You’ve hired great people. They’ve got energy, a decent game voice, and a growing stash of contests and activities plus rainy-day backups galore. But by mid-summer, it’s easy for the schedule to start running them, not the other way around. That’s when it helps to pause and ask: Do my staff understand that they’re not just filling time… they’re shaping guest memories? Helping staff see themselves as experience designers—rather than just activity runners—can shift the whole dynamic. It boosts their confidence, improves guest satisfaction, and frankly, makes your mid-season coaching conversations way more fun (and a lot less focused on “enthusiasm levels”). Experience design doesn’t need to be elaborate; it’s simply about intention. Chances are, most of your staff already have the instincts and just need the nudge.

This blog offers three simple ways to help reframe how your staff sees their role, so they can lead with more purpose and a little more magic.

1. Start with the Feeling, Not the Activity

Most staff start with a practical question: “What should we do?” But a better place to begin is with “How do I want the guests to feel when it’s over?” That simple shift—from focusing on the task to focusing on the emotional takeaway—can transform how an activity is designed and delivered. It affects everything from the music playing in the background to the words used during the welcome. This is a mindset your team can learn, even if they’re new or still building confidence. A great place to start is your pre-activity huddles.  Try asking a question like: “What feeling are you aiming for today for guests at this activity—connection, calm, excitement, accomplishment?” Once staff start thinking this way, you’ll see the lightbulbs go off. Suddenly, it’s not just trivia night, it’s a chance to help guests feel like they belong. It’s not just a casual craft, it’s a moment for families to slow down and create something together. Pine and Gilmore (2011) coined the term Experience Economy to describe this exact shift: guests aren’t just buying services, they’re investing in memories. And the good news? That’s already what our industry does best when we do it with purpose.

2. Help Staff Spot the Flow (and the Friction)

If you’ve ever watched an activity fizzle—not a total fail, just kinda meh—there’s a good chance the problem wasn’t the content, it was the flow. In a thoughtfully designed activity, flow is the rhythm of the guest experience, including how things feel in sequence from the moment someone arrives to the moment they leave (or sneak out early, which is its own kind of feedback). Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) research on optimal experience suggests that when people are fully engaged in an activity, they lose track of time and feel immersed in the moment. That’s exactly what we’re aiming for, and what gets disrupted when flow breaks down.

Most new staff aren’t trained to see flow. They’re focused on materials, steps, and “getting through the script.” That’s where you come in. One coaching move that takes less than five minutes is simply asking your staff to walk through the experience from the guest’s point of view. What do they see first? Is there a welcome moment or just awkward milling around? When does the fun actually begin? Are people confused? Checked out? Laughing? Glancing at their watch?

Friction doesn’t always look dramatic, but it’s what quietly breaks the guest experience. Sometimes it’s as simple as music not playing when people arrive, a flat-toned welcome, or giving long-winded instructions before guests are ready to engage. These small interruptions can throw off the rhythm and make the whole event feel clunky. But the good news is, they’re easy to fix. Try starting music five minutes early to set the tone, reworking the welcome to shift from “Thanks for coming to tie-dye” to “We’re so glad you’re here—we’re making memories today,” or saving detailed instructions until people are already hands-on. These kinds of micro-adjustments help reduce the tiny moments that break the flow or confuse the guest. Tussyadiah (2014) emphasizes that environmental and sensory cues play a powerful role in shaping how people interpret tourism and hospitality experiences. That’s true at Disney, and it’s true at your Tuesday night hayride or lawn games, too.

3. Build a Habit of Thoughtful Tweaks

By mid-summer, most staff settle into autopilot. They know the routine, they show up, they run the program, and they move on. At this time, their observational muscles are strongest, but only if we help them use those skills in focused and meaningful ways. Great activity leaders don’t just run events, they reflect on them. Not with regret or over-analysis, but with quiet curiosity.

That’s where you come in. Help your staff build a simple, repeatable habit of critical thinking after each activity. Not a formal debrief. Not a list of what went wrong. Just a gentle pause to ask, “What would I adjust next time, and why?” Framing it this way helps them stay focused on improvement, not judgment. They’re not grading themselves—they’re collecting ideas for future success.

Encourage them to take mental (or literal) notes: Did guests seem confused at any point? What got the biggest laughs? Where did energy dip? Did anything go more smoothly because of a small change they made? Even a single daily insight helps develop professional awareness they will carry far beyond this season.

Your job isn’t to have all the answers. It’s to create a culture where staff learn to observe, adapt, and experiment without fear. The best guest experiences often grow out of small, thoughtful tweaks, and it all starts with staff who are taught to think like designers, not just doers.

By incorporating the three approaches above, you can help staff see their role in a whole new light. When they deepen their understanding of what shapes guest experiences, they begin to lead with more care and more confidence. You don’t need a new training module to make it happen. Ask sharper questions, encourage quiet observation, and help your team members see the “why” behind the “what.” Mid-season is the perfect time to shift gears. Don’t only ask them to run the activities—instead, ask them to design moments that matter.

References:

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row.

Pine, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (2011). The experience economy (Updated ed.). Harvard Business Review Press. (Original work published 1999)

Tussyadiah, I. P. (2014). Toward a theoretical foundation for experience design in tourism. Journal of Travel Research, 53(5), 543–564.