Unreasonable Hospitality

Will Guidara

📚 GENRE: Business & Finance

📃 PAGES: 288

✅ COMPLETED: December 25, 2023

🧐 RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Short Summary

Under Will Guidara’s direction, Eleven Madison Park in New York City went from a two-star brasserie to the No. 1 restaurant in the world. In Unreasonable Hospitality, Will details the restaurant’s climb to the top, sharing valuable insight on leadership, commitment, and why thoughtful hospitality is the key to creating an unbreakable bond with customers. 

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Commit to Unreasonable Hospitality — Unreasonable hospitality is about being thoughtful and going above and beyond to create a memorable customer experience. Eleven Madison Park’s commitment to hospitality, excellence, attention to detail, and willingness to go the extra mile for guests propelled it from a two-star brasserie to the No. 1 restaurant in the world. Every company, regardless of the industry or what it sells, can make hospitality a core value. You can make it a core value in your personal life as well. Make thoughtfulness a priority. 

2️⃣ Look for Opportunities — Personally and professionally, opportunities to blow people away are everywhere. It’s really about adopting hospitality and thoughtfulness as core values in your life and in your business. When these are core values that you keep in mind daily, you are more likely to see the opportunities when they present themselves and spend the time needed to organize the gift. Be excited to give gifts! Hunt for these opportunities! That’s the mindset. 

3️⃣ Build Culture of Empowerment, Collaboration, and Trust — If you’re in a position of leadership, the best culture you can create is one where employees are invited and encouraged to be part of almost everything. The more responsibility and trust you give, the more likely they are to work hard for you and feel like they are making a difference in their role. Encourage your employees to bring new ideas to the table. Empower them to collaborate on high-level, high-stakes projects. Encourage them to take risks in the name of growth and innovation. Most important, trust them to do their work. Your job is to set the vision; after that, let go and trust your people to figure out the ‘how.’

Favorite Quote

“Whether criticism or praise, it's a leader's job to give their team feedback all the time. But every person on the team should be hearing more about what they did well than what they could do better, or they're going to feel deflated and unmotivated. And if you can't find more compliments to deliver than criticism, that's a failure in leadership — either you're not coaching the person sufficiently, or you've tried and it's not working, which means they should no longer be on the team.”

Book Notes 📑

Ch. 1: Welcome to the Hospitality Economy

  • Will Guidara — Will is the author of this book. He is the founder of Thank You, a hospitality company that develops world-class destinations and helps leaders across industries transform their approach to customer service. He is a former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park and the NoMad, two of the most successful and famous restaurants in the world. He and his business partner/head chef, Daniel Humm, spent 11 years turning Eleven Madison Park, a two-star restaurant at the time, into the No. 1 restaurant in the world. 
  • Hospitality: Going the Extra Mile — Hospitality is really about going the extra mile to show people that you care. It’s about doing the little things that will make the customer feel special. Just about every company, whether in the hospitality industry or not, can find ways to show its customers a little bit of hospitality. It just takes some thinking. The bottom line is that the human desire to be taken care of never goes away.
    • Quote (P. 4): “Fads fade and cycle, but the human desire to be taken care of never goes away.”
    • Quote (P. 5): “The best answer I ever got came from a woman I ended up not hiring. She said, ‘Service is black and white; hospitality is color.’ ‘Black and white’ means you’re doing your job with competence and efficiency; ‘color’ means you make people feel great about the job you’re doing for them. Getting the right plate to the right person at the right table is service. But genuinely engaging with the person you’re serving, so you can make an authentic connection — that’s hospitality.”
    • Quote (P. 4): “Daniel Humm and I spent eleven years turning Eleven Madison Park, a beloved but middling two-star brasserie serving seafood towers and soufflés, into the number one restaurant in the world. We got on that 50 Best list by pursuing excellence, the black and white, attending to every detail and getting as close to perfection as we could. But we got to number one by going Technicolor — by offering hospitality so bespoke, so over the top, it can be described only as unreasonable.”
    • Quote (P. 6): “Chefs at the finest restaurants in the world had long been celebrated for being unreasonable about the food they served. At Eleven Madison Park, we came to realize the remarkable power of being unreasonable about how we made people feel.”
    • Quote (P. 196): “For us, Unreasonable Hospitality meant providing thoughtful, high-touch gestures for every one of our guests.”
  • Culture of Hospitality — One of the best things any company can do is prioritize hospitality by imbedding it into its culture. When everybody at the company is constantly thinking of ways to enhance the customer experience, good things happen. Similarly, the company’s leadership team should always be thinking of ways to enhance the employee experience. How can you make the people you serve and the people who work for you feel valued? How do you give them a sense of belonging? How do you make them feel part of something bigger than themselves? These are key question to think about.
    • Quote (P. 7): “By the conference’s third year, though, when we looked out into the audience, we saw sommeliers and servers sitting next to people who didn’t work in restaurants at all: tech titans, small business owners, the CEOs of huge real estate companies. These people believed, as I do, that how they served their clients was as valuable as what they served.”
  • Hospitality Is Fun — Going above and beyond to make people feel good leads to YOU feeling good. It feels good to bring joy to others. Challenge yourself to think out of the box and develop ways you can make your customers and associates feel special. Do this for people in your personal life as well.
    • Quote (P. 7): “Because what I’d really like to do is let you in on a little secret, one that the truly great professionals in my business know: hospitality is a selfish pleasure. It feels great to make other people feel good.”
  • Chapter Takeaway — Hospitality is about going the extra mile to make people feel special, and it can be incorporated by any company. It just takes some thinking. 

Ch. 2: Making Magic In a World That Could Use More of It

  • Make Them Feel It — People will forget what you did and what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. When thinking about the customer and employee experience, focus on what you can do to make people feel special and important. That’s what really matters most. For a restaurant owner in NYC, it could be as simple as running out to drop 50 cents into a customer’s parking meter so they can continue to dine without worrying about their car being towed. Things like that blow people away.
    • Quote (P. 19): “When you work in hospitality — and I believe that whatever you do for a living, you can choose to be in the hospitality business — you have the privilege of joining people as they celebrate the most joyful moments in their lives and the chance to offer them a brief moment of consolation and relief in the midst of their most difficult ones.”
  • Chapter Takeaway — Focus on what you can do to make people feel special. Usually you can accomplish this by doing something that is unique to a certain person’s life situation. The more personal or customized an act is, the more the person feels your thoughtfulness. 

