3 February 2017

Once a week insights, features and interviews forHR professionals in hospitality

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This is NOT how we’ve always done it...- CREATING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION, THE FOUR SEASONS WAY

Bar 1086 Four Seasons Hampshire. © Peter Vitale/Four Seasons. HAM221

This is NOT how we’ve always done it!

The word ‘innovation’ can feel slightly terrifying for manyreasons. It suggests having to get your head aroundsomething that might be quite large and painful, something abit "I really don’t get it…why would we do that?", somethingthat means change in systems and processes, a new measurethat requires lots and lots of communication and extra work,actually, something which feels like a bit of a headache, wheneverything seems to be working ok-ish.

On the surface.

It depends what innovate means to you. It feels like a hard,technical word when actually it’s more of a blue skies word ifyou pull it apart, rejig the letters and piece it back together likethis: ‘Finding new and better ways of doing things’.

There are always new and better ways to do things. There’salways a different way to approach a problem. You couldspend your life geeking out on new ‘hacks’, but unless youabsolutely need to find a new and better way of doingsomething, you’re just re-creating the wheel, but then how doyou know what could be done better?

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

HR & HOSPITALITYBITES

“Innovation canfeel like a hard,technical wordwhen actually,it's more of a

blue skies word"

INNOVATION

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- CREATING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION, THE FOUR SEASONS WAY

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How is it possible to know every formal and informal systemand process within an organisation (and know them inside out)unless you perform each and every one of these functions aspart of your daily routine?

It’s not possible.

Which is why every single person in your hotel and theorganisation needs to be part of the innovation process. That’severyone on the ground, up. They know what happens at thecoal face, they’re ‘doing the do’ every day so they have pickedup the chinks in your organisational armour – the things thatstop you being as amazing as you could be, the things that letyou down. But it’s not just about being as amazing as youcould be. It’s about being better than that. It’s about beingbetter than you could have imagined.

And you need ALL of your people for that.

Innovation can be informal; suggestions at team meetings, a‘let’s roll with this idea for a while’ approach and of course, thelone nut in the workplace going off on a tangent and just doingthings differently because they believe that’s the best way itcan be done until they’re hit with the ‘Can I have a wordplease?’ conversation. And innovation can be blocked by theorganisation refuseniks – the people in the organisation whowould prefer to just stick with things the way they are becausethat’s how it’s always been done. The people who fear changemore than death.

So how do you do it?

How do you create a truly innovative culture where good ideas‘fly’ and make a difference to guest experience, costs, the ‘timeand motion’ of the operations, staff morale and engagementand being an organisation that people actually want to go andwork for? Innovation has to be guided for a start. Or you’ll endup with a giant bowl of ‘ideas spaghetti’ with the odd meatball.

Every single

person in your

hotel and the

organisation

needs to be part of

the innovation

process.

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INNOVATION

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Sure, you might not know every single system and process in the organisation and where little (or big)

changes could be made but you’ll know your organisational objectives and what your businesspriorities are, so there’s a framework to start with. Organisations innovate in different ways obviouslyas the way we do things is hugely dictated by organisational culture.

One of our clients, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts do innovation really, really well. Exceptionallywell in fact, and they do it by turning to their employees – the inside talent, the people whose sumpart know every nook, cranny and quirk of an organisation, how it operates, from the front desk to theBoard room and all the bits that could be improved to make the customer experience exceptional.

Their company wide innovation programme, BLUEWATER, equips 35,000 employees with tools andbehaviours needed to ‘ideate’, pilot, and refine guest experiences. BLUEWATER sources and pilotsideas through general managers, while also gleaning fresh solutions from elsewhere within thecompany. They have incorporated this programme into all general meetings and staff training. And itworks.

INNOVATION

Each Four Seasons property has a designated cross-functional Blue Water team, which meets regularlyto ‘ideate’ on ways of improving the customer experience. Guided by three principles, the Bluewatermission is to give every employee a real sense of ownership:

1. Be brave with your decisions Own your decisions and take risks

2. ‘Green House’ ideas No idea is a bad idea. Every idea will be given the opportunity to be developed; managers wantemployees to feel comfortable bringing all ideas to the table.

3. Sharing ‘Green House’ ideas How can we adapt this to other Four Seasons properties?

CHANGING WORKFORCE

H O W D O E S I T W O R K ?

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INNOVATION

CHANGING WORKFORCE

E X A M P L E S O F H O W I T W O R K SThe company focused on service at hotel

pool and beach areas and resorts, giving staff

the opportunity to have free rein on ‘ideation’

and testing their ideas.  Customers were

surveyed about their experiences and hotels

submitted their best ideas.  The feedback

showed that guests liked being proactively

approached in their lounge chairs and offered

free suntan lotion and cleaning kits for their

sunglasses. This initiative was rolled out

across the board and is now a service

standard in the hotels globally.  Increased

customer satisfaction = success.

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Hotels wanted to get connect better with

guests through mobile so the Costa Rica

property came up with the idea of supplying a

tablet to guests being picked up at the airport,

providing a mobile check­in experience by

connecting them with a hotel guest

experience manager. This gave the manager

the opportunity to glean some key information

about the guest that would make their stay

that little bit more ‘wow’ and amazing and

make the whole arrival and check in process

seamless.  This idea was then extended to

gateway cities.

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In a video presentation to staff, aFour Seasons housekeeper in HongKong said: "Before BLUEWATER Iwould go into rooms to make surethey're clean. Now I look foropportunities to wow."

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Employees become more involved in shaping the success and the future of the organsiation and feelmore value, like they have something to add beyond their day-to-day role within the hotel.

And if the idea doesn’t work, they don’t call it a failure. They call it a ‘glitch’.

Phew – zero risk of an ‘epic fail’! No such thing.

The winning formula for innovation is undoubtedly frontline engagement + being customer centric.The way you roll with it (and roll it out) depends on your organisation culture and how innovative youare in your approach to innovating!

W H Y I T W O R K S ?

INNOVATION

Published by Davidson Asset Management

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