At MERIX we always try to come up with creative ways to enhance our employee’s professional development.  We believe that our employees can learn from each other. But it’s also important not to fall into the echo chamber trap. External experiences and business models are great way to learn. It’s for that reason we chose to hold the MERIX Sales and Planning Session this year at Disney, in Orlando Florida.

While Disney may seem like an unusual place to take employees for personal development and business planning, I beg to differ. I can’t think of any organization which is more committed to the customer experience than Disney. Their business purpose is to create happiness. That’s not my choice of words but rather Disney’s. As a group we learned about Disney’s business purpose when we attended a full day training course facilitated by Disney, I am always eager to learn from others, and we can all learn from some of Disney’s business practices. Their attention to detail and commitment to “creating happiness” is remarkable. They live it, they breath it, they believe it. Maybe I’ll share some of my learning’s in future blogs.

The second reason I didn’t think it was unusual to come Disney is because I believe learning should be fun. It’s rare for adults to go to Disney without children in tow. Every once in a while it’s fun for adults to be kids again. So go on Space Mountain as many times as you like..eat all the cotton candy or gigantic turkey legs you want…beam when getting your picture taken with Mickey or Snow White.  Reality waits when we get home.

I want to thank Genworth Financial and D+H for sharing and being a part of our event at Disney.  Creating positive employee memories is a unique challenge. Having Mickey and Minnie join us at our welcome reception, followed by two days of learning, and ending with a day at the theme park, well, we just may have overcome the challenge.

 Until next time,

 Cheers.