LEADING LEAN - BECOMING A LEAN COMPANY, NOT JUST A COMPANY DOING LEAN THINGS

This four-event series covers four critical ASPECTS, the cornerstones of transformation, that all Lean leaders must master.

Integrating Lean into Leadership

September 25, 2025 (17h30-23h30 Paris time)

Lean leaders are good storytellers.

Lean transforms the way processes and people work, and it generates at each level a brand-new company operating and innovating model making long term strategy possible. Executives and leaders must have clarity of the fundamental elements underlying this transformation, so that they can constantly act, behave, and support the efforts in a way that allows others to embrace and want to go on the journey. This session will explore the leaders’ story and their role in the Lean transformation.

This session combines simulations, lectures, fun and reflection to share ideas and instill a desire to start or continue the Lean journey, and how this path will tremendously benefit your organization, as well as your personal development, career, and legacy.

Participants will learn:

• how to engage their organization in change, through a subtle balance between rational attitudes and emotions,
• how value stream improvement is the focus of Lean efforts,
• what empowerment really means and how collaboration in the workplace is the engine that changes the overall company mindset,
• how visibility is central in a Lean organization and is fundamental to building a Lean Management System,
• how to influence and align people in the shared vision of continuous improvement…

Catherine Converset, President of Productivity Innovation, Senior Lean Consultant and Teacher, shares her practical experience in leadership development and organizational transformation in this powerful session.

Agenda

• Introduction to the continuous improvement mindset: how the Golden Circle leadership principles apply to Lean transformation.
• Change is difficult: the balance between scientific reasoning based on data and the emotional side of change. Building the path to change.
• Learn to see Value and Failure Demand, and the huge improvement potential in the organization.
• The Six Areas of Influence: How Leaders can influence and lead a continuous improvement mindset.
• The fundamental Lean concepts.
• In Lean, rhythm is Key.
• Making it Visible: an essential part of Operational excellence.
• The art of asking the right questions to develop a company-wide problem solving and improvement mindset.
• The Leadership Five practices to lead Lean continuous improvement organizational change.
• Wrap up and Review

Aligning the Organization thru Hoshin-Kanri

Sepember 26, 2025 (17h30-23h30 Paris time)

Lean Leaders align their organization.

The fundamental purpose of Hoshin Kanri is to focus a company’s efforts on a very well-defined set of initiatives that align and mobilize the organization from end to end. It is a leadership-driven strategic process which gives clarity to everyone on where the company is going, how it is going to get there and their role in contributing to its success.

In this session, we will share our practical experiences of Hoshin Kanri in the context of a Lean transformation, calling upon experience acquired in a variety of business environments. Learn how to build the plan, starting at the Executive committee level and to cascade it down to the team level. We will also introduce the Catchball process, a key component which creates local ownership by allowing for plan feedback and adjustments.

We will demonstrate how the plan highlights the need for enterprise-wide waste elimination and review and discuss the key performance indicators, targets to improve, and countermeasures that will ensure you remain on course and that your improvement initiatives are meeting your strategic goals.

We will then illustrate the Hoshin Kanri deployment process in a real case study, presenting its impacts and the difficulties encountered, and we will suggest some practical recommendations to start and implement the process.

Participants will learn:

• key concepts and principles of Hoshin Kanri (policy deployment)
• the 5 steps of policy deployment and how to use the X-Matrix at each level
• the link between Hoshin Kanri and daily management
• the connection between Hoshin Kanri and team empowerment
• the link between workplace metrics and strategic objectives
• the 4-level performance review system ensuring success.

Leading through Daily Management

October 2nd, 2025 (17h30-23h30 Paris time)

Lean Leaders serve the needs of those that serve the customer.

An effective Daily Management System (DMS) enables leaders to engage at multiple organizational levels through teaching, coaching, and establishing standard work routines. Leadership through daily management is a most effective way to ensure work is tied to organizational goals, targets are being met, and that changes are being sustained. In this session learn the elements of leader standard work and how to create a visual daily management system.

Inside the day’s activities:

Tailored as a discovery session, the day’s agenda includes questions and gap analytics that will be captured and built into an action plan for each participant, for reflection and creation of next steps.

Participants will learn:

• The importance of DMS in sustaining all CI efforts
• Key components to build an effective DMS across the organization
• Importance and role of a visual management system
• Direct connection between Daily Management, employee engagement, and productivity
• Role of performance management and metrics in linking organizational goals to strategic deployment
• How leaders in a company-wide cultural / behavioral transformation support DMS, build organizational capability at all levels of the organization using Gemba walks, servant leadership, leader standard work, leaders as coaches, etc.

Developing a Community of Problem Solvers

October 3rd, 2025 (17h30-23h30 Paris time)

Lean Leaders understand cause and effect.

Problems are inherent in a transformation process, so establishing a community of problem-solvers is necessary to keep your organization moving forward. Team-based problem-solving becomes part of daily work as employees, guided by leaders, learn how to address and solve problems at their root cause. This session introduces the A3 Problem Solving method and how to make problems visible, categorize and prioritize them, apply a step-by-step process to understand the issue, measure it and its impact, identify where it comes from, and develop countermeasures and solutions.

Participants will learn:

• the importance of problem solving in sustaining all CI efforts,
• the step-by-step A3 thinking and acting process,
• the questioning process that leaders should master to ensure proper problem solving,
• the role of leaders in a company-wide cultural / behavioral transformation,
• problem solving and KPI’s,
• building problem solving capability at all levels of the organization using Gemba walks Daily Management System and all other opportunities.

What past attendees are saying…

“[I] Wanted to reach out to you personally to thank you for the excellent training in October. I have used it heavily in my communication to our organization including completing our first bonafide CEDAC yesterday. The mind shift on problem solving has helped my leadership style and coaching tremendously. Thank you for your excellent program.” Heather F., Director of Operations, Composite Advantage

“Exceptional”. 

“Thank you, Catherine. It was wonderful to learn and stretch my thinking with such an impressive team.” Jessica J., Operational Manager for Performance Improvement, Nemours