Pre-Summit Workshops

Kick off your lean journey with pre-summit workshops on March 3-4 in Atlanta, GA. These immersive sessions are optional and part of the 2025 Lean Summit experience. They are designed to give you practical tools and strategies to apply Lean thinking immediately in your organization. Led by industry experts, the workshops will cover critical topics like problem-solving, leadership development, daily management, and more.

Choose from half, one or two-day Pre-Summit Workshops:

• Value Stream in MANUFACTURING(half-day)
• Value Stream in TRANSACTIONAL PROCESS MAPPING (half-day)
• Daily Management Systems (two-day)
• Introduction to Lean Process Development (one-day)
• The Leadership Advantage: Building Teams for Change, Collaboration, and Innovation (one-day)
• Designing a Coaching System for your organization: Creating Connections to Enable Performance (one-day)
• Hoshin Kanri: Aligning and Executing on Your Organizational Objectives (two-day)
• InBox Lean Office Kaizen Simulation (one-day)
• The Science of System Thinking: An Approach to Organizational Alignment and High- Speed Learning (two-day)
• Change Questions: Creating Effective and Lasting Organizational Change Using the Lean Transformation Framework Workshop (one-day)

Value Stream in MANUFACTURING

Many manufacturing companies struggle to make Value Stream Maps (VSMs) impactful, finding that they often become “wallpaper” instead of driving real change. This workshop addresses three critical challenges that undermine VSM effectiveness:

1. Siloed operations
2. Unclear process visualization
3. Resistance to change

In this interactive session, participants will explore how to transform VSMs into actionable tools for streamlining workflows, eliminating waste, and fostering productivity.

You’ll gain hands-on experience with mapping, analyzing, and improving value streams using proven lean manufacturing principles. Through real-world case studies and engaging exercises, you’ll learn to build cross-functional collaboration, create clarity in complex processes, and establish a culture of continuous improvement. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have practical tools and strategies to ensure your VSMs are catalysts for meaningful and sustainable growth.

What you’ll learn:

• Identify common pitfalls in VSM implementation that hinder effectiveness.
• Analyze current-state value stream maps to uncover inefficiencies and waste.
• Develop strategies for improving process flows and fostering cross-functional collaboration.
• Apply lean principles to design future-state value stream maps that align with business goals.
• Cultivate a culture of continuous improvement to ensure long-term success.

Instructor: Crystal Davis
Duration: Half day, 8:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Date: Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Pricing:
$399 Early Bird Price*
$599 Regular Price

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Value Stream in TRANSACTIONAL PROCESS MAPPING

Transform your organization’s transactional processes with our specialized workshop on Value Stream Management (VSM). This session is focused on administrative and service-oriented functions and will equip you with the tools to identify inefficiencies and enhance value delivery in non-manufacturing settings. Through interactive mapping exercises, participants will learn how to visualize processes, identify bottlenecks, and streamline workflows effectively.

Organizations struggle with three primary challenges when applying VSM to transactional processes:

• Unclear process ownership
• Fragmented communication across departments
• Difficulty in measuring non-tangible outcomes

This workshop addresses these issues by providing frameworks for establishing clear roles, enhancing interdepartmental collaboration, and developing metrics that reflect value creation.

What you’ll learn:

• Identify common barriers to effective VSM in transactional processes.
• Analyze current-state process maps to pinpoint inefficiencies and bottlenecks.
• Develop strategies to enhance interdepartmental collaboration and process transparency.
• Apply lean principles to design future-state process maps that improve service delivery.
• Establish meaningful metrics to measure and drive value creation in non-manufacturing workflows.

Instructor: Crystal Davis
Duration:  Half day, 12:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Date: Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Pricing:
$399 Early Bird Price*
$599 Regular Price

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Daily Management Systems

Traditional management methods react too late to problems, allowing them to grow into insurmountable challenges and forcing teams into constant firefighting. Daily Management addresses this challenge by embedding problem-solving directly into daily operations. Through structured daily meetings and real-time performance tracking, teams can detect issues early, make quick adjustments, and ensure alignment with strategic objectives.

Daily Management helps transform the way organizations operate by fostering a culture of continuous improvement. It empowers employees at all levels, from the frontline to executives, to contribute to the organization’s success by identifying problems as they occur and solving them in real time.

