How to coach for creativity and service excellence: a lean coaching workbook 9780429436932, 0429436939, 9780429792458, 042979245X, 9780367136567, 9781138480636

Table of contents :
Content: Welcome Section (Preface) Part 1: Introduction: It takes 21 Days To Make a Habit! Time to Get Started! Day 1: Lean Service Basics Part 2: Time to Practice! Day 2: Always Start with Purpose Day 3: A Vision Gives Us Something to Strive Towards Together! Day 4: Service is About Others Day 5: Service Value Streams Tend to Be Circular Day 6: Creating Peak Services vs Simply Solving Problems Day 7: Start with What Should be Happening (Target) Day 8: Do You REALLY Know What's Going On?Day 9: The Importance of `Making It Visible': Both Process and Mindsets! Day 10: The Importance of `Making it Visible': Minding the Gap! Day 11: Striving for Single-Piece Flow in Service Processes Day 12: Barriers to Flow in Service Processes: Part 1 Day 13: Barriers to Flow in Service Processes: Part 2Day 14: Barriers to Flow in Services: Part 3 Day 15: Leveling Work in Services: Part 1 Day 16: Leveling Work in Services: Part 2 Day 17: Leveling Work in Services: Part 3 Day 18: Standardized Work in Services: Part 1 Day 19: Standardized Work in Services: Part 2 Day 20: Time to Reflect! Part 3: Conclusion: Where am I - and my learner - now? What's Next? Day 21: What Did We Learn?

Citation preview

How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence

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How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence A Lean Coaching Workbook

By Karyn Ross

CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2019 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Routledge/Productivity Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Government works Printed on acid-free paper International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-48063-6 (Paperback) International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-429-43693-2 (eBook) International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-367-13656-7 (Hardback) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged, please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copyright. com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ross, Karyn, author. Title: How to coach for creativity and service excellence : a lean coaching workbook / Karyn Ross. Description: 1 Edition. | New York : Taylor & Francis, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018045058 (print) | LCCN 2018057236 (ebook) | ISBN 9780429436932 (e-Book) | ISBN 9780367136567 (hbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138480636 (pbk : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Employee motivation. | Creative ability. | Teams in the workplace. | Lean manufacturing. Classification: LCC HF5549.5.M63 (ebook) | LCC HF5549.5.M63 R6772 2019 (print) | DDC 658.3/124–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018045058

Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com

This book is written with love and thanks to everyone who cares enough to coach.

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Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................. xi Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 Why a Creativity/Coaching/Lean-in-Services Workbook..........................................1 Day 1: The Basics...................................................................................... 5 Lean in Services: No Customer Ever Wants to Hear the Words ‘I Can’t’ ...................5 Creativity: You are Creative! (Oh Yes You Are!)........................................................6 Coaching: Let’s Get Started!........................................................................................7 Day 2: It All Starts with Purpose............................................................. 11 Lean in Services: What’s Your Purpose?...................................................................11 Creativity: Defining Creativity ..................................................................................12 Coaching: Always Remember: The People You Coach are Human Beings! ..........14 Day 3: A Vision Gives Us Something to Strive Towards! ......................... 17 Lean in Services: A Vision of Service Excellence .....................................................17 Creativity: The Limitations of ‘Either/Or’ Thinking..................................................19 Coaching: Setting Up Your Coaching Structure and Cadence ................................20 Day 4: Service is About People! .............................................................. 25 Lean in Services: What Do Each of Our Customers Value as Human Beings?........25 Creativity: Using ‘And’ Thinking to Expand Our Possibilities .................................26 Coaching: Preparing for Your First Coaching Session.............................................27 Day 5: The Challenge of Circular Value Streams ..................................... 33 Lean in Services: When Customers are Suppliers ....................................................33 Creativity: Divergent Thinking .................................................................................34 Coaching: Deciding on the Next Step ......................................................................35

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Day 6: Creating Peak Services vs Simply Solving Problems .................... 41 Lean in Services: The Peak Services Model .............................................................41 Creativity: ‘Invention is the Mother of Necessity’ ....................................................43 Coaching: Each Next Step Should be Challenging ..................................................44 Day 7: Start with What Should be Happening (The Target) .................... 49 Lean in Services: What Should be Happening from Our Customer’s Point of View.............................................................................................................49 Creativity: Synthesis ..................................................................................................50 Coaching: Nurture is Just as Important as Challenge ..............................................52 Day 8: Do You Really Know What is Going On? (Actual) ........................ 57 Lean in Services: Get out of the Office and ‘Go See’ ...............................................57 Creativity: Drawing it Out.........................................................................................58 Coaching: ‘Seeing’ Thinking.....................................................................................59 Day 9: Make What’s Going on Visible ..................................................... 65 Lean in Services: Current State Diagramming ..........................................................65 Creativity: Asking Open-Ended Questions Stimulates Creativity ............................67 Coaching: Listening with Open Ears, Open Eyes, Open Mind and an Open Heart ..........................................................................................................68 Day 10: Mind the Gap ............................................................................. 73 Lean in Services: The Problem Equation .................................................................73 Creativity: Making Leading and Lagging Indicators Visible.....................................75 Coaching: Make Sure YOU See the Gap Too! .........................................................76 Day 11: Striving for Single-Piece Flow in Service Processes ................... 81 Lean in Services: What Flow Looks Like in Services................................................81 Creativity: Uncovering the Hidden ‘I Can’t’s’ ...........................................................83 Coaching: Developing Discipline ............................................................................83 Day 12: Flow: Building in Quality at the Source ..................................... 89 Lean in Services: Effective Leads to Efficient ...........................................................89 Creativity: No Idea is Too Crazy!..............................................................................90 Coaching: Discipline Leads to Stamina ....................................................................92 Day 13: Flow: Minimizing Interruptions and Disruptions ...................... 97 Lean in Services: You CAN Minimize Interruptions.................................................97 Creativity: Why Asking Why? Improves Creativity ..................................................98 Coaching: Asking Why to Dispel Assumptions in Coaching.................................100

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Day 14: Flow: Eliminating Waste ...........................................................105 Lean in Services: Unevenness, Overburden and the 7 Wastes..............................105 Creativity: Draw First, Ask Questions Later ...........................................................107 Coaching: Half Way There – Time to Check In! ....................................................108 Day 15: Leveling: It’s Not All Random ...................................................113 Lean in Services: What Leveling Looks Like in Services ........................................113 Creativity: Thinking Patterns Can Hold Back Creativity ........................................114 Coaching: Leveled Coaching ..................................................................................116 Day 16: Internal Leveling.......................................................................121 Lean in Services: Breaking Work Down into Nested Increments .........................121 Creativity: Big Picture AND Detail-Oriented!.........................................................123 Coaching: Helping the Person You’re Coaching See Peaks and Valleys ..............124 Day 17: External Leveling ......................................................................129 Lean in Services: What to do When…When to do What…...................................129 Creativity: Parts to Whole Relationships ................................................................130 Coaching: Span of Control Issues ..........................................................................132 Day 18: Standardized Work Part 1 .........................................................137 Lean in Services: A Standard is a Target.................................................................137 Creativity: Standards Promote Creativity................................................................139 Coaching: What Should be Standardized? .............................................................140 Day 19: Standardized Work Part 2 .........................................................145 Lean in Services: Standardized Decision-Making Processes .................................145 Creativity: Making Standards Visible......................................................................146 Coaching: Using Standards to See and Eliminate ‘I Can’t’s’...................................148 Day 20: Standardized Checking! ............................................................153 Lean in Services: ‘Check In’ with People…‘Check On’ Results.............................153 Creativity: Seeing Gaps to Standard at a Glance....................................................154 Coaching: People Always Need Coaching.............................................................156 Day 21: Time to Reflect ..........................................................................161 Lean in Services: What went well? Why?................................................................161 Creativity: What could have gone better? Why?.....................................................162 Coaching: What are my next steps?........................................................................163

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Afterword and Thank You! ....................................................................169 Index .....................................................................................................171

Acknowledgements I spend a lot of time coaching. Hours and hours. Each and every day. Sometimes people ask me if it’s tiring. On the contrary. It’s extremely energizing! Helping people learn and grow so that they can help others learn and grow is a gift! So, to everyone that I’ve had the opportunity to work with, thank you all for your efforts to help your customers and organizations. I’d like to offer special thanks to Oliver Thompson and Elaine Camm at EKemp, Theresa Coleman-Kaiser at Michigan Technological University, Noah Goellner, Hennig Inc., and Michelle Jorgensen, Total Care Dental, for allowing me to use their learning stories as examples in this book! To Sylvia Witter-Vliege, Lidz, The Netherlands, Sarah Bonzo, SUNY Oswego, and Angela Knobloch, Notre Dame University, thank you for being part of the initial ‘test-pilot’ group! To Cheryl Jensen, Doug Wotherspoon, and Suzannah DiMarco at Algonquin College, thank you for inspiring me with your efforts to put this model into practice. To Leslie Henckler and Jeff Liker, thank you for being my first Lean teachers and coaches. To Dennis Gawlik, thank you for being the best question-asker and coach I know. And to my husband, Brian Hoffert and children, Quinton Hoffert and Serena Ross, thank you for your ongoing support as I work towards fulfilling my mission of ‘Helping people improve the world.’ I truly believe that everyone should have a coach and that everyone should be a coach. And, that we only really learn through doing. So, thank you to everyone, in the many organizations that I have had the joy and privilege to work with. Through helping you with your efforts to learn, I improve my own coaching! All the best, Karyn

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Introduction Welcome! I’m Karyn Ross, coauthor of The Toyota Way to Service Excellence: Lean Transformation in Service Organizations. First of all, I’d like to thank you for buying this book and for your commitment to improving your coaching so that you can help your organization flourish, thrive, and grow for the longterm. It’s an important commitment and a worthy undertaking. I’m excited to be with you on your journey! In fact, you are the reason I decided to write this book!

Why a Creativity/Coaching/Lean-in-Services Workbook? As an internationally acclaimed Lean consultant and coach, I’m often asked to help service organizations that are struggling to translate Lean principles into the sustainable practices that will meet their – and their customers’ – unique needs, now and for the future. Over the years, I’ve found that one of the best ways to do this is for the organization to develop a network of coaches who can help people: Learn by ‘doing.’ Although we tend to believe that changing people’s thinking (mindset) first will change what they do, the reverse is actually true: changing what we do – and seeing the different result – changes how we think. Adapt Lean in a way that makes sense for their service organization. Many Lean practitioners who started in manufacturing have told me that it can be difficult for them to adapt Lean manufacturing practices to meet the special ‘people’ considerations found in services. As well, many service organizations I’ve encountered struggle to figure out how to use Lean as a system so that they – and their customers – can flourish, thrive, and grow for the longterm – and not just a set of tools to improve internal processes.

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Practice continuously to make a habit. Change can be difficult. Doing anything differently requires constant practice. Without a coach to help develop the discipline and stamina needed to turn new behaviors into habits, most people will revert to old ways of ‘doing’ . . . and with that, old ways of ‘thinking.’ While many service organizations understand the benefits of coaching and have adopted ‘Lean coach’ positions, I’ve found that very few coaches have actually been taught how to coach using any type of systematic, structured approach. And even fewer have had the opportunity for ongoing coaching from an actual Lean coach! That’s a problem. Because in order to have the competence and confidence to successfully coach others, people first need to learn how to be a coach themselves. Finally, I’ve found that teaching people how to coach for creativity is a missing subject altogether in Lean literature and training programs. As a practicing artist, with a Masters Degree in Sculpture, I know how important creativity is, and that PDCA isn’t just the scientific method. It’s also the artistic process. Finding creative solutions to problems, developing new service processes, and creating peak service experiences require people to have two different skillsets: First, they need to have an idea of how to do something in a different way. That’s creativity. Second, they need to turn the new idea into reality: solutions to problems, new services or better service experiences for customers. To date, as a Lean community, we’ve concentrated our efforts on improving our ability to use Lean principles, practices, and tools such as flow, pull, leveling, and visual management, but if we don’t teach people to have creative, new ideas, then there is nothing for them to turn into a reality for their customers.

That’s Where This Book Comes In Written as a workbook, How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence is your own personal ‘coach’ to guide you through the daily practice required to make new behaviors (and the resulting new thinking) into habits. You’ll complete one section of the workbook each work day to practice combining creativity, Lean in services, and coaching, and develop the discipline needed to make sustained improvements. In each section, you’ll find: A Theory Thought Starter on Lean in Services, Creativity, and Coaching

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Four daily exercises and activities that you’ll complete right in the workbook: The Daily Draw will help you improve your creativity through drawing. Don’t worry if you haven’t done much drawing before! Stick figures are fine!

Dear Diary Journal Entry will help make your thoughts and feelings visible.

Put It Into Practice activity will allow you to learn and gain confidence by turning theory into practice immediately.

The Time to Reflect section will help you develop the deliberate practice of ending your day with reflection.

You may not be used to drawing, writing, and reflecting on a daily basis. As well, you may find some of the ‘prompting questions’ for each exercise challenging. Don’t worry, just go ahead and give them your best effort. Drawing and writing will help you clarify your thoughts, and daily practice will help you ‘stretch’ and grow! And, as you complete each day’s activities and exercises, I encourage you to share your drawings and writing with others in the How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence community by posting photos on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter: #How2Coach As you work your way through this book, you’ll develop yourself and increase your ability to coach others to: Use creativity to generate new ideas based on previous experience and knowledge, Use Lean principles and practices to turn those ideas into solutions to service problems and peak service experiences, Become a capable and confident coach able to guide your organization to long-term success! By the time you finish the twenty-one days of guided practice, you’ll reclaim your creativity, learn my tried-and-true 15-minute a day coaching approach, and adapt

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Lean principles, practices, and tools to your particular service organization. And, most importantly, you’ll have confidence in you own ability – and your ability to coach others – because confidence ultimately comes not from reading theory books, but from ‘doing’ and practice! Again, thank you for your commitment to improving your coaching for your organization, your customers, and yourself! There’s never any better time than the present . . . so . . . let’s get started! All the best! Karyn Ross

Time to Get Started!

Day 1: The Basics Lean in Services A sad, but true, story. A little while ago, my husband and I stopped by a new, fast-casual restaurant. After choosing our pizza, I ordered a fountain pop, and my husband asked for a glass of water. The young cashier (she couldn’t have been more than twenty years old) handed me a medium-sized ‘to-go’ cup for my fountain pop, and told my husband he could find small plastic cups for water beside the soda machine. While the cashier was pointing them out, my husband noticed that there was a row of tall, glass drinking glasses right in front of him. ‘Could I have one of those instead,’ he asked? ‘I drink a lot of water. It would be great to fill up once, then sit down and enjoy my dinner, instead of having to jump up every few minutes to grab a refill.’ The cashier responded firmly and immediately, ‘No. Absolutely not. That’s not possible!’ Somewhat taken aback, my husband asked for an explanation. ‘Only customers who order beer can have one of those glasses,’ stated the cashier. ‘Because, if a customer drops a glass and it breaks, if they’ve only ordered water, we can’t recover the cost of the glass. And, even more importantly, that’s the way my supervisor trained me. I can’t go against my training.’ Are you surprised by this story? Maybe you are. But maybe you’re not. Because, unfortunately, service experiences like this are quite common. As customers, whether we’re aware of it or not, we’re used to service providers giving us what I call the long list of ‘I can’t’s’: all the reasons that they ‘can’t’ satisfy whatever our request is. Reasons like, ‘our computer system doesn’t let us do that’ . . . ‘that service is only available on our platform for bigger accounts’ . . . ‘Our policy doesn’t allow for substitutions’ . . . and many more. But no matter how they say it, each of these is simply a way of telling customers what they ‘can’t’ have. And the problem with this is that the two words that no customer ever wants to hear are ‘I can’t.’ Customers choose a company because of what the company can do for them! Not what it can’t. 5

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‘I can’t’ isn’t just a problem for customers, either. It’s a problem for service companies. Because if today’s customer is unhappy with the service their current company provides, they can – and do – easily use the Internet to find companies offering comparable services at comparable prices. Then they switch! According to Accenture, in 2013, there was more than a trillion dollars up for grabs in the USA in what they call the ‘switching economy.’1 In the study, more than fifty percent of customers reported switching companies because of a poor service experience. So, companies that want to flourish, thrive, and grow for the longterm, need to find ways to make sure that instead of saying ‘I can’t,’ their service providers are able to say, ‘Of course we can figure out how to do that for you.’ Although we often think of Lean as a set of principles, practices and tools such as flow, leveling, daily huddles, problem-solving, and A3s, throughout this book, I’m going to challenge you to think of it differently: as an integrated system that allows us to go from ‘I can’t’ to ‘Of course we can. Let’s figure out how.’ From the macrocosm, big-picture, strategic, organizational level, to the microcosm of the daily work each person does. That means challenging ourselves to go beyond what we already know how to do. It means creating new ways to serve our customers and better ways to work so that our organizations, our team-members, our communities, and our world can flourish, thrive, and grow forever. To do that, we’re going to have to go ‘back to basics’ and call on the true, deep spirit of challenge and kaizen, the spirit that Sakichi Toyoda, Japan’s King of Inventors, and Taichi Ohno, father of the Toyota Production System, both embodied. Simply trying to copy practices and tools that others have used to solve their problems isn’t enough. That’s where creativity comes in.

Creativity ‘Do you think you’re creative? If you do, raise your hand!’ That’s how I start almost every presentations and workshop. How many people do you think raise their hand? Would you? You wouldn’t? That’s what I thought. Sadly, most people don’t think of themselves as creative. That’s because we tend to think that only people like artists and musicians are creative . . . and that creativity is reserved for people who have jobs in the art or marketing departments . . . the creative ‘parts’ of our organizations. We believe that creativity isn’t for engineers, software programmers, or customer service representatives. For people like us. The drawback to this kind of thinking is that problems that affect our customers occur in every part of our organization. They occur during the sales process, in call centers answering customer inquiries, and behind the counter at retail stores. In general, in services, value is created together with the customer, in

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the moment at the time of service. Each of our customers is a unique human being, with specific wants and needs and problems of their own to solve. They do business with a company because it helps them solve a problem they are having, whether that problem is getting their employees paid, heating their homes, or using the Internet for work or play. Service excellence means creating and delivering the service solutions our customers want and need now and for the future. So, no matter what role you have in the organization, or what department you are in, you need to be able to rely on your ability to generate the ideas that will allow you to respond to customer requests with ‘Of course we can. Let’s figure out how.’ You need to be able to raise your hand and confidently declare, ‘I’m creative!’ Because that’s exactly what each of our customers needs each of us to be!

Coaching Do you or anyone in your family play a sport? Or a musical instrument? Did you try to learn on your own at first? Then after a while did you find a coach to help you? If you did, then you know that having a coach helps move learning along much more effectively than struggling on your own. There are a variety of reasons for this, which we’ll discuss throughout this book. The one reason we’re going to focus on today, and one of the most important ones, is that a coach helps the learner get started doing something in a new and different way. Think back to anything that you wished you could learn: a specialized skill for work, a new language, or how to cook. Chances are, no matter how excited and enthusiastic you were about the thought of learning how to do something new, actually starting the new activity was pretty daunting. Or maybe, like many people, you just thought about it a lot . . . and never actually got started . . . That’s something that happens to most of us. In general, simply getting started is one of most difficult parts of learning something new. That’s because starting requires us not just tothink about something in a new way, but to actually do something differently. For most of us, that’s pretty scary. Worried about failure, we believe we need to be an expert on something to do it at all. Even though real learning and confidence only comes through experience and doing. That’s where a coach can really help us out. A coach can give us both the ‘push’ (challenge) to get us going . . . AND . . . lend us their courage and confidence (nurture us) as we go through the discomfort of starting something we don’t know how to do because we haven’t done it before. We’ll learn more about challenge and nurture later in the book.

