this training, we will help you learn how to make disgusting items go away, as if by magic.” The trainees were then led back into the training room were a beautiful smorgasbord of plastic spilled drinks and popcorn, melted ice cream, sharps, fake pee puddles, vomit and poop were displayed. The resulting training program was a light transition from magic to nasty. It resulted in trainees who knew what was expected of them and and how those expectations delivered magic. Most importantly, thirty-day turnover dropped to 20%.