Finding AtlantisCreating a Coaching Culture thatWill Blow Away the Customers

by Gary J. Myszkowski, Ph.D., Business Development and Engagement ManagerLore Certified Independent Executive Coach, Lore International Institute, and

Beverly Saunders Vice President, Organization Development and Trainingfor Atlantis, Paradise Island, The Bahamas

Aspiring to Be the Number OneDestination Resort in the World

When you aspire to be the number onedestination resort in the world, you hadbetter create an experience on the propertythat will “blow away the customer.” ForAtlantis on Paradise Island, The Bahamas, this is not an idle wish—it is the number one core value of Kezner International—the parent company and operator of resortsand luxury resorts around the world.

As a result of a successful TV advertisingcampaign, Atlantis is probably best known for its six story water slide down the side of a Mayan Temple which empties the sliderthrough a clear tube surrounded by man-sized sharks—aptly called “The Leap of

Faith.” Across this 600 acre property andmarina, the architecture, artwork, and manyof the activities available to guests of all agesare based on the fantasy of the rediscovery of the lost ancient city and civilization ofAtlantis. Among its sources of eye candy are giant Dale Chihuly glass sculptures,multiple lagoons (including one where youcan swim with dolphins), an archeological dig containing Atlantian artifacts, and acollection of exhibits which form the world'slargest open air aquarium - complete withgiant manta ray and 15 foot hammerheadsharks.

But to achieve and sustain the status of a world class destination resort, uniquearchitecture and a distinguishing physicalenvironment are not enough. Atlantis mustmeet or exceed the service standards of suchindustry benchmarks as Disney, The FourSeasons, and The Ritz Carlton. The luxuryKerzner One and Only Clubs must meet theservice expectations of such frequent guestsas Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, and BillGates. The unique atmosphere and eye candy may attract guests for the first visit, but it will be the service that will keep themcoming back.

Pursuing Service Excellence While Expanding Rapidly

As if pursuing these standards were notenough, Atlantis and Kerzner Internationalare growing at a rapid pace. In 1994, SolKerzner acquired the 1,150-room ParadiseIsland Resort in The Bahamas, which hadfallen into bankruptcy. He launched a fouryear major redevelopment and expansionprogram which turned the renamed Atlantis,Paradise Island into a 2,300 room resort andcasino. The resort has been so successful,that Kerzner has invested more than $2.0billion USD into expanding Atlantis Bahamasto almost 3,000 rooms. This massive water-world resort opened in December, 1998, at which time Atlantis had become theBahamas' second-largest employer, after the Bahamian government itself.

Additional expansion since 1998 hasincluded: a 65,000-square-foot marina-based shopping and dining villagefeaturing 21 retail shops, and five distinctrestaurants; vacation ownership luxuryvillas; a spa; a children's learning center;a golf course; a comedy club; conventionfacilities; and a movie theater. As of2006, the property had a total of over35 restaurants, bars and lounges.

The completion of Atlantis' Phase IIIdevelopment in early 2007 represents abillion dollar expansion to the existingAtlantis property. New amenitiesinclude The Cove Atlantis - a 600-

room, luxury all-suite hotel withinteriors designed by Jeffery Beers and David Rockwell; and an adjoining 495-unitcondo-hotel. Aquaventure, a new 63 acrewaterscape, includes a 120 foot tall PowerTower with four adrenaline-inducingwaterslides, where the guests never have toleave the water and climb back to the startbecause they are propelled back up the slidetower via water conveyers. Dolphin Cay, thedolphin interaction and education center andthe Bahamas' first rescue and rehabilitationfacility for dolphins, features 17 dolphinsdisplaced by Hurricane Katrina. The Cove also features Bobby Flay's first Mesa Grilloutside of the U.S., private all-adult andfamily pools, concierge-level suites, 22private ocean facing cabanas, a 30,000square foot Mandara Spa, The Intimate Night Club, an additional gaming area, and additional luxury retail shopping.

An Interview with Beverly Saunders,V.P. OD and Training for Atlantis

The following is an interview conducted in 2006 with Beverly Saunders, Vice President, OrganizationDevelopment & Training for Kerzner International Ltd.,Atlantis, Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas. The interviewwas conducted by Dr. Gary Myszkowski, who served asthe engagement manager and base trainer for theEffective Coaching Workshops delivered to Atlantis by Lore International Institute.

