Hotel Icon - Process report 2016

AUTHENTICITY

and the Future of Hospitality

Hotel ICON is a hotel unlike any other. Its hybrid teaching and research institute integrated in a practical training and fully operating environment makes it one of its kind.

Introduction In collaboration with ICON Hotel Hong Kong, the team from RCA embarked on a search to unpack what Authenticity is. Through our research, we discovered that authenticity is a fluid concept and the experience of it is based on each individual’s perception and is up to personal interpretation. Therefore, we concluded that if Authenticity is designed or manipulated, it becomes inauthentic and simulated. Therefore, to keep it in its purest form, Authenticity cannot be designed. However, conditions can be created to trigger it.

We believe that developing a people-centred work culture consistent to Hotel ICON’s core values of being open & collaborative, encouraging experimentation and showing care and investing in people, will crreate an environment of frust, transparency and empathy.

These conditions are essential for employees to thrive, be fully engaged, and be truly themselves As a a result of employees’ transformation, ICON’s brand values are lived out and manifested through the interactions with guests, emanating a genuine touch in the Hotel ICON experience.

We call this ‘AURA’.

It is that special touch, a certain kind of personality, that can be felt but cannot be fully explained.

It is a one-of-a-kind interaction that is personalized, inimitable and authentic.

Contents 01 About

02 Discover

03 Define

The Project

7

Future of Hospitality

17

What is Authenticity

29

The Client

9

Why Authenticity

18

Enacting Authenticity

30

The Team

11

Unpacking Authenticity

19

Organization Alignment

31

Our Process

12

Attributes of Authenticity

21

Mission Statement

32

Research Methods

14

Competition

22

How to Deliver

33

ICON’s Positioning

23

Holistic change model

34

Key Observations

24

Key Challenges

26

04 Develop

05 Deliver

06 Conclusions

Personas

37

A Vision

51

1. Holistic indicators

38

Future scenario

52

2. Culture of mentorship

40

Benefits

56

3. Team spirit

42

Implementaion Plan

58

4. Seamless system tool

44

5. Interdisciplinary way of working

46

6. Collaborative workspace

48

Summary

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ABOUT 6

The Project ENVISION THE FUTURE of hospitality and the implications to issues of authenticity in experience.

This project is about reimagining the future of the hospitality experience and perhaps the industry itself, through gaining insight into what the meaning of authenticity is and to test whether or not the experience of authenticity can be transformative.

The forces that are transforming this sector relate to both the nature of market demand, as well as to the supply of hospitality services. There are major demographic, economic and social trends; rising environmental concerns by customers as well as the industry. We are witnessing the emergence of new technologies radically transforming the industry in both the nature of the services it provides, as well as how and who provides those services.

In view of hotel ICON’s upcoming renovation in 4-5 years time, consider how the concept solutions prepare for the new guest experience. Consider if these proposals could also apply to related sectors such as health and hospital care, hospices, transportation etc.

Fundamentally, consider if by designing and manipulating the hospitality experience, can we still claim it to be authentic?

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ICON’s vision is to be the industry-leading hotel, creating the perfect and individual experience for each guest through open & collaborative sharing, experimentation, and showing care for and investing in people.

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Hotel ICON ICON is a teaching and research hotel that integrates learning and practical training in a fully operating service environment.It’s make up of both commercial and educational purposes which makes Hotel ICON unique.

Located in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, it is a location offering a window to Hong Kong’s most vibrant experience of city life because around it is the Hong Kong Cultural centre, museums, shopping, restaurants and bars, celebrating Hong Kong’s history, culture & diversity.

Besides its function as a luxury Hotel ICON’s management is also responsible to educate students from PolyU’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM). Frequent visits from the school, as well as intern opportunities are common for students. The design of the hotel building is such that training facilities are combined in one building. One of its key feature is the prototype room which allows students to protytype and test new ideas. Spaces within the interior of ICON gives opportunity for local art and design community to display their works and showcase their talents.

ICON sees other hotels in the industry as “ collaborators” than “competitors”. They share researche best practices making them a leader in their field, a hotel unlike any other.

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A multidisciplinary team of people with diverse skillsets consisting of product design, spatial and interior design, architecture as well as innovation consulting amongst others.

