Seventy percent of all large-scale organizational change initiatives fail, and 60% of continuous improvement projects fail to sustain results. This is what the research shows, but most of us know it already because we’ve lived through the failures at various organizations.

This interactive, hands-on workshop provides methods and tools to beat those odds and create change that sustains, using lessons learned from successfully implementing change at two Fortune 200 companies. The session also will address large-scale, companywide initiatives as well as sustaining change within smaller, project-based activities. You’ll analyze a real-life example that illustrates how company-wide continuous improvement project sustainment improved from less than 10% to over 90% after six months by utilizing these methods and tools.

You’ll learn:

• How to identify and clearly understand key challenges to sustaining change within your organization.
• How to define the strategic speed at which your organization moves in order to deliver value.
• How to take the first steps in understanding the key tools, training, and processes needed to embed sustainment into large-scale and project-based initiatives.
• What to do to sustain change by actually using in hands-on activities a how-to playbook of change with step-by-step instructions.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Apply the A3 process to facilitating a learner’s personal development
2. Compare and contrast the A3 process used for personal development with the A3 process used in non-personal applications
3. Identify key components of a coaching engagement and essential Lean coaching skills
4. Identify personal habits, both strengths and limitations, that can be developed and/or improved upon by using A3 thinking for personal development 

Upon hearing the word “A3,” many people picture a document describing organizational problems such as bottlenecks on the production line, gaps in quality measures, or a plan to close gaps to a business challenge. But the A3 thinking process can be used in a much more personal way.

To solve our business problems and achieve organizational transformation, we also look inward and recognize that we too are a condition that requires improvement.

By using the structured framework of the A3 process and with the guidance of a coach, learners can more deeply understand the impact of their current leadership behaviors and create a plan for their own personal development. Applying A3 thinking to one’s personal development can help accelerate the creation of better leadership habits by identifying gaps in skills and putting a plan in place for getting a little bit better every day.

This workshop will take participants through a unique version of the A3 thinking process, modified to facilitate and foster personal development. We will also discuss key coaching and leadership skills that support developing others as problem solvers, and tips for how to use the personal A3 framework to anchor ongoing coaching relationship. Coaches and leaders with personal-development responsibilities are strongly encouraged to attend, as a main focus of this course will be on guiding and coaching others through this process.

In this workshop, you will learn how to facilitate your learner’s discovery of their own improvement opportunities and create a plan for improvement by coaching them through the flow of a personal improvement A3, including:

• Background and Current State
• Use humble inquire to support the learner to understand their current state and offer factual observations
• Problem Statement and Target/Goals
• Help the learner articulate their personal habits that require improvement define their desired future state with metrics
• Analysis
• Support the learner to uncover the reasons for the gap between their current actions and target state through root cause analysis and
• Proposed Countermeasures, Planned Next Steps and Practice
• Coach the learner to determine experiments and countermeasures of how they will practice and improve and determie the how the coach can support the learner’s creation of new habits and ongoing reflection.

Participants should come in with advance experience writing and or coaching A3 thinking. Basic understanding will make the class more meaningful.

A simple, effective management system for digging out of work -- and staying dug out -- to achieve higher quality, better productivity, greater job satisfaction, and peace of mind.

Feeling buried?

If you’re anyone who manages, analyzes, organizes, codes, crunches, designs, plans, markets, coaches, etc., etc. -- you are buried in work.

And you’re sinking deeper daily.

You can’t see knowledge work. While you and your co-workers can see widgets on an assembly line, customers in a queue, or patients overflowing a waiting room, knowledge work is mostly invisible. 

Your work-in-process (WIP) grows. Before you know it, you’re overloaded. You can’t think deeply about what you’re doing, let alone find enough time for continuous improvement. 

Productivity slows. Mistakes and defects grow. Morale and job satisfaction decline.

What can you do? How can you get control?

Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry, Lean work flow experts and authors of the Shingo Award-winning book Personal Kanban: Mapping Work, Navigating Life, have successfully applied lean management principles to knowledge work for individuals, teams, and companies. In this workshop, they’ll show you a practical and proven system that makes knowledge work visible, calms disruptive variations in workloads, and converts mountain of WIP into an actionable, manageable flow of work.

Personal Kanban is easy to implement and provides immediate results for work flow, continuous improvement, and office communication.

What You Will Learn 

• Understand and implement a system that makes knowledge work visible and tames overloads so you get more done and actually enjoy work more.
• Explore how limiting WIP allows you to complete what you start, leading to greater productivity and better quality.
• Prove your value to executives by maximizing the quality and volume of your work and your team’s.
• Learn how to schedule the right work at the right time.
• Discover how to apply lean concepts to individual and team knowledge work.
• Know how to take on only the work you have the capacity to do so you know what you can promise to do – and what you can justifiably say “no” to.
• Recognize how to “pull” in new work when a job is completed.
• Improve the way you work and make decisions.
• Replace Guesstimates with accurate forecasts
• Manage projects in real time by understanding what you are doing and what you are learning
• Have more time for balance in your personal, professional, and social lives.

Who Will Be There

Professionals from manufacturing, service, government or healthcare industries who develop or manage the development and use of knowledge.

One of the core skills of lean practitioners at any level is an ability to apply - in a disciplined way - the scientific method of PDCA (plan-do-check-act) in order to solve organizational problems that affect the value-creating process. The reason we refer to the PDCA process as "scientific" is that it requires an in-depth understanding of the root causes of every problem which can only be achieved through direct observation of work processes and fact-based information that comes from people who work in these processes.

So let's stop analyzing numerous bits of data on our computer screens. Let's put on hold heated discussions about the best way to solve a problem that we've been having in a conference room for hours. Instead, let's go to the gemba and SEE what is going on there

Outline for the Program:

• First, let's take a walk and talk about what we see. Gemba walk followed by a debrief
• What is the purpose of a gemba walk? Why take a walk? What do we hope to accomplish?
• What is the process of a gemba walk? How do we take a walk? What are we looking for and why?
• What are the people issues associated with a gemba walk? What does respect for people really mean? Understanding and managing our impact.

Basic Leadership/Management behavior and principles:

• Go See, Ask Why, Show Respect - What these things really mean and how they factor into a gemba walk
• Looking at and understanding process rather than just looking at results
• Management as science and discipline rather than art
• Develop a plan for our second gemba walk. Let's take another gemba walk and talk about what we see
• Debrief on differences between our first and second walk
• Lean leadership behaviors and methods
• Modern versus Lean management. Thinking about our management systems and how they drive behavior, thinking and business results
• What is the "work" and the added value of management?
• Processes and tools/methods to accomplish the value-added of management
• Understanding the "right" tool at the right level in the organization
• Summary and Q&A

Who should attend:
Managers and executives who are responsible for value-creating or support processes in their organizations. Continuous improvement professionals who work with leaders and managers helping them move from conventional to lean management. It's highly desirable that operations and CI leaders team up to attend this workshop so they can continue supporting each other in their gemba walks once they return to their organizations.

Improvement Kata is a brilliantly innovative management system that provides the means to achieve two equally important objectives:

• A methodology to achieve challenging objectives that are currently beyond a team's ability to reach, and…
• Developing managers and leaders as coaches for creating a culture of continuous improvement, adaption, and innovation. This is done through simple, easy-to-teach, time-efficient, daily routines.

Based on Mike Rother's award winning book, Toyota Kata, this 1-Day course provides a unique mix of theory and a hefty dose of hands-on practice. This intensive course provides a deep dive into two fundamental behavior patterns at the core of the Improvement Kata methodology:

• The 5-Question Coaching Dialog, and
• Rapid PDCA Cycles.

