How Chris Gilbert is Humanizing Government Through the Power of Hospitality

Josiah: If you've been listening to the show for a while, you know that I really want to see hospitality applied not only in hotels and restaurants, but I believe our world would be a better place if we use the principles of hospitality in every area of our lives and organizations. Our guest today, Chris Gilbert, is doing this so well in a context that is very different from many of the guests on this show. He is the CEO of Springfield Township in Hamilton County, Ohio, and the founder of Municipal Hospitality Advisors. Because of this, he's really at the forefront of applying hospitality principles to government and civic leadership.

Now, as you'll hear in this conversation, I've become disenchanted with politics for quite some time because I feel like there's too much shouting, not enough working together, and not enough thinking about how we can treat each other better as people. Chris shows there's a better way here, working across teams and diverse groups of people to get things done. In this episode, we discuss the moment that inspired him to start his journey, practical ways he's building a culture of hospitality as a government leader, and what's working well for him.

You may be listening and think this is not for you, but here's the thing. You don't need to work in government or even hospitality to benefit from this conversation. It's about showing leadership in your context, demonstrating hospitality to improve the lives of those that you work with and serve, and helping your organization and community thrive. So without further ado, let's get into it.

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Josiah: Chris, I've been so excited about speaking with you for a couple of big reasons. And I think we're going to get into a lot of different dimensions of this. I think for our listeners, you are the CEO of Springfield Township in Hamilton County, Ohio. You're also the founder of Municipal Hospitality Advisors, a consulting initiative that is really all about helping local governments reimagine what public service can look like through a lens of hospitality. So on this show, I've been fascinated to think about what are the applications of hospitality beyond just hotels, because I think it's a really powerful concept. I think you agree.

And I would love to get into this, but also, this is not a political show, but I think on a personal level, I felt very disenchanted over the years with different political parties being in power, but I felt disconnected because essentially with government, I've actually always been interested in politics because I liked the opportunity, thinking about how do I engage with my community? I fundamentally just want things to work in my town or my city. I'm a very practical guy, I just want things to work. And also I want opportunity where it feels like the future is probably going to be better than today because we're all working here together towards something.

And so I think people like you give me a lot of hope because I feel very disenchanted right now with American politics on both sides. I feel like I don't have those things. But what you're doing with your teams gives me hope that, hey, maybe we can work together. We can get beyond this shouting across whatever team we're not on and actually do some stuff here. So thank you for taking the time to record with me. I wonder if we could get a little bit into the backstory of this, right? So you're CEO of Springfield Township. Where did the hospitality angle of all of this start for you?

Chris: Okay, great. Well, let me first say, and I think people that are familiar with Ohio or at least local government in general will appreciate this. We are Springfield Township in Hamilton County, Ohio. And why that's an important distinction is because there are 11 other Springfield townships just in the state of Ohio, not to mention a city of Springfield, Ohio, which had a lot of notoriety last year in the debate when President Trump called them out for a few things. But we are in Hamilton County, just north of the city of Cincinnati.

And how this started for us, Josiah, is that for years here in Springfield Township, we always, I believe, provided exceptional customer service to our residents, but I didn't feel like we were doing it in an intentional way or at a minimum in a consistent way. It happened mainly because we had staff that were wired that way and they wanted to have our residents experience exceptional level of customer service, but I wanted to take it a step further and really show how we can create a culture so that everyone, both our internal team, as well as our external customers can feel what it's like to be seen, valued and heard.

And it really clicked for me a few years ago when my wife took me to my annual birthday dinner and I had a phenomenal experience at a restaurant in Dayton, Ohio. And I will mention the name of the restaurant because I've become close friends with the owner now. It's Sueño in Dayton, Ohio, upscale Mexican restaurant. It's a phenomenal experience, if you're in the area, I highly suggest it, but had a tremendous experience, met the owner there that night. And it really clicked because he went a step beyond what I even expected. And on my way home, I received a text message from him. He went into the reservation system, found my number, sent me a text message, and just thanked us for coming that night and welcomed us back. A few seconds of his time didn't cost him anything, but he made a lifelong customer out of me as a result.

So I started to think, why can't we do that in government? Why can't we show our customers, which is what they are, residents are customers, because they voluntarily chose to move to our community. They voluntarily chose to build a house, to invest, to start a business, to visit. Whatever that may be, they voluntarily chose that. Now, when they came and they made that investment and they become invested in us, then there is a price to pay, right? There's the taxes that pay for that service. No differently than when you go to the hotel or you go to the restaurant, you voluntarily make that decision. But when you choose that drink or you choose that dinner or you choose to stay there, at the end of that, there's a bill. For us, it's no different. It's just the bill is the taxes.