Dr. Myszkowski: Beverly, how did this journey todeveloping a coaching culture at Atlantis begin?

Beverly: Karen Carey (Senior Vice President, HumanResources, Atlantis, Bahamas) and I started the AtlantisUniversity in 2001 with the goals of creating a curriculumthat would support the operators at Atlantis and improvespecific operational issues. While our employees hadbeen trained in the skills and procedures for theirspecific jobs, we knew that task skill training alonewould not be enough to result in our guests having adistinctive service experience—one where we would'blow away our guests.' For the first four years of thisjourney, we contracted with consultants to put togethera curriculum to try to accomplish this.

Dr. Myszkowski: What needs were you trying toaddress through this training and educationcurriculum?

Beverly: We took a hard look at ourselves and realizedthat there were some aspects of our company culture -about how we supervised and managed our employees -that were going to be a barrier to us moving forward

and achieving our service and guest experience goals. For whatever reason, shared expectations had emergedover time among employees, supervisors, and managers about what was rewarded and what was successfulperformance. We were forced to face the harsh reality of admitting what we did not know and set ourselves up to benchmark the best practices used at othersuccessful companies and decided what would work in our organization.

We realized from our Employee Satisfaction Survey thatemployees wanted more opportunity for developmentand that many of our managers and supervisors did notknow how to effectively mentor and coach employeeswhile offering support for each employee's personaldevelopment. Many of our managers seemed to beoperating from the assumption that he or she was solelyresponsible for the results of their area without the effortof the team working towards agreed upon goals. Basedon these assumptions, too many of our managers wereimposing themselves on our employees, becoming taskmasters, and essentially not treating them with respect.We saw more and more instances where supervisorswere 'writing people up' (a second level of disciplinaryaction) and focusing on catching people doing thingswrong. The employees felt there was too much conflictwith their respective managers.

So we began to assess our current situation moresystematically. We carefully reviewed the results of ourEmployee Satisfaction Survey Index (ESI) that came out a twice a year. We listened to the feedback from ourcustomers on the service and their experiences with ouremployees. We did a lot of focus group sessions. We alsodid a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, andThreats) analysis to guide the kinds of changes weneeded to make at the One and Only Club.

We also begin to look externally tobenchmark other examples of world classstandards of service in our industry. Weconducted benchmark visits with othersuccessful companies in the hospitalityindustry and in other industries to learn howthey selected and developed their employeesto achieve the enviable reputations that theyenjoy with their customers.

As we learned, we felt it was important formanagers to see that they were not solelyresponsible for the results of their area. We took the position that each manager orsupervisor could better support our businessgoals for guest experience and profitability if they effectively mobilized their team andmanaged their talent. We also wanted themto spend more time catching people 'doingthings right' and inspiring them to 'go theextra mile.'

A second important driver for the curriculumwas the Kerzner growth plan for Atlantis'near future. One of the major concerns ofour owners was making sure that we had theleadership talent pool in place to keep pacewith our aggressive growth. Having the talentand leadership in place to enable the growthplan quickly became recognized by us andtop management as a critical success factor.

Dr. Myszkowski: How much growth was planned and what were the talent management implications?

Beverly: The Kerzners acquired the bankruptproperties that formed the foundation of thecurrent Atlantis in 1994 and over the nextfour years essentially rebuilt them. This wasPhase I of the development. In 1998, wecompleted Phase II with the opening of the1,200-room Royal Towers and a 50,000-square-foot casino. We grew from about2,500 employees to about 5000. In 2006and 2007 as we opened Phase III, we grewfrom approximately 6,500 employees toalmost 9,000. And, we hope to use ourtalent base in the Bahamas to serve as afeeder to other emerging Kerznerdevelopments, such as Atlantis, The Palm,Dubai and a number of One & Only Resortsaround the world.

We need to integrate all of these newemployees and managers, meet or exceedour service standards, and grow our talent as quickly and as effectively as we can. There is no other option.

Dr. Myszkowski: How did you come tofocus on developing coaching skills askey part of that curriculum to addressthose needs?

