How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence

Combining Lean Principles and Creative Thinking to Deliver Peak Customer Experiences

What if the biggest barrier to service excellence is not process — but mindset?

In this engaging and practical webinar, Karyn Ross explores how coaching — not training — unlocks creativity and helps organizations move beyond “I can’t” thinking to deliver the peak service experiences customers expect today.

Drawing on her experience across multiple service industries and insights from The Toyota Way to Service Excellence, Karyn explains how Lean principles and creative thinking work together to produce sustainable results.

If you are working to elevate customer experience while strengthening Lean culture, this session offers a powerful and practical approach.

What You Will Learn

• What today’s customers truly expect from service organizations
• Why “I can’t” thinking is the biggest obstacle to service excellence
• What creativity really means — and why everyone has it
• The difference between solving problems and creating peak experiences
• Why training alone does not change behavior
• How 15-minute daily coaching sessions build creative capability
• How to combine creativity with Toyota Way Lean principles
• A real-world example of turning “impossible” into reality in four days

What Customers Really Want

Today’s customers expect:

• What they want, when they want it, right the first time
• Seamless, hassle-free processes
• Luxury-level experiences at practical prices
• Genuine human connection

Delivering on these expectations requires more than incremental improvement. It requires creativity supported by disciplined Lean thinking.

Why “I Can’t” Thinking Limits Service Excellence

Customers never want to hear “I can’t.”

Yet many organizations default to internal constraints — systems, policies, training gaps, or structural limitations.

Karyn challenges leaders and coaches to ask a different question:

If Uber can pay drivers daily, what is stopping us?

Often, the biggest barrier is not reality — it is mindset.

Coaching helps people rediscover their creative ability to combine existing knowledge and experience in new ways to generate better solutions.

Problem Solving vs. Creating Peak Services

Traditional continuous improvement often focuses on:

• Fixing problems
• Reducing defects
• Improving internal KPIs

While necessary, this approach can become internally focused.

Creating peak services requires:

• A long-term systems perspective
• Deep understanding of customer needs
• Alignment with organizational values and purpose
• Willingness to invent what customers may not yet know they need

Service excellence goes beyond eliminating defects. It means designing experiences.

Why Coaching Works Better Than Training

Training teaches people to respond the same way every time.

Coaching helps people think.

Karyn explains why changing behavior must come before changing mindset — and how small, daily coaching sessions create lasting transformation.

With 15-minute daily sessions, coaches can:

• Push coachees into the learning zone
• Encourage divergent thinking
• Challenge “I can’t” statements
• Build confidence through action
• Integrate Lean principles naturally into daily work

Over time, this builds creative confidence and Lean capability simultaneously.

Case Study: Turning “Impossible” Into Reality

Karyn shares the story of National Taxi Limo, a startup transportation company that believed paying drivers within 24 hours was impossible.

Through four days of structured coaching sessions, the team:

• Identified all “I can’t” barriers
• Generated alternative possibilities
• Applied Lean thinking to remove process waste
• Implemented daily payments successfully

What seemed impossible became reality — and strengthened the company’s service excellence vision.

Who Should Attend

This webinar is ideal for:

• Service leaders
• Customer experience professionals
• Continuous improvement practitioners
• Lean coaches
• Executives seeking stronger service differentiation

If your organization is striving to combine Lean discipline with creative innovation, this session provides a practical path forward.

About the Presenter:

Karen Ross is an experienced Lean consultant, coach, and practitioner. She is co-author (with Jeffrey Liker) of The Toyota Way to Service Excellence, winner of the Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award. Karen has worked across industries including insurance, finance, HR, transportation, and retail.

Hosted by Mark Graban, VP of Improvement and Innovation Services at KaiNexus and author of Lean Hospitals, Healthcare Kaizen, and The Mistakes That Make Us.