The work

At the end of 2019, we met with each executive to better understand their different perspectives and individual leadership capabilities; this started to give us a sense of what level of support might be most useful. 

In January 2020, we facilitated a 2 day executive retreat, focussed on deepening connection and trust between the group, and shifting them out of their operational mindsets and into a strategic discussion about the vision for the hotel in the coming years. We utilised Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team as a way to help lay out the important foundations required for a good team to become a great team. 

Just two months later, the COVID-19 Pandemic rocked the hospitality industry in unfounded ways! The hotel had to suspend operations, furlough staff, and do whatever it could to survive the turbulence that was to come. This ultimately came down to Thomas and his executive team. Whilst our work together took a pause, Martin made sure to check-in with Thomas throughout this challenging time and see how things were going. 

At the end of 2021, with the hotel starting to get back on its feet and performing well, we re-engaged with the wider team to help them to process their experiences of the past 18 months and embed learning to further accelerate their position in the sector. We helped the group to develop practices for skillful conversations, this was a team that typically shied away from challenging conversations, and so part of our work was to help tease out some of the unspoken dynamics in the group. In addition to our ongoing work with the executive team, we also supported engagement with the Heads of Department, inviting them into discussions on the culture of excellence at the hotel.

The latest phase of work has been to introduce a Braintrust process within the executive team. Emulating Ed Catmull’s work at Pixar, it set about to provide spaces for the executive team, one at a time, to present and get input into their area of the hotel and their plan for increased excellence. This was not just about the content, but a space that shifted the group into a more collective and supportive discussion, providing opportunities to practice different ways of thinking, sharing and responding to one another. Each session, with their different formats and levels of engagement provided useful lessons and insights to the group on how they currently work and how they could be better. 

We finished this series of sessions with a full day facilitated executive day, and a follow up half day with the Heads of Department to continue to engage the wider group in the conversation about the advancement of the hotel.