The Daily Management System course provides a hands-on, practical approach to teaching how to setup and maintain an effective Daily Management System. This course will equip you with the tools and techniques needed to monitor performance, solve issues early, and drive continuous improvement.

Our unique approach combines live coaching, breakout sessions, peer-to-peer learning, and hands-on assignments at your company to cement learning and accommodate even the busiest schedules.

What you’ll learn:

Through interactive sessions, peer discussions, and expert coaching, you will learn how to:

• Implement daily huddles to improve team communication and enhance operational performance.
• Establish key daily performance indicators that allow your team to quickly identify problems that it must solve.
• Use problem-solving techniques such as root cause analysis and short-cycle problem-solving to keep operations on track.
• Build an issue and idea tracking process that helps you prioritize operational challenges and identify opportunities for improvement, enabling you to remove obstacles and drive more efficient operations.
• Develop a continuous improvement mindset that builds problem-solving capabilities across your team.

Instructor: Joe Seestadt
Duration: Two-day
Date: Monday, March 3 to Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Pricing:
$1599 Early Bird Price*
$1999 Regular Price

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Introduction to Lean Process Development 

Has your organization ever rolled-out a new process that immediately required a team of resources to “fix” it?  Missing critical targets such as lead time, cost, productivity, quality or delivery, everyone is rallied to get the new investment up to speed, while neglecting other work.

The smart, well-intentioned designers of these systems are not deliberately falling short on the expected outcomes, they simply lack the tools and support to make great process design a reality. Furthermore, as organizations invest in new processes to simplify their supply chains and re-shore their production, there is a large risk of over-investment and under-performance.

The purpose of Introduction to Lean Processes Development is to provide attendees with an approach to design-in lean principles and practices up-front.  This is crucial – as the graph below illustrates, the earlier you discover issues and make changes, the greater the impact you can have and the lower the cost to make the changes.  As time passes, the costs of changes increase rapidly and the ability to impact the outcomes decrease.

Workshop attendees will learn:

1. Foundational concepts for lean process development
2. The 6CONx model for lean process development, featured in the book The Power of Process – A story of Innovative Lean Process Development (a copy of the book will be provided for each attendee)
3. Key tools & concepts for both the WORK of lean process development and the PROCESS of lean process development
4. How to develop their own action plan for getting started

This workshop is appropriate for anyone who is part of the process development team: practitioners & managers alike, regardless of industry.

Instructor: Eric Ethington
Duration: One-day
Date: Monday, March 3
Pricing:
$799 Early Bird Price*
$999 Regular Price

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The Leadership Advantage: Building Teams for Change, Collaboration, and Innovation

Unlock your full leadership potential with our immersive, full-day, in-person workshop designed to enhance your skills in leading change, coaching for growth, and communicating effectively. This workshop combines interactive mini-teaches, engaging discussions, and hands-on activities to provide you with the tools and insights needed to lead with confidence, foster collaboration, and drive innovation in today’s dynamic environment.

What to Expect:

1. Mastering Change Management with the ADKAR Model:

Dive deep into the ADKAR model to understand the key elements of successful change management. Through interactive discussions and practical exercises, you will explore how to navigate the people side of change, identify where to focus first in your change journey, and identify actionable next steps. By mastering these change management techniques, you’ll learn to guide your team through transitions with clarity and build a collaborative culture that supports innovative thinking.

2. Developing a Coach Approach to Leadership:

Elevate your leadership style by embracing a coach approach that encourages collaboration and creativity. Learn and practice essential coaching skills such as presence, active listening, and asking powerful questions. Through a series of activities and mini-teaches, you will gain confidence in your ability to support others in their growth, foster a culture of accountability, and drive organizational transformation. A coach approach not only strengthens individual leadership but also nurtures a collaborative environment where innovation can flourish.

3. Enhancing Communication with the Maxwell Leadership DISC Model:

Explore the four distinct communication styles within the Maxwell Leadership DISC model to enhance both collaboration and innovation. Gain insights into your own communication style and learn how to identify and adapt to the styles of others. By understanding what motivates and challenges each style, you will discover practical dos and don’ts for building stronger, more effective connections within your team and organization. When leaders can adapt their communication to connect meaningfully, they create a foundation for collaborative and innovative team dynamics.