The Team

Lin Wei-Teng

Liu Hsiao-Han

wei-teng.lin@network.rca.ac.uk

hsiao-han.liu@network.rca.ac.uk

Kath Vasinee Saeng-Uraiporn

Victoria Koo

Zhang Yu-Wei, Willa

victoria.koo@network.rca.ac.uk

yuwei.zhang@network.rca.ac.uk

v.saeng-uraiporn@ network.rca.ac.uk

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Our Process DISCOVER

Research Trend analysis Case studies Insights gathering Observation Competition analysis Hotel experience interviews Insights analysis Shadowing hotel staff Hotel Staff interview Hotel space analysis

DEFINE

Challenge framing Opportunities for interventions Problem focus areas Design principle development Mission statement Key areas for intervention Directions for delivering on the vision Future Scenario development Map ideal journey + service blueprint

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DEVELOP

Ideation Ideation workshop with hotel staff Design touchpoint solutions for future proposition Design backend Service blueprint for customer journey delivery

DELIVER

Implementation plan Detailed service blueprint Innovation interventions across staff journey 4-w5 year road map Detailed deployment plan

Concept creation & Prototyping Storyboards Scenariors

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Research Methods Unpacking Authenticity The first part of our research was to form an understanding of what authenticity means in context to the future of hospitality. We looked at behavioural patterns of people in the industry by conducting interviews with people from different age groups and background, trend and competitor analysis, hotel observations, and hospitality industry case studies.

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10

8

7

8

Interviews

Hotel Observation

Competitor analysis

Trend analysis

Industry case studies

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On-site immersion The second part of our research was a qualitative study in Hotel ICON where we deep dived into the hotel experience to understand the dynamics and daily operations of the hotel. We gathered insights from shadowing and interviewing both guest and staff as well as workshops with the management team.

Observations

Interviews with Guest

Interviews with Staff

Shadowing Staff

Co-creation Workshop

Interaction between staff and guests

Guest Experience

Staff experience

Shadowed front-end/backend hotel staff and guests

Organised design thinking workshop with hotel staffs

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DISCOVER

Future of Hospitality In hotel industry, hospitality is vitally important. Hotels need to keep guests engaged in order to keep them coming back for the business to grow and prosper. Hence, hotels put a high premium to make their stay as relaxing and as comfortable as possible, almost like never having left home.

We discovered that hospitality changes its definitions in different generations, according to people’s desire, satisfaction. In other words, “the future of hospitality” is shaped by the major consumers in the future of tourism, which are millennials. Hospitality is evolving and expanding following guests’ tastes. By year 2020, millennials will make up 50% of travelers.

It is predicted that by the year 2020, they will make up 50% of travelers, and they are looking for authentic experiences that they can trust.

As such, it shapes the things they want out of an experience - something that is unique, cannot be duplicated, can be captured and shared instantly. They crave authentic experience. Therefore, hotels must convince these new customers that they are being genuine and honest about their values and their purposes.

In this respect, authenticity has become the “new hospitality” for the future of hotels.

The Future of Hospitality is Authencity,

Why Authenticity Future consumers defining the hospitality experience of the future.

The future of hospitality will be dominated by millennials who are digital natives and social media junkies. They tend to capture and share their experiences instantaneously.

Millennials love to share their experiences which extends to their own community online.

When they travel, they prefer to go to less known local areas more than tourist hot spots.

They desire to interact with the natural environment, observe local culture, and establish connection with the locals.

Also, because of global economic crisis, millennials are more skeptical about brand narratives and its value. They are seeking meaning and real connection, something where they can learn and grow.

Millennials are redefining travel and influencing the kinds of experiences that service providers offer and the way organizations run their business. Therefore, to attract these customers, demonstrating actual concern for their happiness and well-being and being true from the core will be essential.

Unpacking Authenticity DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS

4 Views:

1

DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS

2

TRENDS & PERSPECTIVES

SOCIAL

Driven by values and Personalized

- Quality of being genuine, real or true.

TRENDS & PERSPECTIVES - Based on facts; accurate or reliable.

- True to one’s own personality, spirit, or character, unchanging despite external pressures.

CASE STUDIES

CASE STUDIES

Tourism:People becoming more aware & are making choices in line with their values. They pay a premium for experiences that gives them the connection, and transforms them from within.