Ch. 3: The Extraordinary Power of Intention

  • Be Intentional — There should be a strong purpose, goal, or ‘why’ behind everything you do, no matter how big or small. You should never do anything “just for the heck of it.” Be intentional with everything you do. There should be a lot of thought behind everything you are doing. Are the things I’m doing on a daily basis bringing me closer to my goals? If not, do not waste your time. Maximize your time. Work toward your goals.
    • Quote (P. 22): “Intention means every decision, from the most obviously significant to the seemingly mundane, matters. To do something with intentionality means to do it thoughtfully, with clear purpose and an eye on the desired result.”
  • Invest In Your People — When you hire great people, treat them well, and invest deeply into their personal and professional growth, they will pass that great level of care on to your customers. When running an organization, understand that your people are the foundation to everything your company is trying to do. Go above and beyond to treat them well.  
  • Chapter Takeaway — Be intentional with everything you do! What’s the reason behind this action? How will doing this bring me closer to my goals? Spend the majority of your time doing things that are bringing you closer to where you want to be. 

Ch. 4: Lessons In Enlightened Hospitality

  • Energy — In conversation, people feel your energy more than they focus on the exact words you’re saying. You can almost say anything you want if you have a good energy to you. This goes back to the point above about how people remember how you made them feel more than what you do or say. Focus on developing a good, positive, loose personal energy. People gravitate to that.
    • Quote (P. 28): “Randy’s animation was a wave that picked you up, whether you wanted it to or not, which was why he could face a crew of the distracted, the hungry, and the very-probably-hungover — and turn them into his own personal army. It was from him I learned: Let your energy impact the people you’re talking to, as opposed to the other way around.”
  • Give Ownership & Trust — As a manager or person in leadership, you should be focused on the future and setting big-picture goals for your team, not micromanaging them on every task. Set goals for the team, and let your people figure out the how. Give your people ownership and let them do their thing. Do not hawk over them. Nothing is worse than a manager who micromanages. Tinkering with every little task makes members of your team feel disempowered, prevents them from building positive momentum, frustrates the hell out of them, and leads to their losing confidence in their abilities. Trust your people. Let them be creative and find solutions that accomplish the goals you’ve given them, then back them up.
    • Quote (P. 28): “More important, I never forgot how much his trust meant to me, which is why developing a sense of ownership in the people who worked for me would become a priority for me as soon as I was the one tossing the keys.”
  • “Make the Charitable Assumption” — It’s human nature to assume the worst of people. When someone cuts you off in traffic, you immediately blurt some expletives and flip the bird. Making the charitable assumption is about giving people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the person who cut you off has a sick child in the background and is trying to get him to the doctor as fast as possible. You just don’t know what people are going through when they do certain things. It’s not always easy, but it’s wise to give some grace and be kind to people, even when they do things that make you mad.
    • Quote (P. 29): “My favorite was ‘Make the charitable assumption,’ a reminder to assume the best of people, even when (or perhaps especially when) they weren’t behaving particularly well. So, instead of immediately expressing disappointment with an employee who has shown up late and launching into a lecture on how they’ve let down the team, ask first, ‘You’re late; is everything okay?’”
    • Quote (P. 29): “When someone is being difficult, it’s human nature to decide they no longer deserve your best service. But another approach is to think, ‘Maybe the person is being dismissive because their spouse asked for a divorce or because a loved one is ill. Maybe this person needs more love and more hospitality than anyone else in the room.’”
  • Chapter Takeaway — As a manager, trust your people and give them ownership over their job. Micromanaging is a terrible leadership style. 

Ch. 5: Restaurant-Smart vs. Corporate-Smart

  • Explain the ‘Why’ — As mentioned in an earlier bullet, it’s important to have a ‘why’ behind everything you do. Having a ‘why’ gives you a sense of purpose and direction. As someone in a position of leadership, it’s also important to talk through the ‘why’ behind your decisions with your colleagues. If the ‘why’ isn’t clear, people will not fully understand a decision that was made, which opens you up to criticism and second-guessing. This is one of the ways animosity festers and grows. 
  • The Rule of 95/5: Creating Unforgettable Moments — Guidara explains that his 95/5 rule for executing a budget involves, “managing 95% of your business down to the penny, and spend the last 5% ‘foolishly.’” Managing your budget like this gives you the freedom to splurge on things that can benefit your customers and employees; things like extravagant parties for your employees or cool one-off experiences for your customers. These types of expenditures can lead to some unforgettable moments and really boost morale and culture, but it requires that you’re very strict with the other 95% of your budget.
    • Quote (P. 46): “If you love wine, it’s always exciting to drink Grand Cru Burgundy. But the chance to do so almost never happens during ordinary wine pairings — so imagine how excited our guests were when it did! The Rule of 95/5 gave us the ability to surprise and delight everyone that ordered those pairings, making it an experience they would never forget.”
    • Quote (P. 47): “But then, a few times a year, I would spend a truly obnoxious amount of money on an experience for the team, whether that meant closing the restaurant for a day so we could host a team-building retreat or hiring a DJ and buying a couple of cases of Dom Pérignon for the over-the-top staff parties we were famous for. The Rule of 95/5 ensured that I wasn’t blowing the budget; I could afford these indulgences because I’d been so disciplined the rest of the year.”
    • Quote (P. 47): “One of my favorite examples: a family of four from Spain was dining with us on the last night of their New York City vacation. The children at the table were incandescent with excitement, and for the most wonderful reason: thick snow was falling past our massive windows, and they’d never seen real snow before. Spur of the moment, I sent someone out to buy four brand-new sleds. After their meal was over, we had a chauffeur-driven SUV whisk the whole family up to Central Park for a special nightcap: a few hours of play in the freshly fallen snow.”
  • Chapter Takeaway — Allocate some of your budget toward creating unforgettable moments for your employees and customers; throw awesome quarterly parties, spend a few bucks on a whim to make a customer’s day. These small gestures really add up and help build rapport at all levels of your company. 

Ch. 6: Pursuing a True Partnership

  • Make Decisions Collectively — If you’re working closely with somebody else, it’s important that you make decisions together. Don’t stab your partner in the back by making an important decision without consulting him. Communicate openly, and let your partner know where your head is at. After you’ve both made your opinions known, make the decision together. 