Why Attend?

When leaders understand the dynamics of change, harness the power of coaching, and master diverse communication styles, they create an environment where teams can thrive. This workshop is designed to provide you with a comprehensive toolkit that not only increases your self-awareness but also equips you with strategies to lead and inspire others effectively.

In alignment with the summit theme, Leadership for Tomorrow: Fostering Collaboration and Innovation, this workshop will empower you to cultivate a culture of collaboration within your organization by enhancing your communication and coaching skills. By embracing a coach approach to leadership and understanding the principles of effective change management, you’ll foster an innovative mindset, enabling your team to adapt, grow, and succeed in the face of tomorrow’s challenges.

Join us for a day of growth, connection, and transformation, and leave with the clarity, confidence, and skills to elevate your leadership to the next level—building a collaborative and innovative future for your organization!

Instructor: Michele Smith
Duration: One-day
Date: Monday, March 3
Pricing:
$799 Early Bird Price*
$999 Regular Price

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Designing a Coaching System for your organization: Creating Connections to Enable Performance

Is your organization struggling to develop leaders as coaches, despite having an active management system in place and investing in developing coaching capabilities internally? One of the ultimate success factors of implementing a management system is that it creates a culture of learning throughout the organization where we can observe leaders being true coaches. The challenge is that putting such a system in place isn’t as simple as it sounds.

 As an organization matures their improvement systems and daily management structures, the result becomes a system of systems. One of the critical systems required for creating a culture of organizational excellence with sustained improvement is a Coaching System. In this environment, leadership is responsible for designing systems to enable the performance and ideal behaviors required.

During this workshop, we will focus on how to take the necessary steps to create the right environment for coaching, how to use internal resources, and how to connect all the elements of the Lean Management System in a dynamic learning environment.

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

• Articulate the value of a coaching system in an environment of organizational excellence
• Describe the elements of a sustainable coaching system
• Use current organization resources to begin developing an internal coaching system
• Practice coaching through interactive simulation and case scenarios
• Create the first draft of a plan to implement a coaching system within their organization

Instructor: Carlos Scholz Moreno
Duration: One-day
Date: Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Pricing:
$799 Early Bird Price*
$999 Regular Price

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Hoshin Kanri: Aligning and Executing on Your Organizational Objectives

Many leaders face difficulty not in creating a strategy, but in seeing it through—especially in distributed teams. This course provides a solution by guiding you through the hoshin kanri process (strategy development and deployment), ensuring your team stays on track toward achieving annual objectives. This course ensures you get practical takeaways, not just theories, empowering you to apply new skills as you progress. Your simulation-based experience will mirror real-world application. Leave with a clear framework to overcome common execution obstacles, engage every level of your organization, and break down strategic goals into actionable steps.

By participating, you will benefit from a combination of instruction, coaching, and peer learning—creating a rich environment where you can practice, reflect, and refine your approach to strategy deployment. If you’re ready to move from planning to action, this course will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to make it happen.

Note: This course does not teach the X-matrix.

Learning Objectives

• Explain the fundamental framework for Hoshin Kanri – Learners will be able to clearly describe the key components and stages of the Hoshin Kanri process.
• Identify the conditions necessary for successful execution of Hoshin planning and alignment in an organization – Learners will list and evaluate the critical factors that contribute to effective Hoshin planning and organizational alignment.
• Create a structure of PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) at both individual and corporate levels – Learners will design a PDCA cycle and demonstrate its application in both personal and organizational contexts.

Instructor:Karen Gaudet
Duration: Two-day
Date: Monday, March 3 to Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Pricing:
$1599 Early Bird Price*
$1999 Regular Price

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InBox Lean Office Kaizen Simulation

InBox®, Lean office simulation, provides a live, participant-driven simulation that teaches how to apply Lean concepts to transactional processes. With InBox, students of all levels can practice process improvement tools in a risk-free setting. This kind of practice builds capability. InBox is unique: it employs an email-based work process, providing first-hand experience with Lean Office concepts where the workflow is essentially invisible. A True Simulation for the Office Environment.

