Are you committed or involved?
During a recent assignment, one of our principals used the business fable of the chicken and the pig to explain the difference between commitment and involvement. Apparently it came out of the agile project management space and is about commitment to a project. You may have heard this one before, but it was new to me:
Chicken: “Hey, pig, I was thinking we should open a restaurant.” In some cases the story is presented as a riddle:
Question: In a bacon-and-egg breakfast, what is the difference between the chicken and pig?
This story helps to explain two of the main types of project stakeholders in a new hotel project. A pig is a project stakeholder who has skin in the game. Pig roles are considered core team members. They are performers, the people who DO the work. A chicken is a project stakeholder who will benefit from the pig’s performance, but in reality does not contribute on a day-to-day basis to get things done. The eggs the chicken provides are renewable resources that get laid in abundance (scalability).
In 6 reasons why you’re struggling to execute your strategy, we highlighted that the strategic objectives of owners and operators are not aligned. I could not help but think how well the chicken and the pig story describe the relationship between hotel owners and operators.
The owners are the pigs who are committed - they have put up the investment for a new hotel project. The operators are the chickens who are involved by providing branding, pre-opening and operating systems. Operators benefit from owners’ efforts around system growth, resulting in increased hotel management company value and share price.
The difference between “committed” and “involved.” Oh, and of course, a project stakeholder cannot be a pig and a chicken at the same time…
Happy hotel openings!
Gert Noordzy, founder and managing director, Northside Consulting, Macau S.A.R.
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