Several years ago I experienced Disney World with my daughter Courtney. It didn’t take us long to discover that Walt Disney was very intentional about creating a place where guest happiness (their vision) is paramount in an amazing environment characterized by efficiency, safety, and courtesy.

When Walt Disney started theme parks, he knew how to excite people. He had a clear vision: “We are in the happiness business—we make magic!” His picture of the future was driven by his mission to keep the same smile on people’s faces when they left the park as when they had entered. He didn’t care whether a guest was in the park two hours or ten hours— “just keep them smiling.” His vision and mission were accomplished by paying close attention to “​ four keys ” or values: safety, courtesy, the show, and efficiency—and in that order. (It’s important to note that if you have more than five values you probably won’t focus on any.)

Disney recognized the importance of having these keys or values rank-ordered or followed according to priority status. For example, if those working at the entrance turnstiles were courteously and efficiently welcoming people to the “Disney show” and suddenly heard a scream inside the park, they were to drop whatever they were doing and attend to the person in physical danger. For Disney, safety had to come first. Otherwise people would no longer be smiling, including those at the turnstiles waiting to get in (I mean, who wants to enter a park where danger lurks and those in charge care little about it) !

Efficiency is important—no one is happy in super long lines—but not at the expense of courtesy. And a substandard show for the sake of efficiency also won’t yield happy customers. All four are Disney values with the potential for conflict, depending on the situation. Hence the necessity of rank-ordering.

Jesus had rank-ordered values when proclaiming his kingdom on earth. Next week we will look at those and discuss why it was also important for him to have them rank ordered. (Please email me at luke@lukekuepfer.com or post in the comments below if you think you know what they are...I’d love to hear from you!) ​

[Click here for a values worksheet that helps you figure out and write down your core values. You can then plug them in to your purpose or mission statement accessible through a FREE online course found here ].