Recently, I was offering some advice in an online forum. The question posed was:

For those who are open Christmas Eve, the day after Christmas, & other days like this, how does your staff feel about this? How is the office morale? How does your family feel about this?

The comments ranged from:

Dictator "This is my office and I set the hours. You work".

Spineless: "I tried to open, but my employees revolted"

Focused on money: If I closed I would leave $50-60 thousand on the table"

My comment follows:

We dealt with the same thing at Walt Disney World.

Traditionally, (pre Michael Eisner in the 1980's) WDW would close early on Christmas eve so that the cast members could stay home and spend time with their families.

Unfortunately, that left THOUSANDS of guests with nothing to do on Christmas Eve. Many unhappy people....

In typical Disney fashion, instead of just stating "Hey we are going to be open on Christmas Eve, suck it up, it is your job". The Disney leaders explained the issue to the hourly cast members.

You see, Disney's mission is to make people happy. That is their purpose. And all cast members know this.

So, by talking about the issue well in advance of the holiday, framed around their mission, the leaders based their decision to open on "making guests happy".

Most cast members understood this and any complaints about it subsided.

What does this have to do with a medical office? EVERYTHING!

1. You must have a clear vision / purpose / mission that frames your decision making.
2. Talk with your team. No one likes to be dictated to or commanded. Involve them in the decision making process. Heck, they will probably have better ideas than you.
3. When you have to announce the decision to stay open, that announcement should be framed with how it fully supports your mission. See #1 above.

Disney leaders were masters at getting people to do things they did not want to do, and feel good about. You can too.

Author of the book “Systematic Magic, 7 Magic Keys to Disnify Any Business” For more on Disney Style Service and small business marketing or having Vance speak at your next event or meeting, check out the free special report "Systematic MAGIC, How to Disnify Any Business". Vance Morris is a Walt Disney World Resort Management Alumni, having spent 10 years as an executive in the Resorts. He runs the only Disney Service & Direct Response Marketing business on the planet. Here he coaches companies to create Disney Style Service Systems and then monetize them through direct response marketing. He is also the longest reigning GKIC Marketer of the Year. He can be reached at www.DeliverServiceNow.com or vance@deliverprofitsnow.com . For speaking engagements, please visit www.vancemorris.com