How The Best Restaurant in the World Built a Culture of Collaboration

The following draws from the collaboration culture at Eleven Madison Park, one of the world’s most acclaimed restaurants, applied here to the creative agency context. For more on the philosophy and practices behind it, read Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara:

At Eleven Madison Park, a turning point came the day after a big strategy meeting: everyone from the sous-chef to the server had helped draw the map, so every person felt a stake in where the restaurant was headed. The team at Eleven Madison Park built a culture where collaboration included everyone, from front of house to back, every single day. The lesson for a creative agency is straightforward: spell out one clear goal and make sure every team member knows how their daily work connects to it. When an intern or a junior designer sees that even their small task moves the needle on the client’s vision, they work harder and more creatively. In practice this means opening your plan to all minds and letting your whole team chew on the big idea and help refine it so it truly becomes their plan.

The next principle is simple but often overlooked: watch your rivals like mentors. EMP Chef Daniel Humm and general manager Will Guidara spent time dissecting the menus and methods of restaurants like Thomas Keller’s French Laundry. In his book The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek introduces the idea of a “worthy rival” as someone whose strengths reveal your weaknesses and challenge you to improve. Creative agencies can do the same. If a peer agency has a phenomenal social campaign or an ad that goes viral, don’t sneer at it…study it. Ask, “What are they doing right that we’re missing?” That attitude of curiosity can turn competition into learning. Each time you steal, or build upon, an idea (always give credit!), you improve your own bench. In Sinek’s terms, borrowing excellence from a rival forces you onto a path of improvement.

Beyond that, and perhaps more powerful, there’s another way to learn from rivals that works in the other direction: Reverse benchmarking (watch Rory Sutherland describe reverse benchmarking 👉 HERE). Reverse benchmarking means identifying what others get wrong and building against it. It’s a strategy for spotting where the category has settled and choosing not to settle there. EMP used it to challenge the low standards hidden in plain sight. Most fine dining restaurants focused on food and wine. EMP looked at everything else. They asked why coffee service was an afterthought in places charging hundreds per meal. They questioned how beer could be so forgettable when the rest of the menu was curated. They noticed that service often followed scripts, even when real attention would have done more. What others ignored, they took seriously. And shifting that focus didn’t necessarily require more money, just better judgment. Agencies can use the same approach. If competitors rely on jargon to sound strategic, speak plainly. If clients are used to waiting days for a response, answer within the hour. You don’t need to chase the category’s strengths when the weaknesses are easier to reach, faster to own, and are a better way to separate yourself.

Another key in EMP’s ascension to the throne of #1 restaurant in the world was passion-driven ownership. EMP noticed that the people at the margins often held the keys to greatness: the coffee runner who lived and breathed beans, the plate-runner obsessed with beer, the back-waiter fascinated by tea. Guidara wrote in his notebook, “Jim should be in charge of our coffee program.” And he did. They gave Jim Betz full control over coffee and Kirk Kelewae the beer “It’s yours now. Go make it awesome,” they told him. He attacked every detail with zeal, reading journals at home and sourcing rare bottles. A year later EMP boasted one of America’s best beer lists. The same trick works for agencies: let the Photoshop nerd own the image pipeline, or let the young UX designer run the prototype lab. When people’s obsessions are unleashed and they are granted real ownership they naturally lift the work. In short: tap into individual passions and hand over the keys to that domain.

This trust creates a win/win/win. Guidara tells how even Chipotle’s founder realized it: when front-line teams ran their own ingredient prep, “the team was empowered, the food tasted better, and customers loved it.” At EMP the payoff was similar. Once Kirk handled beer and Jim ran coffee, the old wine director could focus on wine, and his wine program got even stronger. Meanwhile the beer, coffee, and cocktail programs (afterthoughts at other five-star places) became world-class, because each specialist was fired up. As Guidara notes, every program suddenly had “the room to run.” In an agency, the analogy might be: let the video guy focus on video and the web designer on the website, instead of everyone passing every job through a gauntlet of people who don’t know about, or don’t care as much about, that facet of the company. When each expert owns their lane, the whole agency’s output improves, and clients notice the quality and passion.

Collaboration also means turning staff into teachers. At EMP weekly “Happy Hour” meetings and pre-service gatherings became platforms for waiters and runners to teach the team about their research: a new wine, a cocktail technique or a beer style. Guidara reports that as soon as servers were up front talking about their topic, things changed. He saw “an enormous difference in the team” after they began leading these sessions. Every line-check or wine-presenting moment is public speaking practice. The young staff “began carrying themselves differently” after these exercises. An agency can mirror this: invite a junior art director to demo a new design tool, or have a strategist run a lunch-and-learn on social analytics. Preparing a mini-lesson forces deeper understanding (“teaching cements learning”), and standing in front of colleagues builds confidence. Over time, a culture of peer-to-peer teaching sprouts leaders at every level.

And once staff see the rewards of contributing, make that contribution habitual. EMP turned collaboration into a routine part of onboarding. For example, every new reservationist was required to fix something small on day one; maybe tidy the booking desk or clear a junk pile. Suddenly they saw how it felt to help. That quick win gave them the “taste of what it feels like” to improve their world, and they started asking, “What else can I make better?” Likewise, agencies should assign a tiny but meaningful project to new hires: update the template library, sharpen up the project-tracking spreadsheet, or audit the draft website. Give them a fresh pair of eyes on a real problem. Then (and this is crucial) listen respectfully to every idea they bring. As Guidara put it, he made sure his team knew “if you had an idea for how we could improve, I wanted to hear it.” (note: the new hires also knew who to bring their ideas to). The first suggestion you get sets the tone. Thank it, coach it, encourage it, and people will keep speaking up. If you brush ideas off, innovation dries up.

Finally, delegate before people feel ready. EMP found that even when mistakes happened (Kirk spilled beer on trial runs, Leo burned a cocktail or two), the long-term gain was worth it.“ These are short-term investments of time with long-term gains,” Guidara reflects. The math is simple: fixing a rookie’s error now is faster than generations of missed improvements. In creative work, give a junior writer or producer a real client deliverable under mentorship. They may fumble at first, but they’ll learn faster than if you baby them on the sidelines. In fact, leadership theorists note that giving someone authority creates leaders. As marketer Ross Simmonds observes, “When you empower someone to lead, you’re giving them ownership over their work… This builds confidence, fosters creativity, and drives engagement.” In other words, autonomy and responsibility multiply your leadership bench.

The result is a positive cycle: trust leads to experimentation, improvements pile up, and both the team and the agency’s offerings rise to new levels. Thinking like the best restaurant in the world means treating structured collaboration as the main course. The ingredients are clear goals, clear overarching vision, role ownership, mutual trust, individual passion, constant teaching, and early delegation. Put together with intent, they form a recipe any creative shop can use. The result is a system that scales quality without losing identity. Start small (one clear goal, one empowered person) and watch it spread. In the end, you’ll have happier staff and more innovative work that clients taste, appreciate, and talk about. That is the real proof in the pudding (ugh. Sorry).