The Management Brief |  The Lean Transformation Framework throughout 2025  

Looking back at the year and the impressive array of lean experts, leaders, and practitioners that contributed to The Management Brief, we realized that a lot of the content in 2025 were stories of lean transformation. Enterprise transformation, individual transformation, and everything in between. Our contributors told problem-solving stories in terms of process improvement, capability development, leadership behavior, and management systems. Knowingly or not, they covered all aspects of the lean transformation framework (LTF).  

Our colleague and LEI Senior Advisor John Shook recently spoke of the lean transformation framework (LTF) as a framework for practicing lean thinking. In that context, it’s not surprising to find that virtually every article and podcast supported some aspect of LTF and the five questions it poses. 

LTF is a systematic, situational approach to problem solving, or “transformation,” that can occur throughout an organization, from corporate strategy to frontline operations, and be leveraged at the individual, department, function/unit, and total enterprise level. The five questions surface an understanding of critical dimensions necessary for optimum business improvement. 

Using the five LTF questions as our lens, we revisit some highlights from The Management Brief in 2025. 

Question 1. What is the value-driven purpose? Or what is the problem to solve? 

The first LTF question helps organizations to identify and communicate their True North or vision. Dr. Lisa Yerian, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical & Operational Improvement Officer of the Cleveland Clinic, and colleague Chad Cummings, Vice President of Lean Transformation & Continuous Improvement, described how an adherence to the framework helps to point continuous actions to the problems that need to be addressed.  

In the podcast “Improving Patient and Caregiver Outcomes with Lean in Healthcare,” Lisa stated that the journey starts with the first LTF question and quoted it nearly verbatim: “What is the problem we’re trying to solve, what’s our true value-driven purpose?”  

Geoff Miller, CEO of Grand Rapids Chair, said leadership and employees at his company are all able to answer a few critical questions about the company. In the podcast “Building a Resilient Business with Hoshin Kanri and Problem Solving,” he said those questions start with “What is your organization’s problem to solve?” and “What is your vision of where you’re going?” 

Question 2. What is the work to be done (to solve the problem)? 

Those on a lean transformation need to know the process by which they are going to accomplish their purpose. How can they break down the work in order to improve it? How will they undertake process improvement? 

Jacob Stoller offered a glimpse of how not to undertake process improvement (and, thus, insights into how it should occur). In his article “Reflections on DOGE and Efficiency,” he observed the early actions of the Department of Government Efficiency. Jacob, a Shingo Prize winner who recently published Productivity Reimagined,ⁱ wrote that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy said DOGE’s objective was to cut $2 trillion from the government. You might say that was their problem to solve.  

Unfortunately, as Jacob pointed out, the work they chose to try to achieve it has been top-down cost cutting without much if any active participation at the gemba by the people who understand the complex systems of the work and the interdependent and interactive components that have been axed. Actual waste in those systems rarely shows up as a tidy line item in a financial report “but is distributed in tiny increments throughout the organization’s processes. Most of these don’t manifest directly as costs, but as problems such as defects, redundant process steps, unnecessary transport, excessive wait times, poorly orchestrated handoffs, inadequate equipment, or inaccurate information. Typically, these are only visible to people who work in these processes every day.”  

Scott Heydon, former VP of Global Strategy at Starbucks and a Senior Lean Coach with LEI, spoke about how he evolved as a problem solver. In the podcast “Transforming as a Problem Solver,” Scott said he realized that he needed to see problems from the bottom up and ask Starbucks store leaders “what is the problem to solve.”  

Scott took a programmatic approach to better understanding the processes and problems that needed to be solved at individual stores. He even worked in a local store as a barista for a few hours each week, and told people on the line he was trying to learn and was not there to judge. He advised executives to “spend more time where the work happens” and to “turn off the problem solving in your brain as you talk to someone, and instead ask questions to learn from them about what they are doing and ask questions that can help them become a better problem solver.” 

Question 3. What capabilities are required (to do the work to solve the problem)? 

In order to solve problems in the work that help to achieve the purpose, individuals need certain capabilities. These could be specific to their unique role and process in the organization (e.g., chemist, engineer, nurse) as well as capabilities, such as problem-solving skills, that are necessary for everyone in the enterprise to support a transformation.  

