Train for human judgement!

I’ve trained thousands of employees in 5-star brands.

And the most underrated skill I saw was knowing when to break the script.

It takes a whole different approach to train for human judgment, not just compliance.

And if you’ve read anything else I wrote, or know me a little, I’m not against standards.

I'm obsessed with them!

Standards protect consistency & reduce guesswork.

But when they become a justification for people who’ve stopped thinking, we’ve failed at training.

I've seen employees who follow every policy perfectly, and still deliver cold, disconnected service.

And I’ve seen others bend a rule, at just the right moment and create a lifelong fan.

→ Giving a free coffee to someone who’s clearly had a horrible day, without needing a manager’s approval.

→ Extending a treatment by 2 minutes when someone shows up late and flustered, instead of cutting them off mid-massage.

→ Quietly bending the “no outside food” rule when a guest is feeding a hungry toddler with allergies.

→ Letting a regular skip the queue when the place is packed.

→ Offering a late check-out even If the guest did not ask for it, but just learned their flight would be delayed.

All these may go against the rulebook a little, but they may also save the day for the guest or the business!

It’s the replica of the choice between equity and equality, if you want!

Most companies hand out SOPs and scripts and hope employees will magically develop emotional intelligence.

Instead I bring the grey areas in my workshops:

🧠 I ask: “Here’s the rule. Here’s the situation. Would you follow it, or bend it?”

 💬 I facilitate messy conversations about real judgment calls.

 💡 I train teams to think like service owners and make decisions.

If we expect initiative from people we've trained to never think for themselves we failed at training again. And at leading!

And please, let's stop punishing the rare team member who used their head and heart in a moment that mattered. 

Breaking the script shouldn’t be feared but respected!

❓What’s a moment when someone bent the rules for you, and got it right?

Let’s talk!