EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK - These are the opening paragraphs of Chapter 1 of the new Lean Global Network book on applying Lean Thinking in a resort hotel.

Words: Oriol Cuatrecasas, Roberto Priolo, Lalis Fontcuberta and Cristina Fontcuberta

The engines rumbled as the plane rose gently into the air. Alex loved a window seat. Although everyone told him it's always better to sit on the aisle because you get off the plane sooner, Alex saw those few extra seconds of waiting time as a very modest price for the view a window seat offered.

On that clear and crisp morning in mid-January, the view from above seemed to have a stronger meaning than usual. As Alex, his head pressed against the window, watched Barcelona grow smaller and smaller on the horizon, he reflected that he wasn't sure when he would return. He would return regularly to see his children - Nina and Bruno, ages 21 and 19, respectively - but he knew he would probably no longer call Barcelona his home.

The decision to leave had been made so quickly that only now did he realize the magnitude of the change he was making. But as much as he would miss Nina and Bruno, he knew he was doing the right thing. Since his divorce a few months earlier, he had felt that a change was in order - no matter how scary it seemed now that the plane was flying along the Spanish coast to the Canary Islands.

Most people find change scary. Some even find it frightening. Alex was normally very open to it - in fact, he never thought it was anything to be afraid of. But this time things seemed different, and the fact that he had just left his children, his job and his whole life behind to settle in Tenerife at the age of 51 seemed pretty reckless. Or downright insane, if you took into account the fact that he would be living near his parents. These thoughts kept haunting Alex's head and making him increasingly nervous. But being the rational person he is, he managed to calm himself by thinking about the dinner he had had with his children the night before. Nina and Bruno had handled the divorce surprisingly well (in many ways better than he had), but it wasn't until that last dinner before his move that Alex realized how much they were behind his choice.

"You have to go, Dad. You look so happy since Uncle Antonio called. You look like a new person," Nina said to him at one point. He was so proud of the young woman she had become and was very moved by her words. Bruno was a little more indirect in his answer, but somehow just as understanding. "Does that mean I can spend the summer with you in Tenerife? I've heard the surfing is great there," he asked with a grin.

Had his brother's phone call been a godsend? Perhaps it was. His job at Hospital Mediterrania, of which he had always been proud, was beginning to bore him and he felt increasingly restless. "Maybe I need a change, a new challenge," he had said to his colleague and friend Rosa a few days before his brother called. Alex took that phone call as a sign.

Antonio, who was eight years younger than him, ran a large 400-room hotel near Tenerife's world-famous Playa de las Americas. His wife Olga had inherited it from her grandmother a few decades earlier. Alex knew the hotel had not been doing well for some time, but Antonio sounded more concerned than usual when he called in early December. His fourth General Manager in six years had just left and he didn't know what to do.

Alex knew his brother would only turn to him when the situation became desperate enough to convince him to swallow his pride. Something really had to have gone wrong with the hotel. Alex could hardly believe that, because he had fond memories of that place - cocktails by the pool, great service, delicious food - even though he hadn't been there in years. When Antonio contacted him, Alex thought he could help the ailing business by using the knowledge he'd gained when he'd worked in health care for nearly two decades on Lean transformations.

In his experience, Lean - an alternative approach to management inspired by the culture and practices of the Japanese automaker Toyota - was an incredibly powerful driver of change. At Hospital Mediterrania, where he stayed for more than a decade, he and his team were able to streamline and then completely overhaul their internal processes. The result was that teams became more empowered, the quality of care improved (it was awarded many prizes), and the organization began a path of continuous improvement.

Lean had made the hospital a model organization, and Alex did not see why a hotel would be any different. When he told Antonio, his brother replied, "Of course it's the same! Why do you think I'm calling? I know you can help. And don't you think it's time you put that fancy MBA of yours to good use?"

Backhanded compliments were Antonio's specialty, and most of their conversations revolved around this kind of brotherly banter. But this time things seemed far too serious for jokes.

"You know, Antonio, between the divorce and everything else, I feel like I need a little change," Alex had told his brother over the phone, implicitly accepting his offer to become the hotel's new General Manager.

"Well, that's settled then. Leave the cold and join us in the sun!"

