I recently traveled to Colorado with my family for a long ski weekend. On the trip home, we paid $110 to check four bags. And, despite having no connections, three of those four bags didn’t show up.

Have you experienced this, too?

It made me wonder:

• Is this airline at all concerned with customer value? After all, if I’m going to pay this much extra to check bags, shouldn’t they make sure I actually get my luggage?
• This is a tougher one … what do YOU do in your organization that’s similar to the way airlines manage luggage?

In my last post, I described the impact Lean practices can have for customer-centric organizations – including the one I lead. In a recent visit to one of my company’s regional offices, I heard from many energized employees who were excited about their ability to drive meaningful change through Lean practices.

These employees recognized that with the responsibility to drive change came additional transparency into process and performance. Issues and results are discussed at all levels. There’s transparency with Lean, as large whiteboards highlight performance on a daily basis – placed in areas where everyone can see the results.

The employees I talked with were also energized about this level of transparency. They weren’t intimidated by the transparency, they were motivated!

I learned one other important lesson: We must be willing to accept that we’ve done things wrong in the past – sometimes really wrong and for a really long time!

Do not let problems get lost, like my baggage, or ignore our issues like too many airlines do.

Instead, flip this thinking on its head and celebrate that you’re identifying and solving problems, rather than feeling bad about things in the past. Without transparency, you can’t see problems. If you’re unable to see your problems, you will not know where to make improvements to help your customers or your organization.

Problems can be like an unexpected gift. We should celebrate those problems and have the courage to bring them forward in a constructive way.