Which of the following are characteristics of a Lean organization?

A Lean organization is fundamentally centered around delivering customer value while simultaneously minimizing waste. This principle aims to enhance efficiency by eliminating processes or activities that do not add value from the customer's perspective. By concentrating on customer value, Lean organizations strive to understand what customers truly need and focus resources and efforts on fulfilling those needs effectively. Waste reduction complements this goal as it identifies and removes any steps in processes that do not contribute to value creation, thereby improving overall efficiency and quality.

The other options do not align with the core principles of Lean. While customer service speed is important, it is not the primary focus of a Lean organization; instead, it could be a byproduct of the overall emphasis on value and waste reduction. Maximizing employee hours worked contradicts Lean principles, which advocate for optimizing resources, including human capital, for efficiency rather than sheer volume of work. Extensive regulatory compliance, while necessary for many organizations, does not inherently relate to the Lean methodology and focuses more on adherence to rules rather than optimizing processes for value and waste reduction.