'Unbelievable,' Alex thought. 'There's no bad situation that can keep Antonio from making jokes.'

"Cold! I live in Barcelona, Toni, not Norway!"

"You know what I mean," Antonio said chuckling, before finally getting serious and saying, "We could really use your help."

Watching the barren, lunar landscape of the island from his cab, Alex was glad to be home again. He had always loved the contrast between the light brown of Tenerife's mountains and the dark blue of the Atlantic Ocean. He wasn't sure how he would like being back, but right now it was exciting. He was especially glad that he had not told anyone in the family that he was coming so early. They were all expecting him on Monday. The memories of his parents' visit to Barcelona before Christmas were still too fresh in his mind, and he wasn't sure he would have survived an entire weekend of his mother telling him he was too skinny and clearly not eating enough, and his father yelling at her for not leaving him alone. Even Antonio was away for a few days, visiting his daughter in Gran Canaria. 'I will have the most relaxed weekend,' Alex thought as the cab reached the sprawling community developing around Playa de las Americas.

But it wasn't just going to be cocktails by the pool and sunbathing. Alex also planned to use the weekend without family members or distractions to get an idea of the situation at the hotel. He had always believed that Lean begins with observation: he did not want Antonio to start offering so-called "solutions" to problems he did not yet fully understand. He did not want people to jump to conclusions about the reasons behind the hotel's poor performance. He wanted a chance to see for himself, without the noise that people often produce when they are too emotionally close to a situation. He knew that he, too, would soon become attached to the hotel (as with any project he took on), so he wanted his first impressions to be at least as close as possible to those of a regular customer. Not to mention the special treatment he was sure to receive when people knew the new boss had arrived!

Alex decided to begin his investigation into the current state of the hotel by spending a weekend there incognito. For a few days, he would not tell anyone who he was. He just wanted to be a guest, and as long as the receptionist didn't recognize his last name (if the people who worked at the hotel even knew who his brother Antonio was), he would be fine.

Entering the lobby of the hotel, Alex realized that it would be some time before he would find out whether his plan to remain anonymous would work. There was a huge line in front of the front desk, almost all the way to the revolving doors at the entrance, and judging by the irritated faces of many guests, the wait to check in would not be short either. There were as many as 12 people in line and two receptionists manned the counter: the girls looked very stressed and barely made eye contact with the guests. Alex looked at the street and saw the cause of the congestion: a large bus that was breaking out a seemingly endless number of tourists. Ten minutes later, with the line only four people shorter, Alex began to listen to the conversations his fellow visitors were having. Most seemed to be British, and given the terrible snowstorm that had just hit the United Kingdom, Alex was not surprised that they were eager to drop off their bags and head for the pool.

"This is ridiculous," an older man behind him hissed to his wife.

"I know, dear. It seems to get worse here every year," she replied, before theatrically flipping open her fan and waving it in front of her face.

Another couple seemed to be in the middle of a discussion. "I told you it would be a mistake to come here. This hotel is not what it used to be," the wife barked to her husband, not worrying too much about any bystanders who could overhear their conversation.

"Come on, Sally! It's only been a few minutes," the man replied.

"This is exactly the same as last year, remember? It took us more than 20 minutes to check in. You don't want to experience that after a five-hour flight from Bristol," she continued.

Determined to calm her down, the man smiled and said, "The poor girls are doing their best. These things happen everywhere." A few minutes later, however, he gave up and left his wife in line to sit down and give his tired legs a break.

Alex thought it was very unfair to make customers wait in line for so long, especially when the majority of them were older people who were surely exhausted from their travels. He immediately made a note in his notebook - "Slow check-in."

Twenty minutes after walking into the hotel, Alex finally reached the front desk. The girls looked exhausted, nervously asking each other questions and struggling to keep up with work. Alex casually turned around and noticed that the line was even longer than before. Seen from there, the rhythmic waving of the fans used by three or four women in line resembled the waving of metronomes, which certainly added to the pressure felt by the receptionists.

"Good afternoon, sir. Welcome to Hotel Taknara," one of them said, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Hello there. Thank you! I have a reservation for two nights. The last name is Chines," he said with a smile, handing over his ID.

As he suspected, the girl didn't look twice at his last name. "Ah, yes. Please. A room with a sea view for two nights, correct?"

