Managing Park Growth Without Compromise:
Safety, Operations, and Experience
“It’s about understanding how people think and removing barriers throughout the journey, so that all the guests really experience is a straight line to fun.”
Lisa Howard Sitler
Associate Consultant
International Ride Training
12th March
Blog
7 min read
Running a Theme or Water Park is a constant balancing act. As parks grow and guest numbers climb, leaders face a familiar challenge: how do you maintain consistency without losing the culture that made operations strong?
For Lisa, that question has shaped an entire career. She spent 17 years at Hersheypark, moving from attractions operations into training and guest engagement leadership, gaining a front-row view of how safety, culture, operational discipline, and guest experience intersect. Today, at International Ride Training, she works with operators worldwide to strengthen safety culture and operational standards.
In this chat, Lisa shares lessons from the front line, from building confident teams to removing friction from the guest journey. Great guest experiences aren't accidental, they are the product of well-trained teams, strong culture, and leaders who understand how every part of the park connects.
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Question 1: You spent 17 years at Hersheypark, starting in attraction operations and moving into training and guest engagement leadership. How did that progression shape the way you think about the relationship between safety, operational discipline, and the guest experience?
Starting out in operations was a great place to begin because it gave me a solid foundation. Attractions are really the heart of the facility, guests buy tickets to come in and ride the attractions, so you quickly understand how central that operation is.
“Safety isn’t just a black and white rule book, it’s habits and culture.”
When you spend that much time working in attractions, you see how those behaviours are formed and reinforced every day. I later moved into guest engagement and was able to take that perspective with me. Around that time, we had a major expansion at the front gate and I was asked to be part of that team. The focus there was about delivering what you promise. In attractions, the promise is a safe ride every time. In guest experience, it’s about making the visit everything it should be for the guests. What you realise is that it all connects back to the same thing: well-trained, confident teams.
“When communication is strong and teams feel confident in what they’re doing, guests feel safer and the experience naturally improves.”
Safety, operational discipline, and guest experience really go hand in hand. If one of them slips, the others usually follow. That’s why attractions are such a valuable place to start in this industry. You see every part of the operation, and you learn quickly how interconnected everything really is. It’s really about understanding how people think and removing barriers throughout the journey, whether that’s payments, wait times, staff interactions, or even the website, so that all the guests really experiences is a straight line to fun.
Hersheypark
Question 2: Ride operations teams today face pressure from multiple directions at once. What would you say are the three biggest challenges operators are navigating right now, and where do you see the greatest risk of compromise if those pressures aren’t well managed?
There is so much pressure on operations teams, and over the years it keeps increasing. I see three main challenges.
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People: High turnover and constant onboarding mean teams are always changing. Maintaining consistency with new or shifting staff can be tricky, but it’s also an opportunity to strengthen training, empower employees, and develop confident teams who understand the reasoning behind every decision.
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Processes: As operations expand, complexity grows alongside it. Keeping standards consistent across rides, teams, and seasons takes focus, yet clear guidelines and defining what’s black-and-white versus where judgment applies provide a framework that enables supervisors and frontline staff to act decisively.
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Technology: New tools and systems can feel overwhelming, especially with limited training time. Ensuring tech integrates smoothly without slowing people down is essential, but when done well, it becomes a supercharger, helping teams work smarter, spot trends faster, and uphold operational excellence without added stress.
”Efficiency and consistency can go hand in hand. But when you are rushing, consistency starts to slip. That is when risk starts to rise.”
The challenge often comes back to shorter staff touch points. Early in the season, one large orientation could cover 500–600 operators. As staffing changed more frequently, orientation had to happen multiple times a week for smaller groups. Adjusting on-boarding ensures every team member has clarity and support to maintain consistency.
Turnover also affects belonging. People want to feel they matter and have relationships with colleagues and supervisors. When staff feel like just a number, they are more likely to leave. Adequate staffing and thoughtful supervision reduce turnover and pressure.
Executives with operational experience are often the most understanding. They know firsthand what front-line staff face, which improves decision-making and team support. Interns and graduates today arrive with broader operational, guest experience, and business knowledge, which is exciting for the industry.
“You have to put yourself into somebody else’s shoes so that you can see all the nuances.”
Being hands-on is crucial. Observing operations, noticing small details like torque on bolts, and thinking from the guest perspective improves both safety and the experience.
Question 3: Hersheypark grew significantly during your tenure, adding major coasters, water attractions, and new themed areas. From an operations and training perspective, what becomes hardest to protect as parks scale, and what must be non-negotiable to grow without compromising safety or experience?
As a park continues to grow, consistency is the hardest thing to maintain. That means making sure things are done the same way every single time, by every employee, across every area, so the guest doesn’t notice any difference. You don’t want them to feel that one area is managed differently to another. When you map a guest’s journey, every touch-point matters.
Growth can make it harder to ensure all staff are trained the same way, that supervisors are aligned, and that expectations are consistently upheld. Consistency and training are non-negotiable. Without them, people start doing things differently across the park, and before long, small differences can spiral into bigger issues.
It’s easy to focus on the new and shiny attractions because they are high profile, but the rest of the park must be equally excellent. Guests are coming to enjoy the whole park, not just the latest ride or water attraction. If one area slips, it can affect the perception of the entire experience. Guests will plan their days around the new attractions and will happily wait in long queues for them. That makes protecting consistency even more important because it ensures the experience is strong everywhere, not just in the new areas.
“Growth cannot come at the expense of training, standards, or supervision.”
Being hands-on and observant is critical. Small details, like ensuring the same procedures are followed across areas, are what keep safety and the guest experience intact.
