Edward de Bono suggests putting up signs that read 'this road does not go to the airport'. When I read it for the first time, it struck me as an odd & brilliant idea. I have been in new cities, countries, where getting on the wrong road to the airport is very easy. Imagine if the local administration, just put these signs on a lot of the roads that airport goers landed up taking by mistake. It would be amazing to know you were on the wrong road. This is probably a pre-GPS era concept, but it still has merit.

We (Eclat Hospitality) started using this concept for process training and implementation. We made pictorial SOPs and added pictures of variations we noticed often. Not only would we give a pic of what was the required set-up, but also a few pics of what was not ok.  

We wanted to see if this works with behaviour too. So instead of just saying, our standard greeting is "Namaste", we started saying what else was and wasn't ok. "Good Morning / Afternoon / Evening" was ok if the guest said it first. Hi! was ok, if the guest said hi! "Yo!", "Wassup" was definitely not ok. This got some laughs, but the standards training went better with such examples. The team then went on to make this into a fun activity and started doing whats-its-not for everything.

For example, a common phrase/reply you hear from service teams when asked for the second time 'how much time will the order take?', is 'Five minutes'. This instant response was labelled by the team a whats-its-not. They came up with a number of options to respond, but put a big red X against this one and put it up on the internal team board.

We took it further with another client, into the values domain. Every business, company has some values that it wants to work with. Living those values is via everyday actions, that are based on decisions that are value-driven.  

an example:

Let's say Integrity is one of your core values.

• Then living it is, to be honest, and transparent about decisions at work.

• Not living it will be to conceal or hide information.

When we articulated it like this, it was easier for the team to call out behaviour that did not resonate with the value. The team asked the manager to detail the calculations for sharing the tips earned. It was a breakthrough moment.

Another value we loved working with was Initiative. This is a core value at so many organisations and yet everything needs to be approved by a manager. We asked the leadership to define what it is, but more importantly what it's not.

This is what they came up with: Initiative at our workplace.

What It Is - when you decide to do something for a guest to enhance the experience or take care of a complaint. You can spend up to INR 1000/- towards this without asking for any approval.

What It's Not - when you can improve your work area or increase efficiency or customer satisfaction without any expenditure, waiting for a manager's approval is not Initiative. 

The front desk team decided to let guests walk into the baggage room to have a visual of where the bags were kept for safekeeping till departure. This used to be a request from so many guests and invariably they would need to go to the manager for approval every time. They took initiative. The What It's Not made it easy. 

Want to make this WOW? 

This one is simple and has a huge compound effect. Make this insight wow, by adding every complaint, mistake, learning to an SOP as a 'what it's not' addendum. Every time anyone in the team makes a blooper, document it so that others can learn from it.

psst, since this is the last post for this year, I would like to invite you to see if this can be useful for you in your personal life or in your individual behaviour. 

If one of your core values is Care, then:

If you tell your kids or loved ones that they are important to you, you can only reschedule a date/appointment/promise once using the work excuse. The second time around, live that value.

Same for your team. If you tell your team that they are important to you, they should not need to take multiple appointments to see you or share something with you. Try to allow one rescheduling and post that make that meeting happen. Not being available is What-Its-Not for caring.