Mandy Gilbert

Cockerell, Lee. Creating Magic. New York: Doubleday, 2008. Print.

“Creating Magic”—The Disney Way

            “Creating Magic” by Lee Cockerell, the former Executive Vice President of Operations at Disney World, contains a series of values-based leadership strategies that can be used in any type of professional industry. These strategies focus on the people that comprise a company. A product or service cannot stand alone, no matter how great it is, if customer service is unsatisfactory. According to Cockerell, the reason people continually come back to Disney World is because of the cast member’s dedication to excellent service. He firmly believes employees are the most important asset to any company. They are the brand (Cockerell 86). Therefore, the goal of management is to ensure that employees are loyal and productive at every level of the organization by giving them due recognition no matter what position they hold and inspiring creativity. From the very beginning, training and development permeate every level of the Disney Company (Cockerell 116).

Customer service plays an integral role in a visitor’s experience at Disney World; therefore, management focuses on their workers because they drive profits, encouraging visitors to return. To Cockerell, being a leader means being a role model. The vertical chain of command is gone and it is a leader’s responsibility to ensure employees feel appreciated and important. Cockerell encourages upward communication to create a level of trust between cast members and supervisors and to allow the cast members a chance to provide insight and constructive criticism to management. Through methods like feedback, workers improve the customer’s experience, develop invaluable skills, and create a strong relationship with their leader.

The structure of a company should not be adverse to change. As stated in William Deming’s 14 points, a company needs to improve constantly. In order to improve, the structure at Disney World is always changing to adapt to new technology, new ideas, and new people. The Disney Institute reflects this initiative through vigorous education and self-improvement programs. Total Quality Management influences Cockerell’s ideas on leadership through a strong emphasis on elements like integrity and trust, teamwork, training, recognition, and strong communication. Every company struggles with initiating changes but with leaders that workers trust and believe in, change can greatly impact the effectiveness of a company and prepare it for the future.

In order to promote and reach new standards in customer service, leaders must focus on the people within an organization. Mary Fowlett stated that in a community based approach leaders tend to arise within groups. Cockerell echoed this philosophy and put in place opportunities that find and recognize natural leaders. As we saw in the Design Star video sometimes the appointed leader is not always the best leader. In order to ensure every operation runs smoothly, leaders must develop workers and create a trusting working relationship. Cockerell’s ideas on leadership sharply contrast with the Bureaucratic management theory, which implements a strong division between managers and employees. Cockerell believes in trust, innovation, and the importance of people within an organization, mirroring the ingredients of a successful leader that we have discussed in class.  

In conclusion, I would recommend “Creating Magic” to other PR students because I believe that the strategies described in this book are things that everyone should know. There are tips on how to become a leader and what leaders look for in employees.  Whether a person wants to run his or her own company one day or just learn how to be a great employee, this book tells a person everything he or she needs to know and achieve in order to be successful.