Not long ago, I was staying at a hotel near the Toronto airport.  When I arrived in my room, I noticed a placard on the bathroom counter.  The card read:

Dear Guest:

As a responsible citizen, you are probably concerned about doing your part to help preserve our fragile environment.  If you are, the management of this hotel would like to suggest a way that you could make a real difference.  Every year, millions of tons of detergent pollute our environment through the laundering of hotel towels that really don’t need to be laundered.  This is where you can help.  If you are willing to re-use your towels, simply place them back on the rack.  This will tell housekeeping not to replace them.

Thank you so much for doing your part in keeping our planet green.

Sincerely,
The Management

As you might imagine, I put my towels back on the rack and used them a second day.  Why?  Because doing so gave me a chance to validate something that is very important to me—that I am a responsible citizen who cares about the environment.  Let’s take a look at how the management of that hotel connected its self-interest with mine.

What was the self-interest or the hotel’s management?”
Answer:  Reducing costs.

Who stood between the hotel’s management and success or failure?
Answer:  Its guests.

What was an important self-interest of some of the hotel’s guests?Answer:  To validate the fact that they were responsible citizens.

What was the hotel’s management’s plan to connect its self-interest with that of its guests?
Answer:  Place a placard on the bathroom counter to make guests aware of the opportunity.

This technique can be used to get other people excited about going the extra mile for you in all sorts of situations. All you have to do is figure out the self-interest of the people who stand between you and success or failure and connect it with yours.  As you will see, this method is really simple, but the results can be really extraordinary.

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