A while back, I was working with our customer experience team – they were in the weeds. Response times were going the wrong way probably because the team was working with a new software rollout which was creating more tickets than usual. Energy was flowing the wrong way. One morning, I walked into the office with a stack of sticky notes and stuck a big piece of poster board on the breakroom wall. At the top, I wrote:
“What does ‘winning the national championship look like this week?”
Then I wrote two categories underneath:
- Just do it
- Let’s talk first
I didn’t send an email. I didn’t make it an official proclamation. I just mentioned it in our morning meeting: “If you’ve got an idea to make things better this week—try something new, fix a process, surprise a customer, make the work smoother—drop it on the board. If it fits the ‘Just do it’ lane, go for it and lets us know what you learned. If you’re not sure, drop it in the ‘Let’s talk’ lane, and we’ll figure it out together.”
By lunch, there were sticky notes all over the board.
- “Call customers before they follow up—proactively close open loops.”
- “Create a one-pager cheat sheet for the new ticket tags.”
- “Send a thank-you gif when we resolve something complicated.”
One rep baked cookies and left them in the lobby for our regular walk-in client, just to brighten their day. Another created a simple process automation that cut time from every ticket. No one asked them to do it—they just did it because they could. By Friday, we had reversed the declining response time trend. People were getting after it – and high fiving. It wasn’t about the sticky notes. It was about creating space where people knew they could act—where initiative wasn’t just allowed, it was expected. And maybe most importantly, it reminded me that leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about giving focus, priority, setting a high bar, and inviting your team to surprise you. They will.