We went to the "Disney Institute" at the Grand California Hotel located at Down Town Disney by Disneyland. For two days we were taught about the "Disney way" of doing business. They taught us about how nothing is left to chance, every detail is controlled by their "cast members" and their "imagineers". We learned about their hiring and training processes. It was a mixture of class room and field trips into the theme parks and behind the scenes of the parks. It was all about the how to start and maintain a "Culture of Excellence" and how to go beyond expectations of our patients (and their customers). Where else can you go and pay more than you want for entrance fees, food and souvenirs and feel good about it and then want to do it again the next day. We feel this way because Disney makes us happy by controlling the entire experince start to finish and we don't even know that we are being controlled. I have attended more than I can count practice management seminars over the past 25 years, this was certainly in the top one or two for what I learned and the insights gained. P.S. it was fun to stay in the Grand California Hotel for several nights, where we lived the Disney experience first hand. Please note that at graduation we recieved Mickey Mouse ears with a tassell. The guy "Patrick" in the bow tie was one of our trainers.