TECHNOLOGY

PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION

Original & Inimitable experiences Novel, first of its kind experience. Transparent, open & secure databases that cannot be forged.

ECONOMICS

PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION

Consistent Focus that meets customer demands on time & with value is enabled because of support from leadership throughout front & back end processes and service delivery.

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DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS

TRENDS & PERSPECTIVES

Unpacking Authenticity TRENDS & PERSPECTIVES

3

CASE STUDIES

4

CASE STUDIES

Connection with Place:

Connection with Self:

Nature, culture, history & heritage PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION

A getaway to rediscover self and to recharge

POP UP HOTEL

The experience of a hotel, outside a hotel

STAYCATIONS

‘Home’ away from home vacations travel within your city.

Connection with Community: Meaningful experiences to do good and feel good

VOLUNTEERISM TRAVELS

Doing something good while travelling to have meaningful experiences.

PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION

“The more important part of the authenticity question is to look at the character of the person. What’s behind what they say?”

Psychology today Flows from a person’s genuine & trustworthy character that is guided by core values of honesty, transparency and empathy, behaving in a sincere manner true to self and others, without fakery.

Formed by conscious character building through constant self reflection and a sensitivity to others.

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Attributes of Authenticity Summary of Attributes: RELIABLE

REAL

From the various perspectives of what authenticity is, there are 4 key ones:

UNCHANGING

Consistent: From leadership style to processes VALUES DRIVEN

PERSONALIZED

ORIGINAL

INIMITABLE

CONSISTENT

CONNECTION WITH COMMUNITY CONNECTION WITH PLACE

CONNECTION WITH SELF

UNIQUE

GENUINE

MEANINGFUL

Values driven: From product/ service offerings to choices people make Personalized: Emotionally invested, felt, like you’re the only one; Special, none like it.

Transparent: Open & secure.

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Competition 5 star experiences

Intimate experience

Hospitality experiences

Design connection with location, place and community.

“The best of whatever the city has to offer”

Trust, personalization and community.

“At a time when we’ve been told to look at each other with suspicion and fear,” he said, “you’re telling the world it’s O.K. to trust again.”

Be treated like royalty.

“To deliver the best vacation experience.”

Similar business

Personalized for every style “Experiences that offer something extraordinary. ”

Same industry

Other industry

Every business is trying to win the hearts and minds of their new consumers. From delivering service with a difference, to exclusive experiences, the competition is stiff. Those who truly understand and deliver something inimitable, are likely those who will succeed in the long run.

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ICON’s Positioning Family

Transformational experience

Participatory experience

Compared to the competitiors, Hotel ICON is unlike any other because of their hybrid mix that functions both as a commercial entity but also one that serves an educational purpose.

Customer

Hotel ICON should leverage on its connection with Poly U SHTM because there is direct access to the academic faculty and research on new innovations and trends. More than that, Hotel ICON has a ready stream of talent and human resource at its doorstep. It is truly a unique positioning to be taken advantage of.

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Key observations What ICON say...

What GUEST say...

What STAFF say...

“born to develop and innovate our industry”

“Hotel ICON is the Oasis in busy Hong Kong!

I like the modern and contemporary style.”

“Teamwork and communication is very important but it not always efficient.”

“Long waiting time at lifts and I don’t know which is going up or down.

“We are constantly interrupted by calls”

“We are Hong Kong ambassadors. ” “We love to care, we care to love.”

“Service feels natural.”

“Sometimes we are so busy there’s no time to eat.”

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STAFF experience

UNCONDUCIVE work environment

Difference in CARE for staff & guest

Constant call INTERRUPTIONS

UNSTRUCTURED mentor guideline

Many staff have to work long work hours a day in a compact environment, especially those in operations where they sometimes have very little rest.

Currently, there is an obvious difference in work environment and conditions as compared to guests environment. The enclosed offices creates a dark and tense atmosphere, which could decrease the work productivity and does not encourage creativity.

In the hotel, employees use mobile phone to communicate tasks as well as to respond to urgent situations. This causes alot of disruption to work flow as they are often being disturbed by calls. Different departments also use different system, sometimes creating confusion and misunderstanding.

The existing mentorship program requires employees in senior position to manage interns.

However, there are no clear guidelines as to how to guide the intern. At the same time, the mentors are not continuously being developed. Therefore the learning is limited.

