No one likes change.
Today our beach restaurant and our little coffee shop reopened. As I apply primer over the ‘closed’ sign, and am repainting the letters O-P-E-N in cobalt blue, there are cars driving past, windows down, folks leaving out, whooping “yessss!” “Yay!” “woohoo!!”
I’m so happy that they are happy. Hospitality is actually the industry of generating happiness for clients. It’s not an easy industry to be in when the odds are against you.
And that’s why today has been a challenge. We have spent weeks building up to this moment, brainstorming the best reopening strategy in an age of COVID, a plan that works for the guest, that works for the staff, and might, just might, if we pull it off, work for business.
But what they don’t teach you in business school is ‘humanolgy.’ The science of humans and how we feel. Yes, I did just make up that word. But someone also recently and successfully made up the word ‘furlough’ and they got away with it. So it’s open season as far as I’m concerned.
The ‘humanology’ concept I overlooked in the reopening strategy was this: No one takes change well. Especially after 80 days of lockdown. We are talking hundreds, no, thousands, of people, accustomed to democracy, who have been isolated against their will, and now are being told they may return to normal. Except it’s not normal. It’s new-normal. And everyone just wants everything to be back to normal-normal. And I can’t make that happen for them, however hard I try. No one can. The law of Humanology states that that sh*t doesn’t go down well with us humans.
Staff want more hours, more revenue, more customers. Guests want less restrictions, less rules, less new-normal. Business owners want something that doesn’t look red on the bottom line. Yet no one is in a position to deliver these wants; these understandable desires. As a business owner, who enjoys the challenge of strategy, I can honestly say that, this new-normal, is entirely frustrating. I am in the business of delighting – not disappointing people. Yet right now that seems to be the destination where the hospitality industry is headed.
I put this disappointment down to change. And our species’ innate dislike of change. As always, when I am in need of help to stay positive, I resort to Maya, she usually has a helpful word on tricky subjects. And here is her pearl of wisdom:
”If you don’t like something change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”
Maya Angelou
Thanks, Maya. 🙏
