The challenge

Challenge and difficulty can teach us about what’s truly important. Almost out of nowhere, the GG leadership team found themselves confronting the prospect that their business was under serious threat. Yet in the midst of anxiety and uncertainty, they sought to engage this unprecedented moment in a positive way.

So they looked to their people.

Their idea was to surface the creativity arising from the whole team that would guide the two hotels to step back into operation in fresh and innovative ways post-lockdown – ways that would speak deeply to the new needs of their customers and position GG Hospitality as true innovators in the hospitality sector.

Gary, Winston, Claire, and other senior leaders at GG Hospitality knew they had to be smart about streamlining costs whilst also being bold in diversifying streams of each hotel's revenue. They wanted to bring forward innovative ideas that would either save or earn income during and post-lockdown. 

RISE Beyond was tasked with designing and delivering an online engagement process that would keep the whole organisation connected and generate creative initiatives to enable them to not only survive but thrive in lockdown.

Impact

New context requires new ideas. Organisations tend to look for those externally but GG looked inwards. Tapping into the latent creativity of their people triggered a highly-focused energy and connectivity that nobody expected - proof of the creative potential of disruption and uncertainty.

When it came time to vote on which ideas could be carried through to real-life implementation, the leadership team chose not to select one winning pitch but to champion all of them for consideration by the board.

Returning to work, staff participated in a 'Match Fit' repatriation event where the Sales and Marketing departments presented the Gamechanger pitches as initiatives that would be carried out by the organisation in the coming weeks and months.

Claire Shenton, HR Director, described that moment as a "piece of magic in the room" that would later be reflected in highly positive staff engagement survey responses and participant feedback - and a visible increase in revenue generation.

What this shows us is the awesome potential of collective impact on an organisation. Cultivating collaboration among all - from co-owner to chef, COO to front-of-house - allowed GG Hospitality to increase its resilience, strengthen its agility, and move into a winning position. 

Now that's what we call a championship result.