Hersheypark
Question 4: As operations expand, consistency often becomes more challenging than excellence. How did you approach creating reliable performance across attractions, teams, and seasons while still allowing for human judgment on the front line?
This is tricky, but the key is for supervisors and managers to clearly set ground rules. Define what is black and white and where judgement can be applied. Safety checks, for example, are black and white and must be done exactly the same every time. Guest interactions, however, are moments where frontline teams can use their tool belt to make decisions.
Removing judgement entirely, creates codependent teams. Frontline staff constantly defer to supervisors, who then can’t supervise effectively. Empowerment needs to be contained and clearly outlined, complimented by training.
“If they understand the why, they can still make the right decision even when something shifts.”
Employees need to understand the reasoning behind rules. If they only know the rule, they freeze when situations change. Rebuilding confidence often means turning the question back to them: ask what they think and coach from there. Boundaries remain anything affecting guest or employee safety or overall consistency is black and white, but much of the guest experience allows flexibility.
“The challenge is helping teams see the grey area and knowing when they can use it.”
A simple example, if a guest finishes a ride and wants to immediately go again and there’s no line, let them hop straight on instead of walking all the way around. Policies are black and white, but the real skill is helping teams recognise the grey area.
Question 5: Your ride operations supervisor training program was recognised as a finalist for IAAPA’s Brass Ring Award for HR Excellence in 2016 and won in 2018. What philosophy guided that program, and how did you determine it was strengthening both safety outcomes and guest experience, not just compliance?
The philosophy behind the program was all about creating a culture, not just checking boxes. Our supervisor training was a weekend event that supervisors looked forward to all year, it was like “ride camp” with a summer camp theme, fun and packed with purpose. We focused on the why and the philosophies: situational awareness, coaching, leading, and making decisions under pressure. The how to stuff forms, processes, paperwork came later.
We knew it was working when supervisors spent more time observing and mentoring, spotting risks, and making decisions on their own. They shifted from reacting to being proactive. The energy on the last day was always the real measure, tired, but still excited, passionate, and fully engaged. That told me the mission had sunk in: they understood their role, why it mattered, and how to create a genuine safety culture. Without that, all the step-by-step training in the world wouldn’t mean anything, people wouldn’t hold each other accountable, notice risks, or improve operations.
“It wasn’t about making robots, it was about growing decision-makers who could coach, lead, and elevate the next generation of employees.”
That responsibility is huge, especially for supervisors often guiding people in their first jobs. That’s what made the program meaningful, and why I’m so proud it was recognised.
IAAPA, November 2025
Question 6: When you introduced changes to operations or training, how did you know they were truly working over time? What types of feedback or indicators proved most reliable as the organisation grew more complex?
I knew things were working when the language from training started showing up naturally across the park. Supervisors and employees were not just repeating what I said, they were making it their own. When teams used the words and phrases as part of their daily routines, it showed they understood, cared, and were genuinely applying what we taught.
Being out in the park reinforced this. Observing morning meetings or supervisors coaching their teams let me see training applied in real time. Auditing also helped, comparing training to operations highlighted gaps and guided improvements.
One example I love is changing “training” to “certification” for ride operators, like lifeguards. Supervisors started explaining why certification mattered and owning it themselves. That one-word shift showed the culture was taking hold.
Question 7: Parks are understandably cautious about new technologies, especially when safety and guest trust are involved. From your perspective, what makes new tools feel risky to operators, and what helps organisations adopt them without undermining confidence or culture?
I think tools feel risky when they try to fully replace a human. If a tool supports decision-making rather than taking it over, operators are much more comfortable. People worry about being second-guessed by a system they don’t fully understand.
Adoption works best when the technology is clearly positioned as a support tool. Pair it with training so teams understand how it works, what it does, and where their judgement fits in. When people can see how the tool partners with them rather than replaces them, they are more confident in using it.
For example, when we moved from paper to a digital system, I was cautious at first as I’d relied on paper for years and wanted to be sure nothing was overlooked. But younger managers helped me see how it could work, that gave me confidence, and once I understood the safeguards built into the system, I was fully on board.
Ultimately, adopting new technology is about understanding how it enhances human skill rather than replaces it. With strong training and support, it becomes a tool to strengthen confidence, culture, and operations, not a source of worry.
Question 8: Looking ahead, where do you see the greatest opportunity for AI or advanced tools to support park operations, particularly in helping leaders make better decisions while keeping people firmly in the loop?
The biggest opportunity is for AI to spot patterns and trends faster than humans can. Whether it is staffing strains, performance drifts, or risk mitigation, AI can identify issues quickly so leaders can respond before small problems escalate.
“AI doesn’t replace the leader, it supports them by spotting patterns faster, helping close gaps, mitigate risk, and focus on using that information to move forward.”
It handles the data analysis and pattern recognition so leaders can focus on how to act on that information. That means closing operational gaps faster, mitigating risk sooner, and making better decisions without losing the human element.
For me, if I had access to this kind of tool 10 years ago during auditing and compliance, it would have made it faster and allowed me to tackle more issues proactively. AI is essentially giving leaders superpowers: the ability to process information at lightning speed while people remain in control of the decisions.
Final Thoughts
Operations, safety, and guest experience aren’t separate, they’re inseparable. The strongest parks build a culture where front-line teams understand the why, make smart decisions, and adapt in real time. From coaching supervisors to spotting trends before they escalate, every choice shapes the guest journey.
As parks grow, consistency becomes harder, but empowering teams and using tools to accelerate insight isn’t optional, it’s essential. Technology doesn’t replace people; it supercharges them, helping leaders act faster, mitigate risk, and keep the experience seamless. Efficiency isn’t just throughput, it’s the straight line to fun, every guest, every visit.
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