I just finished reading Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. It is a story about how the author made Eleven Madison Park (EMP) - a fine-dining restaurant in New York City - become the best restaurant in the world (not just one of the best) in 2015.
The core idea of the book is to go the extra mile, to do things that are unreasonable by conventional standards, to give more than guests expect, to allow people to have the most gracious experience at EMP, alongside the most delicious food.
Will and his team pushed boundaries, challenged standards, and treated their guests in the most hospitable and personal ways.
They researched the people who made the reservation and made sure the person who took the reservation would be there to welcome the guest, so they would be greeted by name.
They served a 2-dollar hot dog in a 3-Michelin-star restaurant so the guests could taste the signature cuisine of New York.
They place plates in a certain way so that people can easily read the name of the platemaker if, by any chance, the guests flip one over.
A family from Spain was dining at EMP and mentioned that their children had never seen snow, as it began to snow outside. Will and his team purchased sleds, arranged a car, and sent the family to Central Park to experience the snow.
Those are just some examples of the EMP team going beyond what people think is reasonable, bringing excellence to the dining room, pairing with the excellence of the team in the kitchen.
And with those unreasonable acts, along with many other things, being named the best restaurant in the world was, in the end, a reasonable result.
And this applies not only to the hospitality industry.
Average actions yield average results.
To get an exceptionally good outcome, you need to do things that the majority of people are not willing to do, or don’t do, or do things other people do but unreasonably better (or have tremendous luck, which is hard to control).
Even so, things might not always go our way. Even if we give our best, it may not go as planned.
But the best we can do is to go all in.
Be unreasonable.