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Right now, though, your first assignment is to find someone to coach. Because real learning comes through doing and practice, the rest of the exercises in this book are based on coaching someone. So, find someone at work, or at home, who has a customer problem to solve, and ask them if they’d like coaching! You’ll need to make sure that the person you’re going to coach has: Fifteen minutes a day, for at least twenty-one workdays, to set aside for dedicated coaching time A problem they need to solve for one of their customers Some time, each day, to try out a creative idea to help solve the problem Write the name of the person you’re going to coach here: ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Once you’ve identified and gained agreement from the person you’re going to coach, write a short summary of the problem you’re going to coach them through here: ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

Finally, sign and date the agreement here: Coach Signature and Date:

Learner Signature and Date:

______________________________________________________________________ Great! You’re all set to get started now! And if you’re worried that you don’t know enough to be someone’s coach yet . . . don’t be! We can only learn from doing, and you have this book as your coach to guide you along the way! You’ll do just great! I promise! You will!

Note 1 https://newsroom.accenture.com/subjects/research-surveys/us-switching-economyputs-up-to-1-3-trillion-of-revenue-up-for-grabs-for-companies-offering-superior-custo mer-experiences-accenture-research-finds.htm

Day 1: The Basics

Day 1 Exercises In the space below, on the left side, draw a symbol describing who you are right now. On the right side, draw one that represents what service excellence ‘looks like’ for you!

Write a diary entry about why you’ve decided to start this journey, what you hope to gain, and what you think the challenges will be.

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In the space below, write your ‘current state’ definitions of Lean, creativity, and coaching!

Use the space below to reflect on how you feel after completing your first exercises. What was challenging? What was fun? How will daily reflection practice help you and the person you are coaching?

Time to Practice

Day 2: It All Starts with Purpose Lean in Services Can you recite your organization’s vision/mission, word-forword, off-by heart, right now? You can’t? I’m not surprised. Most people aren’t able to. I know because when I begin working with an organization or team, this is the first question I always ask. And most of the time, the answer I get is, ‘Can I quickly look on the intranet?’ Even from CEO’s and C-suite members. Most interestingly, these are usually the same organizations who have asked me to help them figure out why their goals aren’t being met, and important, priority problems aren’t being worked on. For me, the answer is obvious. Unless everyone in an organization has a clear understanding of why the organization exists in the world – it’s deep, underlying purpose (greater than just making money) – there’s no way to make sure that people are onboard and working together so that the organization gets to where it wants to be going! If those in leadership positions can’t recite the mission/vision off by heart, then how clear – or important – can it be? And without a deep understanding of their organization’s underlying purpose, how can we expect each person working in the organization to decide correctly what to do or what not to do? What problems to prioritize over others? And how to decide what to do, in the moment, to help a customer? If people don’t deeply understand the organization’s purpose, they simply don’t have a way to know what their unique role (beyond the words in their job description) is in helping the organization achieve that purpose. Although every organization will be different and unique, as a service organization, at the heart, all exist for one reason, one purpose, and that is to serve customers. Although this may seem simplistic, anyone who’s worked in services knows how easy it is to become internally focused on whatever task is at hand: compiling information for an internal report or logging information on multiple spreadsheets, so that customer calls or inquiries are felt as ‘interrupting our work.’ 11

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In today’s ultra-competitive marketplace, where customers can easily use the Internet to find other companies offering similar services at comparable prices, what service companies really need to focus on is creating and delivering the peak service experiences each of their specific customers want, now and for the future. That is way for a company to flourish, thrive, and grow for the longterm. In Lean, although we sometimes think that we should start by defining what the current state is, what we really need to do is first understand – really understand – what our purpose is, because that purpose will define both where we as a company are going and help everyone create the best ways to get there.

Creativity On Day 1, we talked about the fact that most people don’t think they are creative. I find this very sad, because, as human beings, we’re all innately creative. We’re born that way! Think I’m wrong? Then think about children. Yours or others.’ I’m sure you’ll be able to think of more than a few examples of ‘creative’ ideas or solutions they’ve come up with . . . even if they’re not always approved of by ‘management.’ Children have no lack of creative ideas. As we get older, however, most of us stop believing that we’re creative. We adopt some version of the following common definition, seen in Figure 2.1, of creativity:

Figure 2.1

What people think creativity is

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However, in services, as we challenge ourselves to invent ways to satisfy customers now and for the longterm, this definition is problematic because: 1. It allows us to abdicate our own responsibility for creating the new services and ways to work that our customers need, and, 2. It gives us the erroneous belief that our own creativity isn’t something that can be improved, over time, through practice If this is our definition of creativity, then how, when we are in the process of creating value with a customer over the phone, or in person, are we going to find ways to say ‘Of course we can. Let’s figure out how!’? We won’t be able to. That’s why, throughout this book, we’re going to use a different definition of creativity: The Karyn Ross definition (see Figure 2.2). Here it is:

Figure 2.2

The Karyn Ross definition of creativity

The benefits of defining creativity this way are: 1. It gives us confidence in our innate capability to be creative, because every single one of us has knowledge gained from previous experiences at work and at home. 2. We can be optimistic, that with practice, over time, each of us can improve our ability to draw on and synthesize that knowledge in new and unique ways.

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How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence

You are creative! Oh yes, you are! I promise you! And just like anything else, creativity can be improved through practice. As you work your way through this book, if you need to, go back and remind yourself, and the person that you are coaching, of this definition. Because, ultimately our belief in our own creativity – and the creativity of the people that we’re coaching – is what will move us from ‘I can’t’ to ‘Of course we can! Let’s figure out how’!

Coaching Now that you’ve identified the person you’re going to coach and outlined the problem you’ll be coaching them through, there’s a couple of things that you’ll need to keep in mind before you begin daily coaching sessions on Day 4: Regardless of the role the person you are coaching has, they are before anything else, a human being! That means that change may be hard for them – and scary! As human beings, most of us don’t like change. Change makes us feel uncomfortable because it forces us to do things in ways that we aren’t used to. In situations that are new, we don’t have the confidence that can only come from practice and doing. In my experience, people who are at higher levels in the organization like the CEO, President, or a VP, may have more difficulty with change than we expect. Although we tend to assume that leaders at higher levels will be more flexible and adapt more easily, I’ve found the opposite is often true. A Vice President I was coaching in a multi-national corporation explained it this way: ‘I’ve been rewarded by being promoted over-and-over again for doing things in the way that I know how to do them. Even thinking about doing things differently is extremely difficult.’ As a coach, an important part of your purpose is to help the person you’re coaching overcome their fear of change by putting new behaviors into practice so that they can create new habits. That means you need to have compassion and empathy and remember that the person you are coaching is first, and foremost, a human being!

Day 2: It All Starts with Purpose

Day 2 Exercises What’s your personal purpose? In the space below, on the left side, draw a picture of it. On the right side, draw your organization’s purpose. Are they aligned?

Write a diary entry about your thoughts and feelings about creativity. How do you think creativity relates to purpose?

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How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence

Ask five people to recite your organization’s mission/vision statement from memory. What do you think will occur? What actually happened?

Reflect on how you feel after completing today’s exercises. What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you?

Time to Practice

Day 3: A Vision Gives Us Something to Strive Towards! Lean in Services Does your company have a specific vision of service excellence? A vision of how, as an organization, you are going to serve customers and exist in the broader community and world based on your long-term purpose? Most companies I’ve worked with don’t. In my experience, as we discussed on Day 2, most have vision/mission statements that are focused internally, on company goals like ‘We will be the number one provider of human resources outsourcing services,’ or, ‘Our mission is to become a world-class provider of mortgages services.’ Although it’s a common Lean practice to start by understanding the current situation first, in helping people strive towards service excellence, I have found it more beneficial to begin with the ‘end in mind.’ To start with a clear vision of where we’re going. That way everyone has a clear understanding of what they are striving together towards! To do this, I begin by helping the organization create what I call their Vision of Service Excellence. Unlike internally focused visions or missions, the Vision of Service Excellence is outward and customer-facing. It’s short and to the point and gives every person in the organization a clear vision to aspire to in serving their customers. As seen in Figure 3.1, a strong Vision of Service Excellence has the following components:

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How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence

Figure 3.1

Vision of Service Excellence characteristics

A great, real-life example of a Vision of Service Excellence is the one developed by the team at Hennig, Inc., a company that manufactures chip conveyors and machine safety products like aprons and pit covers. Hennig’s Vision of Service Excellence is:

Making Our Customers Successful! Although Hennig is a manufacturing company, they realize that their customers don’t differentiate between the manufacturing and service parts of Hennig’s business such as sales, quoting, or invoicing. And that for Hennig to be successful and fulfill its purpose, everyone in every part of the organization needs to create ways to work effectively and efficiently so that they can make each of their customers successful. If a quote is delivered late, it affects the ability of a customer to be successful because there is a delay starting work on their machine. Parts delivered late on the manufacturing floor? That also causes a delay in the customer receiving their machine, and thus affects their success. A common question to hear asked in both manufacturing and service areas of the company is, ‘How will doing that help make our customers successful?’ By starting with ‘the end in mind’ and creating a clear and concise Vision of Service Excellence, we: Place a clear emphasis on service by putting customer needs at the forefront, right where they should be.

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Develop consensus, and a shared understanding of what service excellence means for our customers and our company. Deeply connect and engage everyone in the organization in striving toward something that is greater than what they could achieve themselves. In Lean terms, another way to describe the Vision of Service Excellence is as a kind of target: What we want things to look like for our customers, even if we aren’t there yet. Once we have a target, we can then go ahead and look at what’s happening for our customers right now – the current situation – and start creating ways to close that gap.

Creativity Now that we’ve all agreed that as human beings, we’re all creative, and that each of us can improve our ability to be creative through practice, it’s time to get started! Today we’re going to focus on understanding the differences between ‘either/or’ thinking versus ‘and’ thinking and why using ‘either/or’ thinking is limiting to creativity. How many of you have heard this – or something like it – in your organization: ‘I know we’re not the cheapest service provider out there, but our quality is unbeatable. Our customers should be willing to pay a premium for it. Yep. It’s either price or quality. Customers just can’t have everything . . . ’ In general, we’re used to thinking of things in terms of ‘either/or.’ Either a customer can have this . . . or a customer can have that. We can see this type of thinking in the way we work internally as well. We tend to focus on one thing . . . or another. Have you ever been part of an initiative that targets one particular metric, let’s say ‘client retention’ for example? Incentives like jeans days, pizza parties, and gift cards are offered to teams that raise client retention scores above a certain level. Everyone focuses on client retention, scores improve . . . but . . . at the same time, new sales and client satisfaction scores fall! ‘Of course they did,’ people grumble. ‘What do you expect? We can only focus on one thing at a time.’ Again, an example of ‘either/or’ thinking at work. As seen in these two examples, the problem with ‘either/or’ thinking is that it is extremely limiting. It puts self-imposed assumptions on what is possible and what is not. Every time we participate in ‘either/or’ thinking, we reinforce those limiting assumptions: it’s not possible to give clients a high-quality product and a low the price. It’s not possible to retain current clients and increase new sales and satisfaction scores at the same time. Or is it? ‘And’ thinking is the antidote to the limits of ‘either/or’ thinking. Instead of saying ‘either we can do this . . . or we can do that,’ what I want you to do is substitute ‘and’ instead. Here’s an example: ‘Either/or’ thinking: ‘Our customers can either have speed or accuracy. They can’t have both.’

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‘And’ thinking: ‘Of course our customers need to have both speed and accuracy! That’s what we’re here to give them! Fits right in with our Vision of Service Excellence!’ When we start substituting ‘and’ for ‘either/or,’ we remove the self-imposed limits and assumptions about what we can and can’t do, what’s possible and what’s not. That allows us to start thinking in new, creative ways! Asking people to substitute ‘and’ every time they hear – or say – ‘either/or’ is a great way to jump-start their creativity!

Coaching At this point, you may be wondering, ‘How does all of this fit in with coaching?’ As a coach, you need to keep in mind that your role is to help the person you’re coaching develop their creativity and ability to use Lean to turn ideas into the services that customers want now and for the longterm. Creativity and Lean are means – ways to satisfy customers and reach business goals – and not ends in themselves. It can be easy to get sidetracked and forget that. To get caught up in the excitement of a new tool, like an A3 or daily huddles. But you need to remember that tools are just that: tools. Something we use to get us closer to the target, to where we want to be, for our customers and our company. As a coach, you need to keep the person you’re coaching focused on striving towards the Vision of Service Excellence. And remember that you are striving towards that same Vision of Service Excellence as well! Some things to consider as you begin working with the person you’re going to be coaching as you complete this workbook: 1. It’s okay if your organization doesn’t have a Vision of Service Excellence. Simply go ahead and create one together (use Figure 3.1 as a guide) to use while working through this workbook. It will give you both a customerfocused target to strive towards and will be a great example for others. 2. It may not be easy for you, or the person you’re coaching, to recognize ‘either/or’ thinking immediately. Spend time practicing listening for it and recognizing it yourself. Then help the person you’re coaching. Practice substituting ‘and’ every time you or the person you’re coaching hears it! Also, at this point, it’s time so set up the regular coaching structure and cadence you and the person you’re coaching will follow. Here’s what you need to do:

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Ask the person you’re coaching to schedule 30 minutes a day for you both to meet. Why have the person you’re coaching schedule the sessions? Because that makes them accountable for the meetings! Meeting each day is the target and, as you get going, you’ll both be able to ‘see’ what actually happens! The first 15 minutes of the session will be your coaching time. The second will be time for them to write their daily reflection. Ask the person you are coaching to acquire a notebook to use only for the work you will be doing together. Each day, in their notebook, they will: – Prepare for their coaching session by reviewing the previous day’s notes – Record notes and homework from today’s coaching session – Write a daily reflection that they will send to you each day You’ll be completing your preparation and note-taking in this workbook, so once your coaching sessions are scheduled, and the person you are coaching has their notebook, you’ll be all set!

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How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence

Day 3 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of the Vision of Service Excellence you and the person you’re coaching created.

Write a diary entry below about how you think ‘either/or’ and ‘and’ thinking have affected your creativity.

Day 3: A Vision Gives Us Something to Strive Towards!

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After you help the person you’re coaching create the Vision of Service Excellence they’ll use for the problem they’re working on, write the Vision in words here.

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s exercises. What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you?

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Time to Practice

Day 4: Service Is About People! Lean in Services So now that you’ve spent time focusing on your company’s underlying purpose, and have created a customer-facing Vision of Service Excellence, the next step is to deeply understand what each of the customers who uses your company’s services values as a human being. And the reason that I’m highlighting human being is that one of the main differences between Lean in manufacturing and Lean in services is people: human beings! In manufacturing, value (the product that is being made for the customer) isn’t, in general, created while the customer is present, or while interacting with the customer themselves in any way. Team members who work on a car assembly line might never interact directly with the person who will own and drive the car they’ve worked on. That’s the opposite of what happens in many service processes. In services, value for a customer is often created while interacting with a service representative. Think about a customer calling a contact center to ask a question about their health insurance benefits, or someone eating at a restaurant or checking into a hotel. In order for the customer to receive value in each of these examples, whether it be their question answered cheerfully and correctly, the right food served in a timely and friendly manner, or the keys to their hotel room, they usually interact with a person. In services, value is a combination of the service product (answered question, meal, hotel room) and the experience the customer has while that product is created. To strive towards our Vision of Service Excellence, then, the first step that we need to take is to really understand what each of our customers wants and needs – values – as a human being! From their perspective. Not from what we, as a company, think they should want and need. We need to think about the people who purchase our services not just as generically labeled ‘customers,’ but as individual human beings who have specific, individual, human needs. Once, while I was working as a customer service representative, a customer 25

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called about errors that had occurred on the payroll for her company. As I listened to her complaint, I realized that she wasn’t just upset because some employees hadn’t received the correct pay and now she had to spend time fixing the problem. She was concerned because those employees were extremely angry and blamed her for the errors. She now felt unsafe walking alone to her car after work. For this customer, using the services of a payroll outsourcing company wasn’t simply a way to get paychecks issued. It was one way to create a safe and secure work environment. And although this may seem like an extreme example, it’s a good one to illustrate that unless we take the time to really deeply understand why each of our customers chooses our particular company’s services, we won’t be able to strive towards creating the value that each really wants and needs! In services, we always need to remember that those we serve aren’t just ‘valued customers’; more importantly, each one of them is a valued human being.

Creativity On Day 3, we found out why ‘either/or’ thinking limits our creativity. Today, we’re going to explore how asking ‘and what else?’, what I call ‘and’ thinking, is a great way to move beyond those self-imposed limits and expand our creativity. Think about our discussion of customer value, and to your own experience as a customer of any service process. Let’s use changing cell phone providers as an example. As a customer, chances are you don’t just value one thing in that service interaction, you value a number of things. Your list might look something like this: Least amount of wait to acquire your new phone and set up the service . . . and . . . good internet speed and cell phone sound quality . . . and . . . a friendly, personal experience getting questions about your new service answered! As service companies, we need to find out all of our customers’ multiple wants and needs. If we miss some, we won’t create the service products and experiences that give our customers what they value. Using ‘and’ thinking – asking our customers ‘and what else’ do you need? – is a great way to make sure we deeply understand what each values. That’s one of the best things about ‘and’ thinking: it automatically mirrors the way our customers think: ‘I need this . . . and this . . . and this . . . and this . . . ’ As well, asking ‘and what else’ helps increase creativity by encouraging people to: 1. Expand and add on. Instead of decreasing and limiting possibilities, ‘and’ thinking challenges us to expand our thinking and our ideas of what’s possible, and what we can do for our customers: ‘Customers can reach us by phone and fax and email and social media. We’re always there for them!’ 2. Combine and synthesize ideas from different places and people. Asking ‘and what else . . . ?’ encourages people to listen carefully to what

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others (both customers and colleagues) think, and then find ways to combine those multiple ideas in new and creative ways! An idea that one person has may only be part of a solution. Combining it with someone else’s idea may create a full solution for a customer! Asking ‘and what else?’ is one of the best ways I know to overcome the limits of the ‘either/or’ thinking that leads us to assume that ‘we can’t’ for ourselves and for our customers.

Coaching Now that your coaching structure and cadence is set up, and you’ve helped the person you’re coaching develop a Vision of Service Excellence to use for the work you’ll be doing together, it’s time to get into the routine of daily coaching. In your first daily coaching session, you’re going to help the person you’re coaching create a plan to identify and understand what their customers value (want and need) in relation to the problem they are working. In order to do that, the first thing that you are going to have to do is prepare for your coaching session. Each day, here in your workbook, you’ll find space for that preparation. You should plan to spend at least 15 minutes a day preparing. You’ll also find space to take notes during the coaching session. After the coaching session, you’ll write your reflection in the Time to Reflect section. Finally, you’ll use your notes and reflection to help you prepare for the next day’s coaching session. On page 28, there’s an illustration (Figure 4.1) to show you what to write in each area of the sheet. After the illustration, you’ll find your first Daily Coaching Preparation sheet. Fill it out before your coaching session! As you can see, coaching involves a lot of preparation. It’s very similar to the approach an athletic coach uses. To help the athlete they’re training reach their goals, the coach needs to prepare for each practice by making sure that he/she understands the overall goal (finish in the top five for the state), where the athlete is now in relation to that goal (unranked), what the athlete needs to improve to reach that goal (faster running time), and the specific things the athlete needs to practice to make those improvements (foot position in starting blocks, stride length, etc.). Coaching someone to use creativity and Lean to create the services that customers want now and for the future is very similar. As the coach, you’ll need to keep the overall goal, the Vision of Service Excellence, in mind, have a good understanding of where the person you’re coaching is in their ability to use creativity and Lean, and determine what they need to work on and how they’re going to practice so you can make sure that they move towards the goal. Preparing for each coaching session in advance is the best thing you can do to make sure everyone stays on track! Figure 4.1 How to fill out the Daily Coaching Prep Sheet

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How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence

Day 4: Service Is About People!

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence

Day 4 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of what a good coaching session ‘looks like’ for you and the person you are coaching.

