Why it’s a good practice to revisit your absolutes
By Anne Lackey
Most businesses carry invisible scars from past wounds, which are evident in phrases like: “That’s just how we do things.” “We tried that once.” “I learned my lesson about that.”
Those words are uttered as absolutes – things that aren’t to be questioned.
But you need to question them.
Each “we tried that once” deserves a deeper examination: When exactly was “once?” What precisely went wrong? Are those same conditions still relevant? And then, what has changed in the years since that might make a different outcome possible?
Without this kind of best-practice archaeology, businesses risk being governed by long-ago failures instead of present opportunities. You don’t want the organizational equivalent of chronic joint pain limiting your range of movement. That’s why hoteliers need to understand which protective measures remain vital and which have become like a cast left on too long, causing your arm to atrophy after it’s healed.
For instance, think of a hotel that faced major guest satisfaction issues 15 years ago. In response, they implemented a rigorous, multi-step review process for every new guest service initiative. At the time, this made perfect sense. It was an essential treatment for a serious wound. But today, with customer feedback tools, automated service tracking systems, and real-time guest data analytics, that same process has become a bureaucratic bottleneck. It delays the rollout of new services and improvements, all while catching no more issues than a more streamlined approach would. It’s gone from a solid quality control measure to a competitive liability in an ever-evolving hospitality landscape.
That’s why every hotel owner needs to contemplate whether past negative experiences cross over into psychological barriers to growth. Here are some tips on how to think through that.
Let Your Vision Lead, Not Your Fear
That grand vision you had when you started your business – the one about revolutionizing hospitality, reaching new markets, helping more people, or creating unique experiences – where did it go? Too often, it gets buried under layers of protective policies and “realistic” expectations. Your bold vision becomes a cautious mission statement, edited by experience and scarred by setbacks.
But here’s the thing about vision: It’s supposed to pull you forward, not simply ref lect where you’ve been. It should make you a little uncomfortable and push against your self-imposed boundaries. If your vision fits entirely within your comfort zone, it’s not really a vision. It’s just a description of your status quo.
Audit Your Absolutes
Now, look beyond all your handbooks and formal procedures and recognize the unwritten rules that govern your business thinking.
Listen for the absolutes in your daily conversations. They often come disguised as casual wisdom: “We always…” “We never…” “That won’t work here because…” These throwaway phrases are your breadcrumbs that lead to the unconscious boundaries in your business.
Keep a simple note on your phone or a small notebook on your desk. When you hear yourself or your team using these absolute statements, write them down. Don’t make it an official audit – just stay aware. Note the rule itself and, if you can, when and why it became an absolute. If you find that you can state the rule with perfect clarity but struggle to explain its origins, that’s your first red flag.
Pay special attention when you feel an immediate “no” rising up before someone even finishes proposing an idea. That instinctive rejection often points to an unwritten rule. Notice which suggestions make you uncomfortable and why. Are you saying no because of genuine business wisdom, or because of old scar tissue?
The point isn’t to eliminate all protective measures or to suddenly reverse every long-held policy. You just need to be aware of the invisible boundaries around your business and ask whether those lines still serve your vision.
Update Your Risk Calculations
Risk isn’t static, but we often treat old dangers with old math, failing to account for how time, technology, and experience have changed the equation.
Think about your hotel’s biggest perceived risks. For each one, break down the specific threats you’re worried about. Don’t just write “renovations are risky.” What exactly are you concerned about – disrupting the guest experience, unexpected construction delays, cost overruns, staffing shortages, or declines in service standards during the project?
Now examine how each of these specific risks might be mitigated by modern tools and systems that weren’t available when the fear was born. For example, consistent service standards can now be addressed through centralized training platforms and real-time guest feedback tools. Staffing issues might be eased by using AI-powered scheduling systems or outsourcing back-off ice functions, like reservations, to reliable teams in lower-cost labor markets.
And here’s a big thing that’s easy to overlook: Always factor in the risk of inaction. When you decided never to trust another marketing agency after one bad experience, you calculated the risk of trying again, but did you calculate the cost of not trying? What opportunities have you missed? What growth have you foregone? What competitors have passed you by? Playing it too safe can be riskier than carefully managed experimentation.
Make Space for Safe Experiments
However, you don’t have to embrace huge risks. For instance, if you’re testing whether to loosen your firm grip on guest service approvals, don’t eliminate oversight completely. Instead, run a pilot program where front desk or department managers can approve complimentary upgrades, late checkouts, or amenity packages under a set dollar amount. Set clear metrics for success and failure. Also, create circuit breakers – those predetermined points where you’ll pause or stop if certain warning signs appear.
Document these experiments, but not just the obvious metrics. Yes, track efficiency, costs, and outcomes. But also note the emotional responses – yours and your team’s. Where does anxiety spike? When does it ease? What unexpected benefits or challenges emerge?
And celebrate the attempts, not just the outcomes. Every experiment, successful or not, provides valuable data about your business’s true capabilities and limitations. Failed experiments can reveal more than successful ones by showing you exactly where your systems need strengthening.
Build a Forward-Looking Culture
Our businesses exist in past, present, and future – just like our lives. Each is part of our narrative and worthy of attention, but the point of looking back should always be to gain insight into how to move ahead.
So, when someone points out that a procedure has outlived its usefulness, bring up your vision. Talk about the goal moving forward, then challenge them to design a replacement for the old procedure that aligns with the positive big picture for your hotel. This transforms criticism into constructive action and helps your team develop future-focused solutions rather than just identifying past-focused problems.
And each time you identify a fear-based limitation, view it as a challenge to build something more dynamic. Build a culture that doesn’t just question old practices but actively creates better ones. Make sure that everyone perks up when somebody says: “That’s just how we do things.” “We tried that once.” “I learned my lesson about that.”
When your employees either utter or hear these words, they need to go into the same train of thought as you: “Hey, wait a minute. That warrants a ‘why?’ Why did I think that? Or, why did they say that?
“How can that absolute be challenged to improve this place?”
And that’s how your business vision triumphs over mental barriers. That’s how you turn your hospitality business into an absolute in your market
Anne Lackey is the co-founder of HireSmart Virtual Employees, hiresmartvirtualemployees.com, a full-service HR firm helping others recruit, hire, and train top global talent. She has coached and trained hundreds of people in creating successful businesses to be more profitable and to create the lifestyle they desire. She can be reached at anne@hiresmartvirtualemployees.com or at meetwithanne.com.
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