Throughout Unreasonable Hospitality, Will Guidara seeks advice from his Dad, Frank Guidara, who is also a world-renowned restaurateur and hospitality professional. One of the aspects of the book I appreciate the most is that it feels like there’s sage leadership advice on almost every page.
In a section of the book that begins on page 245 called “Return to First Principles,” Will quotes his Dad as he’s looking to affirm the mission statement for Eleven Madison Park.
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“Don’t run away from what you don’t want; run toward what you do.”
In my experience working with advancement teams over the last few years, there’s a must-do-everything-for-everyone mentality that shapes decision-making. If there’s one dynamic that will thwart most alumni leaders from reaching the level of personalized, memorable engagement that Will describes in Unreasonable Hospitality, it’s the fact that leaders struggle to run towards their desired future state. Instead, they try to put a wrapper around all the work they’ve been doing and call it a mission.
Will talks about making radical change to reach a freshly articulated mission statement and their objective “to be the most delicious and gracious restaurant in the world.” To get there, he writes about making tough decisions like cutting their menu in half and decreasing the number of courses.
He writes, “We would return to this concept of the meal as a dialogue. And finally, we were ready to do it the way we’d wanted to do it in the first place, the way they did it at Rao’s. There would be no menu at all, just a conversation about what you wanted to eat and what you didn’t.”
Will Guidara’s vision for Eleven Madison Park was to create a truly unique dining experience where the customer’s vision and expectations is merged with the restaurant staff’s ability to bring it to life.
Alumni leaders are often restricted from moving to a desired future state by entrenched processes, but even more so by an inability to run toward something. The mission statement is too big, and because “everything” is wrapped up in it, there’s no ability to stop something to focus on reaching the desired future state.
Most advancement teams should run toward Unreasonable Hospitality through the lens of providing opportunities for alumni to help students.
Enrollment is down. Fewer college-age students are available to enroll. Colleges and universities need to attract and retain students. Alumni are massively underutilized in this effort. Meanwhile, we know that alumni really want to help students, and that volunteers give more over a lifetime.
Alumni might want other things too, but to reach Unreasonable Hospitality, they’ll have to find those things elsewhere. To work towards this mission of alumni helping students, the school must pour itself into the alumni that want a seat at this table.
To make a significant pivot like the one I’ve described, the right tactical next steps are needed.
Take a strategic pause from business as usual.
As Will describes in the book, it’s important to create the space you need. In my view, most teams try to “build the plane while flying it.” Instead, leadership must be comfortable taking a strategic pause on legacy programs that aren’t explicitly connected to the new mission. On page 143, Guidara notes that, “...no aspect of your business should be off-limits to reevaluation.”
Lean on your board members to act as advocates.
Throughout the book, Guidara describes how important his employees are as ambassadors for the restaurant. When a strategic pause is needed, both staff and leadership boards must be brought in and trusted with the plan to serve as public advocates for the changes underway. Board members are often the ones clamoring for change. They must also help provide the space for it but talking up what the school is doing, and even be willing to put the board itself on hiatus.
BTW… you’ll know if you’ve got the right alums on the board if they can not only stand by but create energy and enthusiasm during this building process.
Build on existing structures that present opportunity.
Let’s say advancement has an imperative to help build support for athletics. The President has weighed in. To stay true to the mission, tailgate experiences, for example, must include opportunities to help students. The innovation lies in embedding advice and reflection from alumni that’s shared or collected at an athletics event and brought back to students.
Make the experiences memorable, and emphasize convenience.
Throughout the book, Guidara describes the importance of creating unforgettable experiences. But he’s also clear that removing friction from the guest experience is imperative. Advancement is highly practiced in this area for donors making gifts, but not nearly so for volunteers hoping to give their time. Alumni want to help students; they just don’t have much time to give. The ask must be small and the process frictionless, and the alum needs to feel like their fifteen minutes might change a student’s path.
Last week, I wrote about the leadership lessons that jumped out at me from Unreasonable Hospitality. The big one is to slow down and make room for growth. My big takeaway from the book is that most alumni teams try to be everything to everyone. It didn’t work at Eleven Madison Park, and it hasn’t worked in higher ed. Every advancement leader needs to figure out what “their thing” is. I contend that this moment calls for a pivot — to run toward something different. For advancement, that means alumni, at scale, helping students, and building Unreasonable Hospitality around making it happen. Everything else on the menu, at the vast majority of schools, we should be brave enough to cut.
About Speaking Engagement
One aspect of starting a new endeavor like SE that I mentally prepared myself for, but could never fully be ready, is the number of people who have said “no.”
Today, one alumni leader shared that he’d wait until things were more “developed” before their organization would consider joining. WFT does that mean?!! Innovate with me!
That said…
The thing I learned long ago, going back to doing outreach to alumni and making volunteer asks, is never to be sad or frustrated by those who have said no. Instead, get excited about those that have said yes. Twenty-two schools have entered into paid member partnerships to date. These teams are led by and comprised of amazing engagement pros.
Over the last couple of weeks, 50 individuals from the University of Virginia joined Speaking Engagement. As a guy who lives in Virginia and spent a few years around Grounds, nothing makes me happier than having this group as part of the community. Welcome Hoos!
About the next Keynote
Kevin Grubb is my guest on the Keynote coming up on Monday, 8/24. For years, Kevin led the career unit at Villanova University, eventually becoming Associate Vice Provost, Professional Development and Chief Career Officer. Kevin left Villanova for Strada Education Foundation and the role of Vice President, Work-Based Learning. And if you guessed that we absolutely nerd out on how higher ed can tackle getting students relevant experiences on their resumes by the time they graduate, you’d be right.
Speaking Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