Beverly: From the beginning, we knew that coaching was critical to our mangers'and employees' success. We knew fromother service businesses that the everydaybehaviors and actions of satisfied, engaged,and motivated employees immediatelytranslated into guest satisfaction, whichtranslates in our business into higheroccupancy rates, more return visits by ourguests, and ultimately higher profitability.

But as we began this journey we found that we needed to put a foundation in place before we could successfully introducecoaching as a desired part of our culture. Our first attempt at delivering training incoaching skills (prior to engaging Lore)addressed some of our concerns aboutimproving operations, processes and how our employees were being led. But when we

evaluated the results of the initial training program in coaching, we were disappointed. Some people 'got it' and some people didn't. Some people treated the training as “nice to know.” They could clearly seethat others needed the training, but they did not alwayssee why they needed it. The transfer of coaching skillsinto the expected way of conducting day-to-day businesswas very much hit-or-miss. We concluded that therewere a number of other spokes in the wheel that weneeded to put into place first before coaching wouldcatch on and “take.”

Dr. Myszkowski: What were some of these other spokes?

First the senior management team needed to buy intothe need and drive the coaching. We met with themindividually and as a group and discovered that there was not a lot of talent management occurring in asystematic way. People were more focused on their short term outcome numbers than what we were doingto develop our people over time. If it was not happeningat that level, why would we expect it to be happeninganywhere else? The leadership team quickly recognizedthis and decided that development and talentmanagement was a critical success factor for our growth —and it needed to start with them. Our mission and values statement states that we are alearning organization and a caring organization.

When Paul O'Neil came to Atlantis as the President/Managing Director of Kerzner International Bahamas, he recognized the need to aggressively develop ourpeople. Paul knew that Atlantis University would be one of the major vehicles we could use to bring aboutstrategic alignment among the senior leadership team as well as train managers in behaviors that would create the culture of learning he so desired.

We also tied accountability to improving our employee(ESI) and guest satisfaction surveys index results (GSI) andother performance indicators. Where low scores or gapswere identified, managers now needed to have actionplans in place and show progress in implementing themas well as show measurable improvement in their personaland departmental performance. We incentivized specificimprovements - tied it to performance and their pay.

We designed and implemented a 360° feedback surveyprocess for all of our managers and supervisors. Theresults typically showed that they had developmentalneeds as managers. Combined with the ESI and GSIresults, the need for continued development for many of these managers was now undeniable.

We also revised our leadership competency model and our performance planning and appraisal system to include a requirement for coaching. If you don'tmeasure and reward behavior, it will not change.

And perhaps the other key spoke in the wheel was anemerging process where we began to identify our talentpool - people we thought had the potential to grow,develop, and advance within Atlantis, and eventuallyKerzner International itself. We started to identify ourstar employees and began to formally connect them with designated “Mentors.' Now, with Phase III almostcomplete, we are beginning to identify our 'A' players.We intend to begin with 12 to 20 employees - startingwith Atlantis in the Bahamas. This would be a fast-trackapproach to developing a small group of our very besttalent. Their development would include involvement in stretch projects and assignments and maybe evenrelocating to other Kezner properties, internationally, to get exposure to all facets of the business. This will be a very visible program so others will want to aspire to become part of it.

Dr. Myszkowski: Where did 'effective coaching' fit in as these spokes were assembled andimplemented?

Beverly: Once we had many of the otherspokes in place, it became apparent to somemanagers and supervisors that they did notknow how to develop their people and meetAtlantis' expectations, despite their best efforts.

Lore's Effective Coaching Process andWorkshop filled a critical spoke in the wheel.As we learned more about it, we realizedthat it gave us a common language abouthow to develop people every day. It definedwhat 'coaching' really meant. It had practical,relevant principles that people couldimmediately apply. As we rolled it out, we could see that it built the confidence of leaders who were really struggling. Ithelped some managers succeed for the firsttime in reaching and energizing an employeewho was underperforming. It was immediatelyapparent that it was also part of ourmentoring process.

Dr. Myszkowski: How did you beginimplementing the 'effective coaching'spoke once you decided the foundationwas in place?

Beverly: During this whole period, wecontinued to search the world for the bestconsulting and training firms we could findwho could quickly help us design andimplement these spokes.