Ch. 7: Setting Expectations

  • Make Time For Your People — As Judi Holler also touched on in her book Fear Is My Homeboy, if you’re in a position of leadership, you need to engage with your people. Secluding yourself in your office and not talking to your people is how you begin to lose the respect of your team. Make time for your people. Get to know and understand them. When you do this, you not only connect with them on a human level, you show them that they matter to you. You also learn about them, which can help you get the most out of their unique talents and abilities. Maybe a disgruntled team member simply isn’t being used in the right role. Talking to him/her can help you see that.
    • Quote (P. 64): “Those meetings also taught me that time spent goes a long way. Sitting down with people shows them you care about what they think and how they feel and makes it that much easier for them to trust that you have their best interests in mind. For this reason, I’d later ask the managers to stop sitting together during family meal, which the staff shares together before the restaurant is open. By spreading out, they’d learn, as I had, that the meal is a perfect opportunity to gather ideas and perspectives that might otherwise slip through the cracks.”
    • Quote (P. 66): “A leader’s responsibility is to identify the strengths of the people on their team, no matter how buried those strengths might be.”
  • Thoughts On Criticism — Nobody likes to be criticized, but there will be times when you must dish it out. There are three keys to keep in mind when delivering criticism. These tips will allow you to deliver criticism in a productive way:
    • Criticize the behavior, not the person — You will offend somebody when you attack their character. If you need to criticize someone, make sure you’re focusing on the behavior, not the person. 
    • Praise in public; criticize in private — Most people really like to be recognized in front of their colleagues. If you have praise to deliver, try to do it in front of others. On the other side, never criticize somebody in front of their peers. You may lose the person forever if you do this; the shame of being criticized in front of others is very sharp. Only deliver criticism behind closed doors. 
    • Praise with emotion; criticize without emotion — When you praise someone, be emotional about it. Really explain how you their work makes you feel. On the flip side, never allow negative emotions like anger or frustration to creep in when delivering criticism; try to keep emotion out of the conversation at all costs. 
  • Invite Feedback & Ideas — As a person in leadership, you need to have an open-door policy when it comes to sharing new ideas or ways of doing things better. This doesn’t mean you have to adopt every new idea that your people throw at you, but at the very least they need to know that your door is open and new ideas will be considered. If this element doesn’t exist, your people will feel disempowered and demoralized. They will feel like their voice isn’t being heard and that sharing their ideas is pointless, and they may become so frustrated that they leave. Make sure your people know that they can always stop in and discuss an idea that they have.
    • Quote (P. 68): “I invited people on the team to come to me if they thought we could be doing something better, and to do so well before their frustrations reached a boiling point. Similarly, I encouraged managers to address their own issues with the team as soon as one popped up — before the problem became entrenched, and therefore emotionally charged.”
    • Quote (P. 78): “When you ask, ‘Why do we do it this way?’ and the only answer is ‘Because that’s how it’s always been done,’ that rule deserves another look.”
    • Quote (P. 116): “There’s a better way to do everything, and I made it clear: if you had an idea for how we could improve, I wanted to hear it. The first time someone comes to you with an idea, listen closely, because how you handle it will dictate how they choose to contribute in the future. Dismiss them that first time, and you’ll extinguish a flame that’s difficult to rekindle.”
  • Set Clear Expectations — Your people should have a clear picture of what’s expected of them. Most people in management assume that their team can read their mind. That’s not the case. You need to be very clear about what is expected of each member of the team. And if somebody isn’t living up to the expectations that you’ve set, you need to have a talk with them right away before the behavior continues and both parties become emotionally charged.
    • Quote (P. 69): “Every manager lives with the fantasy that their team can read their mind. But in reality, you have to make your expectations clear. And your team can’t be excellent if you’re not holding them accountable to the standards you’ve set. You normalize these corrections by making them swiftly, whenever they’re needed.”
    • Quote (P. 72): “Communicating consistent standards, with lots of repetition, was important; a good manager makes sure everyone knows what they have to do, then makes sure they’ve done it — that’s the black-and-white part of being a leader. But a huge part of leadership is taking the time to tell your team why they’re doing what they’re doing, and I used pre-meal to get into that why.”
  • Constantly Provide Feedback — As a leader, you need to give as much feedback to your people as humanly possible. Feedback can help drive growth quickly. Your feedback should be primarily positive, but there will be times where you need to deliver negative feedback as well. If you don’t provide consistent feedback to your people, they will not know what they’re doing right or wrong and therefore won’t be able to make any needed adjustments. Make it a habit to sit down with every member of your team and provide feedback on the job they are doing. What are they doing right? What can they improve?
    • Quote (P. 70): “Whether criticism or praise, it’s a leader’s job to give their team feedback all the time. But every person on the team should be hearing more about what they did well than what they could do better, or they’re going to feel deflated and unmotivated. And if you can’t find more compliments to deliver than criticism, that’s a failure in leadership — either you’re not coaching the person sufficiently, or you’ve tried and it’s not working, which means they should no longer be on the team.”
  • Do Everything Well — Try to do everything really well, whether it’s putting together a report for your boss or simply making your bed. How you do one thing is how you do everything — if you cut corners when you make your bed, you’re likely going to cut corners when you need to create your report. Set high expectations for your performance, then hold yourself to that standard in everything you do.
    • Quote (P. 72): “I stayed late every night that first week designing a template for those line-up notes, so they would be beautiful as well as clear and well-organized. That was unreasonable, but the way you do one thing is the way you do everything, and I wanted those notes to be as thoughtful, as beautifully presented, as the lavender honey-glazed dry-aged duck we brought to our guests.”
  • Team Chemistry Matters — Team chemistry absolutely matters, and you should spend time purposely developing it. Ideally, you want everyone on your team to like each other and have each other’s back. Daily morning meetings, team activities and lunches, and fun outings outside of work can really help develop a good rapport. When team chemistry is high, people go out of their way to help each other because they care about the person next to them. A team that is disconnected will not perform as well.
    • Quote (P. 73): “In order to become a team, we needed to stop, take a deep breath, and communicate with one another. If that meant using a more basic napkin fold or simplifying the butter presentation so everyone had time to meet, then that was a trade-off I was willing to accept. How connected we were as a team was more important to me than anything.”
  • Set Them Up to Succeed — One of your major responsibilities as a manager or person in leadership is to give your people everything they need to succeed. Constantly ask your people if they have what they need to be successful in their role. If the answer is ‘no’, work with the person to provide the support they need. 
  • Chapter Takeaway — When you’re in a leadership role, you cannot shut the door on your people and operate as a “lone wolf.” Some of your major responsibilities are to connect with your people, care about them, and give them what they need to succeed. Focus on building team chemistry as well; in most cases, a team that has strong rapport is going to outperform one that lacks it. 

