6.06.2011

Service Minded: Toyota Principle

This is part of a series highlighting the 12 Excellent Service Principles.



Toyota Principle
Enable and encourage problem solving right now.

Toyota adopted a new set of management principles (under the direction of management guru Peter Drucker) that set out to move away from their old controlling and rigid top-down structure and move closer to a true teamwork system. These changes created a culture of responsibility across all levels and gave each employee the autonomy to decide how to best reach a clear set of objectives. An example is a change on the production line that allowed anyone to stop the line immediately when they caught a mistake. The old way involved paperwork up and down the chain before any action could be taken. 

Are your people empowered to and enabled with the tools to serve your customers to the best of their ability? Do they feel like they can question processes and practices without retribution? Can they solve problems on their own or do they always have to "get permission"? When you enable and encourage problem solving in the moment not only do customers get served better, but your staff takes more ownership.

Up next: The Walking Billboard Principle - You are the brand...

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