If you've been in health care for any length of time, you've certainly heard the term "lean management." While it has taken different forms and different connotations over the years, the trend toward lean is once again in the forefront. In our spotlight, guest authors Katharine Bird White, president and founder of Lighthouse Performance Strategies, Inc. (www.lighthousePSI.com), and William Taylor White, CEO of Healthcare Renaissance Consulting, explore this topic:.

At some point during each decade of our 30+ year careers, Lean Management has emerged as "the answer" to improve the overall quality of US business performance. However, despite a track record of success in some high-profile organizations, Lean has not been embraced by a majority of companies and remains ". . .an obscure topic in most undergraduate and graduate degree business programs."(1). Well, Lean has become "hot" once again, quite understandable given our nation's current economic downturn. Enhancing productivity and controlling expenses through the "relentless pursuit of perfect processes through waste elimination" has perhaps never been more necessary during our lifetimes, especially in healthcare (2).

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Think of your favorite bakery. Why do you buy from it? Maybe you can taste test or you're given a free cookie for every half dozen you buy. Or you're intrigued by the baker's proudly refusing to share the secret recipe for his mother's double espresso brownies. These motivate your weekly pilgrimage to the bakery and keep you recommending it to family and friends.

So, what makes your organization unique among its competitors? Your first inclination may be to note your products, experience, or number of locations. But it takes a lot more to be unique in today's marketplace. Technology, price, and comparable products are closing the gap, making all things equal in the eye of the consumer. If you want to appeal to consumers, you must clearly define and differentiate your organization.

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It's easy to get excited about customer service efforts. After all, customer service is something, intuitively, that we all strive to do. Have you ever heard anyone argue that they shouldn't deliver great customer service? Yet, too often, it remains a rarity.

When you think about the stories that you hear among your colleagues and friends, think about what they all are talking about. Is it about the wonderful service they just had, or about the awful service experience that they just had? If they're like most people, it's the latter.

If companies would only follow a few key tenets, customer service wouldn't have to be so hard. In fact, it could be more of a way of life for those with whom we do business. There are 10 simple things that an organization can do to create and sustain a service culture. The easy part is agreeing to them—the hardest part is actually living them.

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