Applying "soft" skills is the hard part of a lean transformation. So we're dedicating two Learning Sessions at the 2011 Lean Transformation Summit (March 9-10, Dallas) to giving you practical tips on two critical and related soft skills: lean leadership and how to ask questions.

Lean Leadership
If you're trying to facilitate a permanent and positive lean transformation in your organization, you've  probably realized that kaizen events and isolated improvement projects won't get it done.

Sustainable change requires you to build a culture based on problem solving and continuous improvement. Join Toyota veteran and Shingo Award winner Mike Hoseus for "The Role of Leadership in Creating a Sustainable Lean Culture." You'll walk away understanding what you and your team will have to change in your current roles to create and sustain a lean cultures.

How to Lead by Asking Questions
In traditional management systems, leaders give solutions. But a lean culture is a culture of problem solvers. Giving people solutions takes away their opportunity to think through problems. It also takes away their ownership of problems and sustains the traditional focus on having solutions, rather than on understanding facts and the process of learning. Join experienced lean practitioners Margie Hagene and Kirk Paluska, a co-author of Mapping to See, for "How to Lead With Questions." You'll not only learn how to ask the right questions, but why asking supports the role of lean leaders.

Learn more about these Learning Session, early registration and team discounts, and the rest of the 2011 Lean Transformation Summit >