Page 176 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Practice, Practice, Practice 157

for new-found needs. The language has to become like a habit, an involuntary
reaction, before the student will be fully comfortable with it, but that won’t
happen until she or he has practiced, and then practiced some more.
Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do . . . excellence, then, is not
57
an act, but a habit.” If this is so, organizations that wish to pursue superior
performance at all levels must work to ensure that the characteristics that
define excellence are practiced, and then practiced some more, until they,
too, become an involuntary reaction.
We believe that proper habits grow from obtaining knowledge, attitude,
and skills. Knowledge is understanding what, how, and why we need to do
something. Skill is applying that knowledge in a practical situation. Attitude
is the desire to transform our knowledge into skills and, ultimately, into a
habit. A company that claims the corporate value of excellence must there-
fore establish a specific ongoing process to transmit knowledge and, in turn,
improve employees’ skills and attitudes.
But for such an effort to produce the desired results, a company must
understand that the customer drives the process. Many times, we have encoun-
tered training programs for which an organization’s human resources depart-
ment has developed extensive in-depth material that neglects to mention the
importance of the external customer. Employees are trained to refine their
own skills and perhaps to take care of the needs of internal customers, but the
raison d’être, the external customer who provides the revenues that support the
company’s existence, is ignored.
Knowledge of customer needs and expectations can be taught, but not
attitude or motivation. These elements are transmitted through the behavioral
patterns of employees and are part of the values and sense of mission that per-
vade the workplace. In fact, Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl defines attitude
58
as “our response to what we have experienced.” The process is summarized
in Figure 8-3. That is why employee training becomes far more effective when
old-timers, who can become role models as well as instructors, are involved.

STIMULUS FREEDOM
to CHOOSE
Attitude
• Vision • Imagination
Proactive
• Mission • Values Response
• Culture • Conscience
• Knowledge • Self-Image

Figure 8-3. Attitude