Ch. 8: Breaking Rules and Building a Team

  • Build a Team of ‘A’ Players — When hiring, try to attract as many “A players” as you can. “A players” are the people who care about their work, go above and beyond to deliver the best work that they can, are constantly looking for ways to improve both at work and outside of work, and exhibit a good attitude. You want as many of these people as you can possibly get. And when you get one, make them the core of your staff and invest heavily in their future so they stay. Having a team of these people will really move the organization forward.
    • Quote (P. 83): “At the end of the day, the best way to respect and reward the A players on your team is to surround them with other A players. This is how you attract more A players. And it means you must invest as much energy into hiring as you expect the team to invest in their jobs. You cannot expect someone to keep giving all of themselves if you put someone alongside them who isn’t willing to do the same. You need to be as unreasonable in how you build your team as you are in how you build your product or experience.”
    • Quote (P. 84): “Someone wise once told me, ‘When you hire, you should ask yourself: Could this person become one of the top two or three on the team? They don’t necessarily have to be all the way there yet, but they should have the potential to be.’”
  • Be Passionate — The people who are most passionate about what they do are often the ones who have the most success in life. When you’re passionate about what you do, you will go above and beyond every chance you get, spend countless hours doing the work because you enjoy it, and won’t be afraid of intimidating challenges that you come before you. People who aren’t passionate about what they do will not do these things. Find what you love to do, whatever that may be, and pursue it with passion.
    • Quote (P. 85): “Except that when you grow up a little, you realize the people getting the most out of their lives are the ones who wear their hearts on their sleeves, the ones who allow themselves to be passionate and open and vulnerable, and who approach everything they love at full-throttle, with curiosity and delight and unguarded enthusiasm.”
  • Chapter Takeaway — Find what you’re passionate about and do it! 

Ch. 9: Working With Purpose, On Purpose

  • Know Why Your Work Is Important — Building on one of the points in the previous chapter, you need find a way to enjoy your work, because when you enjoy what you do and have a purpose that drives you, you’re more likely to be successful. You’re more likely to put in the extra hours. Your passion will have you constantly energized. Take some time to identify your purpose and your ‘why’ at work. No matter the field of work, there’s always something you can pinpoint.
    • Quote (P. 98): “No matter what you do, it’s hard to excel if you don’t love it. I’ve had bad days and weeks like everyone else, but I’ve always been able to say, ‘I can’t imagine doing anything else,’ because I’ve always been able to tap into what’s important about my job. I genuinely believe that in restaurants we can give people a break from reality even just for a short time — and, as cheesy as it sounds, that we can make the world a better place. Because when you’re really, really nice to people, they’ll be really nice to others, who will in turn pay it forward. That energizes me, even when I’m depleted.”
    • Quote (P. 99): “You can be in the financial services business, or in the business of providing people with a plan so they can provide a future for their families… It’s the difference between coming to work to do a job and coming to work to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Without exception, no matter what you do, you can make a difference in someone’s life. You must be able to name for yourself why your work matters. And if you’re a leader, you need to encourage everyone on your team to do the same.”
  • Chapter Takeaway — Know your ‘why’ at work. When you understand the bigger picture behind your work, it drives you and keeps you energized. There’s always a higher purpose behind the work you do at your job. Find it. 

Ch. 10: Creating a Culture of Collaboration

  • Learn By Teaching — One of the best ways to learn anything is by teaching it. You can’t teach someone else anything without having a deep understanding of what you’re talking about. By using opportunities to explain things you know to others, you cement the information in your own head.
    • Quote (P. 11): “My dad says that the best way to learn is to teach, and he taught me to study for tests as if I were going in to deliver a presentation. I found that if I studied the material as if I was going to have to turn around and teach it, I learned it much more thoroughly than I would have otherwise.”
  • On Public Speaking — Public speaking is a leadership skill. The most successful people in any industry are usually the ones who have the ability to get up in front of a group of people, communicate their ideas and vision eloquently, and inspire those they are speaking to. If you’re a smooth public speaker, you can get far. At Eleven Madison Park, Guidara used to have different members of the crew get up and deliver the pre-meal talk. This was his way of getting his people to overcome their fear of public speaking. 
  • Collaborate! — You should try to get your people involved as much as possible. This is the opposite approach taken at most corporate offices — here, leadership has a monopoly on decision-making and vision. But by making your people part of everything you do, you build them up in many ways. Encourage them to speak up with new ideas; allow them to strategize and develop a vision for their department or sub-team; let them lead meetings. The more involved your people are, the more they buy in to what’s going on at the company and the more pride they feel in their role. Focus on building a culture collaboration, empowerment, and trust.
    • Quote (P. 117): “I can’t overstate how much credit I give this more collaborative approach for our ultimate success: in my eyes, collaboration is the foundation upon which Unreasonable Hospitality was built. Every single program improved by leaps and bounds, in ways that surprised us. The ideas we were fielding were newer and fresher; in fact, many of the ideas we would be most celebrated for were born in those programs. And there were more of them because it wasn’t only me and Daniel and a few managers coming up with a plan.”
    • Quote (P. 117): “Giving the team more responsibility than they expected had an amazing impact — the more responsibility we trusted them with, the more responsible they became. The more they taught, the more they understood the importance of everything we were asking them to learn. The more they led meetings like pre-meal and Happy Hour, the more they started acting like leaders. The more practice they had with public speaking, the more confidently they carried themselves. And because every single person on the team knew that the vision was created collectively, we were all willing to work even harder to achieve our goals.”
  • Chapter Takeaway — Get your people involved! Encourage collaboration, new ideas, and risk-taking. Give your people a lot of responsibility — they will feel like part of the community and will feel a heightened sense of pride.

