There are five people and two dogs in my house. Only second to my yelling "turn off the lights," is the constant question, "Who fed the dogs?" I believe it might be the hardest and most elusive chore in the Cooper household. We all let the dogs out…but who fed them? The answer?

No one.

I bet you know why. It's because we are all in charge of feeding Coco (the Schnoodle) and Duke (the black Golden Doodle); therefore, guess who does it?

No one.

Time to take control and made an executive decision. We now have a three-week cycle where one of our kids owns feeding Duke and Coco breakfast and dinner for the entire week. They love it.

Well, the dogs love it because they consistently eat two meals each day. The kids not so much as the dog chore, includes "pooh patrol." It's like Paw Patrol (I can't say I miss this show), but where you go pick up all the poop in the backyard from the week. I guess it's not like Paw Patrol at all, but I digress.

So what's the point?

We had Scott Wozniak speak at our quarterly Advance Leadership Workshop on the topic of building a high-octane customer experience engine. Meaty content and lots of practical action steps. This was a four-pager of notes for me.

One of the topics he discussed was operational excellence. You can't build a customer experience until you have operational excellence. When you hear about his Chick-fil-A background this makes total sense. There is nothing worse than creating demand through solid marketing and sales to deliver terrible products and services to help kill your company.

Lever number two in creating operational excellence is to "put a leader on it." So simple and yet how often do we allow our company, a department, or executive team to own things where the dogs don't eat?

Culture. Safety. Brand. Fun. Great examples when everyone owns it, no one owns it.

Another option is to create a "special assignment" for a high-potential/rising star to own a project. How often are we looking for opportunities to give our teams a chance to shine with a rock or priority that needs some attention? Got to put a leader on it!

Where are their hungry dogs in your company? Where are their special projects whose metrics will move your needles?

Put a leader on it. Duke and Coco bark, "thank you!"