Write a diary entry below about coaching experiences you have had and how they are similar or different from this type of coaching.

Day 4: Service Is About People!

What do you and the person you’re coaching think your customers value? Speak to at least five customers and ask them directly. Use ‘and what else?’ to listen deeply. Record what you find out here:

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session. What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 5: The Challenge of Circular Value Streams Lean in Services On Day 4, we discussed the fact that in services, unlike manufacturing, value is often created with the customer, at the moment-of-service, during a customer service interaction. Another unique aspect of creating value in services is that the customer is often the supplier, as well. What do I mean by that? Think of a manufacturing process like a car being made. Tires, headlights, and seats are often manufactured elsewhere, by different suppliers, and then shipped to the manufacturing plant, where they are assembled into a car. The car is then purchased by a car dealer or an individual. The suppliers of the raw materials for the car don’t purchase the car in the end! Not so in services. In services, the supplier of the raw material – the information used to create the service – is often the same person who will receive the service in the end! Think back to our example of switching cell phone providers. In order for the cell phone company to begin your new service and activate your new phone, you, the customer, need to provide them with the ‘raw materials’ to set up the service: Information such as name and address, credit card and bank account, old phone number, cell phone make and model, and data usage preferences. I use the term ‘circular value stream’ to describe a process in which the supplier and customer are one and the same. You can see a picture of this in Figure 5.1 below:

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Figure 5.1

What a circular value stream looks like

Understanding the nature of – and special challenges posed by – circular value streams in services is very important because: 1. A lot of waste and dissatisfaction is generated if the information needed to create the service right-the-first-time isn’t received in a timely manner. Phone calls and emails to collect missing information and/ or correct inaccuracies are frustrating and time-wasting for both customers and service representatives. Defective services products and poor service experiences may occur as well. 2. We don’t want to fire our customers! In manufacturing, a company can terminate their relationship with a supplier if they aren’t happy with quality or timeliness. In services, because our customers are also often our suppliers, we certainly don’t want to fire them! We want the opposite! To create ways to keep customers happy, satisfied and loyal! As you work your way through this book, a key point to keep in mind is that finding ways to gather all the necessary information upfront, right-the-first-time, during a service interaction is one of the best ways to create both the value customers want and service processes that flow.

Creativity On Days 3 and 4, we talked about how ‘either/or’ thinking limits creativity while‘and’ thinking helps us to move beyond those self-imposed limits. Today,

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we’re going to explore how to expand our creativity further through ‘divergent’ thinking. Not sure what divergent thinking is? That’s because, in general, in our work and day-to-day lives, we’re more familiar with ‘convergent’ thinking. When we narrow many possibilities down to identify one root cause, or search for one correct solution, we’re using convergent thinking. An example of this is would be looking for the one root cause of why customer’s insurance claims are being processed incorrectly – and then the one correct solution that will fix the problem! Divergent thinking is the opposite. It’s the process of expanding our thinking to generate many different ideas and possibilities. Divergent thinking is related to ‘and’ thinking because it challenges us to ask, ‘What other possibilities could there be?’, ‘How else could we . . . ?’ and ‘What if . . . ?’. Using our defective insurance claims example above, an example of divergent thinking would be to generate an extensive list of different possible reasons for errors and then figuring out how to test as many as possible to see what happens. Being able to use divergent as well as convergent thinking is extremely important because: Since many service processes involve circular value streams, they tend to be quite complex. Service reps interact with customers, computer systems, and possibly other service reps or departments. Because of this complexity, most problems simply won’t have just one easilydiscernible root cause – or solution – they’ll have many. Creating peak services isn’t just about solving known problems. Striving for service excellence means creating new service products, processes, and experiences. And that means expanding the limits of our current thinking about what we ‘can’ do and how we ‘can’ do it! Service reps often need to create value in-the-moment, directly with customers. Those who are able to use divergent thinking to come up with many possible solutions and/or novel solutions are more likely to be able to satisfy the real, human needs of each of their customers on a regular basis! This means happier customers, and happier service reps!

Coaching One of the most important things you’re going to do in your role as a coach is actively help the person you’re coaching ‘do things differently’ so that they can ‘think’ differently. That means that at the end of each coaching session, you’ll help the person you are coaching decide on the specific next step they

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are going to take before you meet for coaching again. For example, if the person states that they don’t know how a certain type of work is done, their next step could be to ‘go see’ someone doing that work. For every next step you ask the person you are coaching to take, you’re going to have them do the following: 1. State what they are going to do, and write it down, in their notebook, with the date it needs to be done by. Have them be as specific as possible! 2. Make a hypothesis about what is going to happen. Again, have them write down what they expect to happen in their notebook. 3. Record what actually happens when they take the step! Does it match what your they thought would happen – their hypothesis – or did something different happen? Here is an example of how the notebook of the person you are coaching might look (Figure 5.2):

Figure 5.2

Notebook section for ‘next steps’ in insurance claim example

As you might have already figured out, each next step is one Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) cycle. Completing a PDCA cycle between each daily coaching session has many benefits: 1. It helps people develop discipline. Making the time to do a PDCA cycle each day – and doing then doing it – requires discipline. Something we human beings aren’t so good at! But, like everything else, discipline improves through practice. And the more we practice, the more being disciplined becomes a habit!

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2. Disciplined practice increases stamina. Anything we aren’t used to doing takes a lot of effort at first. Think about running a marathon. The runner doesn’t start by running twenty-six miles on the first day! They start with shorter distances and build up! By practicing PDCA in a disciplined way, people will build up the stamina needed to tackle tougher problems that require more creativity and bigger efforts! 3. Makes for consistent progress solving problems and striving for service excellence. Completing frequent PDCA cycles quickly will advance work on creating ways to say, ‘Of course we can’ to customers! 4. As a coach, you’ll be receiving all of the same benefits as the person you’re coaching! You’ll develop discipline, stamina, and coaching skills! Now, let’s talk about today’s coaching session. In your session, review the list of things the person you are coaching’s customers value (generated from your Day 4 coaching). For today’s next step, have the person divide a page of their notebook in half and write ‘Customer Need’ across the top. On the left side, have them write ‘We can’t meet the need now because . . . ’ On the right side, have them write ‘Ideas that we could try’. Today, for those needs that aren’t being met, ask the person you are coaching to fill in the left side of the page with as many possible reasons why not. Challenge them to list as many ‘I can’t’s’ as they can. Challenge them by asking questions like: ‘What other possibilities could there be?’, ‘Who else could you ask?’and ‘How else could we find out?’ (Figure 5.3)

Figure 5.3

Why we can’t meet customer needs

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How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence

Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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Day 5 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of a circular service value stream you’ve experienced!

Write a diary entry below about how you feel about practicing divergent thinking.

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Why can’t your customers’ needs currently be met? Use divergent thinking to come up with as many reasons as you can think of. Ask, ‘What other possibilities are there to go deeper.’ Record them here:

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session. What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

Time to Practice

Day 6: Creating Peak Services vs Simply Solving Problems Lean in Services As we’ve discussed, actively striving towards Service Excellence isn’t just about solving existing problems or continuously improving ways that we already know how to work. It’s about proactively creating the services and experiences that will keep customers loyal for the longterm. In order to do that, it’s important to have a general understanding – a model – of what all customers want. Even though each individual customer is different, the three elements shown in Figure 6.1 will give you a framework to reference for the underlying, foundational wants and needs all customers have. It’s important to remember that to be a ‘peak service,’ the experience can’t just have one or two elements. It must have all three: 1. Hassle-Free Processes. Nowadays, all customers want their service experience to be easy, seamless, and hassle-free. That’s simply a given, not a ‘nice-to-have.’ Even if you’re not Amazon.com, customers expect to order instantly and get their delivery quickly and accurately – perhaps even on the same day! Customers don’t want their valuable time wasted, and we don’t want to waste it! 2. Luxury Experience at Coach Prices. As well as wanting THEIR service, THEIR way, when THEY want it, customers also want to feel like they are having a luxury experience – but not paying more for it! In our reality-TV, social media-driven world, everyone is a star and expects to be treated that way. Companies like Uber and Lyft, which offer services that ‘feel’ luxurious

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Figure 6.1

The three-element Peak Service Experience model

(water, snacks, and a place to charge your device) but cost less than traditional alternatives are a good example of this. 3. Caring, Human, Personal Connections. In today’s digital age, with the immediate tendency to jump to digital solutions, it’s easy to forget that the people we serve aren’t machines. They’re human beings. And ultimately, what they want are real connections with other human beings. It’s why none of us really enjoys having our call answered by a machine saying, ‘You’ve reached XYZ Company. Your call is important to us.’ As people, what makes us really feel cared about is real, personal, human connection! A great example of a peak service experience was created by a small, artgallery and giftshop that sold beautiful hand-blown glass. Located in an upscale suburban area, their clientele was made up of young families with young children who bought the store’s products as gifts. As you might think, the idea of taking two or three small children into a boutique filled with glass was daunting to most parents! To better serve these customers, the gallery created a ‘drive-up service.’ Before leaving for an event they needed a gift for, customers could call their order in by phone or enter it online. The order would then be gift-wrapped and delivered directly to the customer as they waited, in their car, on the way to the event, in the ‘loading zone’ parking space in front of the gallery. No need to get the kids out of the car, or take an extra trip to the store to purchase a present and then wrap it at home. The

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‘drive-up service’ process was easy and hassle-free, felt luxurious but didn’t cost any more (in fact, it cost less as customers didn’t have to pay for parking!) and each package was delivered with a personal, human caring touch! Customers loved it, and, as you can imagine, kept ‘driving-up’ for more! And, if you noticed, big box retailers, like Target and Walmart have now started offering drive-up services just like this! Another benefit of the peak services model is that it can be used to analyze current services. Do the services customers currently receive contain one of the elements of a peak service experience? Two? All three? If the current services don’t contain all three, they probably need some work! And finally, don’t forget that this model can – and should – be applied internally, to the work processes that we use, as well. The people who do the work for our customers are human beings too! And if we want them to be able to deliver peak service experiences, experiences that are hassle-free and cost-effective and caring in a personal, human, connected way, they need to experience that in their own work.

Creativity Using the peak services model is a great way to make sure that we’re not just focused on simply solving problems and continuously improving, but that we’re working on creating the service products, processes, and experiences that move everyone closer to our Vision of Service Excellence. Although we’re always going to need to resolve any kind of service or product problem a customer has, if we focus solely on solving already existing problems, what I call ‘necessity is the mother of invention,’ it’s going to be hard to move forward to create the services and products that will satisfy our customers for the longterm. That’s because we’ll always be in a reactive mode, as the problems we’re working on will have already occurred. A customer will already have had a bad experience. And, as we found out on Day 1, half of all customers switch companies after just one poor service experience. Another drawback of simply solving known problems is that we’ll most likely be reinforcing the tendency for people to rely predominantly on convergent thinking, endlessly looking for the one root cause of the problem and the one, best solution to the problem. And we won’t be engaging and encouraging people’s creativity. So, what can we do instead? Focus on what I call ‘invention is the mother of necessity’ so that everyone is involved in creating peak service experiences. The benefits of doing this are many:

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Proactive instead of reactive. We’re not limited by what has already happened, but are proactively looking for new and better ways to serve customers and to do our work. We encourage divergent thinking. Involving people in creating peak services encourages them to broaden their thinking. What other possibilities are there? How can we test them? And the more we use our divergent thinking skills, and creativity, the stronger they become! We engage people positively in activities that help customers and the company. Problem solving (even just the word ‘problem’) often has a negative connotation in the business world. Creating peak services and striving for service excellence engages everyone in the organization in a positive way! Creating peak services and striving for service excellence means we are going to have to ask people to figure out how to do things they don’t know how to do yet. And that brings us to today’s coaching topic. Challenge.

Coaching Yesterday, on Day 5, we talked about the importance of having the person you are coaching take a next step every day so that they learn by doing. Today we’re going to talk about how to help them choose the next step. A couple of things to keep in mind: 1. Each next step should be challenging. That means that the person you are coaching shouldn’t know exactly how to do the step . . . or what the outcome of the step will be. It’s important to make sure that they are being challenged because: Learning only occurs when we figure out something we don’t already know . . . Every time we figure something out and overcome a challenge, we gain confidence! Both in our ability to work through the discomfort of not knowing, and to tackle more difficult challenges. 2. Each next step should follow logically from the previous step taken. Although I will give some suggestions about possible next steps in each Coaching section, it’s going to be your responsibility, as the coach, to help the person you are coaching, choose the next step. That’s one of the ways you are going to learn to coach! Don’t worry, there’s no ultimately right or

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wrong next step. Just make sure they are being challenged and that both of you keep the Vision of Service Excellence, and the elements of peak service experiences in mind! Finally, one last thing you should know about challenge.

Challenge Makes People Uncomfortable. In fact, one of the ways you’ll know if the person you are coaching is being challenged is if they look – and sound – a little uncomfortable! That’s why I like to do my coaching in person or by video-chat like FaceTime or Skype. That way I can ‘see’ how the person is feeling about the step they just competed and the next step they’re thinking of taking. Sometimes, as people, the idea of challenging someone seems rude or disrespectful. In this case, it’s actually extremely respectful, because you’re helping the person develop capability and confidence. As long as challenge is paired with nurture and empathy, everything will be fine. We’ll talk more about the role of nurture in coaching tomorrow, on Day 7. Now it’s time to discuss today’s next step. During your coaching session, review the list the person you are coaching created of why current customer needs aren’t being met. Then ask them to choose one of the reasons. Using ‘and’ thinking, divergent thinking, and the peak services model, have them begin to create a list of ideas of what could be done instead . . . (Figure 6.2)

Figure 6.2

Ideas to try

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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Day 6 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of what ‘uncomfortable’ looks and feels like to you!

Write a diary entry below about a peak service experience that you’ve had. Talk about all three elements!

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session. What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

Time to Practice

Day 7: Start with What Should Be Happening (The Target) Lean in Services Now that we’ve discussed a general framework for what all customers want – the peak services model – it’s time to get specific. Because the customers who use your company’s services aren’t ‘generic’ customers, they’re individual human beings, with different wants, needs, and requirements for each of the three peak service elements. For instance, ‘when they want it’ (on-time delivery) may mean on-the-dot, exactly at 10:00 am to one customer, anytime between 9:45 am and 10:15 am to another, and never before 10 am to yet another. Often, as organizations, we tell our customers what our definition of something like on-time delivery is, because we tell ourselves it’s impossible to be able to meet each customer’s individual needs. ‘There’s too many of them! We can’t satisfy everyone . . . it would simply take too much time . . . and be too difficult for us.’ However, is it really impossible? Not if we stop telling ourselves what we ‘can’t’ do, and start using our creativity and Lean principles, practices, and tools to figure out how we can. If you don’t believe me, think about the origins and history of Toyota. Unlike Henry Ford, who mass produced cars in one color, and one color only . . . black . . . Toyota created principles and practices like flow, pull and leveling so that they could make cars to meet the unique requirements of each of their customers. That type of flexibility is actually what Lean is all about. And if Toyota could figure out how to do that making cars, an unbelievably complicated process, we can figure out how to give each of our customers exactly what they want, when they want it right the first time, in a competitive, cost-effective, human way. The first step, then, in solving any problem, or creating a new service or product always needs to be figuring out – from our customers’ point of view – what should be happening (the target) in relation to each of the elements of the peak services model: 49

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1. What does easy and hassle-free mean? What does each customer value from the service in terms of quality (what they want) on-time delivery (when they want it) and accuracy (right-the-first-time). 2. How could the service feel more luxurious without increasing the price? What would VIP treatment look like for that service? Is there a way to increase the ‘luxury’ feel with the same – or lower – price? 3. How can the first two elements be accomplished with a personal, caring human touch? Especially if technology is being used? If you’ve been working in Lean for a while, you might be conditioned to think that you always need to start by understanding the current state. However, I’ve found that unless we start by first figuring out what should be happening (the target), we won’t know what our customers need and what to create towards to fulfill our Vision of Service Excellence. So how do we figure out what should be happening from our customers’ point of view? What the target should be? The best way is to ask! Talk with your customers as human beings! I once worked with a call center who was extremely surprised when I suggested that instead of sending out a survey, they simply asked each customer about what they valued during their regularly scheduled phone call! No time and expense to create the survey, no need to wait for customers to respond, and it developed a closer relationship between the call center rep and the customer! As well as understanding customer needs, it’s also important to understand how the work we’re doing fits in with broader company targets (see Figure 7.1). How will what we create get us closer to reaching organizational goals and fulfilling the organization’s purpose? Again, if you don’t know, or aren’t sure of the answer, it’s best to ask leadership before starting out! The first step in striving towards service excellence is knowing and clearly defining what we’re striving towards, from the customers’ and company’s point of view. After we’ve set those targets, we can then go on to understand the current state, and the gap between what’s happening now and what needs to happen.

Creativity Today, we’re going to talk about synthesis. Synthesis means putting things together. It’s a ‘constructive,’ additive process, in which we combine and connect ideas. Synthesis is an important concept in relation to ‘and’ thinking, divergent thinking, and our discussion about ‘invention is the mother of necessity’ and the elements of peak services. Synthesis is what ties all of these together and it’s what we use to ‘combine knowledge gained from previous experiences in new ways’ . . . our definition of creativity! To understand how synthesis brings these concepts together, think about your smartphone. When I was growing up, smartphones weren’t invented yet. However, telephone technology was (the first telephone line was constructed in 1877).1 So was

Day 7: Start with What Should Be Happening (The Target)

Figure 7.1

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After you know the targets, you can grasp the current situation

the camera (the daguerreotype was created in the mid-1830s2) and, I remember taking my first personal computer out the box somewhere around 1983 or 1984! Now think about your smartphone again. Although it’s easy to consider it as ‘something new’, in essence, it’s really only three older technologies that have been combined in a new way: a computer small enough to easily hold in your hand, that has both telephone and camera capability. Three already known ideas synthesized into something that feels ‘new.’ And, as well as feeling ‘new,’ if you’re like me and millions of others, you probably feel like you can’t live without this ‘invention is the mother of necessity’ item either. The idea of synthesis applies to the ‘drive-up’ service created by the art gallery, as well: being able to call in an order, have it gift-wrapped and delivered certainly are not ‘new’ ideas. They were just combined in a different way. A way that addressed all three elements of the peak services model based on the specific wants and needs of the customers of the art gallery! Because the ‘drive-up’ service gave customers what they valued (time, convenience, and less stress worrying about their children), it quickly became a ‘necessity’ for many of them. Since we tend to rely on convergent thinking (dividing and separating to look for root causes), as coaches, we’re going to have to help people learn how to strive towards their vision of service excellence and create peak services by synthesizing ideas that come out of divergent thinking. How can you help the person you’re coaching do that? 1. Make sure they know what their customers’ really want, need, and value. Ask the peak services target questions from the Lean Services section above. 2. Ask ‘What do we already know that we could use?’, ‘How could we combine those ideas together?’, ‘Who else could we ask for input on this?’ and ‘How could we incorporate their ideas?’