And so for me, recognizing that people have a choice to where they live, it's not just a nice to have or an extra for us to do this. I feel like it's essential because how else do we attract people? How else do we ensure that they continue to choose us? It's to have them see value in the bill that they pay, the taxes. And so therefore, I think it's incumbent upon us to make sure that they receive the best service possible. So yeah, that started me down rabbit holes of learning more about hospitality, even though I've been interested in it, really the practical tools of it and how do I implement those in a government setting. And so that's really what started it all.

Josiah: I want to get into all of this. I love the dinner story. I actually went to school close to Dayton, so I need to check out that restaurant. I haven't been there. I am very interested in what you said, though, because I think for our listeners, whether they work in hospitality or they work in government or somewhere else, what you just got at, I feel, is the root of complacency in a lot of contexts or forgetting that people have options. And it sounds so simple when we say it, but the world is a big place. You can live a lot of places. You can go and have your vacation in a lot of places. And I feel many times people kind of forget that and they just sort of take customers or their guests or whatever you want to call them, citizens for granted.

I think on a government level, you kind of see this where people move around the U.S. a lot, right? And so you're thinking about how does my area remain competitive? And you've chosen hospitality as the lens through which to focus it. I wonder if I could get you to explain a little bit more about that, because if I think about your work, your work's very guided by this very simple and powerful idea that government is more effective when it becomes more human. Love that. Get it. Why do you look at hospitality as the lens for that? Not just say our government needs to be more human, but why do you frame that up as hospitality?

Chris: Because of the experience I've had in my own personal life with hospitality and to know what that feels like when someone provides you exceptional service, because they're present, they're curious, they're approaching that interaction with empathy. That feeling is something that sticks with you long beyond. I don't even remember what I had for dinner two years ago at the restaurant, but I remember what it felt like being there. And I remember what it felt like in that interaction with not only my server, but the owner as well.

And so I want to make sure people have that opportunity to feel that too, right? That not everyone that lives in my community is going to get a chance to go to a dinner like I did, or on a vacation at a resort like I do now. But everyone lives somewhere and everyone deserves to feel like that. And so what better medium to do that than through local government services? Because at that point you can extend hospitality to everyone because everyone lives somewhere. And so for me, that was the motivation.

And then also sort of intrinsically, I think being in government, everyone gets into this business because they feel like they want to help people at some level. And I wanted to sort of take the reins off our employees a little bit and let them be creative with how they provide service for our residents and for them to also feel what it's like to provide that level of service to people and get that feedback when someone appreciates it. Because too often in government, there's a saying, and I think it was a German, he may have been a philosopher or he could have been an engineer. I don't remember, but I'm going to paraphrase this and somewhat maybe butcher it, but it was something to the effect of we continually do the impossible for the ungrateful.

And for a long time in government, I have to admit I was jaded and I felt that way. But through hospitality has allowed me to see that that's not necessarily true. That it is possible to provide this level of care to the people that you're here to serve. And then at the end of the day, they are grateful for that service. And I have the data to back that up now. We've been tracking it. We created our own net promoter score. We track that. And so we can get into that a little bit too, but yeah, it was simply to allow our staff and our community to feel what it's like both to receive hospitality and also give it.

Josiah: I love it. So as a person, as a leader, you're bought into this idea that hospitality can change the world. It can change our community. You're also observing that many of the people across your teams chose to do the work that they do because they care about people. How do you connect the dots there? I guess structurally as an organization, as a leader of that organization, what were some of the next steps to go from that realization to actually, I guess, is it building structure? Is that sort of the connecting or what was the path forward for you?

Chris: Yeah, it is. And I'm glad you use that word sort of connecting dots because, as Danny Meyer says quite often, you're constantly collecting dots so you can eventually connect dots. Right. And so, yeah, that's something that I've been doing my whole career, I think, is connecting the dots of what makes government work and what's the motivation of the people that get into this work. And so it was tapping into that and utilizing hospitality to sort of gel all that together.

How that works and what the structure looks like is for me and in my career in leadership, I've found that the best ideas you let marinate for a little bit, you plant the seed and you let sort of things happen organically because nobody likes to be told what to do until they understand what you're trying to tell them what to do. And so a little over a year ago, ironically enough, I brought in the owner of that restaurant in Dayton that I had such a great experience with. His name's Chris Dimmick. He's a phenomenal person. I brought him in and we sat down three consecutive days with my staff and sort of did a podcast style conversation between the two of us about hospitality and how he feels like what he does can also be translated into government. And then I sort of put that into government speak, if you will, in language for my staff.

