Disney had a problem in the Magic Kingdom. Its guests like to see the afternoon parade. They like it so much that the begin camping out on a curb as much as an hour and a half before the parade starts. That’s an awful long time to sit on a curb. And, when you’re sitting there with nothing to do, time passes slowly and, at times, tempers flare as people jockey for position.

Disney wanted to do something about this long wait. They added guest marching bands, pre-parade floats advertising upcoming Disney offerings and a family of the day riding down the street in a car. Good additions, but only momentary as the unit passes by and, usually too close in time to the parade to make much of a difference.

Streetmosphere (actors playing citizens of Mainstreet, USA), the Dapper Dans barbershop quartet and professional entertainers could, and do, take up some of the slack, but not for the majority of those waiting. Covering the entire parade route with professional entertainers would be cost prohibitive.

Then someone got an idea. Why don’t we involve the frontline cast? They are already on the parade route working crowd control. Although they are not professional entertainers, there must be something they could do to engage the waiting guests. And there was.

Now, when you wait for a parade, you’ll see cast members bouncing beach balls with guests, leading a pavement game of Hop Scotch, running hula hoop contests, playing Simon Says (as in the snap above, courtesy dby4rr3vFlickr), and, of course, challenging guests to answer Disney trivia questions.

The frontline, as always, made the difference. They are energetic, engaging and entertaining. For them, it’s a win because they too are having fun. For the guests it’s a win because the time before the parade seems to fly by. And for Disney, it’s a win because its high engagement at low cost.

I draw a key lesson from this. The best solution isn’t always the most obvious, most costly or most disruptive. Instead, the best solution usually comes from the people who know the most: the employees facing the guests. Management too often thinks its job is to figure everything out. But perhaps its job is to seek out issues, call attention to them and provide the employees time and space to identify how they can help.

In that way, management can proactively solve a problem before … well … the parade passes by.