How can you train your hospitality employees to think creatively and innovate?

1 Encourage curiosity

One of the best ways to stimulate creativity and innovation is to encourage curiosity among your hospitality employees. Curiosity is the desire to learn, explore, and discover new things. It can spark new ideas, insights, and solutions. You can encourage curiosity by asking open-ended questions, providing feedback, sharing relevant information, and creating a safe space for experimentation. You can also reward curiosity by recognizing and celebrating employees who ask questions, seek feedback, and try new things.

3 Challenge assumptions

A third way to train your hospitality employees to think creatively and innovate is to challenge their assumptions. Assumptions are beliefs or opinions that are taken for granted or accepted as true without evidence. They can limit your employees' creativity and innovation by preventing them from seeing new possibilities, perspectives, and alternatives. You can challenge assumptions by asking "why", "what if", and "how might we" questions. You can also expose your employees to different experiences, cultures, and industries that can broaden their horizons and inspire them.

4 Embrace failure

A fourth way to train your hospitality employees to think creatively and innovate is to embrace failure. Failure is inevitable when you try something new or different. It can be a valuable source of learning, feedback, and improvement. It can also foster resilience, perseverance, and courage. You can embrace failure by creating a culture that accepts and learns from mistakes, rather than blames or punishes them. You can also encourage your employees to share their failures, reflect on their learnings, and apply them to their next projects.

5 Celebrate success

A fifth way to train your hospitality employees to think creatively and innovate is to celebrate success. Success is the result of creativity and innovation. It can be measured by customer satisfaction, business growth, or social impact. It can also motivate, reward, and inspire your employees to continue innovating. You can celebrate success by acknowledging and appreciating your employees' efforts, achievements, and contributions. You can also share their success stories, showcase their work, and involve them in decision making.

6 Solicit feedback

A sixth way to train your hospitality employees to think creatively and innovate is to solicit feedback. Feedback is the information that you receive from others about your performance, ideas, or products. It can help you improve your creativity and innovation by identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It can also help you validate your assumptions, test your hypotheses, and refine your solutions. You can solicit feedback by asking for opinions, suggestions, and criticisms from your customers, colleagues, managers, and experts. You can also use feedback tools such as surveys, reviews, and ratings.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?