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Key Challenges ORGANIZATION ALIGNMENT

SERVICE SUPPORT

PEOPLE INVESTMENT

Communication of core values not delivered through staff experience consistently.

Goals of each department not aligned.

Staff take on hybrid roles juggling between job and being mentors Tools & systems need to be enhanced to create operation efficiencies within team and across departments. Workflow between departments can be more seamless.

Investment in people is not the core priority. Need for structure and materials for mentorship and intentional development of people’s character and skills at all levels.

Back end Workspace need to be more user friendly to improve psychological well being.

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We started out the project researching what the future of the industry and a hotel would potentially be like. From observations at Hotel ICON, it currently does a good job making guest feel welcome and ensuring that their journey is a smooth one. However, through benchmarking them against what the ideal state of a future hotel should be, we found that there is an inconsistency in terms of the staff experience.

We found that these are caused by 4 main underlying issues.

First, values and vision were unaligned and different teams do not share the same goals.

Second, teams worked in silos with little interaction with one another. Third, staff’s holistic well-being was under cared for.

And lastly lack of feedback channel and motivation of staff resulted in status quo guest experience.

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DEFINE

What is Authenticity?

The concept of authenticity is not static, A single experience can have different interpretation depending on the perspective of different viewers and how it be viewed in the current status. Since the perception of authenticity is fluid and up to personal interpretation, based on individual experience.

Authenticity cannot be designed.

However, conditions can be created to trigger it.

Enacting Authenticity We think that an authentic experience for guests should truly reflect Hotel ICON’s spirit of pioneership, experimentation and care.

If their core values are authentically lived out, they will emanate an aura that can be felt and not easily duplicated.

This should be done through having a common vision, shared purpose and core values that is translated into every aspect of the organization.

It should be consistent from the organization’s culture, structure and system, to the staffs’ experience and well being.

At the level of service delivery, guests would experience this authenticity through staff’s genuine interaction with them.

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Organization Alignment ALIGNED VISION & BRAND VALUES

COMMON GOALS & COLLABORATIVE TEAMS

HOLISTIC WELLBEING & GROWTH OF STAFF

CHANNELS FOR PROACTIVE FEEDBACK

Brand values and visions should be aligned between different department as well as from manager level to the front line staff.

Common goals should be built across the organizations, and encourage teams to work collaboratively to achieve it together.

Staff’s well-being and individual growth should be part of the priority in Hotel ICON, this will become the foundation for the organization’s future growth.

By far, the staff can do their job well and provide standard 5 star hotel service.

A young and vibrant hotel like ICON should build channels for proactive feedback that staff can help shaping an even better guests experience.

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Mission Statement To transform a work culture that delivers on ICON’s brand values, consistent from backend to front

How to Deliver FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES for creating conditions of AUTHENTICITY

Driven by Purpose & Values

Interdisciplinary Practices

Transformative Engagements

Hotel ICON should articulating what its vision and values are and start building a clear organization purpose and narrative so that staff can follow.

Interdisciplinary practices and colloborative working across teams to help build understanding and empathy of what each department’s responsibility is. It is also helps inspire each other and generate new ideas.

Creating transformative engagements within staff to by developing them holistically and fulfilling their growth needs helps staff fell a sense of belonging and importance and truly part of the ICON family. This would compel them to leave guests with memorable moments.

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Holistic change model 6 key areas For authenticity to materialize, we propose that change should be carried out by first having new measurements of success that reflects holistic indicators for all rounded staff development.

Second to create a culture that is aligned from its core goal and vision through to its structure and employee experience by having a system of support.

Third is to build team spirit within the departments to increase opportunities for staff to interact with one another.

Fourth, to have an intergrated system tool where all departments use the same platform for more seamless workflow.

Fifth, to encourage a more interdisciplinary way of working by encourage cross departmental way collaborations.

Sixth, to design a more open and conducive workspace to facilitate the above and essentially, to help staff be more effective and productive at work.

More details are explained on the next page.

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01: Holistic indicators Emphasise overall Psychological wellbeing and not just technical skills of staff as part of Hotel ICON’s competitive advantage.

Staff are given freedom & autonomy to propose what they would like to learn and how they would like to be developed.