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Coaching Yesterday, we talked about how you, as a coach, need to challenge the person you are coaching to take a next step that is outside of their comfort zone every day. Today, we’re going to talk about how it’s equally important for you to nurture them as they learn by doing. Just like a swimming coach running alongside the edge of the pool gives a swimmer confidence as they learn to swim in the deep end, meeting frequently – checking in – with the person you are coaching provides them with the emotional support to do things they haven’t done before, in ways they haven’t done them. Nurture isn’t a word that we use very often in business. And ‘checking on’ someone frequently is often seen as micro-management, or not trusting people to be able to do their work. In this case, however, we’re not ‘checking on’ the person we’re coaching. We’re ‘checking in’ with them to provide the support, caring, and help that everyone needs to learn to do things in different ways. If we challenge someone – push them into the deep end! – and don’t nurture (check in with) them frequently, they could easily feel like they’re drowning. And that’s not going to help them learn and grow and gain confidence! Or make progress creating peak services and striving towards service excellence. Before we talk about today’s coaching session, let’s quickly ‘check in’ and see if the person you are coaching is making the progress you expect. Are coaching sessions taking place each day, or have some been cancelled? Is the person you are coaching taking the next step and completing a PDCA cycle each day? Writing and sending their daily reflection? If coaching sessions are missed, PDCA cycles not completed and reflections not written (basic targets you have for the person you are coaching), then there’s a gap between the target – what should be happening – and the actual – what is happening. If there’s a gap, then you need to ask yourself – and the person you are coaching – why? One often overlooked reason, especially in the beginning, is that the person being coached actually needs more nurturing than we, as coaches, expect. Missed coaching sessions, and incomplete PDCA cycles, could be signs that the person you are coaching needs more help and support. Of course, there are many other reasons as well, so the best thing to do is sit down with the person and ask! For today’s suggested next step: Review the description of the problem the person you are coaching is working on. What are the elements of the peak services model? Are there clear targets for each? What about organizational targets? Are they known? If there aren’t, what should you – and the person you are coaching – do?

Notes 1 http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/150/1870.xhtml 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_camera

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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Day 7 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of what ‘nurturing’ looks and feels like to you!

My grandmother always said, ‘There’s nothing new under the sun.’ Write a diary entry about what you think about that below.

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session. What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 8: Do You Really Know What Is Going On? (Actual) Lean in Services Now that you’ve helped the person you are coaching figure out what should be happening (the target), it’s time to help them really understand what’s currently going on (the actual). Over the next three days, we’ll be covering a few different ways for you to help the person you are coaching understand the current state. Today, we’re going to focus on one of the most effective and basic: going to see. We’re starting with going to see, not only because it’s a fundamental Lean practice, but, because, in my experience, it’s one of the most underutilized ways to understand the current state in services. Perhaps, because people think that ‘what’s happening’ is harder to see – after all there’s no product going down an assembly line, decisions are going on inside people’s heads, and value is often being created behind computer screens through software interactions – there’s a tendency to forget that the best way to understand what’s going on is to simply go and see for yourself! So, what does going to see to really understand ‘look like’ in services? First of all, it means actually getting out of the office, or conference room, and physically going to the place wherethe work is being done. I can’t tell you how many ‘current state’ sessions I’ve been to that have occurred in offices, or conference rooms, far from where customer calls are being answered, products are being sold, and services delivered. Although information gleaned from some of these sessions might be helpful in formulating questions about why something is being done (or not done) in a certain way, in general, what they really are is what I call a kind of ‘hearsay’. We hear people say things, but we don’t have any way of knowing if our interpretation, or perception, of what is really happening is correct. The only way to know for sure whether what the person communicated

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is the same as what you perceived they meant, is to go and see with your own eyes, and ears! This means you need to: 1. Spend time in the places where customers are receiving service. Whether it be a call center, the front desk of a hotel, or a business analyst’s cubicle, go to the place where the people who serve customers are doing their work. 2. Carefully watch how people do their work. Sit down beside the person who takes customer orders and watch what they do to complete the work. What computer program(s) do they use? How often do they switch back and forth? How do they communicate with customers? With other departments? Put on a headset and listen in on what customers are asking and how service reps are responding. 3. Ask people to explain what they’re doing and why. While you’re watching how people work, take the time to ask them to explain what they are doing and why they are doing it. That way, you don’t make assumptions based on your own ideas or experience. And, make sure to sit with as many people as you can if multiple people do the same work. That way you can ‘see’ if people do the same work the same way! In services, when we go and see for ourselves, not only do we clearly see how work is being done, we also make people’s thinking visible. And that’s a really important thing to do, because so much of creating peak services relies on people’s ability to think creatively and make decisions about what they can do for customers. We’ll explore the idea of making people’s thinking visible more in today’s Creativity and Coaching sections.

Creativity Think about some of the people that you consider most creative. Perhaps they are artists or writers! And although you might not think of it this way, one of the things they’re doing, through their artwork and writing, is making their thoughts, and thinking process, visible. When we look at a painting or sculpture or read a novel or poem, we can actually ‘see’ what the artist or writer was thinking. What was once inside their head, in their imagination, is now visible for everyone to see . . . including the artist themselves! As an artist, I can definitely say that getting ideas out of my imagination and into ‘reality’ on paper or in whatever medium I’m using allows me to ‘see’ my own thinking. In fact, once I’ve ‘drawn out’ my idea, the reality of it is often quite surprising to me! Furthermore, when I show my drawing to others, and hear what they have to say about it, I often have an ‘aha’ moment and come to a much deeper realization about what I was really thinking!

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Although many people enjoyed drawing as children, I’ve found that it’s not an activity that most people are comfortable with as adults. However, drawing is a great way both to help people practice their creativity, and make their thoughts visible – to themselves and to others. And, best of all, you can use all the elements of creativity that we’ve previously discussed, such as ‘and’ thinking, divergent thinking, and synthesis, with drawing. An easy way to do this is to ask people to draw a picture of what this and this and this would look like if they were put together. You can ask people to draw out as many possibilities as they can think of instead of writing a list. With a group, try having someone draw one possibility, pass it to another person, and have them add onto the drawing. All of these activities are fun, and help people regain comfort with drawing as a means of expressing their thoughts. Once they’ve drawn out their thoughts on paper, it’s easy, as a coach, to ‘see’ what the person you are coaching is thinking. All you have to do is look! And, as a coach, making the thoughts of the person you are coaching visible is essential. We’ll explore more about the reasons why in the Coaching section.

Coaching In order to make sure the person you’re coaching is constantly being challenged, one of the things you, as a coach, have to be able to do is see the current state of the their thinking. As shown in Figure 8.1, as coaches, we can do that in three different ways:

Figure 8.1

Three ways to make someone’s thinking ‘visible’

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1. By listening to what they say – or don’t say. When you ask them a question, does the person answer as you expect them to? Is their answer complete, or is there something missing that you expect? 2. By watching what they do – or don’t do. Do they complete their daily PDCA cycle before the next coaching session? Do they send their reflection promptly? Are they progressing along in solving the problem? 3. By seeing what they draw. If you ask them to draw a picture of the current state, what do they put in the drawing? What do they leave out? What story is the picture telling? That means as a coach, you need to be cognizant of what you expect (the target) the person you’re coaching to be thinking. During each coaching session, as you listen to their answers to questions, review the PDCA cycle they’ve completed, and look at drawings you’ve asked them to make, you’ll be able to see if the current state of their thinking matches the target of where you expect them to be. If it doesn’t, then you’ll need to figure out why, and use the next PDCA cycles to bring them closer to the target. If you see that their current ‘thinking’ matches your expectation (the target), then they are ready to be challenged even further. Here’s an example, so you can see what I mean. I had the opportunity to work with an organization that had a fabulous mission. However, there was a problem. Although the organization’s values were displayed prominently everywhere – even painted on the walls! – the mission, the shared-purpose of the organization, was nowhere to be seen! One of the first things we worked on in beginning their cultural transformation was making the mission visible. And we started at the top, at the Executive level. As part of our coaching, I asked the Vice President in charge of leading the transformation effort to draw a picture of the path that he thought the transformation might take. When he showed me the picture, the thing that I – and he – immediately noticed was that although the values were drawn in, the mission was missing! ‘Seeing’ the omission allowed the Vice President to understand that changing culture – even something as seemingly small as keeping an organization’s mission front and center – took more practice and reinforcement than he thought. Even for himself! Drawing the picture and seeing what was missing was a great way to determine what next steps needed to be taken! For today’s suggested next step: Ask the person you are coaching how they plan to really understand what is actually going for the current state of the problem they are working on. Is there answer what you expect or not? If not, what will you do to encourage them to actually go and see for themselves?

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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Day 8 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of the current state of your coaching process. What do you see – or not see?

In the space below, write a diary entry about how you feel about making people’s thought and thinking process visible.

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session. What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 9: Make What’s Going on Visible! Lean in Services Now that the person you are coaching has spent some time ‘going to see’ so that they can really understand what’s going on, it’s time to help them create a way to communicate what they’ve seen. Often, in many service organizations that I’ve worked with, the default way to do that is through long written reports, PowerPoint decks full of data, and verbal discussions in meetings. Problem with all of these is that, just as we discussed in Chapter 8, there’s a lot of room for interpretation and misperception of what people are saying. That’s one of the reasons that all the ways that we have to ‘make things visible’ with Lean are so beneficial in services. Today, we’re going to focus on ‘drawing it out,’ creating a diagram of the current state, as a way to help both the person you’re coaching and the people they need to communicate with ‘see.’ In Lean, creating a value stream map has become one of the most popular ways to draw out a picture of the current state. There are many books focused on the ‘how to’s’ of value stream mapping, with very specific methods and instructions for completing the map. If you’re familiar and have practiced value stream mapping in the past, for our work in this book, I’m going to ask you to leave some of those preconceived ideas behind. Instead, I’d like you to focus on helping the person you are coaching create a diagram of what they saw on their ‘go sees’ that makes sense to them and your organization. I’d like you to do this because:

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It’s easy to get caught up in the mechanics of crafting the ‘perfect’ value stream map and forget that creating a way to visualize and share what was ‘seen’ (and not seen) is the purpose of drawing out the process in the first place! Creating a diagram – and diagramming method – that is specific to your organization helps promote creativity! We’re not copying someone else’s method, we’re creating our own! And, when we create things by ourselves, we understand them, are passionate about them, and use them! After all, they’re ‘ours’! Here are some suggestions about how to go about creating a diagram of the current state that makes sense in your organization: 1. Don’t sit in a conference room or office to draw the diagram. Unless, of course, the work that is being done to serve customers is done in that office or conference room! Take a piece of paper and pencil and go to the place services are being created and draw! 2. Use whatever symbols and language make sense in your organization. If you already have certain icons or pictures that you use, go ahead and put them in the diagram. That way it will be easy for everyone who sees the diagram to immediately understand and make a connection. 3. Make sure the diagram shows ‘how’ the work is being done as well as the ‘result’. What work is being done? Is there a circular value stream? Is work being passed back and forth between people or departments? Do multiple people do similar work? What kind of decisions do people need to make and how are they making them? Is there something missing? If there is, it’s our prompt to ‘go see’ and look more closely! Remember, the diagram is going to be used to communicate to others, so they should be able to easily ‘see’ both the ‘means’ – how the service is created – and the ‘ends’ – the results for customers, company, and the people who do the work! Drawing a diagram of ‘what’s currently going on’ in a way that’s easy for everyone in the organization to see and understand should be both fun and creative! It’s okay if your organization’s diagram doesn’t look like another’s! Because ultimately, the diagram’s purpose is simply to stimulate people to ask questions such as ‘Does what’s shown on the diagram match our Vision of Service Excellence?’ and ‘What should be happening for our customers, company, and people doing the work?’ If it doesn’t, then what we see is a ‘gap,’ which is exactly what our diagram should help everyone easily see! For an example, see Figure 9.1.

Day 9: Make What’s Going on Visible!

Figure 9.1

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Current state diagram

Creativity Asking questions, sometimes called using the Socratic method, is well known to many Lean practitioners. There are quite a few books written on the subject, and many tales told about senseis asking their learners challenging open-ended questions. (In case you are unfamiliar with the term, an open-ended question is one that can’t be answered simply with ‘yes’ or ‘no’.) Why are open-ended questions used so often in Lean? The reason usually given is that asking openended questions helps the person who is being coached learn how to ‘think’ and reason for themselves. I believe that perhaps even more importantly, asking someone an open-ended question is a great way to spark their creativity! Here’s why. When we ask the person who we’re coaching questions such as ‘How else could you find out?’ and ‘What else could be added to the diagram to help visualize the current state more clearly?’ we’re asking them to use their divergent thinking. When we ask, ‘How could those ideas be combined?’ we’re helping them practice synthesis. Asking open-ended questions is a great creativity-starter! Asking the person who we’re coaching open-ended questions also models the behavior they’ll need to use to help other people practice their creativity. This is extremely important, because many people, having worked in organizations where they’ve been told what they need to do, much more often than they’ve been asked what they could do, are out of practice asking questions! Any opportunity we can give them (and ourselves too!) to practice asking and answering open-ended questions is an opportunity to spark creativity!

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Once we’ve asked the person we’re coaching an open-ended question to help them use their divergent thinking, we need to make sure to respond in a way that is encouraging and helps them build confidence. Which brings us to today’s coaching lesson: listening.

Coaching Once the person you are coaching has created a diagram of the current state, it’s time to sit down (side-by-side, if you’re meeting in-person, or with the diagram open on your computer screen and theirs, if you’re having a remote coaching session), and ask some open-ended questions like, ‘Can you please tell me about the diagram?’ and ‘How did you choose what to put on the diagram?’ Then, you’ll need to ‘listen carefully’ to what the person answers. Listening carefully to what someone else is saying, rather than to the voice going on in your own head, is just as hard for people as asking open-ended questions! So, here are some suggestions to help you listen in a way that will help the person you are coaching gain confidence in giving us the gift of their answers and ideas: Listen with open ears, open eyes, open mind, and open heart. That means accepting, not judging, their response. Their response is simply a reflection of the state of the person’s current thinking. If it’s not what you expect, it’s not ‘wrong’ or bad, and neither are they! Listen for the gap between the target and actual. Is the person you are coaching answering your questions the way you expect, they should be for their level of experience? If they are, great! You can increase the ‘challenge’ you are giving them! If they aren’t . . . Decide what to do next. As the coach, it is up to you to decide what to do to help the person close the gap. Do you need to ask more questions? Does the person you are coaching need more nurturing from you? (And, yes, you can ‘go and see’ with them if it will help you understand their gap more easily!) Although I often hear people say that you can’t ‘see what’s going on in someone’s head,’ listening – really listening – to how someone answers a question is one of the best ways we, as coaches, have to make a person’s thinking visible. For today’s suggested next step: Review the work the person you are coaching has done on creating a diagram of the current state. What have they learned from creating the diagram? What is missing? What else do they need to do to get a clearer picture? What do you need to do?

Day 9: Make What’s Going on Visible!

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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Day 9 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of an open-ended question and its answer!

In the space below, write a diary entry about how you feel about asking open-ended questions.

Day 9: Make What’s Going on Visible!

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session. What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 10: Mind the Gap! Lean in Services One of the things that I spend the most time explaining to people that I coach is that in Lean, the definition of a problem is the gap between what should be happening (the target) and what really is happening now (the current state, or actual) . . . and unless we know both . . . we don’t actually have a problem! Although we may feel like something is wrong – a customer might have voiced a concern, we don’t enjoy doing our work a certain way, or we think something we are doing is taking too long – unless we know what should be happening in the situation, and what’s actually happening, and they don’t match, we don’t have a gap. And in Lean, because improving means closing the gap between the actual and the target, unless we know what the gap is, we don’t actually have a problem. Here’s an example. Let’s say that in order to be satisfied, our customers tell us that they need us to answer the phone on the first ring. Answering on the first ring is the target . . . what should be happening from our customers’ point of view. However, when we go and see and draw out what’s really happening, we see that customers’ calls are usually answered after 10 rings. By subtracting the actual from the target, we see that there is a gap of 9 rings between where we are now and where we need to be. That means in order to improve phone answering, we’ll need to create a way to reduce the number of rings by 9. Simply stated, the actual problem is 9 rings too many! As shown in Figure 10.1, subtracting the actual from the target is what I call the problem equation. ‘Minding the gap’ between target and actual also means that we have to be cognizant of both leading and lagging indicators. If you’re not familiar with these terms, lagging indicators are measures that show the end results (target)

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Figure 10.1

The problem equation: minding the gap!

needed. In our example, the lagging indicator would be number or percent of customer calls answered on first ring! Most of us are used to measuring the lagging indicators, or end results, which we sometimes also call KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). In Lean, however, in order to ‘mind the gap,’ we’re also going to pay attention to the leading indicators: the steps in the process that need to occur (the means) so that the lagging indicator (target) can be met. In our example, leading indicators for answering the phone could be service rep seated at desk, logged in to the phone system, computer turned on, headset adjusted, and monitoring phone tracking software active. If the person answering calls misses one of these steps (leading indicators), then they won’t be able to answer customers’ calls on the first ring (lagging indicator). Using the problem equation is a great way to identify the gap between the target (lagging indicator) and the actual. And having a diagram of how the work is done (leading indicators) is a great way for people to see where to focus their efforts on improving how they do their work. In general, when we use the problem equation to make the gap visible, we’re also likely to find that people aren’t sure how to do their work in a different way to close the gap . . . and that is great . . . because that is where creativity comes in!

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Creativity Unlike many manufacturing processes, ‘seeing’ how work progresses through different steps (leading indicators) isn’t always easy in a service process. People often sit in cubicles, talk on the phone, and interact with computer programs. ‘There’s no way to see what’s happening’ is a common complaint I get! However, as well as our diagram of the current state, if we use a little creativity, we can come up with many ways to visualize both our leading and lagging indicators. Here are two suggestions to get you started. Visual boards. How can the team create some kind of visual board that shows the end results needed – and the progress of the work through those steps? We often find boards like these – production boards and huddle boards – in manufacturing. We can use boards like this in services too and creating them is a great way to practice divergent thinking! Ask the team how they could ‘create’ a visual board showing work as it goes through the process. Encourage them to use pictures and symbols that make sense to their area and process. The important thing is to be able to ‘see’ the targets (lagging indicators) that need to be reached for customers today, and each person’s progress towards reaching them (leading indicators). That way work can be adjusted throughout the day if needed. If we’re only checking on whether we made (or didn’t) make our targets yesterday, our opportunity to adjust will be past! And we certainly can expect to have unhappy customers! A great example of a very creative way to visualize and manage work is the file system created by EKemp, an employment law consulting firm in the UK. At EKemp, they use colored stickers and dedicated ‘priority’ lanes in their file cabinet to show daily progress of each person’s work. The files are organized in date and time order, according to what needs to be done in the day by what time. When the manager passes by the file cabinet, they can easily ‘see’ if a file has been worked on in the correct time or not. If it hasn’t, then they can stop and ask the person responsible what prevented them from completing the work, and what help they need! Use the right symbols and metaphors for your type of work! Most organizations already have what I call an ‘internal language’ that speaks to the kind of work that they do. In a healthcare organization, the board the team creates and the time they spend reviewing it might be called the ‘daily check-up.’ If a team particularly likes sports, then they might create

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a daily ‘scoreboard’ with players that move across the field. The goals could be the lagging indicators and the lines of the field the leading indicators. Encourage the team to be as creative as they can be in using pictures, symbols, and words that reflect their work. Even making up words is fine if it helps the team ‘see’ the gap and what to do about it! One organization I work with, Michigan Technological University, created the term ‘Value stream guardians!’ Creating words and pictures will both help people ‘see’ that they can make the work they do visible on a daily basis and help them practice their creativity at the same time. Remember, when people create something of their own, they will understand it, be passionate about it, and use it!

Coaching As a coach, it’s your responsibility to help the person you are coaching practice ‘minding the gap.’ In order to do that, you’re going to have to make sure that the visuals they create (and help their team create) actually show the target, the actual and any gaps. In the beginning, this might be more of a challenge than you expect because people aren’t used to thinking of – and seeing – their work this way. Yourself included! As a coach, it’s important to ‘practice what you are teaching.’ To do that, you’ll have to ‘go and see’ the visuals that the person you are coaching has created and helped their team create. When you look at those visuals, whether they are process diagrams, team huddle boards, individual work boards, or some other sort of visual system (such as the file system created by EKemp), make sure that you can easily ‘see’ what the targets are for each person and item, and the related actuals. How are the gaps highlighted? How can you ‘see’ what is being done about those gaps . . . and by when? If you can’t see target/actual and any gaps easily, then you are going to have to ask the person you’re coaching an open-ended question, like ‘Can you please show me how I can see the gap between target and actual?’ That will help the person you are coaching make seeing target – actual and the gap between them – or, as I call it ‘minding the gap’ a habit. For today’s suggested next step: Help the person you are coaching figure out how to make the gap visible and visual in the problem they are working on. How can you check to make sure that they really understand target – actual – gap?

