Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

The book repeatedly reinforces the claim that excellence results from conscious choices, not chance. Guidara’s “One-Inch Rule” emphasizes the importance of maintaining intentionality through the very last step—the final inch—of an action. For example, placing a dish in front of a guest is not just the final step in a service sequence—it is the culmination of the team’s entire effort. This attention to the final detail is applicable well beyond the restaurant and hospitality sector. A tech company launching a product should devote equal care to post-launch support, packaging design, and onboarding as it does to engineering. In nonprofit fundraising, it means following up with donors not only promptly, but with personal, meaningful communication that signals thoughtfulness. Details, when intentional, shape perception.

At EMP, Guidara introduced “ownership programs,” assigning team members to take charge of areas they felt passionate about—coffee, linens, education, silverware. This created a workplace culture where team members were more engaged because they were responsible for excellence in areas of personal significance. The key lesson is that when employees are given autonomy, recognition, and support, they invest emotionally in their work. In other industries, this might take the form of letting software engineers lead internal workshops on their areas of expertise or allowing customer service reps to develop new protocols based on recurring client feedback. The result is a team in which each member actively contributes to a shared vision.

One of Guidara’s personal struggles was learning when to let go. Early in his leadership journey, he admits to micromanaging to preserve standards. However, over time, he recognized that excessive control undermined morale and innovation. This was particularly evident when staff at EMP confronted him about not appointing a successor during his work at The NoMad. His eventual decision to delegate reinforced the need to balance high standards with institutional trust. The practical takeaway here is that leaders in a range of industries should implement systems of accountability that empower others rather than restrict them. For example, instead of enforcing rigid scripts for customer service agents, companies could train them in key principles and allow flexibility in execution, encouraging judgment and initiative.

Guidara acknowledges that one challenge of scaling a culture of hospitality is preserving emotional authenticity. EMP managed this by making connection a systematized goal without turning it into a checklist. Staff were trained not only in task execution but in reading guests’ emotions and anticipating needs. For companies outside of fine dining, this lesson applies when scaling customer engagement strategies—even when automated systems are necessary for efficiency, they should still allow for personalization, and team training should include soft skills like empathy and adaptability. A successful example of this might be how the online shoe retailer Zappos trains customer service reps to engage in unscripted, genuine conversations while solving customer problems, reinforcing a brand identity of care rather than efficiency alone.