As part of this search, Karen and I attended aConference Board session in Atlanta where

we heard Barbara Singer of Lore speak—andwe liked what she had to say about coachingand how coaching skills had been developedin other companies. Then we spoke moreextensively with you about how the programmight be customized to our unique situation.We read Lore's White Papers, including 'TheCase for Executive Coaching.' We also readLore's book on Adaptive Coaching by TerryBacon and Karen Spear.

Once we had confidence that this workshopwas worth pursuing, we contacted previousLore clients who had engaged Lore for similarprojects. We talked with Raytheon and CiscoSystems, both of whom found Lore to beextremely collaborative and top notch interms of customization and the facultydelivering the workshops.

As a next step, Karen and I asked Lore todesign and deliver a pilot program for a crosssection of representatives of our operationsat the leadership level. Both the Workshopand the Lore representatives were acceptedby our managers. And the customization thatwould be necessary, largely in the role plays,seemed doable. Now the question was:“how could we bring this to the leadershipof Atlantis and get their buy-in?” We knewwe could not get their undivided attentionfor the full two days of the typical workshop.

Lore designed and delivered a one dayexecutive version of the workshop. It

“Lore's Effective CoachingWorkshop is the best trainingprogram we have ever invested in. It provides a process and languagethat helps our supervisors engage the minds of our employees to excel at their jobs—and deliver tough love if they really need it.”

Nan PalmerChief Operating OfficerAtlantis, Paradise Island, 2005

was a balance of conceptually coming to understand the several essential principles of effective coachingtaught during the workshop with opportunities to trytheir own hands at role playing the modeled process.They liked how practical it was and how much it focusedon coaching skill development before the workshop was completed. We got their buy in! Later, many ofthem returned to attend the full two day workshop.

Dr. Myszkowski: When you had the approval and support of the top management team, how did you begin to roll out the training to this large population of executives, managers, and supervisors?

Beverly: Fresh from our success with the seniorexecutive group, we used that momentum to ask ourdivision heads to recommend some of their managerswho were both likely 'early adopters' as well as opinionleaders. In the spring of 2005 we trained approximately100 managers. Our early roll-out workshops werepurposely composed mostly of managers from similarlevels of the organization, assuming they would sharesimilar supervisory problems, challenges, and concerns.People in the workshops quickly saw that there was abetter way to manage. Many recognized that they wereunintentionally not allowing their employees to be partof the solution by how they were supervising them. Itwas one of the strongest “ah ha's” early in theworkshop that got everyone's attention.

Even the skills taught on the first of the two days in theworkshop were so clear and useful that many managerswent out and tried some of them the evening after thefirst day. They tried them with their employees, theirspouses, their adolescent kids, and in one case, with herminister. Managers came back with success stories andtestimonials the second day of how their first attempts at following this process and using these skills hadgotten them better results. Over the next year, with themany workshops we delivered, this became a commonoccurrence. Word spread quickly that this was a greatprogram and you would learn a lot of valuable skills.

Given all the previous foundation work we had done and the other spokes of the wheel that were in place,the timing was perfect. We were very excited about the reception the workshop was getting from theparticipants and the results we were beginning to see.

We looked at the workshop evaluations completed at the end of each day of the workshop and we alsoindividually followed up with participants and their

bosses back on the job. The results were so positive thatwe decided to continue with the roll-out. With Phase IIIbreathing down our necks, we had about another 200supervisors, managers, and executives who would needto be trained if we were to begin to make this part ofour culture before a massive influx of new employeeswould drive our attention back to basic orientation andskill training.

So, starting with the pilot workshop in December 2004,we trained approximately 300 executives, managers, andsupervisors in the Effective Coaching process and skillsover the next eleven months. There were about twentytwo-day workshop sessions delivered over that time period.

Dr. Myszkowski: When it became clear that Atlantis was committed to this major initiative,what else did you do to support the training and institutionalize coaching as part of howAtlantis did business?

Beverly: We realized pretty quickly that we needed an internal infrastructure or support system to helpmanagers and supervisors as they tried to apply andmaster these new skills, especially with some of the more difficult employees or employee situations.