It is a new career progression that is self directed based on their personal passion and mission.

04: Interdisciplinary way of working From staff’s feedback, they expressed that teamwork and cross departmental support is essential to do their job well. Therefore, an interdisciplinary way of working by restructuring teams to work across departments helps build diversity and collaboration. Teams will be equipped with Design thinking tools to provide them with a holistic approach, new ways of thinking & problem solving in their daily work through our system of learn, apply and share. as well as an opportunity for role exchange to help them walk a day in the shoes of their colleagues to get a more holistic view of their work.

02: Culture of mentorship Each staff is assigned a mentor who will support them on their growth journey.

The mentor acts as a role model, guiding the younger staff in their overall growth of competence and character.

The mentee also plays an active role to give feedback and share new knowledge with their mentors.

Culture of mentorship strengthens the staff engagement and retention, empowers them to be contributors, and gives them a sense of belonging, as well as puts in place a plan for succession.

05: Seamless system tool A smart seamless system that integrates all devices on one platform as we found that a lot of time wasted on task repetition, call interruption and lack of internal communication between teams. Building on the existing digital communication smart phone, live system updates ease pressure & enhances workflow giving updated information, to prevent any disappointment and improve communication.

03: Team spirit Building ICON’s spirit & positive work atmosphere, enhances communication across departments, it encourage opportunities to deepen relationships.

Social gatherings are a way to create regular opportunities for staff to meet & mix with other colleagues to help foster relationship.

Time and space for restful renewal and self development would add to staff psychological well-being as well.

06: Collaborative workspace A conductive environment for informal interactions in a relaxed environment, encourages more dialogue and creativity.

An open concept office also allow for interactions across the organization.

The space will be fitted with modular furniture, brainstorming props and flexible seating areas to facilitate collaboration. It will also incorporate playful touch points in the common areas to create vibrancy which also doubles as informal meeting space to catch up with colleagues informally.

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DEVELOP

Personas Jerry Lin

Andrea Wan

Age: 22 Department: Receptionist Position: Junior staff, 5 months with ICON

Age: 36 Department: Human Resource Position: Mid - Senior level staff, 22 months with ICON Characteristic: Warm, disciplined.

Purpose: To grow professionally and lead others.

Motivation: To have a meaningful job that guides others. The working atmosphere here is energetic and young. ICON encourages us to try new things. All the ICON staff aim high.

Characteristic: Caring and humorous Purpose: To learn more about hotel management.

Motivation: ICON is a pioneer in the industry and has partnership with the school, which I interned in.

The working atmosphere here is energetic and young.

Challenges: The communication with other departments is difficult and inefficient. Management doesn’t seem to know what’s on the ground and often focus on targets.

What do you like about working at ICON: It is encouraging when management recognizes your effort and understands.

Challenges: To meet deadlines because there are new unexpected things that can crop up.

Everyday is a new day.

What do you like about working at ICON: Also, managers in ICON are young and less experienced, but the hotel puts us in leadership positions to get hands on experience.

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1. Holistic indicators Key Feature

How it works:

New criteria of measuring success focused on understanding and creating a shared culture by outlining measurements that emphasize more thand just skills, but things like empathetic engagement, wellbeing, development growth. a new career progression that is self directed based on their personal passion and mission.

The New criterion for developing talent are in 3 areas: 1. Technical Skills, 2. Personal soft skills and mindsets and 3. Overall wellbeing as key assessment metrics.

Other supporting elements - Self learning structure Understand and gather input on what staff need and areas they would like to grow in.

- Recruitment package containing letter to Future self New Recruits and existing staff can start to use letter to set specific year goals and HR will follow up to check on progress.

- Orientation tour An immersive tour for new joinees, guided by experienced staff to communicate ICON’s culture and spirit.

- ICON Staff persona A databank of for recruitment of staff that fits ICON’s personality.

Within these areas staff are given freedom & autonomy to propose what they would like to learn and how they would like to be developed.

At the beginning of the year, staff with mark where they currently are and where they would like to be. This allows them to track how they have progressed over the year

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An example:

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2. Culture of mentorship Key Feature A mentorship model fosters a culture of continuous learning and feedback, building management-staff relationship.

We found that ICON has a staff turnover of 30% and it is difficult to retain talent.

