From the Stack: Unreasonable Hospitality, by Will Guidara

HERE'S THE GIST

Will Guidara ran Eleven Madison Park, the restaurant once named best in the world, and built its reputation on treating hospitality as a deliberate practice, not a personality trait. His argument is that unreasonable hospitality isn't about grand gestures. It's about noticing what someone needs before they ask, and building a culture where every single person on the team feels responsible for that.

THE LINE THAT STUCK

“Focus passionately on giving both the people on your team and the people you serve a sense of belonging.”

MY TWO CENTS

For mission-driven organizations, this book is often read backwards. We think of hospitality as something we do for our donors or guests at an event. Guidara's real point is bigger than that. It starts with how we treat the people we serve, every day, in every interaction. That's where values actually live. And when mission delivery is treated with this kind of care, it shows up everywhere else too: in how staff treat each other, how volunteers are welcomed, how a donor feels. This book is now part of what every new hire receives on their first day, because it's about deciding, on purpose, what kind of experience we want to be responsible for creating.

PICK THIS UP IF

you want your team thinking about mission delivery and culture as something they directly influence, not something others are responsible for.