That’s kind of counterintuitive to the current run of gurus that urge people to visualize success.

Why does it work? We can’t imagine events without evoking modules of brain that are used for real physical activity. Thinking about throwing a ball stimulates the very same parts of the brain that are stimulated by the actual activity.

This could play an important role in how we train. Mentally stimulating an event helps plan, anticipate and avoid mistakes. It can also help build skills. Sitting still imagining the performance of a task successful from start to finish improves performance significantly. It is two thirds as good as actually physically practicing the activity.

It is important to identify the cause of issues so they can be corrected and eliminated/minimized in the future. This benefits the guest and potentially the staff’s confidence that they can get things right a second time around. Unfortunately, it often takes a more skilled set of individuals to drill down to the root causes and focus on the improvement of processes.

The positive reponse focus of the third group allows the staff to envision how the encounter should go and prepare or practice for when they face a specific challenge. I feel it is also much easier to communicate the “roses and sunshine” outcomes to a staff consisting of different experience levels. Everyone understands what it feels like to do a good job and all skill levels can relate to this type of training/communication. This is similar to the role play discussions in department meetings.

Just my thought…right or wrong I look forward to other folk’s viewpoint.

Glad to hve you on the team, Joey. It was nice to meet you in Dallas.

We have to figure out how to make the photos keep from squishing up like that…

How do you perform backwards links on Google? Is it the same format or is it different?

The “Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing” principle is a pretty important one to remember when making key leadership team decisions. Every time the personnel of a key position changes, you are starting back over at the beginning. Strongly reinforces of making the right leadership hiring decisions the first time as your team is typically only as effective as the whole. Stronger teams and stronger leaders coupled with good hiring decisions on the replacement of key leaders allows a team to move through the four steps quicker and get to that performing stage.

I’ll share the principle with my leadership team. Thank Bill for keeping thoughful information coming through the blog!

Roll Tide!!!

Is there a link for the story? I actually get a bunch from these HR articles that get posted. It never hurts to add to your leadership arsenal!

- At least a couple of hundred leads for prospecting future group business
- Very detailed contact information for the tour operators listed
- You know they have planned groups that visited the area recently; more effective than internet prospecting and subsequent cold calls
- Saved us a ton of time in finding the leads; much more than the cost of the report
- In today’s economy, for our property outside of the city, our rates and amenities such as comp parking may be the selling point which helps us to secure business from the traditionally more expensive and higher fee downtown properties; could assist these same operators with creating tours that they haven’t done but our price point allows them to open to newer, more price sensitive markets

I hope that we generate some good business and contacts from our calls to the tour operators listed in this report. Before even picking up the phone, we have realized the value of this report simply in the time saved prospecting and by receiving detailed information which is cutting down the time to reach the right person.

Although my beloved Red Sox were quickly disposed of by the Angels in the ALDS, I am enjoying some great postseason baseball and pulling for the Yankees to extend their World Series drought.

Until next year…

Every time a room is serviced by our Engineering Staff and the guest is not in the room, the Engineer leaves a note card which states “We fixed the Whatchamacallit”. On the card the item serviced and the engineer’s name are listed. To accompany the card, and the theme of the treat, is a Whatchamacallit candy bar!

The only warning I have for a hotel sharing this idea…make sure the Chief doesn’t gain too many pounds eating up all of the guest treats!

At the Hilton Riverside we used LRA for Quarterly hotel shops. Very expensive and very intense. This was in addition to our QA Audits from the Brand

My opinion is for the right price, a shopper can be your additional “camera system” to ensure the staff is doing what is right, following procedure, and delivering the service levels expected.

There is a company based here in New Orleans that has reasonable fees, can customize reports, and can vary their shop based on what you want to specifically check for. I have used them in both Birmingham and New Orleans for Food & Beverage and Front Desk Shops.

I have considered using them when revenues pick up juts a bit for our F&B and Front Desk shops. One warning is you have to be committed to routine shops or they lose their value to your operation.