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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Day 10 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of what ‘minding the gap’ looks like to you in your coaching!

In the space below, write a diary entry about how what is challenging about helping someone ‘mind the gap.’

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session.What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 11: Striving for Single-Piece Flow in Service Processes Lean in Services Now that we know what is supposed to be happening (target) and have a diagram and other visual ways to ‘see’ what is currently happening (actual), it’s time to start looking at what we need to do to close the gaps to giving our customers what they want, when they want it, right the first time. In other words, we can start working on creating ‘flow.’ Just like in a manufacturing, the concept of ‘flow’ is central to Lean in services. One of the first questions that I ask people I’m helping create better, more effective, and efficient ways to work is: Can you describe what ‘flow’ would look like in your service process? Although many can give me a very good general definition such as ‘Flow means that there is no stopping or waiting in a process. It means that the service or service product being created keeps moving and each step is value-added,’ when I go with them to the actual service gemba and say, ‘Please show me what flow would look like in this specific process,’ they aren’t able to answer. Perhaps because, in many service processes, things aren’t moving down a line like they are in manufacturing, it’s harder to ‘picture’ what flow looks like in services. To help you start creating that picture, here’s an example, which you can also see in Figure 11.1. I worked with a taxi company, National Taxi Limo, and after creating their Vision of Service Excellence: ‘Every Ride. On Time. Every Time. Working Together,’ and understanding what their customers wanted, we talked about what ‘flow’ looked like in the taxi driving process. Here’s what the guys came up with: In taxi driving, flow means arriving at a customer’s house at exactly the time they requested the taxi. At that exact

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Figure 11.1

What flow looks like in taxi driving!

moment, the customer would come out of their house, get in the cab, and they would immediately start driving to the airport. Along the way, there would be no red lights, no construction, no accidents to slow the taxi down, and, without stopping, they’d arrive at the airport at the exact time the customer wanted, pulling right up to the curb without having to wait for other taxis to unload their passengers first. “Great,” I said. “That’s a perfect example! All your customer wants is to get in the cab and then get to the airport as quickly as possible! If they have to wait, or if there’s a delay, or if anything stops the flow, they’re going to worry that they’ll miss their flight! Now that we all know what flow is, all we need to do is create the way for customers to have that experience each and every ride!” “‘Get to the airport every time with no stopping . . . no red lights . . . no construction delays . . . no flat tires . . . no drivers oversleeping? That might be what flow looks like in our process,’ the guys from National Taxi Limo said, but that’s impossible. We can’t control construction, or flat tires, or drivers sleeping late . . . or customers who aren’t ready on time. It might be possible to get things to flow on a manufacturing line, but we can’t do that in our world. There’s no way.” And that’s the first part of the problem of flow in services: the story we often tell ourselves about what I call ‘the long list of “I can’ts”’ . . . those things which we assume we ‘can’t’ do, for a variety of reasons. To overcome those, and create flow, we’re going to need a little creativity!

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Creativity Before we can overcome the long lists of ‘I can’t’s,’ we’re going to have to become conscious of the number of times – and ways – the people who serve our customers tell them ‘I can’t’ (the two words customers never want to hear!) each day. ‘I can’t’ doesn’t just come out as those two specific words, but in other ways that we speak and think. If you’re not sure what the other ways are, my suggestion is to simply go to service gemba and listen to what your service reps are telling your customers. How many times do you hear them say things like: That’s simply impossible . . . Our computer systems won’t allow it . . . I haven’t been trained on that . . . It’s too close to the processing deadline . . . When you’re in gemba – or when someone asks you a question – listen for the answer. Because, even if the specific words ‘I can’t’ aren’t used, any of the statements above mean exactly the same thing. Truth is, as I tell people all the time, nothing’s actually impossible. Two hundred years ago, people thought that flying would be impossible. Now we don’t even think about getting on a plane. People have even gone to the moon! And if we can find ways to send people into space, it’s certainly possible to figure out how to do anything that we need to do to create flow in our service process. Most often, the barriers to creating new, more effective and efficient ways to work (and to say ‘of course we can, let’s figure out how’ to our customers) are in our minds. They are simply all the assumptions we have about what we really can and can’t do. So, the first step to take to become conscious of the number of assumptions that we have is to listen carefully to the number of times we tell ourselves – and others – that we ‘can’t.’

Coaching One of the things that I often find that people tell themselves ‘I can’t’ about, is the discipline it takes to keep up with daily coaching and completing a PDCA cycle a day. As humans, many of us find it hard to do something on a consistent, regular basis. However, as we’ve talked about previously, changing our thinking requires changing what we do, so having the discipline to do things differently

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consistently, over time, is essential. And just like anything else, developing discipline requires practice. Daily practice! Today, it’s time to check in and see how the person that you are coaching is progressing. Are they keeping their coaching sessions and doing their next steps on time each day (target), or is the actual that some coaching sessions and next steps are being missed? If you’re finding a gap, then, as the coach you are going to have to help the person you are coaching figure out ‘why’ so that they can fix the problem. And, because being disciplined as a coach is difficult too, it’s also time to check-in on your progress. Are you doing your preparation, filling out your journal, and reflecting on a daily basis? Or are you skipping some of the steps and going to coaching sessions unprepared? If this is the case, and you see that you are having a gap between the target of daily preparation and reflection, and the actual, you’re going to have to ask yourself what’s preventing you from keeping up the needed discipline. And please remember, if you, or the person you’re coaching, is having a ‘discipline’ problem, don’t be discouraged. Simply look at the gap between the target and actual, and the assumptions being made around why, and start again! Because, the more we practice discipline – and stick to the schedule – the more we are going to become disciplined – learn more, practice more, gain more confidence, and fix the problem faster! For today’s suggested next step: Take a few moments in your coaching session to check-in on the coaching process! Make sure that progress to targets is being made in a disciplined way. If not, ask why – and start writing the long list of ‘I can’t’s.’

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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Day 11 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of what ‘flow’ looks like in the process the person you are coaching is working on.

In the space below, write a diary entry about the underlying ‘I can’ts’ that might be holding you back.

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session. What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 12: Flow: Building in Quality at the Source Lean in Services Because flow is such an important and foundational principle to Lean, we’re going to spend the next three chapters focusing on the essentials of creating flow in services. We’ll be exploring: ‘Building in quality at the source’ to do it right the first time, The importance of reducing interruptions, and Eliminating and reducing the seven wastes in service processes. Today, we’ll be starting with ‘building in quality at the source.’ In services, because there is often a circular value stream, ‘building in quality at the source’ – getting all the information that we need, up front, right the first time – is essential. Any information that is incorrect, or missing, from the beginning of the process will cause problems later on. So, although I often hear people say that they want their service processes to be ‘efficient and effective,’ we have to change our thinking – and verbiage – to ‘effective and efficient.’ In services, in order to avoid the rework that causes a huge amount of inefficiency – and defects and delay for customers – we’re going to have increase our ability to be effective. That means getting all the information we need, right the first time, from our very human customers. The exact same customer who might think they know the correct information, but don’t. Who might not understand what we are asking for . . . even though we think they do. Who might change their mind after they’ve given us the information . . . Think about a person working in a call center. The customer calling in might be speaking on a cell phone, while in their car, making hearing correctly – on both sides – difficult. The service rep might think they are entering the correct information, however, they don’t. The incorrect information then goes right through the process, and, creates an error in the final outcome.

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So, how do we get what we need and build in quality at the source? First, define exactly what is needed. Do you know exactly what information is needed on your end to create exactly what the customer wants? Often, in services, it’s not clear. And because of that, either all the necessary information isn’t collected in the beginning . . . or, just as problematic, more is collected than needed. If we don’t have what we need, we have to call the customer back – sometimes multiple times! – causing waiting and delay. If we have more than needed, it takes time to weed through to find what we want, and we might use wrong information. So, before we can create ways to help our customers give us what we need, right the first time, we have to take the time to define exactly what we do need. Next, help your customers (who may also be your suppliers) give you what you need. Once you know what’s needed to create a perfect service, it’s up to you to help your customers give it to you. Although it’s easy to assume customers should know how to do that, often, they don’t. And what they need is help. More help than you might think. Because each group of customers is different, you are going to have to be creative in coming up with ways to help them. Some ideas could be checklists with correct items, going to the customer’s gemba and helping them find the right information, or staying with them while they apply for an ID number. Anything you can do to help your customer provide you with exactly what is needed will be better for your team, and create a more personal, human connection, at the same time! Remember, it’s certainly possible that you know more about what your customers need than they do. It’s up to you to make sure that you help them give you what you need to do their work right the first time.

Creativity How many times have you stopped yourself from offering an idea of how to do something differently (a way around an ‘I can’t’) because you’ve thought other people would think the idea was too crazy? Chances are, if you’re like most people, you are pretty good at self-censoring ideas that might seem too ‘imaginative,’ or far-fetched according to others. Problem with this is, there’s actually no such thing as too crazy an idea! As we talked about yesterday, people can now fly in planes, go to the moon and, on a more day-to-day level, see each other while they’re chatting on videocalls! All ideas that, not so long ago, seemed absolutely crazy! So, how can you help people overcome their fear of sharing ‘crazy ideas’? First of all, it’s a great idea to tell them, right from the start, that no idea is too crazy! Then, when capturing their ideas, instead of using a four-block pick-chart, which sorts ideas into ‘too hard/too much effort’ and ‘low impact/low value’ (reinforcing

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the belief that some ideas are ‘too crazy’), I like to use what I call The Creative Ideas Template (and yes, if you’re thinking it’s just a bigger version of the chart we created in Chapters 5 and 6 . . . you’re right!). To make one, take a piece of flipchart paper and fold it in half. Write the Target along the top . . . all the ‘I can’t’s’ on the left side, and all the ideas the team has to overcome them – no matter how crazy they seem – on the right side (see Figure 12.1). Then review EVERY idea and discuss it as if it was possible and you were going to do it. Figuring out ‘how’ to do something seemingly ‘impossible’ often leads to very practical suggestions! Next, ask people to use ‘and thinking’ and ‘synthesis’ to see if there are parts of different ideas that can be combined together. Often, taking something from one person’s idea and combining with part of something from another person’s creates a practical alternative. And, when two or more people see that they both have ‘part’ of a bigger idea, it reinforces that the ideas that they each have aren’t actually impossible or too crazy after all! I also find that it can be extremely helpful to get people ‘out of the office’ while they are sharing their ideas! Sometimes what seems ‘too crazy’ inside the confines of the four walls of the workplace is easier to share in a less formal context. So,

Figure 12.1

The creative ideas template

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how about moving your idea gathering session to a restaurant? Or, even better, outside in a park? Ideas are just ideas. None are too crazy, and we won’t know how they work until we try them out! Which we won’t be able to do unless we get them out there!

Coaching Have you ever run a full- or half-marathon? Or even a 5k race? If you have, you probably didn’t start out by running the whole thing at once. If you’re like most people, you probably built up to it. In your training, you might have started out jogging at a slow pace for a few minutes at a time. Over time, as you practiced, you probably sped up the pace and ran for longer and longer distances. The reason that you could run more quickly, and farther, was that the discipline of daily practice – training – allowed you to slowly build enough strength to have the stamina to complete the race! Coaching people to get creative ideas and turn them into reality is the same. Every day, you’re helping the person you are coaching develop a disciplined practice, which over time, will give them greater stamina. Greater stamina means they will be able to stay in the uncomfortable learning zone longer, which means they’ll be able to spend a longer time ‘going to see’ in gemba without getting tired. And they’ll be able to work on solving more difficult problems as, with each completed PDCA cycle, they’re building on what they know! When I first start working with people, they often report feeling tired, or that their ‘brain is on overload’ at the end of a coaching session or a gemba visit from me. I always tell them, ‘Don’t worry. That’s how you should expect to feel because you haven’t built up stamina for working in this way yet. I promise you that in six months from now, you’ll feel differently.’ And, six months later, after practicing the discipline of frequent coaching sessions, and building up their stamina, they do! So, making sure that the person you’re coaching is making their coaching sessions isn’t only important to help them build discipline and make sure that the problem they’re working on is being solved, it also helps them build up stamina to work on harder problems for longer! And that’s what ‘developing people’ really means! For today’s suggested next step: Does the person you’re coaching really understand exactly what is needed to create a perfect service/service product for customers? How will you help them find out? And what can be done to help customers submit all the information needed upfront, right the first time? How could the Creative Ideas template be used to help them figure it out?

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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Day 12 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of what ‘building in quality at the source’ looks like in the process the person you are coaching is working on.

In the space below, write a diary entry about the craziest idea you had that you never told anyone about.

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session.What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 13: Flow: Minimizing Interruptions and Disruptions Lean in Services Yesterday, in the first of our three chapters on flow in services, we talked about ‘building in quality’ at the source – doing things right the first time! Today, we’re going to talk about the importance of reducing and eliminating interruptions in service work. This is an extremely important topic, because interruptions cause service workers to stop working on one thing and begin working on another – which is the absolute opposite of the definition of flow! As well, interruptions often cause service representatives to make errors, which causes rework, again disrupting flow – and upsetting customers. In many service processes, service representatives take care of multiple clients and multiple accounts. As well, they may receive customer requests from multiple channels. Think about service representatives working in an internal Human Resources contact center. Customers may contact them by phone call, email, internal system requests, and fax, and they may even be able to walk in for service. Since the service representative must answer the phone when it rings, if they are working on answering a question by email, if the phone rings, there is an automatic interruption. Flow is broken as the service representative stops working on the email response and answers the telephone. The partiallyfinished email is left waiting until the service representative can get back to it. And, that means the actual, human being client who sent the email is left waiting for a response! As well, when the service representative returns to work on the email, having had their train of thought disrupted, it’s very easy for them to make a mistake. Either in data entry into the computer system they are using togenerate the answer, or in typing what the actual answer to the question is!

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So, in order to create flow in services, reducing the number of interruptions is vital. It’s also one of the areas in which many people seem to struggle with the long list of ‘I can’t’s.’ I often hear: “‘There’s no way to stop the interruptions. We have no way of predicting when clients are going to call, and if our supervisor says something is an ‘emergency’, we have to stop what we’re doing and work on that first!’” Although we cannot predict exactly when customers are going to call or come in, we can work to create strategies that mitigate the number of interruptions that people receive. Here are a few ideas to get you started: Work on different channels of work at different times. If representatives are working on responding to emails, don’t have them answer the phone at the same time! Create some type of visual ‘stop sign’ symbol. Service representatives can place these at their desk while they are working, so that others can easily see that they shouldn’t interrupt with a question or request. Have supervisors check if service representatives need help. In many organizations, it’s expected that if a service representative needs help, they will leave their desk and go to their supervisor’s desk. This causes a huge interruption in the service representative’s work. And it takes them away from serving customers as they walk back and forth, and, wait in a cue of other service representatives who need answers! Instead, have supervisors regularly go to check on service representatives. This will reduce the number of unanticipated interruptions and, as well, give the supervisors the opportunity to ‘go see’ for themselves! This practices two Lean principles at once! Flow and ‘go and see’! And please remember, customer requests are never interruptions! When a customer calls, we have both the opportunity to serve them, and, as well, the opportunity to understand why they are calling. If they are contacting us because there is an error, or something they don’t understand in our process, they’ve now given us the gift of an opportunity to create a better way!

Creativity One of the best questions I’ve found to help boost people’s creativity is a very simple one. ‘Why?’ And the reason that I’ve found it’s such a great question, is often people have done something in the same way for so long that they aren’t sure what the purpose of doing it that way is. They simply assume that they need to keep doing it. Here’s an example. When I worked at the payroll company, in order for employees to be paid on the same day, the customer service representative

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would have to fill in a form and have it signed by a supervisor before the payroll could be processed. Problem was, it was often difficult for the service representative to find a supervisor who wasn’t in a meeting. Since the payments couldn’t be created without the supervisor’s signature, customers ended up waiting a long time. This added to the upset that they and their employees were feeling. When we reviewed the process to see how we could make it better, we asked this simple question about each step: Why were we doing it in the first place? In asking ‘why?’ a supervisor’s signature needed, we found out that most people we asked didn’t know why. They ‘assumed’ that there was an audit regulation, but they weren’t sure. Not satisfied with assumptions, we continued to ask ‘why?’ until we found one customer service representative who remembered that about ten years earlier, management had been decided that there might be a training opportunity for the service representatives who processed payrolls on the same day. The signature process was then put in place to alert the supervisor to a possible training opportunity. With this information, we checked further and found out that there was no audit regulation – either internally or externally. A new, automated workflow was then created in which the supervisor was informed of the same-day processing, while the checks and direct deposits were being created. No more frustration for service representatives trying to find a supervisor, and no more delay for customers. It’s common to think that the main reason we do things the same way over and over again is because of habit (see Figure 13.1). However, I believe that’s only part of the answer. We do things the same way over and over again because we have many assumptions about ‘why’ they need to be done that way! Assumptions often turn out to be wrong. In order to help people free their thinking about

Figure 13.1

Always ask ‘WHY’?

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creating new ways to do things, encourage them to ask ‘why?’ – and then verify the validity – of every step they are doing! Which brings us to today’s Coaching section!

Coaching As a coach, the question I ask most often is ‘Why?’ ‘Why do you plan to take that approach?’, ‘Why did you choose those questions?’ for example. ‘Why?’ do I ask ‘why?’ so often? Two reasons: 1. Asking ‘why?’ lets me ‘see’ what the person I’m coaching is thinking. When they answer, I can ‘see’ what their thought process is and if it matches where I think it should be. If it doesn’t, I can adjust my coaching immediately. Also, and just as importantly . . . 2. I have a lot of assumptions myself. As a human being, I have just as many assumptions as anyone else! Assumptions that prevent me from really ‘seeing’ what is actually happening. So, when I ask a person I’m coaching ‘why?’, I consciously have to open my ears, my eyes, my mind, and my heart and listen to what they are saying . . . not what I am assuming! As a human being, in order to improve your coaching, you’ll have to consciously work to dispel your assumptions as well. Asking yourself – and the person you’re coaching – ‘why?’ is a great way to do that! For today’s suggested next step: How can you help the person you’re coaching see if there are interruptions that are causing breaks in flow in the process they’re working on? Why do those interruptions exist? How can you help them dispel any assumptions they have about the impossibility of eliminating interruptions in service processes?

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Day 13 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of what ‘interruptions to flow’ look like in the process the person you are coaching is working on.

In the space below, write a diary entry about an ‘assumption’ that you made that turned out to be incorrect.

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session. What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 14: Flow: Eliminating Waste Lean in Services Today we’re going to talk about the last of our three topics on creating flow in service processes. Eliminating waste. In this book, we’re going to focus on ‘unevenness’ (Mura) and ‘overburden’ (Muri), two types of waste that are often ignored. Why are we going to focus on those? Two reasons. First, because they have a huge effect on flow in services. Second, they often lead to the creation of many of the Seven Wastes (Muda) of Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Overprocessing, and Defect. Let’s get started!

The Effects of ‘Unevenness’ To understand what ‘unevenness’ looks like, and its effect on service processes, head to any service floor and talk to the people who do the work. Whether it be a contact center, retail outlet or IT department, one of the most common complaints you will hear is about the seemingly random, uncontrollable nature of how work arrives: “We can’t tell – or control – when our customers are going to call us, or what they’re going to need. It could be something that takes one minute to do, or something that takes a whole day.” What they’re describing is the waste of ‘unevenness.’ As well as work that arrives from external sources unevenly, many service organizations also create ‘unevenness’ internally. Examples of this include sales organizations with quotas ending on the last day of the month and centralized shared services contact centers serving multiple time zones. It’s pretty much guaranteed that sales reps will be rushing to submit as many new accounts as they can so that they make their quota in the last few days of the month. It’s also likely that contact centers will see a spike in calls as each area of the country gets into work in their time zone. 105

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In services, when work arrives ‘unevenly,’ people will often be interrupted from what they are doing, as new calls, sales information, or work comes in. As well, in rushing to care for customers and finish as much as they can, those doing the work may not spend the time needed to collect all the information right the first time up front. And, as we saw in Chapters 12 and 13, both of these are barriers to flow!