We came up with the idea of developing“Super Coaches” - sort of master coacheswho could serve as behind-the-scenes'coaches for the coaches.' The staff at the Atlantis University was already close tobeing overwhelmed with training demandsand Phase III would totally tax all of ourresources. By tapping into executives,managers, and supervisors to take on this role in addition to their 'day jobs,' weleveraged our in-house expertise. This alsohelped to position this initiative as a line-owned initiative vs. an HR-driven program.

We positioned the Super Coaches as peoplewho were not their bosses, were not out tosteal their jobs, who understood the value of coaching and did not see it as a burden,and who genuinely wanted to see the othersupervisor or manager be successful—tohelp them achieve their own success.

Dr. Myszkowski: How did you select and develop the Super Coaches?

Beverly: We asked the expert faculty at Loreto identify students in the workshops whoseemed to learn and use the process easilyand effectively. We then compared that listover time with what we thought we knewabout these people and picked out peoplewe were confident would be accepted asleaders and role models within the Atlantisemployee and management community.Then we asked Lore to design and deliver a customized Advanced Coaching SkillsWorkshop to train these twelve SuperCoaches in advanced skills.

Dr. Myszkowski: Were there other things you did to support the results of the training?

There was an immediate follow up 'back onthe job' assignment for each of the students.First they had to go back and discuss whatthey had learned with their boss—who hadprobably already attended the workshop. We had specific assignments for students totake the initiative and apply their coachingskills to three or four individuals at least overthe next six months, with follow up from usand their boss.

Lore also provided us with a CoachingEffectiveness Survey which each supervisor or manager could give to each person theycoached, and after a specific time, the coachwould receive a confidential report of thecombined results of three or more coacheesand their ratings of how effective the coachwas at each of the different parts of the Lorecoaching process. The confidentiality of thecoachees was preserved and the report wasnot shown to the coach's boss - unless theychose to - it was purely for their continueddevelopment as a coach.

Then, as the ultimate safety net, we askedyou, Gary, to serve as our external expertexecutive coaching resource to be availablefor consulting with us on coaching problemsthat escalated from a coach to either a Super Coach or faculty from AtlantisUniversity, and where we felt we all neededsome additional wisdom and perspective tosolve the problem. In other words, you arethe 'coach to the Super Coaches.'

We are now in the process of working with Lore todesign and deliver a refresher course on EffectiveCoaching into our continuing curriculum at AtlantisUniversity. We are also working with Lore to develop our in-house capability to deliver the two day EffectiveCoaching Workshop, so we can have a cost-effectivemeans for training our new supervisors, managers, andexecutives who were brought on board as part of thePhase III expansion.

And finally, keep in mind, as I mentioned earlier, thatcoaching was already incorporated as a performanceexpectation in our performance planning and appraisalprocess.

Dr. Myszkowski: You mentioned earlier that there were key principles and “ah ha's' that yourmanagers experienced in the workshop thatallowed them to supervise their people differently.Which of those seemed most important?

Beverly: I think the first 'ah ha' for the participants wasthat different people prefer to be coached using differentstyles. It is not 'one size fits all.' The workshop gave us aframework to define what those different styles wereand how to adapt our styles of coaching to the coachee.

Second, 'getting the monkey off your back' and, as amanager, not having the employee's problems thrustonto your shoulders. The workshop showed us that we were spending too much time in ourown heads and trying to solve theproblems for our employees. Theworkshop gave us the framework, tools,and skills to engage our employees tothink about what was the cause of theproblem, the alternatives to solving theproblem, and using the employees'experience and intimate knowledge oftheir roles to come up with solutions thatworked and they were committed to. We got the monkey off of our backs.

And finally, I think the biggest 'ah ha'for most of us was realizing that wewere often addressing the presentingproblem that our employees werebringing to us and trying to solve thatproblem, rather than taking the time todiscover what the underlying problemwas and helping the employee find asolution. It was like repeatedly treating

a fever and not the underlying infection. It reminded us that 'Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.' By helping the employee use their minds and problemsolving skills, they became less dependent on the supervisor.

Dr. Myszkowski: How have you evaluated the effectiveness of the training so far?

Beverly: I personally looked at every evaluationcompleted anonymously by the workshop participants at the end of the first day and at the overall evaluationof the program and the workshop faculty at the end ofthe second day of each workshop. Lore also compiled areport of the evaluations including people's anonymouscomments. The ratings of the program and the facultywere among the highest we have ever had. There wereno complaints about having to attend the training—remember it was mandatory. There was no negativefeedback at all.

