Are recurring issues preventing your team from consistently delivering value to your customers?
Are you struggling with measurable gaps in safety, quality, timeliness, or cost that are affecting your performance?
Are your meetings driven by the loudest voice rather than by facts, data, and first-hand observations?
We’ve transformed the unmatched A3 problem-solving process from Managing to Learn—the award-winning, best-selling workbook by management expert and former CEO John Shook—into a course that teaches you how to apply the powerful A3 methodology. Based on the proven scientific method of Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), this course will help you address critical business problems within your organization.
What makes the A3 problem-solving approach so powerful is that it is a complete process — a way of thinking, leading, communicating, learning, getting things done, and developing an entire organization of problem solvers.
Our skilled facilitator will guide you step by step through creating your own A3. Attending each live session is crucial, as it provides instant feedback to enhance your abilities in real time. By consistently participating in every class and applying the lessons at work between sessions, you’ll steadily refine your problem-solving skills using this proven approach.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:
- Select, define, and investigate real problems from your work environment, leading to practical and impactful solutions.
- Align with others: Ensure you have a shared understanding of the problem and therefore a shared motivation to address it.
- Uncover Root Causes: Investigate and confirm underlying causes of problems, and analyze barriers to improvement, ensuring that solutions address the root of issues.
- Drive Organizational Learning: Lead the planning and implementation of countermeasures, and follow up to resolve execution issues, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and organizational learning.
Group Discounts
- Register three or more students from your organization and save 12.5% off every registration. This discount will be automatically applied at checkout when you register with your group.
- LEI Co-Learning Partners: Receive 25% off the current price. No group discount can be applied.
Cancellation Policy
To cancel, please call LEI at (617) 871-2900 or email registrar@lean.org.
- 2+ weeks before start date: full refund
- Less than 2 weeks before the start date: $350 fee
- After the start date: no refund
Schedule Overview – Online
The session will be 6 sessions that are hosted over 6 weeks with one to two hours of assignments in between.
April 17 – May 22, 2025 Course
All sessions hosted 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM ET and instructed by Lavon Medlock
- Thursday, April 17
- Thursday, April 24
- Thursday, May 1
- Thursday, May 8
- Thursday, May 15
- Thursday, May 22
Select a Problem
• Locate a problem in work content
• Grasp the problem’s scope and impact
• Understand the PDCA cycle as part of the A3 story
Clarify the Problem
• Go to see and hear about problem details first-hand
• Visualize and describe the workflow
• Find facts to confirm problem conditions
Define the Problem
• Describe what should be happening/the target condition
• State the problem as a measurable gap to close
• Set a goal and target for the performance improvement
Identify Potential Causes
• Understand cause and effect
• Identify and check direct cause(s)
• Prioritize to the most likely direct cause
Confirm True Causes
• Confirm cause/effect relationships
• Analyze to root cause
• Test logic of the 5-Why chain
Select and Evaluate Options
• Engage with others to identify countermeasures
• Evaluate, rank, and propose countermeasures
Make a Plan
• Agree on actions to take, timing, and responsibilities
• Lead scheduled Plan versus Actual reviews
• Identify and resolve problems during execution where needed