Embracing Change in the Workplace: A Guide for Hotel Leaders

Most hotel teams agree that change is necessary. Far fewer actually enjoy it. New systems, new guest expectations and now AI keep arriving, and each of them asks people to give up routines that work. Embracing change in the workplace is therefore less about announcing a transformation and more about building a team that is willing to try, fail and try again. This article looks at what that takes, based on the views of a keynote speaker who studies the mindset behind change.

Dr. Florian Ilgen trained as a chemist and holds a PhD in chemistry. Instead of working in a lab, he now speaks to leaders about transformation, loss aversion and what he calls fearless curiosity.

Why embracing change in the workplace feels so hard

Change asks people to leave their comfort zone, and that comes with stress. Ilgen describes how many people prefer logic, systems and the beaten path. For them, improvising is difficult, because they are doing things for the very first time and cannot fall back on what they know. In his experience, people who love constant new input adapt faster, while people who like structure struggle more when the pace picks up. A new hotel opening during a crisis is an extreme example of that.

Loss aversion plays a role as well. Giving up a process that works feels like a loss, even when the new way may be better. And successful organisations, he argues, often find change hardest of all, because things are running and the pressure to move seems low. He sees hospitality as a rather successful, process driven industry, which makes this point especially relevant.

Run your operation like a series of experiments

Ilgen's answer comes straight from the laboratory. As a chemist he ran many experiments every day and failed over and over again. Business, he says, is to some extent the same, so leaders should allow their coworkers to run experiments and learn from them.

“We have to create an environment where failure culture is not just talked about, but actually embraced and lived.”

Florian Ilgen, 8:57

He also argues that experience beats theory. You can study, earn an MBA and know a lot about marketing, but leadership and good sales, in his view, are built on experience and on the failures you learn from. He uses skiing to make the point.

“I can read a book about how to ski, but then I can't ski. So I have to go down the slope, and I have to fall.”

Florian Ilgen, 7:24

His second image is the muscle: to grow it, you first have to damage the fibre. For any hotel, the lesson is to treat a new process as a test with something to learn, rather than as a verdict on the people who try it.

Failure culture only works when leaders live it

Many organisations say they want a failure culture. Ilgen warns that it becomes dysfunctional when a boss says mistakes are welcome but then asks people not to make any. Leadership, in his view, means leading by example and doing what you say. When words and actions are congruent, people believe in their leader. When coworkers sense that a leader does not really believe what they say, they will still follow, but not as much as they could.

The host of the conversation adds a familiar example: companies that promise to fail fast and fail often, until someone faces consequences for a failed attempt. From that moment on, nobody pushes the needle anymore. Creating a safe environment for experiments is, in the host's words, a true leadership skill. Embracing change in the workplace starts exactly there, with the way a leader reacts the first time a test goes wrong.

What this means in practice:

• Say openly that experiments are expected, and agree on what counts as a reasonable test.
• React to a failed test by asking what the team learned, not who is to blame.
• Act authentically: what you say about mistakes has to match how you respond to them.
• Track learning, not only results, so teams see that trying is valued.

Make curiosity a daily habit

If change causes stress, curiosity is the counterweight. Ilgen's chemistry background shows here: when people are curious about something new, the brain releases dopamine, which makes them want more of it. In his view, that makes it easier to embrace change, to use AI and even to leave systems that are known to work.

He also talks about the conscious and the subconscious mind. Part of his work is learning to use the language of the subconscious, sometimes even to trick it, so that people adopt and adapt faster. Small, enjoyable experiments are one way to get there: they make change feel like a reward rather than a threat.

“I believe mindset is 80%, especially when it comes to change because you can have the best tools at your hands. But if you don't like to use them, the best tools won't work.”

Florian Ilgen, 21:31

Embracing change in the workplace when AI arrives

AI is the change most teams are thinking about right now. Ilgen points out that it develops at high speed and that the pace is likely to increase, especially with agentic AI. Instead of trying to predict exactly which tools will matter, he believes leaders need flexibility and resilience. Structured AI training for employees helps teams keep up with that pace.

He sees large potential for hospitality. In a talk on hyper personalization, he presented results from hotels in the United States showing that AI used this way can drastically increase revenue. Because hospitality is process driven and built on standards, he believes AI can upgrade those processes, make them faster and, at some point, more reliable. Moving from process-driven work to experimentation is, in his view, the biggest lever the industry has.

He is open about what he does not know yet: which AI tools really work within those processes. That, too, will be learned through mistakes. To hear the full reasoning, watch the full conversation, or browse more sales, marketing and revenue topics in the HSMAI Studio series.

A simple way to start

Ilgen closes with a line he uses on stage: if you do not ask, the answer will always be no. Change, he says, never looks attractive at the start but is always worth it. There will be mistakes and sometimes a bloody nose, but as long as a team learns from them, it gets better.

Frequently asked questions

How can hotel leaders encourage embracing change in the workplace?

According to Florian Ilgen, start with mindset rather than tools. Treat processes as experiments, let teams test and learn, and respond to failed attempts with curiosity instead of punishment. Leaders also need to act authentically: if they talk about a failure culture but punish mistakes, teams stop trying. Small, enjoyable experiments help people see change as a chance rather than a threat.

What is a failure culture in hospitality?

In Ilgen's view, a failure culture is an environment where mistakes made during honest experiments are expected, discussed and learned from. It only works when it is lived, not just talked about. A boss who asks for a failure culture but then tells people not to make mistakes creates a dysfunctional situation, and coworkers will hold back on new ideas.

Why do successful organisations struggle with change?

Ilgen argues that successful industries find change harder because things are running and there seems to be little reason to move. He sees hospitality as successful and process driven, which makes the point relevant for hotels. Working with small and medium sized companies, he has seen them do well until a pivotal point where they either explode or implode.

What role does AI play in change for hotels?

Ilgen sees AI as a major opportunity for hospitality, for example through hyper personalization, which in results he presented from hotels in the United States drastically increased revenue. He also expects AI to make standard processes faster and eventually more reliable. Which tools truly work is still unclear, so in his view hotels need to experiment and learn from their mistakes.