Ch. 11: Pushing Toward Excellence

  • Attention to Detail: Go the Extra Mile — Guidara and his team at Eleven Madison Park constantly preached the virtues of attention to detail. They had to. In the fine-dining industry, attention to detail is critical — from the way a server places the wine glasses and silverware to the way the crew moves around the restaurant. Every detail matters. The same level of detail can be applied to any task, project, or job. Pay attention to the details. Push yourself to always go the extra mile. Make sure you are highly detail-oriented in everything you do. This is one of the ways you can separate yourself.
    • Quote (P. 24): “The way you do one thing is the way you do everything, and we found, over and over, that precision in the smallest of details translated to precision in bigger ones. By asking the person setting the dining room to place each plate with total concentration and focus, we were asking them to set the tone for how they’d do everything over the course of the service — how they’d greet our guests, walk through the dining room, communicate with their colleagues, pour the champagne to begin a meal and the cup of coffee to end it.”
  • The Customer Is Always Right — When you’re in a customer service role, the customer is always right, even when he’s wrong. Hospitality is really all about creating a deep connection with your customers or clients, and if you accuse them of being wrong (even if they are wrong), they will get defensive and lose trust. It stinks, but you have to swallow your pride and not take it personally when a customer is being a pain. And if you mess up, you need to go above and beyond to correct the mistake and make it right with the customer.
    • Quote (P. 129): “Which means: it doesn’t matter whether the steak is rare or medium rare. If the guest’s perception is that it’s undercooked, the only acceptable response is, ‘Let me fix it.’ And true hospitality means going one step further and doing everything you can to make sure the situation doesn’t repeat itself — in this case, making an internal guest note in our reservations system that this person ‘orders steak medium rare, but prefers it cooked medium.’”
  • Three Stars — Under Guidara’s direction, Eleven Madison Park in NYC received a three-star rating from the food critics at the New York Times. It was a significant step in the right direction — the restaurant had never earned anything above two stars. 
  • Chapter Takeaway — Pay attention to the details! Strive for excellence in everything you do, even if it’s something as simple as making your bed. When you bring that type of intensity and focus to the simple things, it naturally translates to your big projects. Most people are not highly detail oriented, so being willingness to go the extra mile can really help you and your work stand out from the pack. 

Ch. 12: Relationships Are Simple. Simple Is Hard.

  • “Don’t Go to Bed Angry” — As a leader, you need to hammer home the idea that nobody on the team should “go to bed angry,” meaning you need to encourage your people to speak up if something is bothering them. When employees harbor resentment, big problems are sure to follow. Have an open-door policy. Encourage your team to come to you immediately if they have an issue with something or somebody. Then you can take steps to overcome those frustrations. But if an employee feels like they can’t come to you about something, they will bottle their anger and frustration, and it will grow like a weed. When that happens, it’s like watching a ticking time bomb.
    • Quote (P. 134): “We went so far as to make this a rule, drilled over and over in pre-meal: don’t leave work if you’re harboring feelings of frustration or resentment toward a colleague or the job itself; make sure to talk things through before heading home.”
    • Quote (P. 134): “In my experience, people usually want to be heard more than they want to be agreed with. Even if neither of them managed to change the other’s mind, at the very least they’d have shown each other respect by taking the time to listen.”
  • Know Their “Tough-Love” Language — Juts as everyone has a love language, everyone has a tough-love language, and you need to be able to read your people and know what theirs is because, as a leader, you will have to dish out criticism at some point. Some people respond well to criticism; others take a little more finessing. You need to have a good feel for each of your team members and know what will work, and won’t work, with each one.
    • Quote (P. 139): “You have to know the people you’re working with. Some people are totally pragmatic about criticism; correct them privately and without emotion, and they’ll receive the reproach in exactly the spirit in which it’s offered. . . Other folks are sensitive to criticism. This isn’t necessarily a negative characteristic — it’s usually an indication they want to do a good job and feel deeply wounded at any suggestion that they haven’t. But those people are going to react, no matter what you say or how gently and diplomatically you say it, so you’d better spend some time planning exactly how you’re going to deliver the feedback. . . Then there are the people who can’t or won’t hear what you’re saying unless it comes with a little thunder.”
  • Criticism Is An Investment — When you inevitably do need to criticize someone, it’s important that you preface your comments with a note about how you’re offering the correction because you believe in them and care about their future. It’s not easy to be on the receiving end of criticism — nobody likes it. But criticism is ultimately meant to make you better. If you deliver it in that spirit, the message behind your critiques will stand a better chance of being received in the way you’re intending. It’s just as important to keep this perspective in mind when someone else is criticizing YOU. In this way, you should almost welcome criticism; you should always be open to hearing how you can do things better. Again this is easier said than done because criticism does sting, especially if you care about your work.
    • Quote (P. 140): “That’s why I say there is no better way to show someone you care than by being willing to offer them a correction; it’s the purest expression of putting someone else’s needs above your own, which is what hospitality is all about. Praise is affirmation, but criticism is investment.”
    • Quote (P. 140): “And this is why it’s so important, no matter where you are in the hierarchy, to be able to graciously receive criticism, too. It’s natural to bristle when you come up short, particularly if you’re an A student who takes pride in your work. But if your response is consistently defensive, if you always push back or insist on justifying your mistakes, people are eventually going to stop coming to you with notes. You’ve made it too unpleasant for them to continue, and they’re going to stop investing in you — and you’re going to stop growing as a result.”
  • Chapter Takeaway — When you’re in a position of leadership, you have to give up the idea of being liked by everyone. It’s impossible, and you will need to deliver criticism at some point. The key is how you approach it. First, you need to be able to read your people and know what their tough-love language is. Second, you need to have the right attitude about criticism — it’s ultimately meant to help the receiver improve, and you’re giving the correction because you care about the person. If you can communicate that message before you get into your critiques, your points will have a better chance of being well-received. 

Ch. 13: Leveraging Affirmations

  • Keep Morale High — As a leader, you have to do everything possible to build morale and keep it high. Giving out compliments and praise when somebody deserves it, recognizing members of your team publicly, thoughtful gifts around the holidays, friendly random gestures throughout the year — these are all ways you can do that. 
  • Relais & Châteaux — In 2008, Eleven Madison Park earned entry into Relais & Châteaux, which is an exclusive collection of hotels and restaurants that meet certain criteria of excellence. The organization receives applications, then the quality department audits candidates according to a quality charter, which counts more than 300 different criteria. A secret inspection is also done to evaluate the criteria of excellence. Guidara filed an application for Eleven Madison Park, and it was accepted. This was a big deal. 

