Yesterday I had the pleasure of participating in a “Lean Basics” class with Steve Ansuini and his team in Anderson, Indiana. Not only was the learning rich, but it was wonderful to go ‘back-to-basics’ and really reflect on some of the learnings that perhaps I’ve come to take for granted. And one of those is that ‘service excellence is for everyone’. When we were working on the ‘line’ (a simulator from NUMMI), all kinds of problems occurred; when our ‘team lead’ stepped in to help, though, work was completed and problems dealt with. In many organizations, however, supervisors and higher level leaders aren’t available to help ‘just-in-time’: they’re in meetings or somewhere else, away from the place their teams are creating value with customers. If this sounds like your organization, you might want to go ‘back-to-basics’ too because it doesn’t matter what kind of organization you’re in, or what role you have within that organization – everyone is there for one, united purpose – and one purpose only – and that is to serve the customer!
