In today's column on Miceage Al says this about WDI culture.
It’s a corporate culture issue really, with WDI taking on the role of contractor and project manager for construction of facilities for their clients in the various departments at the theme parks and hotels. But unlike any good contractor in the outside world that would want to make their client as happy as possible, the Imagineers are on the same payroll as their clients and the ultimate goal is usually just to make themselves look good, and not necessarily please the client.
The result is that the Imagineering attitude taken is often one where they feel they know better than the operations folks and that whatever problem is presented by their completed design will simply have to be fixed by the operations folks who staff and manage it for the next 50 years. After all, it’s not like their client can go to some other design firm for this work. WDI has a monopoly on theme park and hotel design and construction, they know it, and so the concept of a happy customer rarely comes in to their artistic decisions.
This nasty cultural issue also manifests itself in a class system where the Imagineers regard themselves as superior to the lowly ride operators or life guards or fry cooks and their immediate supervisors who will staff their completed facility for decades to come. During the testing of new rides, many Attractions Cast Members have stories to tell of haughty Imagineers who refuse to acknowledge the Attractions Cast Members by name even with their nametags on, and simply call the Cast Members “operator” as a way of establishing rank and position.
While they spend long hours together week after week helping test and adjust any new attraction, too many Imagineers simply call out to the theme park Cast Members and say “operator, cycle the start button” or “operator, we’re going to lunch now, come back in an hour”. There’s a few infamous Imagineers who genuinely seem to get a kick out of the verbal putdown, too. The ugly truth is that the company’s line that the front-line operations Cast Members are the heart and soul of the theme parks and are the people that bring the “magic” to life is a concept that’s widely dismissed by too many in WDI.
I feel the need to respond to this. Although I can't say that these things did not happen as I'm no longer there, but as an experienced Imagineer myself I can say that the WDI design process always included representation from the operators in the planning and design of anything we did.
In my 30 plus years in design and 13 at WDI working all over the world, I have never heard any Imagineer call someone "operator" or anything but their name. It's true that CM's are the heart of the parks, but this seems a bit one sided.
Operations has initial input as to where cash wraps go, security desks are and even approving the widths of walkways as we design. Marketing has to pass on your ideas. They are assigned to your project to look at everything. At times we had to bend over backwards to satisfy these things at the expense of theming. Sometimes we fought. Usually these kinds of "problems" spoken of in Al's column come from either the Imagineer being inexperienced or the operator not paying attention to what is being designed and something slips through. Everyone makes mistakes. As the "client", they are very involved in the process and need to take responsibility for some of the things that they overlook as well.
I recall the operator being ok with serving booze to people on Rollerskates in the Roller Rink Club at Pleasure Island. I raised it at the time and they told it me was ok. Can you imagine? The operations rep said that. Drunks on skates plowing through families! Or when they allowed DL Entertainment to park a Lion King parade in the middle of Main Street blocking any means of fire exit? They did it. WDI was not involved. What about the Fantasmic! issues with safety and crowding? WDI not involved until the Esplanade was added later. So issues can arise anywhere, it's not always WDI arrogance, but perhaps lack of experience in many departments that can lead to this.
It is true that the goals are at odds as the creative goals conflict with operational ones at times, but believe me, they get their licks in and you can see all kinds of operational compromises to theme all over the parks!
As for culture, there is also a bias from the Ops side and maintenance that "everything WDI does is wrong and Imagineers are all Primadonnas". So the culture exists and regardless of how good you may try to be, it's perpetuated.
I worked hard at the parks to build relationships with the operators and to understand what they needed (as the minute you leave, they will rip out what you do wrong, so why not make it work from the outset?) Trust is the key to success down there and they need to see that their needs are also your needs and that you won't throw them under the bus. Kim Irvine and her WDI staff on the ground there have made careers out of building bridges with the operations folks. She gets that big time as she thrives. They love her and she is humble and kind but gets what she needs too. I'm not saying that there could be some that are arrogant, and of course, in life arrogance is not productive either. But there are two sides to this. I didn't want this to go unanswered as there are many Imagineers that are not like this and do not work that way.