Ch. 14: Restoring Balance

  • Do Less, Do It Well — As other books have also touched on, it’s better to focus on mastering one or two skills rather than trying to become great at many different things. The truth is, you can only truly become great at one or two things. By trying to become really good at a bunch of skills, you end up spreading yourself thin and not becoming great at anything. Focus your energy on mastering one or two skills, and settle for understanding the basics with everything else. 
  • Take Time For You — You must put yourself first if you have any chance of being balanced in life. Make sure you are a priority in your life: take time to do things you love to do; take time to relax and unwind; spend time with the people you love the most. This is critical. Naval Ravikant has touched on this in his Almanac, and Judi Holler also wrote about this in her book.  

Ch. 15: The Best Offense Is Offense

  • Interesting Fact — The Michelin Guide was created in the early 1900s as an ingenious marketing ploy. The tire-selling brothers who originated it figured that encouraging people to drive around France to try different restaurants would increase tire sales, so they threw together a free guide of the restaurants in France. Their star system reflected whether a restaurant was worth traveling for. One star meant a very good restaurant in its category, worth a stop. Two meant excellent cooking, deserving of a detour. Three stood for exceptional cuisine, important enough for a special journey. Over the next century, Michelin became the most prestigious restaurant ranking in Europe. In France, gaining an additional star can make a restaurant’s fortunes, while being stripped of one can ruin it.
  • Interesting Fact — Servers at restaurants are taught to follow a “low and slow” approach when delivering dessert items. They purposely walk slower than usual and hold the dessert fairly low when walking it to the table. The strategy behind this technique is to attract the eyeballs of people at other tables — you want other customers to see and smell the delicious dessert item you’re delivering, with the hope that they will order it when it’s time for them to consider dessert.
  • Four Stars for EMP — On August 11, 2009, The New York Times again published a review of Eleven Madison Park after one of its food critics stopped in to eat several times over the span of nearly a year. The review upgraded EMP from a three-star restaurant to a four-star restaurant. At the time, only five other restaurants in New York had earned four stars. This was a major milestone. 

Ch. 16: Earning Informality

  • Be Present — After earning four stars from The New York Times, Guidara and his staff at EMP began to embrace the idea of hospitality even more than they already had. The idea was to create meaningful connections with guests during their dining experience by being very present with them. Rather than moving around the dining room at warp speed, waiters were encouraged to slow down a bit and really connect with their guests. Talk to them. Listen to them. Find out what their interests are. Discover what brought them into the restaurant. 

Ch. 17: Learning to Be Unreasonable

  • World’s 50 Best Restaurants List — In 2010, Eleven Madison Park was named one of the 50 best restaurants in the world. The problem was that they came in 50th place that year. Guidara and his staff took it as a slight and used the 50th place showing to fuel the next stage of their growth. 
  • Unreasonable Hospitality: Enhancing the Guest Experience — It was around this time that EMP really became serious about going the extra mile to provide uncommon hospitality. Guidara and his team began to implement some truly radical and creative ideas to enhance the guest experience. The group had already perfected many of the small details that most elite restaurants were executing: plate arrangement, buffing the silverware, creating stunning food items, creamy linens, leather covers on the wine list, etc. To get to the next level though, EMP began implementing some unusual practices that made a major impact on the guest experience. All of these small details really add up and make for a special experience:
    • The Welcome — At most restaurants, you open the door, go up to a podium, state your name and reservation time, wait a few minutes, and are transported to your table. Guidara saw an opportunity to make this process much more special. First he removed the podium to eliminate the barrier between the guest and the staff member. He then convinced the front door staff to scout the evening’s reservation list and find pictures on the internet of each person. That way, when a guest arrived, the staff member would be able to enthusiastically welcome them in by name. He also arranged schedules in a way that the person welcoming guests into the restaurant that night was the same person who took the guests’ reservation call a few days earlier. That way, there was already rapport between the guest and the welcoming staff member. The staff also began using sign language to communicate if a guest’s table was ready, or if they should be led to the bar for a quick drink while the table was being finalized. 
    • Coat Tickets — Most fine-dining restaurants give each guest a ticket that they can redeem at the end of the night to fetch their coat. Guidara wanted to banish these coat tickets and create a special interaction for guests as they were leaving the restaurant. At his request, his team created a coat checkout system where staff members would keep an eye on each table and move guests’ coats to an “on-deck” station at the front door while the table was paying the check. When the guests finished paying and walked to the front door area, their coats were waiting for them on the rack. 
    • Have It Your Way — At Guidara’s direction, EMP simplified its menu considerably. Rather than having long-winded descriptions of each menu item, most courses only stated the main ingredient. The idea behind this was to create intimate dialogue between the guest and the waiter. After you selected your main course and ingredient, the waiter would walk you through all the options you had at your disposal to create your perfect meal. The chefs in the kitchen were allowed to be flexible and creative to deliver the exact meal a guest was wanting. This process is a lot different than the one-way food ordering communication system at most restaurants, where the customer orders from the menu and the waiter passively jots it down. 
    • Delivering the Check — Delivering the check is always tricky; some guests are in a hurry to leave and want the check now, while others will feel like you’re rushing them out the door if you drop it off too early. Eleven Madison Park decided to solve this issue by delivering a bottle of alcohol with the check toward the end of the meal. People were blown away by the gesture, and they had the freedom to sign the check and leave whenever they were ready.
  • Walk In Their Shoes — People in leadership positions should occasionally step out of their day-to-day role to do a lower-level job at the company. If you’re a CEO of a hotel chain, spend a day running the front desk. If you’re the CEO of an airline, spend a day at the ticketing booth or handing out peanuts on the plane. By stepping into these roles once in a while, you get a feel for how the organization is operating at all levels. You’re able to experience what “lower level employees” are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. This can give you some good ideas about improving things. 
  • What’s the Hospitality Solution? — It takes some creative thinking, but there is usually always a hospitality solution to every problem that pops up. Finding ways to solve issues with a solution that enhances the customer experience, rather than one that detracts from it, is where your head should be. The practices outlined above that Eleven Madison Park implemented are good examples of this idea in action. Guidara and his team were constantly thinking of ways, big and small, that they could enhance the guest experience at their restaurant. Hospitality was always top of mind.
    • Quote (P. 198): “This is a hospitality solution: a problem that we solved not by sneakily chipping away at the service we were offering but by blowing it out in the opposite direction — by giving more, not less. Too often, when we’re faced with a pernicious problem in our businesses, we fall back on the tried-and-true: push harder, be more efficient, cut back. . . Imagine, though, that instead of resorting to one of these fallback positions, you asked yourself: What is the hospitality solution? What if you forced yourself to be creative, to develop a solution that worked because of — not in spite of — your dedication to generosity and extraordinary service?”
  • Chapter Takeaway — Unreasonable Hospitality is really all about going above and beyond to make the customer experience fantastic from start to finish. Every company can find hospitality solutions, big and small, that can make a major positive impact on the customer’s interactions and experience. Some of these solutions take some thought and creativity, but they are out there. It all starts by making hospitality a core value so it always remains top of mind. 

