In the summer of 2000 I was on a business trip in Bangkok. The hotel I was staying at seemed very nice .... the staff were friendly, the rooms were clean and the facilities well kept up. The hotel's motto at that time I was told was "Always the best for every guest." Imagine my surprise when at breakfast I discovered that my melon tasted a little off. Turning it over, I noticed that the shell had the telltale signs of mold. I took it over to one of the duty servers who told me I shouldn't worry about it because I wouldn't be eating that part. Huh?
The hotel had a very good Vision and had translated it well into its motto. That motto was simple and clear enough to allow every staff member to make decisions on the spot, especially when it came to service or quality control. Always choose the best for the guest. That is our image - that is how we want people to know us. Why then did the server fail to address my concern?
This incidence was to become the starting point of the formalization of one of the key points in my business transformation repetoire. A Vision - no matter how good - in and of itself is not enough to jump start and sustain cultural change within a corporation. What is? The answer lies within the corporate "mythology" surrounding the Vision and the self/group image that the mythology creates as the essence of the culture. This is how a person with this company acts because of the Vision is the tale that needs to be told and reinforced. Without this depth of culture, a truly self-leading team is not possible.