And so I let that sit for a little over a year, let my staff think about that conversation. And then we rolled out municipal hospitality to our staff. And we've created a structured program around it where we walk people through, it's a four hour training and shows them how hospitality can be implemented in the government. And this is how it's done. This is the framework in which to do it. These are the stories, the real life stories that come as a result of doing that and how it benefits you both as a public servant and how it benefits us as a community. Because at the end of the day, effective government is built on trust. And how you build trust is through relationships and how you build relationships is through hospitality. So that's the progression, the framework that we use and the lens that we sort of look at everything through that we do here. And our staff has jumped in with both feet and they love it actually.

Josiah: So in these conversations, I love getting into the details because I love what you're saying. And I wonder if we could get into the training or the framework and the components of that. So let's say you have four hours. How do you think about structuring that? What are some of the key pillars that you are building this training around?

Chris: It starts with hiring, right? We talk about our onboarding and our hiring and through our interview process, we actually try and suss out, do people at what Chris, the restaurant owner, he calls, it's his word, not mine. Are they true hospitalitarians? Do they get it? Do they understand what we're trying to do here? And so through a series of questions, we try and gauge that.

Then once they make it through that and we hire them, we started an onboarding program here called the First 40. It starts to frame out culture, connection, and clarity. So we want them to understand our culture. We want them to connect to the organization, to the people they work with, to the various departments that make up the township. And then we want them to have clarity around their specific role in the organization. So it starts with when they're first hired, then we move into what does that look like on a day-to-day basis? What do we expect you to do here when you're working and how do we make sure that happens on a consistent basis?

Well, it's allowing them and to take a frame from Disney to always be on brand, even if it means being off task, right? So that if you're on the way to do something, if you're in the middle of working on a particular task that you've been assigned to that day, but you see an opportunity to provide that hospitality, which is on brand for what we want to do, it's okay to be off task. It's okay to stop doing what you're doing and be creative and providing that exceptional level of service for that resident or that visitor or that guest.

And so giving people the freedom to do that, I think is important in government too often, Josiah, especially because of politics. And as you explained that a lot of times politicians are in it for themselves and they're quick to throw you under the bus if you do something that isn't entirely by the book or within policy. We're blessed here to have elected officials that believe in this and therefore give us the freedom and a lot of rope to try things. And if our staff feels safe, right, they feel safe and empowered to do this. Then it's unbelievable the things that they can come up with and the experiences that they can give to our residents. And I have an endless list of examples of things they've done.

Josiah: I'd actually like to get into that. Yeah. You've kind of used this phrase before of creating moments that matter and you've alluded to it in our conversation in stuff you publish around the services that a government or a hospitality business or any other sort of organization provides, but it's how you provide it that matters. And you kind of keep coming back to this notion of moments that matter. It feels that is integral to providing that great feeling of hospitality that we have. And I wonder if you could speak a little bit to why you talk so much about moments. What is it about these moments or these interactions that add up to a great experience or great feeling for someone?

Chris: Well, I appreciate you saying that because yeah, one of our phrases here is to turn everyday interactions into moments that matter. That's what we empower our staff to do. How you do that is, for an example, we just had a recent situation where we had a lady's car break down in the road. And our police officers obviously came and stopped just to make sure that we could help her get off the road. And so they helped her push her car to the parking lot. Well, we learned that she had just bought a couple hundred dollars worth of groceries and the tow truck was going to be hours away to get there. And it was nearly a hundred degrees. And she was upset that all the groceries she just bought were going to be ruined.

Well, policy would say, well, you've done everything that you can do. There's really not much else we can do. And that's typical government. That's what you expect from government, right? Well, for us, when we train our staff, it's to be people focused, not policy focused. And so what our staff did, our police officers did, is they put her groceries in the cruiser with her, drove her to her house, let her unload her groceries into the refrigerator, and drove her back to wait for the tow truck.

Those are the moments that matter. And so for us, in what we explained to our staff, and this is probably true of any government, 80% of the people that live here may never interact with us. And when they do, it may be the worst day of their life, especially if they've called 911. So what I want our staff to realize is that while you may have responded to 25 calls that day, for that call, for that person, for that resident, that's the most important thing in their life right now. What you need to do is make them feel like that was the most important thing that you did that day. And if they walk away with that feeling, well, then that's exactly what we're trying to do here. And that's the heart of municipal hospitality.