Developing a culture of mentorship helps construct a new model of leadership sucession and career development.

Other supporting elements - Timetable time for mentor mentee meetings Monthly mentoring meeting for feedback and review

How it works: Each staff is assigned a mentor.

The mentor acts as a role model, supporting the younger staff in their overall growth of competence and character.

The mentee also plays an active role to give feedback and share new knowledge with their mentors. This helps saves on training course Also, each staff is assigned a peer from another department that they work closely with to encourage collaboration and to exchange learnings Such a model helps team to be more agile & responsive to change.

The model of mentorship is not limited only to the mentee’s direct senior but s/ he could also be mentored by someone in top management, to enhance their visible to people in lower positions.

Even mentors have peers from other department and their own mentors so that each person is developed and groomed to take up leadership and lead others by example

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An example:

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3. Team spirit Key Feature

How it works:

Building team spirit through having more social activity and interactions within & across teams so as to put in practice ICON’s tagline of “We love to care, we care to love”.

This creates an atmosphere where that values the importance of employees, thus engaging them.

Social gatherings A way to create regular opportunities for staff to meet & mix with other colleagues to help foster relationships.

Other supporting elements

Time and space for restful renewal and self development This adds to staff psychological well-being .

- Social events - Rewarding staff personal message) - Recognizing staff From staff to staff: Place postcards and encourage props around that staff can pick up to give to colleagues From guests to staff: - Staff Wellness

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An example:

Team cooking class

Massage vouchers as reward to be used in the hotel

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4. Interdiscipline way of working Key Feature Using design thinking methods and tools to develop new ways to thinking. encouraging team work, creativity and innovation.

Other supporting elements - Equipping of Learning and Development team Content creation and skills development so as to pass on knowledge to colleagues.

- Role exchange Inter-department role exchange to help staff walk a day in the shoes of their colleagues to get a more holistic view of their work.

How it works: Design thinking workshops We will equip teams with Design thinking tools to provide them with new ways of thinking & problem solving in their daily work Learn, Apply, Share: Through our system of learn, apply and share. this creates a loop that transfers knowledge to the various teams and departments and eventually new learning and thinking methods will also be shared with the wider ICON community.

Hackathon competititons: To open the design thinking training to ICON’s wider community, we have developed hackathon day competitions that will be followed by prototyping workshop and a final idea pitch to management where best ideas will get implemented.

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An example:

Design Thinking Guide

Design Thinking Tool

Hackathons

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5. Seamless system tool Key Feature

How it works:

A smart seamless system that integrates all devices on one platform building on the existing digital communication smartphone, to provide ubiquitous access and information to staff. This would reduce time wasted on task repetition, call interruption and lack of internal communication between teams, preventingh any disappointment and improving communication.

Single platfrom system for all departments Live system updates ease pressure & enhances workflow as it gives on time, on target updated information to all teams.

Other supporting elements - Redesign of database systems Documents to be accessed on the cloud, creating ease of access to information needed as well as a move to go paperless.

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An example:

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6. Collaborative workspace Key Feature A collaborative workspace redesign is essential to create a ‘living and breathing’ office environment that echoes the lobby design. This would make it more conducive and productive for employees to work in.

Common area are underused, this will be repurposed to provide opportunities for interactions as teams from different departments do not naturally meet.

How it works: Open concept office Have modular furnitures, brainstorming props and flexible seating areas to facilitates collaboration Common spaces Incorporates Playful touchpoints in the common area to create vibrancy which also doubles up as informal meeting space to catch up with colleagues informally ‘Sensorial experience design’ helps create an environment for creativity.

Other supporting elements -

Canteen Staff common area/ Pantry Space for rest/ staff quaters areas Storage system rearrange

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An example:

OFFICE SPACE

CANTEEN

PANTRY AREA 49

DELIVER

A Vision The spirit of Icon lived out through authentic leadership and practices, so as to establish ICON as the industry role model, pioneering innovative ways of doing and thinking and delivering experiences ‘unlike any other’ through transformative engagements

Future scenario As part of Hotel ICON’s role is to educate the next generation workforce and to experiment on innovative ideas, this experimental spirit should be rolled out in every level, especially throught the “culture of mentorship”, and building an “interdisciplinary way of working”.