Attendees gain direct insight into the power of these methods through repeated personal practice. At the heart of the training experience is a challenge that requires a high level of ingenuity and continuous improvement, on the spot, real time. Small teams work together striving to achieve ever higher levels of performance using the Improvement Kata methods, thereby gaining familiarity with those methods.

Objectives:

• Provide an introduction to the core routines, mindset, and behavioral practices of Toyota Kata.
• Allow participants to experience the core routines of the Improvement Kata through interactive exercises
• Examine / explore how Improvement Kata is different from other management systems
• Understand how leaders and managers can create a lasting culture of continuous improvement 
  through simple, easy-to-use, time efficient daily routines
• Develop familiarity and a budding sense of confidence with two essential Improvement Kata methods: the 5-Question Coaching Dialog and Rapid PDCA Cycles.

Who should attend:

Senior managers, leaders and managers from all industries and businesses that have been implementing lean and/or interested in creating a sustainable culture of continuous improvement through use of the cutting-edge management methodology of Improvement Kata.

The Kaizen Teian or Kaizen methodology promotes the sustainable continuous improvement as a daily way of life for every member within the organization. It supports the flow, implementation and recognition of improvement proposals made by all collaborators.

It provides a structure to channel the opportunities for improvement detected by any employee and convert them into realized changes that have a positive impact in the way people perform and perceive their work.

Kaizen requires a formalized structure within the Organization, where collaborator’s proposals are evaluated, implemented, reviewed and recognized according to their alignment to the company’s declared objectives for continuous improvement. The recognition system also helps motivate collaborators to participate, either individually or through team work, in the proposal and implementation of their improvement ideas.

Benefits:

The benefits of Kaizen include the participation of all collaborators in improving and transforming (evolving) the organization in small, every day, incremental steps that do not lose effectiveness over time.

Besides the tangible benefits, Kaizen is regarded as a most effective technique to improve engagement and culture within a company.

Course Outline:

This workshop is based on a “hear-see-do” approach, so you'll learn the key concepts through instruction, discussion, simulation, and small-group exercise. The topics covered are:

• Kaizen: Toyota’s original concept
• How Kaizen fits in the TPS house
• Why use Kaizen in your organization
• Examples of Kaizen from around the world
• How to start a Kaizen culture
• What are the steps for preparing the organization
• Structural requirements for implementation: training, forms, evaluation, steering board, guidelines.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

• Understand the fundamentals of Kaizen and its importance as a central aspect of a lean system
• Document Kaizen improvement
• Judge improvement proposals according to their compliance to the Kaizen requisites
• Commence a plan for the introduction of Kaizen in your organization

A key element of effective lean leadership that is often misunderstood is what it means to lead with respect. As introduced in the book, Lead with Respect: A Novel of Lean Practice, by Michael and Freddy Ballé, leading with respect involves awareness of our focus and intention, and how well we are connecting with people to create an environment of mutual trust and sustained high levels of performance. This is accomplished through the application of 7 core practices:

• Go and See for Yourself
• Creating a Meaningful Challenge
• Effective Listening
• Teaching and Coaching
• Supporting Others
• Fostering Teamwork
• Learning as a Leader

This workshop explores why leading with respect is essential in a successful transformation, what respect looks like in practice, and how it impacts your people to drive lasting change for the better.

Objectives:

Through instruction, small group discussions, and hands-on exercises, session participants will be able to:

• Describe the 7 practices of Lead with Respect
• Apply Lead With Respect principles to their daily work
• Practice Lead with Respect concepts with their colleagues
• Examine how to manage their personal journey of development and growth utilizing Lead with Respect practices

Who should attend? 

• Senior Leaders
• Managers
• Improvement Deployment Leaders & Lean Champions
• Lean and CI Practioners of all levels

To truly unlock the strategic competitive advantage of delivering value to customers it is often necessary to develop highly responsive supply chains. Seeing the Whole Value Stream, moves beyond value stream mapping individual facilities, to take an "end to end" perspective of the complete value stream from raw material to end customer.

