The Credit Professional Fall 2015 | Page 22

Continued from page 21 involvement is the key to understanding your customers. Your front-line employees want their interactions with the customers to be pleasant and add value. By involving them in the root cause analysis, they can share their perspective of interaction with the customer. We all want to be heard, even if our ideas cannot be adopted. The Lean Six Sigma methodology is important because the use of tools engages your employees in the processes that satisfy your customer. The tools are not something that just checks off a box. The tools are the way to have critical conversations and obtain the data that is needed to solve the problems in a safe environment that does not involve blame. When front-line employees see the open environment, they move from seeing their executives as managers to seeing them as leaders that they are willing to follow based on trust, not just the title. =