The Effects of ‘Overburden’ ‘Unevenness’ also often results in creating overburden of the people and systems doing the work. Visit many different kinds of service companies and you will see – and hear – that people have more work than they are able to complete in a day. It’s common to see ‘red’ numbers on huddle boards showing work that hasn’t been completed and you may also see ‘frowny faces’ or other emojis showing frustrated and stressed employees. And computer systems that are overburdened may work slowly or may crash because they can’t handle the demand. Overburdened people are also much more likely to make mistakes due to fatigue. And, the overburdening of people and computer systems also often results in poor service experiences for customers. No one enjoys waiting on the line to reach a customer service representative to rebook a cancelled flight, or find out the status of their insurance claim . . . which brings us the more commonly referenced 7 wastes.

Using the Seven Wastes to Uncover Overburden and Unevenness in Service Processes Although I’ve seen many articles adding different wastes to the classic seven of Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overprocessing, Overproduction, and Defect, I’ve found that the original are sufficient, and as applicable in services as they are in manufacturing. As shown in Figure 14.1, I’ve also found that by looking for these wastes in service processes, it’s often possible to trace backwards to locate the overburden and unevenness that is leading to the waste. For example: Transportation: Sharing work (moving it between representatives) is often a clue that people are overburdened; Inventory: Large build-ups of emails or files waiting to be worked on can be evaluated to ‘see’ if work has been received unevenly; Motion: Switching back and forth between screens and tasks may mean that people are overburdened; Waiting: The overburden of customers waiting in queue (physical or virtual) can signal that there’s an unevenness in how work is coming in; Overprocessing: The need to over-audit a process because of numerous errors can be a clue that unevenness or overburden is causing rushing;

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Overproduction: Working ahead can be evaluated to determine if people are ‘making too many too soon’ because they have extra time on their hands due to unevenness; Defect: Errors may be the result of rushing to complete work. As you can see, reducing the seven wastes in service process will definitely lead to improved flow; however, we can’t stop there. We need to identify and eliminate the underlying unevenness and overburden that are leading to the other wastes. We’ll be exploring how to do that in the next three chapters on Leveling. (And for those of you who are wondering about the eighth waste – the waste of underutilized human potential – eliminating overburden, unevenness, and the seven wastes will ensure that the time and talents of the people who are the doing the work – and the valuable time our customers give us – aren’t wasted either!)

Creativity Today we’re going to take a deeper dive on how to use drawing, instead of written or spoken words, to spark new ways of ‘seeing’ and helping others see. It’s

Figure 14.1

How waste in services snowballs!

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interesting to me, that even though as humans, sight is our main sense, we tend to rely on the spoken or written word as our primary way of communicating. Problem with this is that each of us interprets words differently. Or put in other words . . . the picture I make in my mind when I hear a word is likely different than the picture you make. You can try this out by saying the word ‘flower’ in a roomful of people and asking each of them to draw a picture of what first pops into their mind. Chances are, they’ll all be different! A rose, a daisy, all different colors, etc. And that’s just for something as concrete as a flower. What about more abstract concepts? Like collaboration or serving customers? Asking people to draw pictures to describe something BEFORE – or instead of – using words is a great way to help them more clearly ‘see’ what is in their mind and communicate it to others. Once they’ve drawn out what they want to communicate, they can look closely at it themselves to ‘see’ what they’re thinking, and then they can show that picture to others and ask them what they ‘see.’ Others can also draw their own response and/or ask clarifying questions. This is a great way both to spark a creative ‘dialogue’ and make sure that everyone is ‘seeing’ what is being communicated in a common way. Which brings us to today’s Coaching section!

Coaching Congratulations, you and the person you started coaching on Day 4 have made it half-way through! As a coach, at this time, you might notice that your energy, and the energy of the person you’re coaching, are taking a dip. That what felt exciting and interesting in the beginning now feels somewhat like plain old hard work. I want to let you know that it’s okay and normal to feel this way. I call this part of the coaching and problem-solving process ‘the slog.’ I find that it generally occurs about half-way through any kind of project, as the initial excitement wears off. As a coach, it’s important to make this normal part of the process visible to the person you’re coaching. Have a talk about (or, better even, draw a picture!) it with the person you’re coaching, acknowledge it, and then . . . keep going. Because continued discipline will both help with building stamina and make sure the person you’re coaching doesn’t give up before the problem is solved. Often, it’s just that ‘one more thing’ that needs to be done, and, because we’re in ‘the slog,’ and don’t realize it as a normal part of the process, we give up just short of the goal. There’s always going to be a part that’s a ‘slog’ in everything we do. As a coach, it’s your responsibility to make sure that ‘when the going gets tough you challenge and nurture the person you’re coaching to keep going!’ For today’s suggested next step: Help the person you’re coaching look for waste that is interrupting flow. What unevenness and overburden are there? And why?

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Day 14 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of what ‘unevenness, overburden, and the seven wastes’ look like to you.

In the space below, write a diary entry about an experience you’ve had working in a waste-full process.

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session. What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 15: Leveling: It’s Not All Random Lean in Services Over the next three days, we’re going to be focusing on ‘leveling’ in service processes. In Lean, ‘leveling’ (Heijunka in Japanese) means smoothing out the way that work arrives and is completed. Instead of having large peaks where people and systems are overburdened, and valleys, where they’re idle, work proceeds at a steady rate. That means happier, less stressed workers, fewer errors and, of course, better flow to customers! Here’s what we’ll be exploring: Finding patterns in how work arrives: It’s actually not all random: Internal Leveling: Using our time deliberately External Leveling: Helping our customers level their demand Today we’re going to start by dispelling a common myth that I often hear and that we talked about in yesterday’s section on Lean in Services. That myth is that ‘it’s all random,’ and there’s no way to tell when work will arrive, from external customers or the internal departments who are our business partners.

Internal Patterns A little while ago, I visited the service floor of an insurance company claims department. During the gemba tour, the leader showed me the huddle board, and explained that the ‘root cause’ of not meeting customer needs the day before was that many of the claims representatives were on vacation for the week. When I asked why so many were off on the same week, she told me that it was a school break, so parents often took the week off to care for their children . . . and that

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each year, the same problem occurred! This is a great example of how many things are not actually random in day-to-day service operations. Statutory holidays, sales cycles (either internal like month, quarter or year-end quotas, or external like all of one specific type of insurance policy renewing on the same day each year), and seasonal cycles (increase in hot or cold weather-related incidents for hospitals) repeat over and over again each year. A few good ways to look for internal patterns are to review the company calendar, ask the people who are doing the work (they’ll know from experience), and look at data such as employee days off, and seasonal spikes.

External Patterns Just like internal patterns, if we pay attention and look for them, we can find that there are, actually, patterns in the way our external customers reach out to us as well. A couple of examples: contact centers that are closed on the weekend are likely to find that on Monday morning, there will be emails and voice messages waiting; and that before holiday seasons, customer requests will be greater, and then lighter on the actual holiday. Patterns can also be found in looking at time zones of different customers (when I’m traveling in Europe, I know that when I wake up in the morning there will be emails, texts and messages from the North American people I help, due to time zone differences!). Some clues to finding external patterns are looking back at past call center contact data, reviewing time zones and, of course, asking the people who do the work about their experience. As you can see, although, in the thick of trying to get all customers taken care of, and work completed, it might ‘feel’ like the way work arrives is ‘random,’ if we really look carefully, we can find that there are patterns. (See Figure 15.1.) And that once we find those patterns, we can start to create different ways to work that will smooth out those peaks and valleys. We’ll learn more about how to do that in the next two days!

Creativity In today’s creativity section, we’re going to explore the relationship between patterns and creativity. And, just as we talked about above, in terms of creativity, making patterns conscious and visible is extremely helpful. Here’s why. As humans, our brains like to find patterns. They like it because creating patterns in things that might not really be related adds to our feeling of certainty. And when we’re certain, we’re happy and comfortable.1 So, just like looking at data to confirm our customer service representatives’ ‘feelings’ that there are more emails in their in-boxes every Monday morning than on other days of the week, looking for patterns in the way we think so that we can analyze them is

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Figure 15.1

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extremely important. Because our own ‘thinking patterns,’ especially habitual ones, may cause us to make assumptions that don’t actually turn out to be facts – and that can hold back our creativity! So, to be more creative, we need to first make those thinking patterns visible, analyze them, and then, consciously break them! The best way I’ve found to do that is, whenever you come to a conclusion, consciously ask yourself ‘Why do I think that?’ Then, draw out – or write down – all of the reasons! Then, do a little investigating . . . asking around to others and checking facts, to see if what you’re thinking is correct, or if it’s just a pattern of thinking. Then ask yourself ‘How can I think about this differently? What are some other ways?’ You can even use the Creative Ideas template! An example of this is what I call ‘negative first impression.’ Many people, no matter what you ask them, or what idea you present say ‘No,’ at first, even if it’s something that they’re not really opposed to! Because people usually aren’t conscious of this pattern of thinking, when someone says ‘No’ to a first request, I always ask them “Why? How are you thinking about that?” Once they start to explain – make their thinking visible – to me and to themselves – they’re often quite surprised! And able to move beyond their initial ‘No’ to different alternatives! Often, seeing and breaking an unconscious pattern is the first step to opening the door to creativity!

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Coaching Do coaches need to think about leveling, about smoothing peaks and valleys? They certainly do! And here are two good reasons why. First, in order to understand what the people that we are coaching are going through, we need to put ourselves in their shoes so that we can empathize. Second, coaching requires a lot of planning, preparation, and follow-up. Especially when coaching more than one person, there’s going to be times when there’s uneven demand. And that can lead a coach to feel overburdened and stressed as well. In order to have the necessary energy and attitude to nurture those being coached, coaches have to take the time to care for themselves. Leveling the work to avoid the unevenness that can lead to overburden and stress is a great way to do that. So, how can you begin ‘leveling’ your work as a coach? In the same way that you are helping the person you are coaching. Look for internal and external patterns. Are more coaching sessions scheduled on some days than others? How are coaching sessions scheduled throughout the day? Back-to-back, in different locations, so that you don’t have time to breath and reflect between? Or do you have you scheduled time between to reflect and prepare for the next session? Not sure? Then, it’s time to collect some data to find out. A great way to do that is to make sure that you are noting everything that you do on your calendar. Coaching meetings, planning, and reflection times and all the other things that you do! Take a look over a week and see if there is a balance. What about over a day? Don’t be surprised if there isn’t. If what you see are ‘peaks’ and ‘valleys,’ just like those of the person you are coaching. Over the next few days, while you help the person you’re coaching work on leveling, you’ll be able to work on it too! (And, if you’re not using a calendar to track the work you’re doing during the day, now is a good time to start.) For today’s suggested next step: Help the person you’re coaching ‘see’ the peaks and valleys in their process. Why do those occur? Are they really ‘random?’

Note 1 David Di Salvo,What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite (New York: Prometheus Books, 2011), Chapter 2: Seductive Patterns and Smoking Monkeys.

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Day 15 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of what ‘peaks and valleys’ of unleveled work look like to you.

In the space below, write a diary entry about an experience you’ve had – positive or negative – involving a ‘thinking pattern.’

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session.What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 16: Internal Leveling Lean in Services Today we’re going to talk about what I call ‘internal leveling.’ That means how to break down goals – and the work that needs to be done to accomplish those goals – into small pieces that can be done over time in a regular, deliberate way. To begin, there are two basic concepts we need to use. The first is the concept of thinking about time – and the work that needs to be done during that time – in ‘nested’ increments. In business, time comprises years, quarters, months, weeks, days, minutes, and seconds. Each smaller unit ‘nests’ into the larger unit. That means, to reach Fiscal Year goals, quarterly goals need to be met. To meet those, monthly goals must be met. A quarter of those monthly goals need to be met each week, as there are normally four weeks per month. And a fifth of the weekly goal should be met each day, presuming a five-day work week. We can subdivide further down to hours, minutes, and seconds. When we think about the relationship between time, goals, and breaking down the work we need to do over each time period to reach those goals, it’s easy to see that what we choose to do in each unit makes a huge difference. And, it’s also easy to see that when we break down big pieces of work into ever smaller pieces, and work on them steadily, bit-by-bit over time, it will help us work in a much smoother and leveled way. To illustrate, here’s an example from an organization that was struggling to reach its annual sales goals. Before I met them, they only looked at the overall goal when they were close to the end of the year. However, once they broke their yearly goal, and the different steps of the work that needed to be done to reach the goal, into quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily, and hourly increments, things changed. They realized that on each day, if they made the required number of potential customer calls, they could be certain of a set number of potential customer meetings. And out of those meetings, they could predict that a certain number of sales would occur. Since they knew sales dollars depended on calls being made, they could then ensure that each sales rep had the time 121

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booked on their calendar, every single day, to make the required number of calls! And, they also checked in daily to make sure calls were made! Once they did this, as seen in Figure 16.1, sales progressed in a smooth and level way! And that brings us to the second thing we need to know for internal leveling: which is how long it takes to do each piece of work. Because unless we know how long a particular activity takes (whether it’s transactional, like making a potential customer sales call, or project-based, like doing requirements research), we won’t know if we have enough time to complete the amount of work we need to do each day to serve our customers and reach our goals. For example, if it takes a sales rep ten minutes to make a potential customer call, and we need each sales rep to make ten calls a day, then unless each sales rep has one hundred minutes per day available and on their calendar to make the calls, we can predict all the rest of the goals won’t be met. The other reason we need to know how long things are supposed to take is that if we don’t, we won’t know if something’s taking longer than it should (and yes, you’re right – knowing how long each should take is a target.) In most service organizations I work with, having a target of how long things should take is either quite foreign or is thought of as impossible. Things just take as long as they do. Problem with that is, if there’s no target, then even if we know the actual, there’s no gap: no way to see that there’s a problem. Applying that to our sales example, if we don’t know that the target for each potential sales call is ten

Figure 16.1

Leveling in sales example

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minutes, we won’t know that there’s a problem if a sales rep regularly spends twenty minutes on each one. And if we don’t see a problem, we won’t solve it. (We’ll talk more about figuring out how long things should take in the next chapter on external leveling.) So, what can we do to start internal leveling? First, break down customer and organization goals into ‘nested’ time increments. How much of what needs to be accomplished in each hour, day, week, month, quarter, and year. That will give you a target of how long each work activity should take. Next, take a look – and by ‘take a look,’ I don’t mean asking people to estimate – I mean physically ‘going to see’ how long it takes! Go to where the work is being done and time it! Then, when you find a gap between the target and the actual, you can figure out why and start creating different ways to do the work, steadily, bit-by-bit, in the required amount of time. That will help everyone – and the organization – reach their goals in a less stressful, smooth, and leveled way!

Creativity Are you a ‘big picture’ thinker? Or a ‘detail-oriented’ one? I’ve found that people often categorize themselves as one or the other. However, just like other ‘either/ or’ thinking, limiting ourselves this way can be detrimental to us, and to our organizations. How? Well, as we’ve just seen, in order to get the ‘big picture’ right, we’ve got to pay careful attention to the details! And, like putting a puzzle together, if we only see each detail as a separate piece, and not as part of the whole, we might not put everything together correctly to make the beautiful picture on the top of the box. Although each of us might have more of a natural inclination, more experience, and more comfort in ‘seeing’ the big picture or the details, expanding our ability to ‘see’ in both ways will help us better be able to level work. It will also expand our creativity! How can we do this? First, start by determining whether you identify more as a ‘big picture’ or ‘detail-oriented’ person. How can you do that? Think about the role that you like to play in projects: Are you normally the one setting the goals and then letting others figure out how to get the work done? Do you feel your mind wandering when people tell you detailed explanations about the ‘how’ of something? If so, then you might be a ‘big picture’ thinker. I’ve found that leaders often classify themselves this way. On the other hand, are you less concerned with the overall outcome of something and get joy simply from completing a task? Do you like to ‘get things done’ and then move on to the next? If so, you might be more of a ‘detail-oriented’ thinker. Once you’ve determined which style you tend to use, you can consciously start adding the other style in. If you’re more on the ‘big-picture’ side, go to see how the work is done to better understand the details. Practice asking questions like,

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“Can you show me how that’s done?” and “What are the steps needed to accomplish that goal?” and then listen to the answer! Then draw out the ‘bigpicture’ and all the details needed to accomplish it! If you find you’re more of a ‘detail-oriented’ thinker, practice asking yourself (and your leader), “How does the piece of work I’m doing help our team reach its goals?” Draw pictures of how each task fits into the larger whole! And, of course, you and other ‘detail-oriented’ people can get together with some ‘big picture’ thinkers and put an actual puzzle together! Talk about how you feel, and strategies you use! Forcing ourselves to practice thinking in different ways really helps expand our creativity!

Coaching Yesterday, we talked about looking for patterns in our own coaching work to see where the ‘peaks and valleys’ were. Today, we’re going to talk about helping the people we’re coaching see those ‘peaks and valleys’ and begin their own internal leveling work . . . so they can help the people they’re coaching do the same. Just like you, the person you’re coaching can start noting everything they do on their own, calendar. If they aren’t, you can help them begin to do that, and then you can review their calendar with them for ‘peaks and valleys.’ You can also ask them to make a note of how long things they do are supposed to take (target) and then record how long those things really do take (actual) to see the gap. And finally, you can help them determine whether they tend to see themselves as a ‘big-picture’ or ‘detail-oriented’ thinker. As you can see, everything you practice and try out will be used to help the person you are coaching, who will then cascade that help to the people they’re solving the current problem with and, eventually beyond. Often, as coaches, we waste time looking for a place to pilot something to learn, when we can simply use ourselves! That gives us confidence and courage which we can then pass on to our learners! For today’s suggested next step: Help the person you’re coaching determine if the time ‘targets’ for each step of the process of the problem they’re working on are known. If not, how can they find out? What about actual timing of process steps? Are they known? If not, what can be done to find out?

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Day 16 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of how your ‘precious time’ breaks down into smaller increments!

In the space below, write a diary entry about whether you think you are a ‘big-picture’ or ‘detail-oriented’ thinker and why.

