LESSON 7  The Honeymoon Will End

Cinderella Castle and Culture Change

As anyone who has been married knows, there is a difference between the moonlight and roses of courtship and the bills and responsibilities of marriage.1

—Van France

The Disney University staff looked around the room and knew that this was the perfect setting for the upcoming meetings with the division leaders. The room had no windows, nor was it painted. In fact, it was just an empty space left over from construction, no more glamorous than an unfinished attic. The meeting attendees would ascend to this location, high above the Magic Kingdom, via a small construction elevator or a steep, narrow staircase. The difficulty accessing the room made it all the more symbolic.

Get Disney U: How Disney University Develops the World's Most Engaged, Loyal, and Customer-Centric Employees now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.