"That's it."

"I'm very sorry, sir, but the room is not ready yet. We have a lot of people coming and going today, and we're a little late," she said apologetically. "It shouldn't take more than an hour. I'm very sorry."

Alex looked at the clock behind the desk. It was 2:40 p.m., which meant that the room would be ready almost an hour after the announced check-in time. Although he found this completely unacceptable, Alex did his best not to show his annoyance. He told the receptionist he didn't want to do the whole line again, and she told him to just get to the front. "I have everything set up here," she assured. "May I suggest you wait by the pool? Here's a towel for you."

Somewhat unconvinced, Alex shoved his luggage to the side of the counter, fumbling in it for a few minutes until he could fish out his swim trunks. He handed the suitcase to the receptionist and walked to the restroom to change. He would have liked to have showered, but he didn't want to make a fuss. A few minutes later he emerged from one of the restroom stalls, all his belongings and clothes crammed into a backpack so full it was about to explode. He clumsily made his way down the hall, trying to ignore the squeaking sound his slippers made with each step and the faces of the guests still in line that betrayed a mixture of amusement and envy. He sighed and walked down the stairs to the pool. A dip and a little sun would surely make up for the terrible check-in experience, he thought.

But the universe seemed to have other plans for him. As soon as he stepped outside, he was surrounded by more people than he thought could fit on the entire island of Tenerife. Children were running and screaming everywhere, a group of women at a bachelor party for seniors were talking and laughing loudly (the several empty cocktail glasses were a hint) and, what was worse, there didn't seem to be a free sunbed in sight. At first it seemed like there were plenty of sunbeds available around the pool. However, upon closer inspection, Alex realized that the chairs that were not occupied by guests had a towel thrown or spread out to prevent other people from grabbing them. This is a common problem in hotels: people "reserve" their spot in the sun by strategically placing their towels on the best sunbeds and often disappear for hours.

Alex scanned the entire pool until, among the hordes of oily sunbathing guests, he spotted a free lounger. It was about 30 meters away from him, halfway down the length of the pool. He walked determinedly down the narrow path of sunbeds and almost fell into the water when a child bumped into him out of nowhere. He smiled through clenched teeth and refocused his gaze. Then he noticed a man standing in front of him about 10 meters away. He was wearing a pair of sandals that were a size too big, a polo shirt that was a size too small, blue shorts, a straw hat and what looked like a third-degree sunburn. He clearly had his eye on the same prized sunburn. The two stood completely still and looked at each other in a scene that resembled the seconds leading up to a cowboy duel in a Western movie. After a few seconds, Alex sighed and stood up, smiling at what was now one of his own customers. The man smiled back at him.

Alex walked to the pool bar and sat down at the bar, hoping that a magnanimous pool boy would remove the towels that were illegally lying on beds. Meanwhile, he thought to order an ice-cold beer. Needless to say, there were many people sitting at the bar waiting to be served, and the faces of two bartenders reminded Alex of those of the receptionists - they had the same frustrated and tired expression. After 10 minutes, it was finally his turn.

"Sorry for the wait. There are too few of us today," said one of the bartenders to Alex, who felt that two people manning such a small bar seemed like a reasonable number.

"I notice that," he replied chuckling. "You seem to have a lot of work."

"Tell me about it!" said the bartender, with the first smile Alex had seen on his face. "What would you like to drink?"

"A beer, please."

Sipping his drink, Alex began to look around. The hotel was just as beautiful as he remembered. The U-shaped building surrounded a huge pool with cabanas and palm trees. All the rooms inside overlooked the pool and had their own little balconies. Despite the wait to check in and the crowded pool area, Alex couldn't help wondering how things couldn't go well in such a beautiful hotel.

An hour later, he finally stepped into his room. He desperately wanted to shower and relax on the balcony. Maybe even take a siesta before dinner. The room was spacious and cozy, despite the somewhat old furniture and dilapidated decor. After a much-needed shower, Alex lay down on the bed. He wanted to sleep for a few hours before going downstairs to eat. He heard the faint sound of children playing by the pool, which took him on a pleasant walk down memory lane (in fact, he was pretty sure he and his ex-wife had brought Bruno and Nina to the hotel when they were little).

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