Lean Hotels

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Lean in the service industries is a frequent topic in this blog.

The great hotel chains -- Ritz, Hyatt, Marriott, Westin, Disney and others -- are superb Lean companies.

Marriott's Twelve Guiding Principles of Leadership and Customer Service, for example, reads like a Lean manifesto:

1. Continually challenge your team to do better.
   


2. Take good care of your employees, and they’ll take good care of your customers, and the customers will come back.
   


3. Celebrate your people’s success, not your own.
   


4. Know what you’re good at and mine those competencies for all you’re worth.
   


5. Do it and do it now. Err on the side of taking action.
   


6. Communicate. Listen to your customers, associates and competitors.
   


7. See and be seen. Get out of your office, walk around, make yourself visible and accessible.
   


8. Success is in the details.
   


9. It’s more important to hire people with the right qualities than with specific experience.
   


10. Customer needs may vary, but their bias for quality never does.
    


11. Eliminate the cause of a mistake. Don’t just clean it up.
    


12. View every problem as an opportunity to grow.
    

Marriott's standard - our principles will be in the nightstand drawer of every Marriott room.

A few years ago, I was staying at the Sharm al Shaikh Marriott, at the bottom of the Sinai peninsula.

Being a natural pain, I decided to check Marriott's adherence to its standards, in this relatively remote hotel.

Sure enough, I found the principles were there were supposed to be.

The hotel manager smiled when I told him, and described Marriott's training & development processes.

Ritz, Hyatt, Westin, Disney & the rest all have corresponding principles & practices. Well done - and please continue!

Are there any other industries that could learn from Lean hotels?

Oh, I don't know, perhaps Health Care...?

Best regards,

Pascal

Pulling the Health Care Andon – Epilogue

By Pascal Dennis

In my Nov 16 blog I described the indignities my mom faced in a major downtown Toronto hospital. (Not forgetting to acknowledge all the good people we met who worked in this bad system.)

It was personal piece that triggered heartfelt commentary. “This could have happened in any American, British, Australian hospital…” was common refrain.

(Note: Canadians have to use the existing system. The Canadian Health Care Act essentially outlaws private medicine.)

I sent detailed, respectful letters highlighting process problems to senior leaders at the hospital and at the Ministry of Health.

I’ve received nothing back from the latter.

I finally heard back from the former. Here’s how the VP of Patient Affairs responded:

• Our hospital is just great


• We have no problems


• It’s all your fault (and your mom’s)

I’m paraphrasing, of course, but this was the core message – and reflects the nature of the challenge in health care.

How would a top shelf organization respond to honest customer feedback?

How would, say, Toyota, Marriott, Proctor & Gamble, Cleveland Clinic have handled it?

They’d thank the customer, no? Then a deep dive on root causes.

Let me once again recognize & commend all our health care friends and colleagues working to fix all these bad processes.

We have a great deal of work to do, no?

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Lean Hotels

By Pascal Dennis

Lean in the service industries is a frequent topic in this blog. The great hotel chains -- Ritz, Hyatt, Marriott, Westin, Disney and others -- are superb Lean companies.

Marriott's Twelve Guiding Principles of Leadership and Customer Service, for example, reads like a Lean manifesto:

1. Continually challenge your team to do better.
2. Take good care of your employees, and they’ll take good care of your customers, and the customers will come back.
3. Celebrate your people’s success, not your own.
4. Know what you’re good at and mine those competencies for all you’re worth.
5. Do it and do it now. Err on the side of taking action.
6. Communicate. Listen to your customers, associates and competitors.
7. See and be seen. Get out of your office, walk around, make yourself visible and accessible.
8. Success is in the details.
9. It’s more important to hire people with the right qualities than with specific experience.
10. Customer needs may vary, but their bias for quality never does.
11. Eliminate the cause of a mistake. Don’t just clean it up.
12. View every problem as an opportunity to grow.

Marriott has another standard: “Our principles will be in the nightstand drawer of every Marriott room.”

A few years ago, I was staying at the Sharm al Shaikh Marriott, at the bottom of the Sinai peninsula.

Being a trouble-maker, I decided to check Marriott's adherence to its standards, in this relatively remote hotel.

Sure enough, I found the principles were there were supposed to be.

The hotel manager smiled when I told him, and described Marriott's training & development processes.

Ritz, Hyatt, Westin, Disney & the rest all have corresponding principles & practices. Well done - and please continue!

Are there any other industries that could learn from Lean hotels?

Oh, I don't know, perhaps Health Care...?

Pascal Dennis Bio

Lean Hotels

By Pascal Dennis

Lean in the service industries is a frequent topic in this blog.

The great hotel chains -- Ritz, Hyatt, Marriott, Westin, Disney and others -- are superb Lean companies.

Marriott's Twelve Guiding Principles of Leadership and Customer Service, for example, reads like a Lean manifesto:

1. Continually challenge your team to do better.
   


2. Take good care of your employees, and they’ll take good care of your customers, and the customers will come back.
   


3. Celebrate your people’s success, not your own.
   


4. Know what you’re good at and mine those competencies for all you’re worth.
   


5. Do it and do it now. Err on the side of taking action.
   


6. Communicate. Listen to your customers, associates and competitors.
   


7. See and be seen. Get out of your office, walk around, make yourself visible and accessible.
   


8. Success is in the details.
   


9. It’s more important to hire people with the right qualities than with specific experience.
   


10. Customer needs may vary, but their bias for quality never does.
    


11. Eliminate the cause of a mistake. Don’t just clean it up.
    


12. View every problem as an opportunity to grow.
    

Marriott's standard - our principles will be in the nightstand drawer of every Marriott room.

A few years ago, I was staying at the Sharm al Shaikh Marriott, at the bottom of the Sinai peninsula.

Being a natural pain, I decided to check Marriott's adherence to its standards, in this relatively remote hotel.

Sure enough, I found the principles were there were supposed to be.

The hotel manager smiled when I told him, and described Marriott's training & development processes.

Ritz, Hyatt, Westin, Disney & the rest all have corresponding principles & practices. Well done - and please continue!

Are there any other industries that could learn from Lean hotels?

Oh, I don't know, perhaps Health Care...?