In the new mentorship structure, instead of one way flow of knowledge from experienced to junior staff, we see the opportunities that learning can be multi-ways, from junior staff to interns or peers in different departments. The junior staff or interns with fresh eyes can give new ideas or point of view to develop the practice, and peer from different departments helps to understand the hotel work in a more holistic way, thereby building understanding between departments in the long term and inspiring one another.

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Interdisciplinary way of working will inspire all the staff to think out of the box and tackle issues in the hotel together.

They will be participating into seasonal design thinking workshop, which could be conducted inside the department or across the hotel. By inputting their insights in their daily work and exchange thoughts from each other, they can come up and test with new ideas that serves best for the hotel.

Some talk session from other disciplines can be invited from outside the hotel, which can provide new inspiration to the hotel experts.

Besides learning skills and knowledges from other colleagues in daily work environment. There will be social events with various topics that encourage staff to know each other through common interests, these includes cooking workshop, monthly breakfast gathering, and birthday celebration etc. Therefore, team spirit and synergy can be spontaneously built up through knowing each other outside the work context.

At the operations level in the near future, staff will have ease of access to information at their fingertips through live updates using their mobile system.

This provides smoothe transitions for staff to assist guest because of the techenabled platform which helps to improve communication.

Staff can focus their energy on creating a better experience that truly make a difference for guests.

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Summary:

Finally, the brand new working space will aim to encourage collaborative working, which is not only customized for different needs, but also increase the space efficiency and overall atmosphere to make the work environment a more enjoyable one.

The new office space will be an open and collaborative encouraging people to sit next to colleagues from different departments, and have more conversation to understand more the functions and responsibilities each does.

We imagine that in the future, there will be aligned goals and visions in the whole organization across different departments and teams, which not only look at externally what ICON want to be proceeded by guests, but also internally, how they wants to develop the individuals that live out the spirit of the hotel.

We believe following these recommendations would help ICON grow towards their vision of being unlink any other in both commercial and educational aspects.

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Benefits The proposed 6 areas of change hopes to create benefits for the organization in the following...

First, the: Holistic indicators emphasise overall Psychological wellbeing of staff as part of an organization's competitive advantage.

Culture of mentorship strengthen the staff engagement and retention, empowers them to be contributors, and gives them a sense of belonging, as well as puts in place a plan for succession.

Building ICON’s spirit & positive work atmosphere, enhances communication across departments, it encourage opportunities to deepen relationships.

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Interdisciplinary way or workingRestructuring of teams to build diversity and collaboration. This encourage staff to be more collaborative across departments, and apply holistic approach to work.

Connected devices and seamless smart tools drive efficiency at work, ease tension in communication & enhances workflow.

Collaborative workspace creates a conducive environment for informal interactions in a relaxed environment, encourages more dialogue and creativity for interactions across the organization.

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Implementation Plan

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In view of ICON’s upcoming renovation in 4-5 years time, These changes are to prepare for the new guest experience.

1. Focusing first on culture change, Human resource will create new holistic indicators at the start of 2017 and refine and test them 2. The culture of mentorship will be led by leadership, this can be gradually integrated with the new assessment tools, and the aim is to have it strongly etched by 2020 3. This will be reinforced by intentional team spirit building, which will be led by HR. once a time and date is set for social activities, it can start soon and followed on every quarterly.

4. Learning & development team will lead Interdisciplinary way of working by first being equipped with design thinking skills from RCA, and gradually transfer the knowledge to different department 5. Seamless system tool will be created by IT department, this will take about 2 years and ideally be ready when new ICON opens 6. Finally the collaborative workspace led by department heads will change in stages over 3 years. In line with their original plan of hotel regeneration in 2020, the same atmospheric design can be transferred to guest experience.

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CONCLUSIONS

Summary In summary, Hotel ICON’s vision is to be a role model in the industry, through being open, collaborative & sharing to its partners and staff, by placing “care” at the center of their service, and investing in talent to encourage personal leadership, delivers genuine experience.

This is provided through an experience consistent with values of trust, honesty and empathy through changing culture and developing staff so that service delivery and interactions with guest is personalized and inimitable.

Authenticity can’t be designed but can be triggered by RIGHT CONDITIONS.

HOLISTIC CHANGE from inside out through culture, space & staff transformations.

Effecting authenticity through GENUINE guest interactions.

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