HOW TO TRAIN FOR BELONGING (NOT JUST COMPLIANCE)
- Kketan Amarnath Waghmare
- Jan 22
- 2 min read
Everyone was doing things right.
And still, it felt wrong.
This was a Phase 2 pre-opening at an ultra high-end resort in the Indian Ocean.
Tight timelines. No excuses.
The teams knew the standards.
They delivered.
But everything felt… careful.
Too careful.
Between sessions, someone said to me,
“Ketan, we know what’s expected. We’re just constantly checking ourselves.”
That stayed with me.
Not as feedback.
Just as something I couldn’t unsee after that.
A few sessions later, during training, I handed out chocolate.
I asked the team to think of the best chocolate they’d ever had.
Rich. Comforting. Familiar.
They bit in.
It wasn’t chocolate.
It was wasabi, coated in chocolate.
The reaction was instant.
Confusion. Laughter. Shock.
After things settled, I asked,
“What just happened to delight?”
Someone said,
“It broke… because what we expected didn’t match what we experienced.”
That wasn’t planned insight.
It simply surfaced.
And suddenly, the earlier feeling made sense.
When people don’t feel safe enough to trust themselves, they play safe.
They stick to script.
They keep checking.
So I changed how the room worked.
Fewer questions with right answers.
More real situations.
More space to respond without correction.
Leaders stayed in the room, but didn’t lead it.
Debriefs slowed down. We talked about what surprised us, not what went wrong.
Nothing changed in the standards.
But people did.
They stopped hesitating.
They trusted their judgement.
Service felt warmer. Less rehearsed.
That’s when it became clear — quietly.
You can’t train guest delight without training belonging.
Because only people who feel trusted can create trust.
Compliance keeps things consistent.
Belonging is what makes experiences memorable.
That’s the work I stand for.
#LearningAndDevelopment #GuestDelight #BelongingAtWork #LuxuryHospitality #ExperientialLearning #LeadershipDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #HumanCentredLearning #kketanwaghmare
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