Newsletter article – Vegas Golden Knights

Today at my son’s elementary school it is “Vegas Golden Knights Day”. There is no doubt this NHL expansion team has had a major impact on the greater Las Vegas community. However, most people reading this have not enjoyed the entire VGK game experience.

The VGK game experience begins outside with cheerleaders, drummers, mascots, and an entire pre-game assortment of videos and skating Knights. My 10 year old son, 78 year old father and (data masked) year old wife all tremendously enjoy the experience. It isn’t luck that the VGKs have an awesome game experience, they did a bench-marking event.

What most people don’t know is prior to the team forming executives and other VGK leaders visited every NHL stadium and took notes of the best pre-game and in-game experiences, what worked and what didn’t. Then took the best of the best and developed what is arguably the most enjoyable hockey experience…the benchmark!

For the Green and Black Belts out there this is a perfect example of a bench-marking event. It is important to highlight the goal when bench-marking is NOT to improve, it is to become the best…become the new benchmark. I’ve been to a number of hockey games around the country and nothing compares to the magnificence of a VGK game. The fact that my 10 year old is on the edge of seat and paying attention for 2.5 hours is phenomenal, I can’t keep him interested in a baseball game past the 2nd inning.

There are lots of great examples of bench-marking and the VGK game experience is one of them. As Lean Six Sigma practitioners we can use bench-marking events to drive organizations to achieve stellar results.

Looking forward to next season.

Go Knights, Go!