Walt Disney once stated, “Whenever I go on a ride, I think what’s wrong with it and how can we plus it up.”

As we discovered in MIC Key Snap V2 I2, Listen to the Bartenders, this attitude of plussing is one of the key differences between Disney and many other organizations. Disney’s plussing process is aggressive, non-ending and the source of much improvement in revenue and guest satisfaction.

One of the original plussing pieces of research Walt Disney did when developing his theme park concept was to count the number of strides the average person would walk before dropping a piece of trash the ground. The count came out to approximately 25-26 paces. It was also, according to some who knew Walt, the number of steps Walt would take when eating a hot dog. Trashcans have, ever since, been placed approximately that distance apart (see snap above).

The Mouse has been fanatical about cleanliness—V1 I17 Trashing Expectations at Disney—since those early days. It still is. The original trash plus has now been plussed. The trash cans at Walt Disney World may look like they have not changed, but they have. Sensors have been added to the inside cover.

Prior to the installation of the sensors, custodial hosts would follow a route, visiting every trash can and emptying it if it needed it. This involved a lengthy route and much repetitive motion as the custodian looked inside each trash can to determine whether or not it needed emptying. With the newly installed sensors, the Mouse knows which trash cans need emptying and which do not. The custodians can now go directly to the cans in need of attention and thus enhance Disney’s cleanliness fanaticism.

The lesson I draw from this little change is that successful businesses know what their key promises to their customers are and continually take steps to do a better job delivering those promises.

It may seem like a costly endeavor to install sensors inside each can, but a dirty park is not a magical park. And high-tech, self-notifying trash cans go one more step towards creating, as Walt promised, the happiest place on earth.