Practical Tips

What ever happened to good old fashioned service?

You know the type - you went into the corner shop (try finding one now) and the owner (who’d been there for donkey’s years) greeted you by name, picked out the best produce for you and made real conversation.

And if you weren’t happy with something - it was fixed!

Yes, times may well have moved on, but not necessarily for the better. Take my Dick Smith experience.

So I’d like to hark back to another time and place - where quality and excellence really meant something. (And I’m not implying that excellence doesn’t exist anymore - it just seems to be in shorter supply as organisations get larger and the customer facing staff less personal.)

Following on with my Walt Disney theme, these are some of the qualities that made Walt as successful as he was:

1. He had absolute integrity - you could absolutely trust the man.

2. He had creativity - he was a true visionary.

3. He had administrative ability - he knew how to get the best out of people.

4. He was a motivator - a great coach who pushed you to your limits and got excellence as a result.

5. He was willing to gamble - and take calculated risks.

6. He wanted people to challenge him. (No "yes men" zone!)

7. He listened well and was willing to learn from anyone.

8. He did his homework and was constantly looking at problems from various angles, studying and improving. (Our Disney Creativity Strategy Audio and Workbook - where you can learn and apply Disney’s strategies to your own life will soon be ready - look out for an announcement.)

9. He was fanatically committed to excellence. He continually reached for an intangible quality called perfection.

Here are a couple of examples. After reading them, ask yourself what you would have done if you’d have been in the same situation or indeed are facing one now.

Ward Kimble was one of Disney’s legendary Nine Old Men of animation. At the age of 22, just out of art school, Ward was given a major role in the animation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Kimble spent EIGHT months working on a very funny FOUR AND A HALF MINUTE sequence for the movie.

The entire sequence was pencilled, filmed and matched to the soundtrack. Walt viewed it and called Kimble into his office.

"Ward, you’ve done an absolutely beautiful job. So it makes it really hard for me to tell you that we’re going to have to cut it from the picture."

"Why?", blurted out a devastated Kimble.

"I know this hurts," said Disney. "I love that sequence, I truly do. But it gets in the way of the story."

This is perhaps the highest commitment to quality - a willingness to sacrifice hours and hours of work and money, if the product does not contribute to the absolute perfection of the product.

Quality, Excellence, Striving to be the best. This is what propels winning sporting teams and companies to the top.

Excellence is gradual result of always striving to be better. Quality isn’t about money - it’s about caring. (And then the money will follow!)

And if you’re in business, always sell on quality, not on price.

Here are four attitudes that are focused on lasting quality:

1. Strive for perfection.

2. Pay attention to details.

3. Constantly try to improve.

4. Give it all you’ve got.

Imagine being a parachute maker and only having a 95% success rate. That would mean out of every 20 jumps, one chute wouldn’t open. Too bad if you’d got that one!

Sound far fetched? In the beginning of WWII, this actually did happen. The cure? They got the packers to be the testers! They took them up, strapped on the chutes and made them jump. Quality went up to 100% pretty rapidly!

One last story…

In his book, How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere, Larry King, the US Talk Show host tells the story of someone who always gave it all they had.

Some of us are old enough to remember Danny Kaye - the actor. This is what happened when Danny was a featured guest on one of Larry’s TV call in shows:

"You couldn’t help loving Danny, and like so many performers whose greatness comes in large measure from their genuineness, Danny Kaye was exactly the same person off stage and off screen as he was on.

"Once, when he was a guest on my radio show, a woman called from Toledo and told him, ’I never in my life thought I’d talk to you. I don’t have a question for you. I just want to tell you a story: My son loved you. He wanted to be like you. He imitated you, and his whole world revolved around you.’

"Then she delivered the clincher: ’He was killed in Korea when he was nineteen years old. He was in the Navy during the war over there. The Navy sent me a picture amongst his personal effects, and it was of you - the only picture he had in this footlocker. I framed it along with the last picture I had of him. I’ve dusted your picture and his every day for thirty years. I thought you’d like to hear that.’

"Danny was crying in the studio, and so was I. And so was she.

"Then he said, ’Did your son have a favourite song?’

"She said, ’Yes, Dena.’

Then Danny Kaye sang one of his most famous songs to this Gold Star mother of the Korean War, with no band, no piano, just his voice, through his tears.

"It was one of the greatest moments I’ve ever experienced in broadcasting, because it was such a human one. And Danny made it happen by his openness - not in this case a willingness to talk about himself, but an willingness to empathise, and to show emotion himself, that many people would not be ready to share."

Danny Kaye did not have to sing that song. He could have simply said, "Thank you for sharing that", and moved on.

But he didn’t. He gave of himself, his tears, his vulnerability and his big generous heart. That is the mark of a quality human being.

To finish, one of the greatest gifts we can give to another is to allow them to get to know us. Show your vulnerabilities. Be human. Be willing to admit to your mistakes. Drop the mask. And you’ll be loved for it.

Till next time,

Rashid.

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