Next, we looked for evidence that the coachingbehaviors were actually being applied back on the job.There were plenty of anecdotes of managers feelingmore self-confident about using the coaching to get their employees to think and solve more of theirproblems. At the same time, they saw their ESIs startgoing up. It did not take long before we had someemerging wins. For example, Ian, our SVP of Food and Beverage, found that his ESI (Employee Satisfaction

Index) jumped three points shortly after a critical

mass of his managers and supervisorscompleted the training.

But perhaps more importantly, we hadsignificant improvements in our GSI (GuestSatisfaction Index). Early in this journey, ourGSI typically hovered around the high 60sand low 70s. Shortly after we trained morethan 300 supervisors and managers, our GSIrose as high as 85 to 87%—some peoplethought we would never achieve that.

Dr. Myszkowski: From your perspective,what have been some of the mostvaluable outcomes or results from thetraining that we have not alreadydiscussed?

Beverly: In terms of Atlantis, I think this will be part of a larger cultural change wherewe have more employees with the selfconfidence to perform. People will not avoidthings they might think they are not good ator sure of. People are beginning to show theself confidence to stand up and recognizethat they don't know everything. They willsee these gaps as an opportunity to learn.Eventually, many more employees will beginto take more ownership of their businesses

instead seeing this simply as a job. Theywill begin to take more calculated risks.Employees will step beyond proceduresto provide exemplary guest serviceexperiences. The employees will not beafraid to experiment and possibly fail.

We are clearly beginning to engagethe minds of the employees. And ifwe do that, the hearts follow quicklybehind. In the past, in our culture,'thinking time' was considered to be'goofing off.' Now, increasingly, athinking employee who recognizesor anticipates a guest need beyondthe employee's immediate tasks and duties and then provides serviceto that guest—that employeebehavior distinguishes us from the competition.

Another benefit is that theeffective coaching process leverages all ofour managers and supervisors to develop ourtalent pool on a daily basis. Development nolonger occurs a couple of times a year whenit is delivered by HR in training courses.Managers now see developing their peoplefor the current job and future jobs withinAtlantis as part of their day job. The culturalchange has begun and people are less reluctant to offerup their best people for advancement.

All of this benefits the local Bahamiancommunity—and that is so important. Themore successful Atlantis becomes, the moreopportunities there will be for our employeesto advance and take on responsibilities theycould barely imagine a few short years ago.

Shortly after we trained more than300 supervisors and managers, ourGSI (Guest Satisfaction Index) roseas high as 85 to 87%—some peoplethought we would never achieve that.

Atlantis has become the benchmark for the Bahamas andmuch of the Caribbean. Any Bahamian will tell you thatif you want the best training and the best in leadershipdevelopment in the Bahamas, you have to go to Atlantis.We have gone to the international market to find thebest practices and the best consultants to help us buildthose best practices in a way that works for us.

There are a lot of companies in the Bahamas and theCaribbean that are interested in what we are doing inthe Atlantis University. They may not have the way tobuild these training capabilities in-house for themselves.We are increasingly offering training to these othercompanies.

We have been fortunate to have a top managementteam that recognizes that if you want the business to do 'this,' then the culture has to do 'this.' And there hasto be a thoughtful plan that is refined as you learn whatworks and what doesn't in your situation. All the thingsthat need to occur outside of the training and thetraining itself needs to be funded by the organization.And top management needs to model what they wanttheir mangers to do—they need to 'walk the talk.' There are no quick fixes and this is hard for some leaders of other companies to realize or accept. We have been very fortunate.

Dr. Myszkowski: What advice or 'point outs' would you give to others who are beginning a similar journey?

Beverly: First of all you have to realize that attemptingculture change is not a destination—it is a journey. There are no quick fixes and we had to continually test what would work at Atlantis. Everybody is different.Be prepared to go down some dead ends. We are still on that journey and we don't expect that coaching willreally be completely institutionalized in our culture for at least three to five years from now, at the earliest.