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session.What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 17: External Leveling Lean in Services Yesterday, we talked about the concept of internal leveling and how to break time and goals down into nested increments. Today, we’re going to explore what I call ‘external leveling’: determining how much of what needs to be accomplished in each hour, day, week, month, quarter, and year. Once we’ve figured out the patterns in our customer demand, we can smooth out the way we do our work by being very deliberate about what type of work we do, when we do it, and how much of it we do per time increment. I often visit organizations that have visual boards that are supposed to track the work teams are doing. Maybe you have one of these too. If you work in an insurance company, there might be columns on the board for customers who are expecting new business quotes, customers who need policies renewed, and customers who have endorsements (changes) to their policy. The visual boards show the number of complete and incomplete work items in each category. The results of yesterday’s work are discussed the next day in some type of stand-up meeting. The problem with this, however, is that waiting until the next day to see if customer work has been completed is too late. Missed targets mean unhappy customers and overburdened employees as yesterday’s unfinished work gets added to today’s. In order to make sure that people are able to work in a level way, and at a steady pace, we need to help them figure out what to work on during each part of the day and what work needs to be completed during each hour. Once we do that, we can create a visual way to track the progress of work throughout the day. Then, if we see people start to get behind during the first hours of the morning, it will be much easier to help them get back on track before the day ends! That means that customer work won’t be late, and team members won’t be overburdened. This is where understanding patterns of customer demand and the amount of time it takes to complete different types of work is necessary. Because, back to 129

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our insurance example, if we know that in general, on a Monday in the summertime, each insurance processor will need to complete 2 quotes for new business, 5 renewals, and 10 endorsements, and that there are about 6 work hours in a day (minus lunch and breaks), we’ll be able to start to figure out what each person should work on when, and for how long. I know what you’re thinking. ‘Services are too variable. Even similar things don’t take the same amount of time.’ That’s true. And a big ‘I can’t’. What we can do, however, as we discussed in Chapter 16, is simply take a stop watch and find out how long things normally take. We can use that general information to get a good estimate of how the amount of work we have to complete fits into the amount of time we have to do it. For example, if adding one car to an insurance endorsement takes 5 minutes, and we see that a customer needs an endorsement that has 10 cars, we can estimate that completing the work will take 50 minutes. We can do the same for the new business quotes and renewals, customer inquiries, and required meetings each day. Once we’ve determined this, we can deliberately decide when to work on each type of item. One hour between a meeting and lunch? Schedule the 50-minute endorsement! If we know there are likely to be fewer customer inquiries between 8:00 and 10:00 am in the morning, schedule work that needs concentration over longer periods. It’s like putting a puzzle together! Each day, if we start out by estimating the amount of time the work we have will take, and deliberately schedule when in the day to do it, it will give us a smoother, steadier, more regular way to work – and a ‘target’ during each time period – to work towards. And what happens, like in Figure 17.1, when we figure out that we don’t have enough time (hours, minutes, seconds) in a day to complete all the work customers send us? Or that we get a sudden unexpected interruption? Then, our target and actual don’t match, and we have a problem that we can use our creativity, divergent thinking and Lean principles, practices, and tools to solve to create better ways to do the work!

Creativity Yesterday, we talked about ‘big picture’ and ‘detail-oriented’ ways of thinking, and how defining ourselves as one or the other could limit our creativity. Today, we’re going to explore that a little further and talk about imagining different ‘parts to whole relationships.’ Think about the last time that you were tasked with teaching someone, or a team of people, how to do something new. For example, let’s say a team needs to create one of the visual boards we talked about above, or a visual management system. For many, the inclination would be to show the team an example or two of what the finished product might look like. This was the approach that Sr. Vice President of Administration, at Michigan Technological University, Theresa

Day 17: External Leveling

Figure 17.1

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Coleman-Kaiser, first suggested when thinking about how to lead her team through their first experience in creating a tiered visual management system. As we discussed the approach in our coaching sessions, Theresa realized that if she showed the team examples, they would likely want to copy one of them instead of creating the unique system that would meet their needs specifically. And Theresa was correct. Because once we show someone an example, we give their brain a picture of what the ‘whole’ looks like, and how the ‘parts’ fit together to create that whole. As people, once we see that completed ‘parts to whole’ picture, it’s harder to imagine a different one. Instead of thinking about the target, and how to create what’s necessary to suit our specific purpose, we start thinking about copying what we’ve already seen. Convergent thinking. To help people practice their divergent thinking, instead of showing examples, I simply ask them: “What’s the purpose and the needed outcome (whole)? What are the different ways (parts) that we could achieve that?” Without giving them any preconceived ideas, I simply ask them to imagine! In Theresa’s case, this is the approach she ultimately decided to use with her team. She helped them to see what the overall purpose of creating their visual management system was, and then asked them to think about the following: What should be checked? Who should be checking? How could they check? Who could they report the information out/up to? How could it be reported? In doing this, Theresa helped people improve their divergent thinking to put those ‘pieces’ together into a ‘whole’ that suited their specific needs! So, next time you’re tempted to show someone an example of what they might do, think instead of how you could get them to imagine all the different possibilities of how it could be done! That way, not only will you help them solve the problem, you’ll also help them improve their creativity!

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Coaching One of the things I commonly help people I’m coaching with, is how to deal with parts of the process, or people, who aren’t within their ‘span of control.’ Because many service processes involve more than one department or area, creating more effective and efficient ways to work will generally need to involve people and processes that aren’t in our immediate ‘span of control.’ Take, for instance, our insurance example. Creating a more efficient way to process customer endorsements so that they can all be done within the allotted time might require working with underwriters, underwriting assistants, the people who rate the policies, and those who print and mail the paper copies. It’s quite likely that some of those people are located in different departments or geographic areas. In this type of situation, the first thing I do is help the person I’m coaching see that just because something isn’t within their ‘span of control’ doesn’t mean that it’s not something that should be worked on! That thinking is simply a part of the long list of ‘I can’t’s.’ The second thing I do is help the person I’m coaching frame the problem in terms of negative impact for customers and for the organization. If a customer’s endorsement is late, what problem does it cause them? As a business, are we losing clients because of this problem? Is it negatively impacting our organizational goals? Since most people want customers to be happy and to actively help the organization progress, framing the problem in this way takes the ‘us and them,’ or span of control issue, out of the picture. Finally, I’ve also found, that in presenting the problem to areas that we need to work with, asking questions about the difficulties they are having and about how we can help them usually receives a positive response. Find a way to ‘go to see’ how the work in other areas is done, and then invite the people working in those areas to come see your part of the process. Not only will this help solve the problem, it will help create a stronger long-term ‘internal business partnership.’ For today’s suggested next step: Work with the person you’re coaching to determine what types of customer work could be leveled. How could that be made visual? What kind of checking process could there be?

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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Day 17 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of a ‘parts to whole’ relationship in your work.

In the space below, write a diary entry about a time when having an example limited your divergent thinking.

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session.What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 18: Standardized Work Part 1 Lean in Services I’ve heard a lot of talk and a lot of controversy about standards and standardizing work in services. “We’re not robots and we don’t want to be. Standardizing our work will make us lose our individuality.” And, “We don’t make widgets. What we do is too variable. There’s no way to standardize it.” So, today, we’re going to clear up some misconceptions and take ‘standardizing work in services’ off the long list of ‘I can’t’s.’ To do that, we need to consider: 1. The difference between standards and standard operating procedures; and, 2. What needs to be standardized in services . . . and what doesn’t! Let’s start by looking at the difference between standard operating procedures (SOPs) and the concept of ‘standards’ in Lean. Many of us are familiar with SOPs. They usually give us exact instructions about how to do a specific task, such as turn on your computer, or convert an excel file into a PDF. Follow the instructions, as they are given, and you will be able to accomplish the task. Convergent thinking at its best and most useful! The easiest way to understand how a standard, in Lean, differs from an SOP is to think about a standard as a target. As seen in Figure 18.1, a standard is the best way we currently know how to do the work most effectively (right the first time), and most efficiently (with the least amount of the three types of waste discussed in Chapter 14). For example, the standard for sending a client an invoice could be attaching a PDF to an email template and sending it to the client electronically. Target time for the invoice-sending process: one minute or less. Now, the reason I say that a standard is a target, is that in real life, sending an invoice to a client probably doesn’t always occur this way. Some service representatives might print out the invoice, re-scan, and then send the email. Or, some might print the 137

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invoice and a letter, and send both by regular mail! If we think of a standard as a target, when we find actual conditions that are ‘non-standard’ – like people printing and mailing paper invoices – then we’ve identified a gap! And, as we know, Lean, a gap between the target and the actual is the definition of a problem! The real beauty of understanding standards as targets is that once we’ve identified that there’s a gap, we can use our creativity and PDCA to move closer to the target. We can generate a long list of ‘I can’t’s’ to determine what obstacles people are having (don’t know how to convert an excel spreadsheet into a PDF, don’t have client’s email address, etc.) and then work to overcome each obstacle! As we constantly strive to work in a standard way (hit the target every time), we’ll identify and eliminate many different obstacles! Having standards, then, gives us a way to continuously create more effective and efficient ways to work! Now that we know the difference between SOPs and standards, and understand why having standards is so important, let’s explore what should be standardized in service processes. In services, the same work is often done by many different people. Think about a call center, hotel check-in process, or the invoice sending process that we talked about above. If every person completing the work does it in a totally different way, customers may experience peak service experiences . . . or they might not. So, the important thing in creating standards for a service process is to identify the specific parts of the process that are critical to making sure that customers get what they want, when they want, right the first time . . . and then standardize those specific parts. Another way to think about this is to ask the question, “What are the parts of this work that if not done in a standard way will result in a defect being created for the customer?” Standardizing those parts of the

Figure 18.1

A standard is a target!

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process will ensure that all customers get the best experience we currently know how to give them. I’ve also found that identifying and standardizing those critical parts of the process will make the process easier for the people who do the work. Because, often, the parts of the work that are complicated and most difficult for people to accomplish result in defects and delays for customers. Creating better, easier, standard ways to do those parts of the process will help make people’s work less burdensome and flow better and create better outcomes for customers. The second thing that should be standardized in service processes is the decision-making process. Because the work is often variable, and customers have different questions and requests, making sure that people have a standard way to make decisions is a must. We’ll explore this more tomorrow, in Chapter 19.

Creativity Another common complaint I hear about standards and standardizing work is that it stifles people’s creativity. I believe the opposite. Standards promote creativity. And here’s why. Think about a time that you started a new job. You sat down at your new desk, all excited and eager to get to work, and then . . . you realized that you didn’t know how to log into your email . . . what was your new user ID and password? Once you figured it out, you realized that it wasn’t as easy to send that email as you thought either . . . you had to look up the address of the person to send it to . . . and then where to file the email? You didn’t have any folders set up yet. Also, where on the intranet should you file the spreadsheet you started working on? What drive? What folder? By the end of the day, you probably felt a little frustrated, and exhausted too, from having to focus on every single ‘detail.’ Also, you probably got less work done than you planned and worked more slowly than you, your manager, and colleagues expected. That’s because you had to spend a lot of time, and what I call ‘brainspace,’ focused on the mechanics of getting things done. This happens to all of us. I’m sure you also found that as you got more accustomed to your new job and where everything was, all those details faded into the background, and you were able to do the actual work you were hired to do. And when that happened, what you got was time – and brainspace– back to focus on other things! Like how to create better ways to give customers what they want and do your work. So, as we see from the example above, having standards, and standard ways to do things, actually gives us the time – and energy – to be creative. Or, stated the opposite way, if there are no standards in place, we won’t have time – or brainspace – for creativity! We’ll simply be stuck figuring out, over and over again, how to get the mechanics of what we need to do, done. Helping people understand that standards don’t hinder creativity, they actually promote it . . . and then helping them learn how to create those standards is a one of the most beneficial things you, as a coach, can do for them.

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Coaching One of the things I’ve found that works well to help people I’m coaching cut through the ‘what part of a service process should/could be standardized’ confusion, is simply to have them go to gemba and ask the people who do the work the following three questions: 1. What part of this work is hard to do (makes people feel like banging their head on the desk or saying ‘arrgggghhhh’ every time they do it)? 2. Which part(s) of the work will create defects or delays for the customer if they’re not done in a certain way? 3. How many people are doing this work? Most of the time, the people who do the work are well aware of the parts that are difficult to do. And they’ve also probably already figured out that because those parts of the work are tricky, if not done correctly, they’ll generate a defect for customers. A great example of this is from a payroll company that I worked with. If you asked the customer services reps what part of the work made them feel like ‘banging their head on the desk, or saying “arrrrggggghhhh”,’ they’d all tell you the same two or three things. Things like remembering to confirm the check date that the customer wanted their payroll processed on, making sure tips were entered properly for restaurant employees, and changing direct deposit information. Standardizing those parts of the process, then, would be a great place to start because they’d both prevent errors for customers, and make the work easier for the people serving those customers. Asking how many people do a particular type of work is also an important clue to which process, or part of a process, should be standardized. Because, as we discussed in Lean Services today, when many people do the same work – especially when there are parts of the work that are difficult to do if there’s no standardized way to do the tricky bits, the likelihood for errors is multiplied. And, because human beings are human beings, unless there’s standards for the tricky parts, every person is going to try to find the easiest way for them to do the work . . . guaranteeing variable outcomes for customers. Helping the person you’re coaching get people started on standardizing parts of the process will let them – and the people who do the work – see for themselves that standardization can be very helpful in services! For today’s suggested next step: Have the person you’re coaching go to gemba and ask the three questions listed above.

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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Day 18 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of the difference between SOPs and ‘standards as targets’.

In the space below, write a diary entry about how you feel about standards. Do they limit creativity?

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session. What was challenging? What was fun? What did youlearn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 19: Standardized Work Part 2 Lean in Services Yesterday, we talked about the difference between SOPs and standards in Lean and about how to begin to determine which parts of service processes should be standardized. Today we’re going to take a look at another important area where standards are extremely important (and often overlooked) in services: the decision-making process. Because many service processes, like underwriting an insurance policy, processing a payroll, and answering questions in a call center are variable – customers don’t want exactly the same thing every single time – service representatives often have to make decisions about what to do . . . and how to do it! In fact, to create the value that each customer wants, in the moment, in the way each particular customer wants it, service representatives are called upon to make a huge number of decisions every single day. If they don’t have a standard decision-making process, the best they can do is make decisions based on their own personal preference of how to work with customers, knowledge, and skill level. And when this happens, the outcome for customers is extremely variable, and may not fit with the organization’s Vision of Service Excellence. I’m sure that many of you have experienced this as customers of a process. Maybe you’ve called a call center, gotten an answer from one service rep, needed some kind of clarification, called back, and got a totally different answer from someone else! If you’re not sure if this is happening to your company’s customers, then my suggestion is to go to the service gemba of your organization and ask a somewhat complicated customer service question. Listen to the customer service rep’s answer. Ask them to show you the steps they would go through to find the answer. Then go across the room and ask a few other service representatives the same question. Listen to their answers and have them walk through the steps they would go through to find it. Chances are, the answer you 145

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get from each person will be quite different. As will be the decision-making process used to get to that answer. That’s because the service representatives haven’t been given a standard decision-making process to follow! Each is making the decision based on their own way of thinking, knowledge, and experience. You can also check for this by listening to managers of service reps. If they often question, “Why did that person do that? What could they have been thinking?” you can be pretty sure that the decision-making process hasn’t been standardized. So, since customer needs are variable, and decisions are made in service reps’ heads, it’s critical that everyone is given a standard decision-making process, based on the organization’s Vision of Service Excellence, to follow, as a target. How would an organization do this? First of all, the organization needs to make sure that everyone knows the Vision of Service Excellence. Then, the organization needs to give people the standard steps, based on that Vision, of how to decide what to do. At KRC (Karyn Ross Consulting), my Vision of Service Excellence is to ‘Help People. Improve the World.’ Here’s my standard decision-making process: When someone asks me to do something . . . anything . . . the first thing I do is say that Vision in my head. Then I compare the request the person is making with my specific criteria for ‘Help people. Improve the world’: It creates real, personal connection; will create positive learning; doesn’t cause harm to people, animals, the environment. If the answer is obviously ‘yes,’ the request meets the criteria, then I respond to the person that I will do it. If the answer is obviously ‘no,’ then I respond to the person that I won’t do it and offer to find them someone else to help them. If I don’t have enough information to make the decision immediately, then the next step in KRC’s standard decision-making process is to book a telephone or video call in the next day or two to find out more specifics. In most organizations, people aren’t given specific criteria, or even standard steps to follow to make decisions. They’re left on their own to ‘figure it out.’ However, if we want customers to have a standard experience, and we want the people who work for us to make decisions based on our organization’s Vision of Service Excellence, we need to give them a standard decision-making process. That way everyone has a target to strive for when deciding how to respond to a customer’s request.

Creativity Identifying parts of service processes that can be standardized and deciding on the criteria and sequence of a standard decision-making process are all well and good, but how do we make those standards easily visible so everyone can see ‘target,’ ‘actual,’ and any gaps between them? Like adapting and adopting many of

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the other Lean principles we’ve covered in this book, making standards in service ‘visible’ simply takes a little creativity! One of the best ways to make standards visible is, instead of using words to list out the standard steps in a process, use pictures or symbols instead. Think about how different a visual with the standard steps would be from a paragraph or long, bullet-point list. Not sure what I mean, then take a look at Figure 19.1 below:

Figure 19.1

Long, bullet-point list . . . OR . . . pictures!

With the standard steps drawn out in flow and with pictures, it’s very easy for everyone to ‘see’ what should be happening, the target. And if the diagram is pinned up at someone’s desk, when the standard steps aren’t followed (let’s say a service representative gets up from their desk to pick up an invoice they’ve printed), both the service representative, and the manager, can easily ‘see’ from the pictures that there is a gap between the actual and the target. Then the manager can ask ‘why?’ . . . or, if the manager isn’t present at the moment the gap occurs, the service representative can write the reason down on the flow at the correct spot on the picture and hand it to the manager! Drawing out a picture of the standard decision-making steps is also extremely useful in helping service representatives and their managers ‘see’ where gaps to the target are. Take a look at Figure 19.2 below:

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Figure 19.2

Visual standard decision-making steps flow

A diagram like this can be used by the service representative to guide decisionmaking during an interaction with a customer. The diagram could also help their manager more easily ‘see’ a service rep’s decision-making process. The manager could hold the diagram and follow the sequence while watching and listening to a live service interaction or by asking the service rep to talk them through an already completed interaction. The most important thing to remember is, just like in manufacturing, in services, the purpose of making standards visible is to help everyone easily see the gap between the target (steps in the process and standard way the process should be done) and the actual (how it’s really being done). Although we’re used to long SOPs written in words, hidden away on the intranet or in manuals, once we apply a little creativity, we will be able to find many ways to ‘show’ standards visually instead!

Coaching As a coach, one of the most challenging things I help the people I’m coaching learn is that standards aren’t something simply to be ‘adhered’ to. They aren’t SOPs. They’re targets of the best way we currently know how to process the work and make decisions. And, like all targets, sometimes the people doing the work are going to hit them . . . and sometimes they’re going to miss them. And that’s the wonderful thing. Because, when people miss the target, and don’t process work – or make decisions – according to the current standard, we have the opportunity to ask ‘why’? And then listen, with open ears, open eyes, open minds, and an open heart, to the reason they give us. Because every reason – every ‘I can’t’ – is our opportunity to remove an obstacle and create a better way to do the work. And it’s also our opportunity to help people become better decision-makers, critical thinkers, and creative problem-solvers.

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In today’s Creativity section, we talked about creating diagrams and pictures to make standards visible. This is a great first step to coach to, but it’s simply the first step. The next steps, equally important, and often even harder to for people in services to understand, are: 1. Posting standards visibly where they can be seen by the people doing the work, and the people who manage them. 2. Having the people who manage the process ‘go see’ the work being done so that they can actively look for gaps . . . not as a reason to punish the people doing the work for not ‘adhering’ to the standards, but to surface – and then remove – all the ‘I can’ts’ that get in the way and prevent people from hitting the target. 3. Making sure that managers are ‘going to see’ to surface gaps on a regular and frequent basis, which, depending on the process could certainly mean hourly. As you can see, the emphasis on ‘checking on’ the standards by ‘going to see’ and ‘checking in’ with people, is on managers. That’s because the people who are doing the work are busy serving customers to the best of their abilities. In many service organizations, there’s the erroneous belief that ‘standard work’ is primarily for the people doing the work: to be used like an SOP for processes that aren’t done often, as a tool to train new people, or as a suggested ‘best practice’ for experienced employees. However, as a coach, it’s your job to teach people how to use standards to see gaps to targets so that better ways to work and serve customers can constantly be created. For today’s suggested next step: Help the person you’re coaching think about how to make gaps to standards visible to managers. For the process they’re working on, are the standards visible . . . and how often do managers need to ‘go see’ to look for those gaps?

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

Day 19: Standardized Work Part 2

Day 19 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of your standard decisionmaking process!

In the space below, write a diary entry about how your organization views standards. Are they for managers? Employees?Both?

