Leadership Development

Leadership teams that want to accelerate their teams’ adoption of lean thinking and practice understand that they, themselves, must first deepen their lean leadership capabilities. Created exclusively for leaders or soon-to-be leaders, the Lean Leader Program immerses participants in learning two vital practices: 

1. Solving problems using the A3 methodology 

2. Coaching their team members to solve problems the A3 way 

Together, these two practices form the foundation for developing a lean management system.

Developing people is at the heart of the lean management system.

John Shook, Senior Advisor, Lean Enterprise Institute

Lean Leader Program Program Structure

Based on the groundbreaking book Managing to Learn, the two-part program first helps leaders learn the A3 problem-solving method, or enhance their A3 capability, by first immersing them in an A3 problem-solving experience that addresses a significant business issue.  

• Round 1: Leader as Problem-Solver – Leaders first learn the A3 problem-solving method (or enhance their capability), by immersing themselves in an A3 problem-solving experience that addresses a meaningful business issue aligned with their organizational objectives.   
• Round 2: Leader as Coach – Leaders learn effective ways to coach their team members in the A3 methodology by guiding direct reports through a similarly immersive A3 problem-solving experience.

The program is a blend of remote learning sessions, hands-on practice applied to your own problem, and in-person 1:1 coaching as you develop your problem-solving A3. 

Coaching is about developing people. It’s about engaging people to look at their work in new ways and teaching them how to experiment.

John Shook, Senior Advisor, Lean Enterprise Institute

Lean Leader Capabilities Developed

Gemba Understanding

• Can grasp the current situation of the work (work observation and investigation skills).
• Able to connect the problems at the gemba to the overall goals of the organization.

Strategic Leadership

• Can create a clear, innovative vision and target for the team.
• Can see overall strategy to address a problem.
• Able to connect strategy to actions.

Problem-Solving

• Able to concretely break down a problem into sub-problems.
• Can follow a clear framework of structured A3 problem solving.
• Can establish management based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle to achieve targets.

Lean Coaching

• Firmly grasps lean concepts to guide and develop others.
• Can effectively coach problem solving without taking away ownership.
• Enjoys the development of others.
• Persistently supports team members to see countermeasures through problem resolution.