Second, the OD consultants at AU had to build aneffective partnership with our internal customers andclients. We needed to demonstrate that we understoodwhat the business needs were. Then we presented to thesenior executives what their options were to meet thoseneeds and discussed with them on the pros and consand implications of different courses of action. And veryimportantly, we were committed to measuring impactand results as much as the operators were. And finally,we had accountability to work with them in partnership

to make it work. Senior management ownership and commitment to the culture change, the AtlantisUniversity curriculum, and this workshop in particular,were critical.

The third point is that we had to create a foundationwhich allowed our managers and supervisors to be readyto accept and adopt the training. There were a numberof things we did to increase their readiness to engage inthis learning.

And finally, once we had concluded that the trainingwould create business value for us, we had to be willingto make the investment and budget enough money. This was not inexpensive. But the investment was worthit. Don't try to do this 'on the cheap.'

A lot of thought and careful consideration guided us onthis journey. Unlike our famous water slide, this was nota 'leap of faith.'

Beverly Saunders is the VicePresident, OrganizationDevelopment and Training forAtlantis, Paradise Island.Bahamas. Beverly had extensiveexperience in training andorganization development inthe U.S. before joining Atlantis.

Beverly can be reached at:Beverly.saunders@kerzner.com

Dr. Gary Myszkowski is a Lore Certified IndependentExecutive Coach and a BusinessDevelopment and EngagementDirector for Lore with overtwenty years of experience. He served as the base trainerfor all of the Atlantis EffectiveCoaching Workshops inpartnership with other senior

Lore faculty and executive coaches.

Gary is based in Chicago. He can be reached at (847) 420-2420 or at gary.myszkowski@lorenet.com

Lore Coaching Skills Workshop Profiles

The Lore Effective Coaching Workshopis an intensive two-day workshop whereparticipants learn the skills to apply the Lore four step coaching process. It is typicallycustomized to the culture and commonrealities facing a client's managers andsupervisors. Through a low faculty-to-studentratio and multiple opportunities for guidedrole play, students practice how to coachtheir direct reports and others. These skillscan be applied immediately upon completionof the workshop.

The Lore Advanced Coaching Workshopis a highly participative three-day programintended for in-house coaches and ODconsultants. It is customized to the currentcapabilities of those coaching resources andaddresses the more complex and difficultissues that can arise in coaching such as:evaluating coachability, working withcoachee defenses, helping coachees who are stuck in the change process, coachingcoaches, giving tough feedback, controllingyour own preferences and biases, anddetermining when coaching is notappropriate.

About Lore International Institute

Lore International Institute is a privately held,global executive development firm, servingthe global business community. Since 1989Lore has been providing clients with a rangeof professional development solutionsincluding organizational consulting,assessment, executive coaching, executiveeducation, and business development services.

About Kerzner International

Kerzner International Limited, through its subsidiaries, is a leading internationaldeveloper and operator of destinationresorts, casinos and luxury hotels. TheCompany's flagship brand is Atlantis, which includes Atlantis, Paradise Island, the 171-acre, 2,917-room, ocean-themeddestination resort is located on ParadiseIsland, The Bahamas. This unique propertyfeatures three interconnected hotel towersand The Cove, a luxury all-suite resort builtaround a 97-acre waterscape with over 20 million gallons of fresh and saltwaterlagoons, pools and habitats, the world'slargest open-air marine habitat and some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. A 495-unit Condotel, developed inpartnership with Turnberry Associates, isunder construction. The Company isextending its Atlantis brand globally with the development of Atlantis, The Palm,Dubai, an approximately 1,500-room, water-themed resort expected to open in late 2008, currently being constructed onThe Palm, Jumeirah, a multi-billion dollarleisure and residential development in Dubai.In its luxury resort hotel business, theCompany manages ten resort hotels primarilyunder the One&Only brand. The resorts,featuring some of the top-rated properties in the world, are located in The Bahamas,Mexico, Mauritius, the Maldives and Dubai.An additional One&Only property is currentlyin the planning stages in South Africa. Formore information concerning the Companyand its operating subsidiaries, visit www.kerzner.com.

Our Condolences

Lore International Institute wishes toexpress our condolences to the family ofButch Kerzner and to the managementand employees of Kerzner Internationalfor the untimely death of Butch inOctober 2006. Butch perished in ahelicopter crash in inclement weather in the Dominican Republic whileinvestigating a possible location for an exclusive One and Only Club.