Hubert Ummels is the founder of GameChangers, a globally active agency that develops people and culture for international hotel groups, Hilton among them. With MapsTell, employees got one positive language for talking about behaviour together, from the kitchen sink to the boardroom.
The challenge
GameChangers works for organisations in hospitality, tourism and retail, including Hilton, Accor and Radisson. In that world everyone works in shifts, in different languages and with very different educational backgrounds.
Hubert found that many instruments are too theoretical or too complex to deliver anything there. Someone working in a hotel has no time for a model that has to be explained first. And if you don't understand what a term means in front of your colleagues, you usually don't ask.
The solution
The World of Difference lies on the floor as a Floormap, hangs on a wall or appears on a screen. People step onto it and stand where they feel at home.
That changes the nature of the conversation. Participants almost automatically show the behaviour that belongs to the place where they are standing, and at a glance it is clear why communication between two people sometimes creates friction. Nobody has to learn a model first.
On top of that, everyone gets a PersonalMap. It shows qualities and challenges, and above all the difference between how someone sees themselves and how they come across to others. That is usually the moment the room goes quiet.
“The strength of MapsTell is that you let people literally step into The World of Difference. Instead of thick reports they get something visual, playful and tangible. That makes them curious, they take part actively and they are far more open to learning.”
The result
MapsTell started at Hilton as an accessible way of getting to know each other better. It caught on to the point where it was soon used far more widely.
It is now a fixed part of leadership development and of hospitality, feedback and sales training in Hilton hotels across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South-East Asia. From housekeeping to general manager, people use the same words for behaviour.
Leaders use those insights to connect better with what their people need. That produces clearer feedback, more effective instructions and more understanding of the way colleagues take in information.
