4 posts tagged “setting the table”
Imagine if every business were a lightbulb and that for each lightbulb the primary goal was to attract the most moths possible. Now what if you learned that 49 percent of th reason moths were attracted to a bulb was for the quality of its light (brightness being the task of the bulb) and that 51 percent of the attraction was to the warmth projected by the bulb (heat being connected with the feeling of the bulb). It's remarkable to me how many businesses shine brightly when it comes to acing the tasks but emanate all the warmth of a cool fluorescent light. That explains how a flawless four-star restaurant can actually attract far fewer loyal fans than a two- or three-star place with soul. In business, i want to be overcome with moths. Our staff must be like a scintillating string of one-hundred-watt lightbulbs, whose product is the sum of 51 percent feeling and 49 percent task. ~ Setting the Table, page. 141
Hospitality is to be a team sport - where we all get to play the entire game! Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery of a product makes its recipient feel. Service is monologue - we decide how we want to do things an set our own standards for service. Hospitality, on the other hand, is a dialogue. To be on a guest's side requires listening to that person with every sense, and following up with a thoughtful, gracious, appropriate response. It takes both great service and great hospitality to rise to the top! ~ Setting the Table
Hospitality is the foundation...hospitality exists when you believe the other person is on your side. The converse is just as true. Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two prepositions - for and to - express it all. (From Setting the Table) Hospitality is never to be a transaction. The intent of Ho'okipa is relationship. There is such a difference between "serving coffee" and "serving people coffee" (Starbucks Experience).
From Setting the Table by Danny Meyer: Within moments of being born, most babies find themselves receiving the first four gifts of life: eye contact, a smile, a hug and some food...That first time may be the purest 'hospitality transaction' we'll ever have, and it's not much of a surprise that we'll crave those gifts for the rest of our lives. In the end, what's most meaningful is creating positive, uplifing outcomes for human experiences and human relationships. Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It's that simple and it's that hard.