Ch. 18: Improvisational Hospitality

  • Blowing People Away: Legends | Part I — One day, Guidara overheard a table discussing their regret about not grabbing a New York street hot dog on their visit. The guests were visiting for the first time and were leaving to the airport after their meal. He immediately ran out and bought a hot dog from one of the street hot dog vendors, put it on a plate, and delivered it to the table. They freaked out, and the moment served as the catalyst for EMP’s focus on creating unexpected and unforgettable moments for guests through wild acts of thoughtfulness that they called Legends. Guidara later hired a team of “Dreamweavers” whose job was to create these magical moments (“Legends”) on site when the opportunities were there. The quotes below relive some of the most legendary moments:
    • Quote (P. 202): “When a table spent the better part of their meal talking about a movie they’d loved and forgotten about, we dropped off a DVD of it (remember those?) with their check.”
    • Quote (P. 202): “A couple celebrating an anniversary mentioned they were staying at a nearby hotel; we made sure there was a bottle of champagne waiting for them in their room when they got back, along with a handwritten note thanking them for trusting us with such an important occasion.”
    • Quote (P. 202): “A four-top of parents debating the ethics of the Tooth Fairy found a quarter under their folded napkins every time one of them returned from the bathroom.”
    • Quote (P. 204): “A couple came in, splurging on dinner to console themselves after their vacation flight was canceled. We turned the private dining room into a private beach, complete with beach chairs, sand on the ground, and a kiddie pool filled with water they could stick their toes into, and they drowned their disappointment in tropical daiquiris decorated with little umbrellas.”
    • Quote (P. 204): “When a couple who’d gotten married at EMP came to celebrate their anniversary, we invited them to eat dessert at a table we’d set up in the private dining room where they were married. The room was set with flowers, candles, a champagne bucket — the whole nine — and as they were finishing their dessert, we turned the lights even lower and hit play on ‘Lovely Day’ by Bill Withers — their wedding song, a detail we’d found in our notes. Then we turned the lights a little lower and closed the door behind us.”
    • Quote (P. 205): “One night, a banker hustling to fund a new company teased his captain: sure, an after-dinner drink would be great, but what he really needed was a million dollars to finish his raise. Alas, our budget only stretched to a bag filled with ten 100 Grand chocolate bars, which we tucked under his chair.”
  • Blowing People Away: Legends | Part II — In addition to creating unforgettable moments for guests, what made some of these amazing acts of thoughtfulness so great was that they gave people a story to share with others. These moments were so thoughtful and unexpected that guests went home and told everyone they knew about it, and the stories lasted a lifetime. What made these gestures (“Legends”) so memorable was that they were completely unexpected — they surprised people. Both in business and in life, if you can surprise people with unexpected and thoughtful gestures, you can really blow people away and create unforgettable moments.
    • Quote (P. 205): “The name took on even greater significance as we realized what made these Legends so legendary. Namely, they gave people a story — a Legend — to tell.”
    • Quote (P. 206): “If people were coming to us to add to their collection of experiences, then we saw these not as extra flourishes but as a responsibility: to give people a memory so good it enabled them to relive their experience with us.”
  • Opportunities Are Everywhere — Again, there are opportunities to be thoughtful everywhere you look. It’s really about adopting hospitality and thoughtfulness as core values in your life and in your business. When these are core values that you keep in mind daily, you are more likely to see the opportunities when they present themselves and spend the time needed to orchestrate the gift. And it’s not about how much the gift costs — it’s about the thoughtfulness behind it. If you can provide a hand-written note with your gift, that adds an additional layer of thoughtfulness. Be excited to give gifts! Hunt for these opportunities! That’s the mindset you should have.
    • Quote (P. 217): “Gifts, to me, are deeply meaningful. . . Gifts are a way to tell people you saw, heard, and recognized them — that you cared enough to listen, and to do something with what you heard. A gift transforms an interaction, taking it from transactional to relational; there is no better way than a gift to demonstrate that someone is more than a customer or a line item on a spreadsheet.”
  • Opportunities In Real Estate — To prove that hospitality can be incorporated into any industry, consider the following examples that a real estate agent could use instead of leaving a standard bottle of wine for their client after closing a sale. If the client is into music, the agent could leave a copy of their favorite album in vinyl and spring for a board to play it on. The agent could leave a yoga mat for a client that has expressed interest in doing yoga in one of the nooks of the house. The agent could also leave a few protective plastic outlet covers and leave them in the drawer for a client who has a newborn on the way.
  • Opportunities for Car Dealers — Alternatively, a car dealer could buy a year of Triple A insurance for the daughter of a client who just bought a car for their new teenage driver. The same dealer could send a client and his family home with a few snacks to keep the kids from getting hangry on the drive back, along with a duster tool to collect any crumbs. The opportunities are endless if you take the time to think.
    • Quote (P. 217): “And you should always — always —be on the lookout for the Legend. Let’s say a guy has come back to your dealership every couple of years for a new car, and you’ve gotten to know him well. When his kids go off to college, he starts looking at vans; with a little more time on his hands, he’s rediscovered his adolescent passion for surfing. Why wouldn’t you have a freshly waxed board waiting for him in the roof rack when he comes to pick up his new car? Obviously, this is a big gift, but it’s also one with the potential to turn a faithful customer into a lifelong relationship. And if a surfboard’s outside your budget, a can of surf wax on the dash with a bow and a note will do much the same thing.”
  • Chapter Takeaway — Adopt hospitality and thoughtfulness as core values in your life. Small, spontaneous, unexpected gifts are deeply meaningful and can make a huge impact on people — be excited to give them! Use your eyes and ears to hunt for these opportunities. 