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session.What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

Time to Practice

Day 20: Standardized Checking! Lean in Services Yesterday we talked about the importance of making work standards visible so that we can easily see ‘target,’ ‘actual,’ and any gaps between them. We also talked about the need to check those standards frequently (even hourly, if that’s what the process requires) so that when gaps to standard happen, we can ask ‘why,’ to surface and remove any ‘I can’t’s’ that get in the way of our ability to meet our customers’ needs. One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is “How long will we need to continue checking?” When I answer, “You’ll always need to,” people are quite shocked. “Shouldn’t the process just run itself after a while? Now that we’ve created standards, and made them visible, won’t it be obvious to people that this is what we expect them to do? Won’t it be a waste for us to continue checking?” To answer these questions, I ask them to think back to a time when they’ve gotten a great start on something they wanted to accomplish, like a change to healthier eating habits or an ongoing exercise routine. While they were getting started, they probably monitored progress pretty frequently, keeping a daily food journal and tracking weight changes on a weekly basis. At the end of the day, maybe they even checked in with a friend to compare notes and give and get encouragement. In the beginning, it was probably hard, but then they got into a routine of checking. At a certain point – what I call the ‘certainty point’– the point that people are certain they’ve developed a habit and there’s no need to continue such frequent checking – they stopped checking . . . and then, what happened? Slowly, over time, they probably reverted back to old behaviors. It happens to all of us, in personal and work processes. So, the simple answer to the question, “Shouldn’t the process run itself after a while? Won’t it be a waste to continue checking?” is NO. Processes are carried out 153

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by people, so frequent checking is always going to be needed. It simply needs to become part of the system, on a day-to-day, basis to: ‘Check in’ with people. ‘Checking in’ frequently to make sure that people are working in the standard ways that will give customers the best outcomes, ensures that gaps to standard are consistently identified. And frequently ‘checking in’ on people’s use of the standard decision-making process nurtures their creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities. That means they’re constantly improving their ability to move from ‘I can’t’ thinking to ‘Of course we can, let’s figure out how’! ‘Check on’ results of the work people are doing. As we’ve discussed throughout this book, today’s customers have high expectations. And they’re only getting higher. Frequently checking on whether the results of our work are giving customers what they want, when they want it, right the first time, is the best way to make sure that any problem that does occur is dealt with immediately, the cause is corrected, and other customers don’t experience it. And who should be doing the frequent checking? On process and results? Management. In many organizations I visit, although management may start out doing the checking, at some point, they decide that the team should be able to ‘check on’ themselves. Sometimes I hear the verbiage around this idea stated as, ‘People should hold themselves accountable.’ The problem with this is two-fold. First, the people who are doing the work are busy doing the work – serving customers – which is what they should be doing! If we ask them to spend time checking, it’s taking them away from the value-added work our customers need them to do. Second, as we discussed, as human beings, no matter how certain we are that we’re in a routine and working to the standard, it’s easy to get off track. Having our manager check makes sure that we’re working in the most effective and efficient ways and creating the exact outcomes customers want. So, now that we understand the importance of frequent checks by management, how can we make sure that all levels of management have an easy way to see gaps between ‘target’ and ‘actual’ in the different processes they are responsible for? That takes a little creativity!

Creativity In yesterday’s Creativity section, we focused on how to make gaps from the standard visible in work and decision-making at the service gemba level. Today, we’re going to focus on how to make gaps to targets visible at the leadership level. Just like the people doing the work to serve customers, leaders need to have visual ways to ‘see’ progress – and gaps – to targets over time. Michelle

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Jorgensen, dentist and owner of Total Care Dental in American Forks, Utah, is growing her dental practice into an overall Total Care System. She’s working on creating a Total Care Academy and Total Care Wellness Practice and adding team members to expand her Total Care Dental practice as well. In order to be able to teach others her system, she realized that she needed to have visual standards, which she and her team have named Methods. Each Total Care team member has been tasked with creating two Methods per week (target). After the first week, Michelle wasn’t sure how many had been created (actual), or who had completed their task of creating them. Some people had emailed the Methods to Michelle, some had printed them and left them on her desk, and others hadn’t completed theirs. There was no easy way for Michelle to ‘see’ if this important part of the new Total Care System was progressing in the time allotted. So, Michelle used her creativity, as you can see in Figure 20.1. She divided a visual board into four columns. The first column listed each team member’s name. In the second column, Michelle put two sticky notes – each with the name of a Method assigned to that team member that week. When the team member started to work on the Method, they moved the sticky note one column to the right. When the Method was complete, the team member moved the sticky note into the last column. Each day during the week, Michelle could see the movement of every team member’s sticky notes at a glance. If progress across the board wasn’t being made at a regular rate, Michelle could easily ‘see’ the gap – the empty column – and ask the team member about what was preventing them from working on their Methods. As you can imagine, like many leaders, Michelle is extremely busy. By creating this seemingly simple way to immediately ‘see’ gaps to target, Michelle was both

Figure 20.1

Michelle’s Methods board

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able to make sure the work was progressing and save herself a lot time figuring out which Methods were complete by the end of each week, and which ones weren’t. Oftentimes, leaders spend hours reading and analyzing complicated spreadsheets and long slide decks that make it difficult to ‘see’ gaps to targets. With a little creativity, though, they can create ways to ‘see’ target and actual in real time, at a glance, instead.

Coaching “Our managers and supervisors are very busy. How long will they need to continue to coach their teams for? How long will it take until people ‘get it’ and don’t need coaching anymore?” Like the questions I’m asked about ‘checking,’ people are usually surprised when I answer, “People are always going to need coaching.” Think back to our example in the Lean Services section about changing your diet or exercise routine. Chances are, at some point, feeling certain that the change had stuck, as well as checking on the results of your efforts less frequently, you probably also stopped checking in with your friends as regularly. And chances are, that was the point that old eating habits and exercise (or lack thereof) patterns started to creep back in. The same thing happens in work processes. Stop coaching, stop ‘checking in’ with people, and old ways of working – and then old ways of thinking – will start creeping in. As human beings, we need the ongoing help of other human beings both to stay on track and to challenge us and nurture us so that we can continue to learn and grow. The simple fact is, much as we would like there to be, there’s never any ‘certainty point.’ The world is constantly changing. Our work environment is constantly changing. People leave jobs and get promoted. New people take over existing positions and new people get hired into new positions. Customers have new requests and changing needs that we need to figure out how to fulfill. New technology is invented that we need to incorporate into the way we do our work and old technology, that we are used to, is retired. To help our people through these changes, we need to keep coaching. And, we also need to keep coaching because every person, no matter who they are, what role they have, or where they sit in the organization, always has the potential to become more than they already are, become more creative, become more skilled, and become more confident. Through coaching and learning-by-doing, people have the endless potential to appreciate in value and become more than they ever thought they could be. So, we’ll always need to keep ‘checking on’ results, and ‘checking in’ with people through coaching. For today’s suggested next step: Help the person you’re coaching think about what checks are necessary and who should be doing those checks. How can managers and leaders easily see gaps to targets at a glance?

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Daily Coaching Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Coaching Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Coaching Session Target:

Daily Coaching Session Notes

Homework for Next Session:

Coaching Session Actual:

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Day 20 Exercises In the space below, draw a picture of a visual system you could create to ‘see’ gaps to a target in your coaching.

In the space below, write a diary entry about how leaders you’ve worked with feel about frequent checking.

Day 20: Standardized Checking!

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Record the next step the person you are coaching is going to take here. What will they learn from that step and what do you expect to happen when they take the step?

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing today’s coaching session.What was challenging? What was fun? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Time to Practice

Day 21: Time to Reflect! Lean in Services I know it’s hard to believe, but today is the last of our twentyone days of ‘learning by doing.’ Congratulations and good job! You’ve had the excitement of beginning, worked through ‘the slog’ of maintaining the enthusiasm and the discipline to keep going, and learned, by doing, how to coach for creativity and service excellence. You’ve helped the person you’re coaching develop a Vision of Service Excellence, deeply understand what peak services means to each of their customers, set targets, understand the current state and see the gaps that need to be closed. You’ve also helped that person adapt and adopt Lean principles and practices such as visual management, flow, leveling, and standardized work, to their particular service organization and situation. Quite an accomplishment – and a lot of learning! I’m sure that some things went as planned and the results were what you expected. Other things probably turned out differently! Throughout the book, you and the person you’re coaching practiced reflecting on a daily basis. Today, as we come to the end of our twenty-one days together, we’re going to dive deeper into reflection and spend some extra time asking ourselves: What parts of the coaching process went well . . . for me and the person I’m coaching? Why?

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What could have gone better for each of us? Why?

What do I need to continue to work on? What does the person I’m coaching need to continue to work on? Why?

“But those are simply the questions that I asked myself at the end of every day. Why do I need to spend extra time reflecting on them again, now?” you might be saying to yourself. And, in a sense, that’s true. However, how honest were you with yourself each time you reflected? Did you really think about all the things that could have gone better . . . that you could have done better . . . spent more time and attention on? How deeply did you really reflect each day? Today, what I’d like you to do, in this final reflection, is take an even deeper look. Go back and re-read each of your completed reflections. (Didn’t do all of them? Don’t worry. Something to add to the list of things to continue to work on!) Be totally honest and write down your answers to each of the questions in the space above. Ask the person you’re coaching to do the same. Then spend some time with them comparing notes. Where are your reflections about the coaching process – what you’ve learned and the results of the project – line up Where do they differ? Is there a gap? Why? Then . . . make a plan for yourself . . . and the person you’re coaching . . . to keep going! Because twenty-one days isn’t the end! It’s just the start of a coaching for creativity and service excellence habit!

Creativity Here are some questions to help you and the person you’re coaching reflect on creativity: In what ways am I more creative now than I was before?

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How could I have pushed myself to practice my creativity more? Why didn’t I?

How could I have pushed the person I’m coaching to have been more creative? Why didn’t I?

What am I going to do to continue to practice my creativity?

Coaching And finally, some questions to help you and the person you’re coaching reflect specifically on the coaching process: Did we make as much progress solving the problem as we expected? Why?

What was harder about the coaching process than expected? Why?

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What was easier about the coaching process than expected? Why?

What did I learn about coaching from the past twenty-one days?

What did I learn about myself?

For today’s suggested next step: Give the person you’re coaching the questions from this workbook. Ask them to reflect on them and then schedule time for a joint reflection session.

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Reflection Session Preparation Vision of Service Excellence: Problem: Reflection Session Focus: Questions to Ask:

Things to Look For:

Reflection Session Target :

Reflection Session Notes

Next steps for me:

Next steps for the person I’m coaching:

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Day 21 Exercises In the space below, on the left side, draw a symbol describing who you are now. On the right side, draw one that represents what service excellence ‘looks like’ for you now!

In the space below, write a diary entry about the most important thing you’ve learned about yourself during the twenty-one days.

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Look back to your Day 1 definitions of Lean, creativity, and coaching. Write what’s changed, here:

In the space below, reflect on how you feel after completing your reflection sessions.What was challenging? What did you learn that will help you? What do you need to work on?

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Afterword Thank you! I’m going to wrap this book up the way that I started it. By thanking you. Thank you for all the effort and hard work you put into twenty-one days of learning by doing! Thank you for pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and into the uncomfortable learning zone. And staying there over the twenty-one days. That’s not easy to do! Thank you for ‘slogging’ through the all the parts that weren’t easy! It’s hard to force yourself to keep going! But it’s the only way to learn and make progress! Thank you for caring enough to help the person you were coaching learn how to put Lean principles into practice to make things better for their customers and the people who do the work. And finally, thank you for ‘helping people improve the world.’ Because when people learn how to use divergent thinking to solve problems and create better ways to work in the workplace, they take those skills home and apply them to problems that occur in their families and communities too. Your efforts and hard work benefit us all! Keep up the good work . . . and keep going! Karyn Ross

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Index Page numbers in italics refer to figures. 7 wastes, 106–107, 107 8th waste, 107, 107 A ‘And (what else)’ thinking, 26–27, 45, 45, 50 and drawing, 59, 91, 91 vs. ‘either/or’ thinking, 19–20 Assumptions, questioning, 98–100, 99 B ‘Big picture’ vs. ‘detail-oriented’ thinking, 123–124 C Calendars, 114, 116, 124 Call centers, 50, 58, 89, 114, 145 Challenge, 6, 44–45, 59, 68 Change, difficulties with, 14 ‘Check in,’, 52, 149, 154, 156 Checking, and standardization, 147, 148, 149, 153–156 Circular value stream, 33–34, 34, 35 Coach qualities, 14, See also Empathy; Listening skills Coaching and assumptions, 100 and challenge, 44–45 and compassion, 14 discipline in, 83–84, 92, 108 and empathy, 14, 116 face-to-face, 45 finding a coachee, 7–8 for getting started, 7

homework, 28 leveling own work, 116 listening skills, 68 next step planning, 35–37, 36, 44–45 and nurture, 52, 68 as ongoing, 156 preparation, 27, 28 progress checking, 52, 60, 84 questioning, 68, 76, 100 reflection, 27, 28, 52, 161–164 ‘the slog,’, 108 stamina, 92, 108 structure for, 20–21 Compassion, 14 Convergent thinking, 43 vs. divergent thinking, 35, 51 ‘Crazy’ ideas, 90–92 Creative Ideas Template, 90–91, 91, 92, 115 Creativity definitions, 12, 13, 13 (mis)conceptions about, 7, 12–13, 12 and ‘crazy’ ideas, 90–92 and creating peak service experience, 43–44 divergent thinking, See Divergent thinking drawing, See Drawing and ‘either/or’ vs. ‘and’ thinking, 19–20 importance of, 6–7, 13–14 and making thinking visible, 58–59 and standards, 138–139 synthesis, 50–52, 59, 91, 91 venues for, 91–92

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and visual boards, 130–131, 154–156, 155 ‘and (what else)’ thinking, 26–27, 50, 59, 91, 91 Current situation, 17, 19, 50, 51 diagram of, 65–66, 67, 68 going to see, See Going to see vs. targets, 68, 73–76, 74, 138 Vision of Service Excellence, 17–19, 18, 20, 51, 146 Customer wants/needs, 25–27, 49–50 asking the customer, 50 and information needs, 89–90, 106 peak service, 41–44, 42, 45, 45, 49–51, 52 unmet needs, 37, 37, 45, 45 Customers employees as, 43 as human beings, 25–26, 49 as suppliers, 33–34, 34 D Decision-making processes, standardizing, 138, 145–146 Defect, as waste, 107 ‘Detail-oriented’ vs. ‘big picture’ thinking, 123–124 Discipline, and coaching, 83–84, 92, 108 Divergent thinking, 34–35, 44, 45, 45, 50, 51–52, 91 vs. convergent thinking, 35, 51 and drawing, 59, 131 Drawing, 58–60, 59, 65–66, 67, 68, 107–108, 114–115 Creative Ideas Template, 90–91, 91, 92, 115 and indicators, 74–76 and standards, 146–148, 147, 148, 149, 154–156, 155 symbols and metaphors, 75–76 and synthesis, 59, 91, 91 value stream maps, 65–66 Drive-up services, 42–43, 51 E Effectiveness, 89, 138 Efficiency, 89, 137, 138, See also Waste

‘Either/or’ thinking, vs. ‘and’ thinking, 19–20 EKemp, 75 Empathy, 14, 116 Employees, as customers, 43 External leveling, 129–130, 131, 132 F Face-to-face coaching, importance of, 45 File cabinet organization of, 75 Flexibility, in lean, 49 Flow, 81–83, 82 eliminating waste, 105–107 minimizing interruptions/disruptions, 97–98 right-the-first-time, 34, 89–90, 106, 137 G Gap, between actual and target situation, 68, 73–76, 74, 138 Gift-wrapping services, 42–43, 51 Goals/targets breaking down the work, 121–123, 122 organizational, 50, 51, See also Mission/ vision, organizational Going to see, 57–58, 123, See also Current situation diagramming, 65–66, 67 with other organizational areas, 132 and standardization, 149 by supervisors, 98, 148, 149, 154 H Hassle-free experience, as desirable, 41, 42, 50 Hennig, Inc., 17–18 Huddle boards., See Visual boards Human beings, customers as, 25–26, 49, See also Customer wants/needs I ‘I can’ts,’ long list of, 5–6, 82–83, 91, 91, 138 Indicators, 73–76 Information needs, and right-the-first-time, 89–90, 106 Internal leveling, 121–123, 122

Index

Interruptions/disruptions, minimizing, 97–98 Inventory, as waste, 106 K Kaizen, 6 Key performance indicators (KPIs), 74, See also Lagging indicators; Leading indicators L Lagging indicators, 73–76 Leading indicators, 74–76 Lean, conceptualizing, 6 Leveling (Heijunka) defined, 113 for coaches, 116 external leveling, 129–130, 131, 132 internal leveling, 121–123, 122 patterns, 113–114, 115, 124, 129–130 Listening skills, 68 Luxury experience, 41–42, 42, 50 M Managers., See Supervisors Michigan Technological University, 76, 130–131 Mission/vision, organizational, 11, 50, 60, See also Goals/targets Motion, as waste, 106

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Overprocessing, as waste, 106 Overproduction, as waste, 107 P Patterns, 113–114, 115, 124, 129–130 PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) cycle, 36–37, 52, 60 Peak service model, 41–44, 42, 45, 45, 49–51, 52 Peaks and valleys., See Patterns Personal experience, as desirable, 42, 42, 50 Poor service experience and ‘I can’ts,’, 83 and lack of standardization, 145–146 and overburden, 106 reactivity to, 43 and switching providers, 6, 12 Proactivity, 44 Problem, in lean., See Gap, between actual and target situation Progress checking for coachees, 52, 60, 84 and standardization, 147, 148, 149, 153–156 Q Quality at the source, building in., See Right-the-first-time Questioning, 67–68 for ‘big picture’ vs. ‘detail-oriented’ thinkers, 123–124 challenging assumptions, 98–100, 99 open-ended questions, 67–68, 76

N National Taxi Limo, 81–82, 82 Negative thinking, patterns of, 115 ‘Nested’ time, and leveling, 121–123, 130 Next step planning, 35–37, 36, 44–45 Nurture, and coaching, 52, 68

R Reflection, 27, 28, 52, 161–164 Restaurants, 5 Right-the-first-time, 34, 89–90, 106, 137

O Observation, of current situation., See Going to see Ohno, Taichi, 6 Open-ended questions, 67–68, 76, See also Questioning Overburden (Muri), 106–107, 107

S Scheduling., See Leveling (Heijunka) external leveling Service excellence, as organizational purpose, 11–12, 17 Service excellence definitions, 7

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as organizational purpose, 11–12, 17–19, 18, 20, 51, 146 Smartphones, and synthesis, 50–51 Stamina, and coaching, 92, 108 Standard operating procedures (SOPs), 137, 149 Standardizing service processes, 138–140, 145–148 checking, 147, 148, 149, 153–156 visual tools, 146–148, 147, 148, 149, 154–156, 155 Standards, in lean, 137–138 as promoting creativity, 138–139 Supervisors checking in, 149, 154 doing ‘go see,’, 98, 148, 149, 154 Supplier, customer as, 33–34, 34 Switching economy, 6, 12 Synthesis, 50–52, 59, 91, 91 T Targets, in lean, 19, 49–50, 51, 52 vs. current situation (the gap), 68, 73–76, 74, 138 standards as, 137–138, 139, 147 work activity time targets, 122–123 Targets, organizational, 50, 51, See also Mission/vision, organizational Taxis, 81–82, 82

Thinking, making visible, 58–60, 59, 68, 108, 114–115, See also Drawing Time, ‘nested,’ and leveling, 121–123, 130 Total Care Dental, 155–156, 155 Toyoda, Sakichi, 6 Toyota, 49 Transportation, as waste, 106 U Unevenness (Mura), 105–106, 106–107, 107 V Value customer wants/needs, See Customer wants/needs defined, 25 ‘Value stream guardians,’, 76 Value stream maps, 65–66 Vision, organizational, 11, 50, 60, See also Goals/targets Vision of Service Excellence, 17–19, 18, 20, 51, 146 Visual boards, 75–76, 106, 113, 129, See also Drawing and creativity, 130–131, 154–156, 155 W Waiting, as waste, 106 Waste, 105–107, 107