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By Daniel F. Prosser, President/CEO Telman - Sept, 1996

There’s been a lot of talk lately- on TV, in the press, from Washington - on how the changes in technology and
regulations are going to impact our world. In the past several years our own industry has seen the impact of
sweeping changes, including the way we dial the telephone. This change alone has had a profound impact on
each and every hotel in the United States.

But no technological or regulatory change ever has or ever will have the impact on your business that The
NewThinking© Principle does. Here is the power to change the way you run your hotel with technology.

...this may come as a shock, but whether or not you have a computer on your desk is NOT going to make a
difference in your business.

For years I’ve worked with people in the hotel industry who’ve wanted some way to improve the return on their
investment in technology. Over and over, even from some of the most prestigious in our industry, I hear, “Why
don’t the systems we have invested in produce the promised results?”

MAXIMIZING YOUR TECHNOLOGY

Hotels have invested tremendous amounts of money in technology over the past 10 years. Managers at all levels
are scratching their heads - how do we make the hundreds of thousands of dollars that we’ve invested in
technology work so that we can realize a return on this investment?”

It’s not too late to start recovering that investment. New thinking has emerged. There are basic fundamental
principles that can transform your relationship to technology - producing unprecedented results on your bottom
line. In fact, this may come as a shock, but whether or not you have a computer on your desk is NOT going to
make a difference in your business. Computers are not what will give you the edge over your competition. Why?
Because, what determines the impact of technology on an organization’s results is the “conversations” that
people have about technology’s offspring - DATA. It isn’t the technology at all that makes the difference in your
business. It’s the thinking that people have about that technology. And it’s how people think and the
conversations that result that distinguish those companies that are leading the industry.

...consider that it isn’t technology at all that has the most impact on your business...

There is a new possible way of thinking about information technology that has the potential to produce
unprecedented results. We call it NewThinking©.

“CONTEXTUAL” THINKING

We relate to technology as if it actually produces information. But, it’s the interpretation of the data or how
people “inform” data that has it actually become information. That information then causes a network of
conversations in our organizations. The meaning we assign to data - the interpretation - is what determines how
the information will be received in the organization. We call this interpretation “context”, or “contextual thinking”.
This context has the power to alter the outcome of a project or an entire organization.

Unfortunately, there is not enough room here to go into depth about the staggering impact that “context” has on
your bottom line. Suffice it to say that most of us have at one time or another focused our attention on the
relative ineffectiveness of the technology we use every day. Now, consider that it isn’t the technology at all that
has the most impact on your business but the conversations which people have to keep the intrusion of
technology from dominating them. Maybe it is our interpretation or context about technology that has it seem
“ineffective”, “expensive”, and “not worth the trouble”.

HOW DO YOU RE-INVENT CONTEXT?

Inquiring into, or uncovering your existing (yet hidden) context or conversations is your first step. You want to
see the ones that don’t work - or work against you. Then you can begin to design new conversations - or a new
context to be committed to in the future. Let me give you an example of how to look at that.

...with NewThinking© you might create a new conversation about the gap between where you are and what you
see is possible...

Most people in our business measure some kind of performance on a daily basis. You probably look at some
number.

Lets just take Average Daily Rate (ADR) as an example — you actually have conversations about this all the time
— probably daily. ADR is just one context for measuring performance in the area of revenue.

Most people manage ADR from a past perspective — usually you compare your current performance to your
past performance. This month vs. this month last year.

THE KEY IS WHAT YOU MEASURE

We all know the old adage - you get what you measure. Measuring against the past will likely produce more of
the same. There is no real opportunity to break through the performance of that past, because you are still tied to
it with your contextual conversations.

Here is where NewThinking© comes in. NewThinking© says that if you want to increase ADR, for example, you
might consider measuring your performance against a measurement of what is possible. It’s very simple - with
NewThinking© you might create a new conversation about the gap between where you are and what you see is
possible (not probable), rather than trying to impact ADR by looking at just ADR everyday. AND, voila! — you
now have a very common element made not so common by inventing a new context.

This is one example of how changing a specific conversation will change the context, change your relationship to
results and produce unforeseen outcomes. There are many possible new contextual conversations that can
change your business with New Thinking© all you have to do is invent them.

© copyright 1996 Telman Technology Partners, Inc.

Daniel F Prosser is the founder, president and chief executive officer of Telman. Begun in 1986, Telman creates technology partnerships with hotels and hotel management companies that maximize the return on their technology investments. Prosser in on the board of advisors for Hotel & Motel Management Magazine and has written several articles for industry publication. He also makes regular presentations for hotel and technology conferences and associations.

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