This workshop provides key insights into teaching leaders how to See the Whole Value Stream. Mapping extended value streams reveals huge hidden potential for improvement. Our research and work in this area shows that it is common to find that nearly 90 percent of the actions and 99.99 percent of the time required for a value stream's current state create no value. In addition, the methodology shows demand amplification of orders as they travel up the value stream, steadily growing quality problems, and steadily deteriorating shipping performance at every point up stream from the customer.

The purpose of this workshop is to explore:

• How to use the extended value stream mapping methodology to truly impact on business goals and performance.
• How to build a business case for collaboration with supply chain partners.
• What factors to consider when selecting a target value stream.
• How to capture the current state.
• Key features of a lean value stream.
• How to manage a lean transformation to plan.

Through instruction, small group discussions and exercises, the workshop participants will learn:

• How to raise consciousness in every firm & function touching the value stream of the enormous waste of time, effort & movement
• Typical current state 9 out of 10 steps & 99% of elapsed time are wasted
• How to raise consciousness in every firm & function of the effect of its actions on every other firm & function touching the value stream
• How a value stream team with representatives from every firm can envision a series of Future States & an Ideal State for their shared value stream.
• Learn how value stream teams can build a business case for collaboration to create win-win-win outcomes for every value stream participant.

You will learn how to:

• Understand the fundamentals of mapping the extended value streams.
• Use the methodology to impact on business goals and performance.
• Learn about demand amplification and it's impact on the value stream

Who Should Attend:
Senior leaders in organizations and supply chain professionals with some experience of value stream mapping who have been into lean but are looking to go beyond the boundaries of their firm.

Successful transformation calls for a situational approach that is based on innovating key dimensions of any organization through addressing a series of questions. These questions are fractal—meaning that the same questions apply whether working at the macro enterprise level or the level of individual responsibility as you dive progressively deeper into each dimension. But, while the transformation model that has emerged through years of experience is situational, the nature of the questions represent a clear point of view: If an organization fails to address each question, and with a sense of how each relates to the others, the transformation is headed for trouble.

Effective total transformation entails transforming five fundamental dimensions, through continuously addressing key questions associated with each:

1. What is our purpose, what value to create or what situational problem are we trying to solve? 
   Have you made the purpose or mission clear to everyone? Does everyone know their value to create? Does each person know their specific, situational problem to solve?
2. How are we improving the actual work? 
   Have you defined the work to be done? Is it being improved? How, by what means, to what end?
3. How are we developing capability? 
   Do you have the necessary capabilities? Have you defined them? What is your approach to capability building? How are you developing people?
4. What management system and leadership behaviors are required to support the new way of working? 
   Have you designed the management system and do your leaders exhibit the needed behaviors (to develop capability to do the work to accomplish the mission)?
5. What basic thinking, mindset, or assumptions underlie this transformation? 
   Do you understand the current basic thinking (mindsets, assumptions, as well as values) and grasp its impact on the organization and its culture? What are you going to do to change the basic thinking and culture in desired directions?

By tackling each dimension through addressing questions, we avoid the pitfall of prescriptively giving solutions as is typical of most consultancy approaches to transformation.  Thus, we can have a dynamic approach to transformation in which each organization creates its own unique approach, one that helps them achieve their unique purpose through practical utilization of the deep wisdom embedded in the lean practices that have evolved over decades of rigorous PDCA.

We have learned that tackling the five dimensions through continually and thoroughly addressing these questions is both necessary and sufficient for a successful enterprise-wide transformation. 

Benefits:

• Understand the five basic dimensions of organization change
• Gain insights into key elements of a lean organization and the Lean Transformation Model
• Reflect upon your own organization and/or project according to the LTM
• Use key questions to begin creating a framework to guide your organization’s transformation

Who should attend:

• Senior Leaders
• Improvement Deployment Leaders
• Strategy Officers