Noel Jarin, Founder of NPJ Operations Management Consulting, and Tyson Heaton, LEI Senior Coach, wrote that sustainable change starts with coaching people to become a team of ACEs. In “Starting a Lean Transformation,” the two described ACEs as individuals that leaders activate, cultivate, and elevate. “Building a team of ACEs isn’t optional — it’s how lean transformations stick.” 

Sal Sanchez, a Toyota veteran and LEI Coach, talked about problem solving throughout his career and the need for leaders to challenge employees and develop them into problem solvers. In the podcast “A Personal Pursuit of Problem Solving,” Sal said “people are born problems solvers, and they want to help and improve.” In his work with LEI he continues to encourage a focus on culture and developing people and frontline leaders — “invest in your people.”  

“If you don’t have an army that you’re building as you’re going, you can only go at your own speed,” declared Jim Lancaster, Owner and CEO of Lantech, who discussed learning how to learn and how to bring others along on the learning journey. In the podcast “Learnings of a Lean Pioneer,” Jim also praised the power of experiential learning, especially as changes fail and individuals “stub their toe” and cope with difficulties. Leaders need to patiently let employees face their frustrations and work to “see the problem differently,” pushing their thinking and creativity for different approaches.  

Simon Rowley, Senior Manager at the Toyota Lean Management Centre (TLMC) in the UK, and Julian Ball, Section Manager at TLMC, described in the podcast “TPS Taken to Companies across the UK” how the center was initially started to enable Toyota UK to employ and build staff capability during a financial downturn. “They saw this as an opportunity for development of their own people, going out to clients and helping them and coaching them in TPS [Toyota Production System] and the Toyota Way, develop them to then go rotate back into the business and make our business stronger,” said Julian.  

Simon said that “unless you’re developing your people in your organization, you’ll never maximize the potential of TPS, you’ll get just little bits of improvement.” He added, “You need to do the training that helps you reach the next step where you want to go on your personal journey or your professional journey… Avoid training for training’s sake. Make sure it has a purpose and you’re truly going to use what you learn.” 

4. What management system — operating system and leadership behaviors — is required? 

This question gets individuals and organizations to consider the structure they need to guide and support leaders, managers, frontline, etc. in solving problems to achieve the purpose. What are the systems/processes to strengthen management capabilities (hoshin kanri, daily management, and A3s for problem solving). Accompanying this, of course, must be the soft skills (behaviors) required to work within the system. For example, when the system brings attention to a problem or a mistake made at the frontline, how do managers respond? Is this a moment of blame or learning? 

I (Mark) had the privilege to interview one of my mentors, Isao Yoshino, a veteran of Toyota and a driving force behind the company’s success with hoshin kanri. On the podcast “Isao Yoshino Reflects on 40 Years at Toyota,” Isao discussed leadership behaviors within Toyota, most notably, delivering bad news first and an earnest desire to learn from failures. He said that improvement mindset and a focus first on the problems still thrives in the company today. 

Joe Seestadt, Director Lab Outreach for Bronson Healthcare and LEI Coach, said that a daily management system helped him initially survive in a new leadership role amid processes with which he was not familiar. “Daily management for me was something that would give me several things: One, the visibility of problems. Coming from outside the lab industry, I did not know the processes the same way as people who grew up in the industry did, and I needed to be able to see problems and I needed my team to as well. Second, I needed to be able to know if we were ahead or behind, winning or losing, every single day. And third, I had to have an ability to have issues bubble up, get discussed, and resolved, and then communications come back down on an everyday basis.”  

In the podcast “The Successful, Continuous Beat of Daily Management,” Joe described the elements that make a daily management system work well, including a daily huddle, trend data, a capable huddle leader, the ability to problem solve, connecting strategy to the huddle via KPIs, and prioritizing problem-solving efforts (what gets worked on and what gets escalated upward). 

José Ferro and Robson Gouveia from the Lean Institute Brazil and authors of Daily Management to Execute Strategyⁱⁱ wrote about the three main blocks upon which a daily management system should be built. In the article “Executing Strategy through Daily Management,” they described 1) commitment to daily management, 2) control variables (daily goals that represent the value to be delivered each day), and 3) problem solving during which teams visualize the issues they are working on, those pending action, or those that require escalation.  

5. What basic thinking, including mindsets and assumptions, are required by the organization as a purpose-driven socio-technical system? 