Josiah: I love it. I would love to get your thoughts more on what it takes to lead in this capacity, because hearing you share these stories, there's a couple of things that are jumping out to me and I want to check them with you. I think one is you're not overly prescriptive around these details because there's no way to anticipate all these interactions. So I hear clarity from you and projecting this is what we want people to feel. This is the culture point you mentioned early in the conversation. This is how we operate. This is how we want people to feel. And then you talked about sort of a certain amount of autonomy for people to express that, however they use their best judgment.

And then the other, maybe final piece that stands out to me is the storytelling, because I think it brings it to life. It's not saying that every police officer needs to do this every time. That could be good, but you're just giving an example. And then I imagine somebody working on one of your other teams is going to express this sort of way of living in another dimension, but all that to say, I'm curious how you think about leading this sort of way. It feels like you're focusing on the vision and how you want people to feel. Is that fair?

Chris: It's absolutely fair. And what I've learned in my research into hospitality, there's a distinct difference between customer service and hospitality. And so to your point, I didn't want to prescribe a certain script for people to follow. That's customer service. I wanted them to be creative in our pursuit of hospitality. And if I provide them too many guardrails, well, then a lot of that's going to get lost and we're going to miss opportunities to provide that exceptional level of service to some of our residents.

Give you a quick other example. You talk about some of how it's expressed in other departments. We had a situation where someone called our fire department because their basement was flooding because she had a plumbing break. That isn't necessarily our role, that's a plumber's responsibility, but we went out and pumped out her basement, turned her water off, but she was really upset because she had her grandchildren coming over that weekend and she was not going to have any water because the plumber wasn't coming till Monday.

Well, one of my staff people realized that we had a licensed plumber as a full-time firefighter on our staff because his family owns a plumbing company. So they called Jason over, Jason came over, said, give me a second, ran to Home Depot, came back, fixed the lady's plumbing for her, turned the water back on and she was able to have her grandkids over for the weekend.

My point is, if I had a strict script on how to do this, a lot of these things wouldn't have been thought of, or they wouldn't have felt like they had the freedom to do this stuff. And so I don't want to put too many boundaries around it because we're going to miss those opportunities if we do. So yeah, I'm more leading with a vision and a feeling that I want them to create for people and give them the freedom to do that.

Josiah: Amazing. I love these stories. And I love the notion that I don't love the notion that these interactions sometimes are the worst day of someone's life, but it just underscores the stakes here. And this is critical. And then that's going to be when they think about interacting with someone on your team, they're thinking about that moment. Right. And I think there's applications across industries on that. I want to come back to something you mentioned. You mentioned measuring this too. So this isn't just feel good. You mentioned implementing an NPS score, which I believe a lot of government organizations do not have. And I feel like it sounds like a great idea. Why'd you do it? What are you seeing in terms of impact either on that metric or other impacts of operating this way?

Chris: So why we did it is going back to the three pillars of what we want to do, right? You mentioned earlier, hiring is one, and then we want to empower our employees. So we've talked about that and then we want to recognize them when they do it. So those are the three pillars by which we built sort of the Municipal Hospitality Foundation. Well, how do we recognize them? Well, I have to learn of these stories, right? Our police department makes twenty seven thousand calls for service here. Our fire department makes ten thousand calls for service here, not to mention my public works crews. So I don't get to hear all these stories unless I have a process to collect them.

So what we've done, I'll show you here in just a second. I have it right here. I apologize. We've created these cards that we hand out when we provide service. Has a QR code on it, has a spot on the back so our employees can put their name on there. A resident, a guest, a visitor can scan that QR code, go and fill out the survey. And that survey then allows us to create our NPS score. And our NPS score is pretty good. It's close to 70. So if you know anything about the NPS system, that's pretty extraordinary, especially for a government.

Josiah: So I see you want to. Well, yeah, yeah. Well, I should have described the whole NPS system. I imagine most of our listeners will know what this is, but it's this net promoter score. How likely are you to recommend this organization you're interacting with to someone else? Right. So I think getting these sorts of scores is great in general, but especially in government. But I guess there's a level of accountability that I'm hearing, a way of recognizing for you as a leader to recognize progress and what your teams are doing.