Ch. 19: Scaling a Culture

  • Buying EMP, Starting NoMad — In 2011, Guidara and his business partner/head chef Daniel Humm bought Eleven Madison Park from Danny Meyer, their mentor and the owner of the restaurant. At the same time, they signed a deal to open the NoMad, a hotel restaurant located not far from EMP. Although the two restaurants were technically competing against each other, Guidara and Humm envisioned the NoMad being much different than the fine-dining experience at EMP.
    • Quote (P. 223): “If Eleven Madison Park was the place we’d choose to celebrate a special occasion (or when the dinner was the special occasion), the NoMad was where we’d go when it was time for an incredible night out.”
  • Three Stars From Michelin — Also in 2011, Eleven Madison Park became the first restaurant ever to jump in one year from one to three stars in the Michelin Guide. Three stars is the highest rating a restaurant can earn from Michelin. More information on the Michelin Guide is above in Chapter 15. 
  • Never Forget Where You Came From — As a business grows and expands, it’s very easy to leave behind the values and “initial magic” that led to early success. The focus shifts to bigger things like growth, cutting costs, hiring more people, etc. Try not to let this happen. Identify the purpose statement, values, and cultural magic that led to early success, bottle it, and never let it go. Protect your culture and values at all cost, even as the business begins to grow and scale.
    • Quote (P. 226): “As you grow, you can’t lose the very thing that gave you the opportunity to grow. When you consider expanding, in any form, you have to first stop and identify what makes your culture unique and decide in advance to protect whatever that is. For us, that was our culture of Unreasonable Hospitality — going above and beyond, doing more, always giving our guests more than they expected.”
  • Train Your People — How can you expect your employees to embody your culture and serve clients the way you want them to be served if they aren’t trained properly? Invest a lot of time, money, and resources into training your people. Make it very clear, through training, what the company stands for and what is expected of the employee. Don’t overlook this! It’s very important because, ultimately, a company goes as its employees go.
    • Quote (P. 227): “We took training very seriously in the run-up to opening the NoMad. Our budget for education was outrageous, according to the conventional wisdom, but I was betting the enormous amounts of time and energy and money we were spending would turn out to be a good investment. I’m always surprised when people spend a fortune on a new project, then skimp on training the people charged with bringing that project to life — a perfect example of what it means to be ‘penny-wise, pound-foolish.’”
  • Recognition for NoMad, EMP — In 2012, the NoMad received three stars in its first review from the New York Times. Also in 2012, Eleven Madison Park moved up to No. 10 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Both restaurants were thriving. 
  • Hold Yourself Accountable — A terrible leader is one who never takes accountability. As discussed in many books I’ve read, you are 100% responsible for everything that happens to you in your life. And that philosophy applies to leadership as well. When something doesn’t work out at the company, you need to be able to own the mistake, apologize publicly to your team, and take steps to correct the issue. Leaders take ownership and accountability, even when something might not have been their fault directly.
    • Quote (P. 233): “As hard as it is to hold yourself accountable publicly, it strengthens the bond between you and your team, because if you’re willing to stand up and criticize yourself, people will always be more willing to receive criticism from you.”
  • Promote Early — If you see somebody who is ambitious and eager to learn, don’t be afraid to promote him/her a little earlier than you might feel comfortable with. Nobody is truly ready to be promoted or take on more responsibility. But if there is somebody who shows a lot of promise and would be worth building around, consider promoting that person, because that type of person will work even harder to prove that you made the right call. Showing trust in someone like that will make a major impact on him/her.
    • Quote (P. 233): “Sometimes the best time to promote people is before they are ready. So long as they are hungry, they will work even harder to prove that you made the right decision.”
  • Chapter Takeaway — Put a lot of resources into training your people; your employees are the engine that drives the company. Don’t neglect this. And don’t be afraid to promote somebody a little earlier than you might be comfortable with. A person with the right mindset, approach, and work ethic is worth promoting and building around.  

Ch. 20: Back to Basics

  • Idea First, Execution Second — When coming up with ideas, never hold yourself hostage to limitations. Brainstorm ideas by asking yourself: What would I do if there were no restrictions holding me back? Think of the idea, then find a way to execute it. This was the approach Guidara took throughout his time leading Eleven Madison Park, and the results from some of his creative ideas were pretty impressive. He and his team were always thinking out of the box. This approach even led to a magic trick idea where guests selected their desert by participating in a card trick with their server. The trick added to EMP’s unforgettable dining experience and gave guests something to talk about for weeks.
    • Quote (P. 238): “Working with Jonathan and Dan reinforced what I’d always believed: Start with what you want to achieve, instead of limiting yourself to what’s realistic or sustainable. Or, as I like to say, don’t ruin a story with the facts. Eventually, you’ll reverse engineer your great idea and figure out what’s possible and cost-effective and all the other boring grown-up stuff. But you should start with what you want to achieve.”
  • Mission Statement — As mentioned previously, the purpose of a mission statement is to keep your company centered on the right things, no matter how big you end up getting. It should be simple, easily understood, and reflective of your core beliefs. It should be posted in various places around the company’s offices, and it should almost act like a filter to help you make decisions.
    • Quote (P. 245): “A mission statement’s role, in any organization, is to articulate the non-negotiables. It needs to be clear and simple and easily understood, so that any time you’re making any decision, no matter how big or small, you can rely on it as a filter to decide. Will taking an action help you achieve the goal laid out in the mission statement? Or will it take you away from that goal? That way, the decision is already made for you all you have to do is ask yourself the question.”
  • Best Restaurant In the World — In 2017, Eleven Madison Park was named the best restaurant in the world after seven long years of hard work, creativity, attention to detail, and commitment to unreasonable hospitality. A few years earlier, in 2014, the restaurant earned another four-star review from The New York Times.
    • Quote (P. 249): “We had set out to achieve a seemingly impossible goal: to embody both excellence and hospitality — concepts in tension with each other, if not outright conflict. We had made the decision to be as joyfully unreasonable in our creative pursuit of hospitality in the dining room as the best restaurants all over the world already were in the kitchen.”
  • Chapter Takeaway — It’s all about ideas. Come up with a great idea, then find a way to pull it off. Don’t allow your ideas to be limited by anything. 

Epilogue

  • Closing Time — After continuing to have success, Guidara eventually left Eleven Madison Park and split from his business partner/head chef, Daniel Humm. Humm continued to lead EMP, along with he and Guidara’s other restaurant projects, like the NoMad.