Exploring the nature of self opened doors to accomplishing impossible goals
Published in Optimize Magazine, an InformationWeek Resource for Business Technology Executives. Used with permission. CMP Media LLC, Optimize January, 2002.
As a veteran of the hospitality industry, I often think about those who have assisted in shaping the person I’ve become. Sure, college taught me the mechanics and theory of leadership, while practical experience provided a reality. Examination of one’s “being,” however, never seemed to be part of the learning process. Yet that’s what it took to make my successes in IT reach fruition.
The cyclical nature of the hospitality industry allowed for spectacular results during prosperous years, while mergers and acquisitions dominated troubled times as management teams struggled to survive. These cycles and the leaders who endured them have made a lasting impression on me. Included among some of the greatest hotel business leaders—such as Steven Bollenbach of Hilton, Peter Boynton of Caesars, John Kapioltas of Sheraton, and Bill Marriott of Marriott—are Fred Kleisner and Ted Teng, Wyndham’s chairman/CEO and president/COO, respectively.
Both of these men exhibited their talents in Sheraton, Westin, Starwood, and now Wyndham International. I was exposed to their leadership indirectly during my tenure with ITT Sheraton during the late 1980s and early ’90s and again in the late ’90s as CIO of Caesars World, a subsidiary of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Back then, Kleisner was president of Starwood’s Americas division and Teng was president of Asia Pacific. One of the most amazing professional accomplishments I’ve observed occurred with the consolidation of management during the Starwood-Westin-Sheraton merger.
Achieving synergy is the holy grail of mergers. While those in the hospitality industry watched from the sidelines with predetermined outcomes in mind, the small Westin management team led the Sheraton conglomerate into a newly organized Starwood hotel structure. I often pondered how that small, inconspicuous “David” of a leadership team at Westin conquered the “Goliath” of Sheraton, which seemed altogether invincible as a hotel conglomerate. Little did I know that I’d have the opportunity to discover that formula and team in my own future. As it turns out, Kleisner and Teng are now my bosses at Wyndham International.
Shortly after I was hired in April 2000, Kleisner described his vision and strategy for the company—and my role in making it happen. First, Wyndham’s rocky relationship with an outsourced IT services company required a new strategy and leadership. Wyndham also wanted to turn a troubled real-estate investment trust into a newly defined branded hotel operating company. All would require breakthroughs in technology so that Wyndham could compete with the “big boys,” including Hilton, Marriott, and Starwood.
I began to realize what motivated these leaders and provided their strength and confidence after attending several executive leadership training sessions conducted by Barry Pogorel, a Southern California leadership consultant. I began to understand even better through a path of ontological discovery—that is, a metaphysical approach concerned with the nature of being. I developed an entirely practical plan for achieving breakthrough results from the knowledge gained during those sessions. This simple plan, outlined by precepts of transformational leadership, would let me achieve the same type of breakthroughs as my mentors.
As I define the formula, it invokes the power of “being” through the following tenets: Identity—what you define yourself to be; commitment—being true to your word; possibility—what becomes reality through conversation; and enrollment—communicating and listening to others in such a way that they take ownership of a possibility and take action. While observing the tenets, I repeat the question Pogorel asked me during that session: “Are you willing to sacrifice what you are (your identity) for what you could become (a new identity)?”
I first brought the IT function back in house and closely observed the team. A formula of long hours, standards, controls, policies, procedures, and development methodologies provided incremental technology advances. The formula, however, wouldn’t produce the major results required to achieve the “impossible” task asked of us. For that, the team and I had to sacrifice all that we had been for the possibility of becoming something much greater. We threw out the standards, controls, policies, procedures, and methodologies, and started over.
What I learned in those sessions included a way to achieve the impossible—or what seemed impossible—by designing a game of sorts. It’s defined as something that motivates you; is bold (not a continuation of the past); requires enrollment; holds you accountable; and requires you to work at extreme levels from the day you declare it.
Wyndham IT identified several impossible games: integrating our channel distribution systems to provide a single depleting inventory in less than a year; enabling wireless reservations through integrated distribution and guest-loyalty systems within 90 days; and deploying centralized property-management systems in less than a year.
Wyndham IT had declared an impossible game, and I made a commitment to achieve it. I had to put Pogorel’s ontological methods to work immediately. Enrollment through conversations with each member of the team was challenging. I had to obtain the commitment of each person to win the game without conditions or excuses. I had to let each team member work outside of the existing identity of policies, procedures, controls, and methodologies. Team members nervously began employing their skills without their previous identity and traditional rules of engagement. Then disaster struck.
In May, Wyndham cut staff because of economic deterioration in the travel industry. I cut the size of the team by 37%. We had no choice but to declare a complete breakdown. But we had committed to win and had to discover another way to achieve the impossible.
The ontological method had outlined the steps for declaring a breakdown as follows: Declare that a breakdown has occurred; distinguish the psychological assessments that are present (right/wrong vs. “what is”); declare the commitment made; have a conversation for possibility (create ideas); have a conversation for opportunity (feasibility of the ideas); and have a conversation for action (make requests and promises). I understood what had happened and why, and began developing even stronger relationships among the remaining team members. We developed a new identity as defined by each member of the team. That new identity let us develop a plan we truly believed in and remained committed to executing. We made requests and promises that demanded the utmost integrity and trust from everyone. We accomplished the impossible by delivering on all the promises we made to each other.
Wyndham’s IT group won the game. We achieved breakthroughs through innovative processes and technology for the hospitality industry. In September, InformationWeek selected Wyndham IT as one of the top 500 companies for innovation in technology strategy, and in October, Hospitality Technology magazine chose the company as IT operator of the year.
Pogorel’s ontological mentoring, further supported by mentorship from Kleisner and Teng, allowed me to take my David of an IT team to slay its own Goliath of impossibility by leveraging our willingness to sacrifice what we were for what we could become.
MARK F. HEDLEY is senior VP and chief technology officer of Wyndham International, which owns, manages, or franchises 242 hotels in the Americas and Europe.