The last of the five LTF questions presents the final dimension of an organization’s fundamental thinking that informs everything as everyone seeks to achieve the purpose. Basic thinking represents an organization’s culture — current vs. the culture that is desired for a lean transformation. 

Carl Klemm, a senior executive at both General Motors and Toyota, described the four levels of management maturity necessary to become a lean organization — reactive, stabilizing (getting control of processes), proactive (beginning to do kaizen), and progressive — with leaders eventually getting to a place where they understand that the organization underneath them is independently performing kaizen and they can focus on what the organization needs to achieve “in the coming five, 10, 15, 20 years” as Toyota has done.  

Carl also said on the podcast “Transforming from GM Executive to Toyota Leader” that the management maturity journey has to first start with mutual trust and respect, “because without that everything is difficult.” He said the move from GM to Toyota enabled him to see the key differences that made performance improvement happen and what did not — something that can be more difficult for those who have spent their entire careers within Toyota and working always with a Toyota mindset. 

Jon Armstrong, Co-Founder and CEO of Do It American MFG Company, talked about learning TPS from the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC) and Hajime Ohba, which shaped his lean leadership style and mindset. “I just loved being around him,” said Jon of Ohba. “He seemed like a nice guy. He took things so seriously, and there was such a sense about him of really caring — about not only the process and transferring the knowledge, but also a real caring for the people that were working within the process. I just really appreciated that. I try to do that as much as I can moving forward with the folks we’ve got here.”  

On the podcast “Leaning on TPS Learning to Create a U.S. Manufacturer,” Jon told how the company’s andon system illustrates a respect-for-people mindset. If leaders are fast to respond and assist when the andon cord is pulled and don’t blame the frontline for making that happen, employees “are much more willing to share and help become part of the problem-solving solution. It works really well. One thing we’ve done is we have taken the fear away.” 

Bruce Watkins, former President and General Manager of KARL STORZ Endovision, wrote in “Why the Toyota Production System Remains Elusive for Most Companies” that TPS offers a powerful framework for organizational excellence, but its adoption requires more than just implementing tools and techniques. “Success demands a fundamental shift in philosophy, a commitment to human development, and patience to build capability over time. Organizations that understand TPS as a comprehensive economic and social system — rather than just a manufacturing methodology — position themselves to achieve its full transformative potential.” 

Dr. Steven Spear, renown lean expert and senior lecturer at MIT, discussed his lifelong immersion into TPS and all things Toyota. In the podcast “Steven Spear Talks about Competing with TPS and Problem Solving,” he expressed optimism about organizations’ abilities to continue to transform. But to do so, he said, requires an environment and fundamental leader thinking in which they are willing to tap into individuals’ inherent personal desires to be creative and valuable and not ask them to leave that mindset at the door. 

“[Instead] we bring them into the workplace, and we tell them … we’re going to be demeaning of you, of your potential, your opportunity, your chance for appreciation,” said Steven. “So all we’re saying is, what we’ve naturally been created or evolved to do, just extend that into the workplace… When you start having conversations with people that way and get them to talk about all the joy they have as coach of this, as head of that, as volunteer here, it’s like, ‘Don’t leave that at the door. Bring it in.’” 

The LTF Journey 

The LTF questions present the five addressable dimensions necessary to achieve a lean transformation. It’s as simple and challenging as that. If any of the questions and dimensions are not addressed, the answer to the first question (purpose) will not be achieved. 

One thing the lean transformation framework and five question are not is a prescriptive route to improvement. We at LEI recognize there is no one way to transform, and we’ve witnessed that through all our work and among The Management Brief contributions this year. And that’s why embracing LTF can be so successful in helping organizations transform. The questions enable each unique organization to collectively work within their own unique situation and, when answering the questions, address them with their own unique set of countermeasures. 

We look forward to unearthing more stories connected to the lean transformation framework in 2026, and hope you will be along for the journey. 

Ready to deepen your lean leadership skills? 

Join leaders from around the world at the 2026 Lean Summit, March 12-13 in Houston, Texas to learn from lean practitioners and connect with a community committed to continuous improvement. 

Or take the next step in your lean journey with The Lean Management Program—a comprehensive course designed to help you develop the management systems and leadership capabilities needed to sustain lean transformations in your organization. Next cohort starts February 6. 

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