The Demand

This week, you cut spending or effort on at least one of the four training trends that do not work — gamification, scripts dressed as suggestions, monetary rewards for ideas, or borrowed slogans — and you replace it with the one thing that does: a leader working alongside the cast. If you keep running the trend, you are entertaining people or renting a vendor’s demonstration instead of building anything that survives after they leave.

The Work

  1. Identify which of the four bad ideas your operation currently runs: points or badges for learning, scripts relabeled as suggestions, gift cards for ideas, or a borrowed training slogan from a conference or vendor.
  2. Cancel or pause that program this week. Do not replace it with another purchased alternative.
  3. In its place, get on the stage yourself this week. Show the cast one specific behavior — a table read, a recovery, a plate standard — by doing it in front of them, not by describing it.
  4. Check whether the vendor-built system you are running, if any, is bolted on or built in. Ask: is this reflected in your hiring criteria, onboarding, daily pre-shift, coaching, and accountability standards, or does it live in a 30-day engagement that ends?
  5. Apply your hospitality standard internally this week: require the cast to treat each other with the same level of care they give Guests. Name one moment this week where that standard should have applied between cast members and hold it.

This week, you drop one purchased training trend and replace it with one instance of you demonstrating the standard in person.