Chris: Yeah, because I also, I want to hear the great stories, right? What we've talked about. I'm proud of the score. I'm proud of the things we do, but I also want to hear from people if we didn't get it right. And by allowing them to do the survey and give us their contact information, I now have a way to make it right. Rather than knowing that something bad happened or not knowing, and then I would never have the opportunity to make it right for that resident. This way, if we've missed the mark. We can now circle back and try and make it right with them.

And so this gives us an opportunity to do a couple of things. One allows me then as the leader to figure out what are we doing out there, what's working, what isn't. And then it gives me the opportunity to recognize the people that are doing great things. And it gives me the opportunity to circle back and make sure that we can make maybe a less than stellar experience. Maybe we can make that right.

Josiah: I love it. I am so excited talking with you about the potential this exists, not only for the residents in your community, but people in other places too. I'm so glad that you've started Municipal Hospitality Advisors. In my research for this conversation, I was looking at social media comments, other civic leaders, people working in government. It seems that people are really excited about the ideas that you're sharing. I'm curious from your perspective, what sort of reception or feedback are you getting from other government leaders? Does this feel like something that could be applied elsewhere as well?

Chris: I think it absolutely can, which is why I've stepped out and created this. I have no intentions of leaving my day job, but I wanted to, I wanted other governments and other government leaders, and more importantly, I wanted other residents and communities to feel what it's like to receive this level of service. And the best way I know how to do that is to help other government leaders understand that it is possible and give them the framework and the tools to do that. And so that's what was the basis for municipal hospitality advisors.

So yeah, it can be applied anywhere. And the reception honestly has been good. I'm most surprised though, honestly, by this being on this podcast and the reception that I've received from the actual traditional hospitality sectors, which is possibly been even greater than from the government sector.

Josiah: Well, it's because the leadership principles that you're outlining, I think are so broadly applicable. I mean, in the world of hospitality, but beyond every industry, I'm interested in the application of this in healthcare, banking, and just any sort of industry, I think, can start to operate this way. And I think if leaders of organizations can operate this way of saying, this is the way we want to interact with people, this is the way we want to make people feel the world becomes a better place for all of us. Right. So I appreciate the work you're doing there. I think before we go, I'm curious for you as you look into the future, not only for the organizations you lead, but just for the world at large. What do you think about what are you most excited by? I'm curious what you see coming down the pike that gets you fired up these days.

Chris: You know, I think it's what you just said. It's where are all the different industries where hospitality can make a difference. For us here in Springfield Township, it isn't just about how we interact with our guests or our residents. It's, it started with the internal staff and from leadership in my department leads, we want to make sure that we are embodying the hospitality spirit to our staff. And I tell our staff all the time this, that I work for them, they don't work for me. And our job internally and myself and my team leads is to make sure that our staff experience internal hospitality, that they can emulate to our external customer. And so I think it all starts there.

And then also it's the unspoken side of hospitality too. What does your community feel like when people enter it? I don't always know when someone's coming to look at a house or build a business or develop a piece of property. So our community has to look good too. It has to feel like a place you want to be, because as I know, I have a family, I have a wife that tends to make purchases on an emotional level, not always a financial one. And I know that buying a house for a lot of people is an emotional decision. It isn't always financial. At least it was for me. So with that, I know that we have to create an environment where people feel an emotional connection to where they're at. And that starts with what a place looks like. So the aesthetics of the community are important too.

What does it feel like when you walk in City Hall here? It looks like it feels like you're walking into a hotel. I mean, our lobby is a rotating art gallery with local artists. We have free coffee and water when you walk in. So not only what does it feel like to interact, but what does it feel like just to be present in our community? I think a lot of places can replicate that. I listened to your podcast the other day from the gentleman who started RTRX or is involved in RTRX. And he mentioned an idea about what if you designed hospital rooms like hotel rooms. So that's it. That's what we're talking about. And so how can every industry adopt these principles?

Because, and here's the other thing, and I say this a lot too, and it's because you've experienced this. Unfortunately, right now, the expectation people have for the service they get in any sector is way low. That's sad, right? That the expectation is so low, but it's also a tremendous opportunity. And so your competitive advantage can be hospitality. And in a lot of ways, it doesn't cost you anything other than a shift in culture and mindset. So yeah, I'm most excited about how do we not only just implement this in government, but how do we implement this everywhere?

Josiah: I love it. I feel very inspired hearing you. Thank you for taking the time to speak today. I'll include a bunch of links in the show notes. I've learned a lot following you and some of the stuff you publish and share. So thanks again, Chris, for taking the time to talk today.

Chris: Thanks, Josiah. Very much appreciate it.