Until now, Lean simulations have focused solely on manufacturing-type processes, such as assembling parts or shuffling papers. These games fail to resonate with employees who rely on communication technologies. InBox is the first Lean Six Sigma simulation built around an electronic workflow – the type of work environment that actually exists in service businesses or in the support functions of a manufacturing enterprise. A Focus on Lean Office Tools by using an email-based platform, participants assume work roles in an invisible (and very confusing) process. With help from the facilitator, students learn and practice Value Stream Mapping, identifying Non-Value-Added Activities (Waste), Takt Time, WIP, and Bottlenecks in a service process where there is no tangible work product.

What you’ll learn:

• How to manage the flow of work horizontally across the silos that exist in organizations;
• How the tools of lean should be used to engage participants in change management;
• How to manage short cycles of improvement activities across many functional areas;
• How huddle boards and visual management can be used to manage daily activities and continuous improvement activities.

Participants will need to bring a laptop and charger with the ability to connect to the internet.

Instructor: Peg Pennington
Duration: One-day
Date: Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Pricing:
$799 Early Bird Price*
$999 Regular Price

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The Science of System Thinking: An Approach to Organizational Alignment and High- Speed Learning

This two-day highly interactive and engaging workshop will help lean leaders link the emerging science of system thinking with the power of lean principles. It draws connections between resilient, enduring systems in nature and companies that best allow humans to thrive in a nimble self-organizing, self-diagnosing, and self-adjusting learning organization. It explores:

• How to align large numbers of people on both the Goal (i.e. Ideal) and the Way (i.e. the means, or principles that govern the design, operation, and improvement of any and all work);
• How to achieve system stability while simultaneously engaging the brains of everyone every day at all levels of the organization problem solving and innovating; and
• How leaders, in the gemba, can develop the critical skill of understanding how their complex systems are operating and identifying key leverage points for maximum strategic value.

The workshop includes case studies, an interactive LEGOs exercise, and a deep dive into the foundational principles informing lean rather than the artifacts of practicing lean. Participants will be expected to read the popular HBS Toyota Georgetown case study and come prepared to thoughtfully discuss the material.

Instructor: Vickie Pisowicz and Tania Lyon, PhD
Duration: Two-day
Date: Monday, March 3 to Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Pricing:
$1599 Early Bird Price*
$1999 Regular Price

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Change Questions: Creating Effective and Lasting Organizational Change Using the Lean Transformation Framework Workshop

No two organizational change efforts are the same, so why should your approach be? It shouldn’t — if you want the change to stick. Change Questions unlocks the secrets of sustainable organizational change by showing you how to ask vital questions in five critical areas based on LEI’s Lean Transformation Framework:

1. Define Purpose: What is your value-driven purpose?
2. Improve the Work: What work needs to be done to achieve the purpose or to solve the problem?
3. Develop People: How will you engage and develop employees?
4. Establish a Management System and Leader Behaviors: How will you establish a supportive management system with the appropriate leader behaviors?
5. Understand Your Culture: What are your organization’s beliefs, values, norms, attitudes, and assumptions?

The hands-on workshop offers practical examples from instructor Lynn Kelley’s experience as a transformative leader reporting to the Chairman and CEO at two Fortune 200 companies. Kelley candidly describes what to do in tough, real-world situations. Explore success stories, including Union Pacific Railroad’s lean transformation, where the Change Questions resulted in a dramatic increase in operational performance and a 96% sustainment rate over hundreds of change initiatives.

Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion of this workshop, participants will be able to develop a robust and customized implementation plan for a change initiative by integrating the following:

• Define the purpose and estimated value of the change initiative.
• Outline the existing work and the new work to implement and improve the change initiative.
• Determine the employee capabilities needed to implement the change initiative.
• Complete a communication plan that includes recognition for successful implementation of the change initiative.
• Identify what management system and leadership behaviors are needed to support the change initiative.
• Describe the current culture of the organization where the change initiative will take place.

You will receive the Change Questions Digital Workbook, which you can use with your teams after the workshop, as well as a print copy of The Change Questions book by Lynn Kelley with John Shook.

Instructor: Lynn Kelley
Duration: One-day
Date: Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Pricing:
$799 Early Bird Price*
$999 Regular Price

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