Session Title:

Coaching Skills for Lean Implementation Leaders

Facilitator:

Judy Worth

Session Abstract:

What does it mean to be a coach? Coaches in athletics do not compete in the sporting events themselves. They have to achieve success through four basic activities: preparation, practice, adjustment, and review. Do these methods work in situations where you’re responsible for lean improvement projects but others have to implement the changes? The answer is yes, if one key condition is achieved and maintained: responsibility for making the changes is given to and kept with the people who have to implement and maintain the improvements. That’s the key to the developmental approach.

The purpose of this workshop is to help lean leaders and change agents understand the importance of the role of coach in improving value-stream performance and developing the basic skills and perspectives to function effectively in that role. Specifically this program is designed to help you switch from trying to be the person out front leading the charge to being someone with knowledge and experience who’s by the side of the people in the operation who are the real problem owners. In other words, try the developmental approach to coaching and leading.

Specific Learning Objectives:

Through instruction, discussions, group activities, and hands-on exercises, you will learn how to:

  • Recognize the limitations of the common image of the coach

  • Develop the thinking and problem solving of lean implementers, increasing their knowledge and skills for executing the immediate changes
  • Understand the developmental approach to coaching and recognize how the perspective and techniques contribute to successfully implementing and sustaining lean

  • Understand the four key coaching practices for developing the effectiveness of lean implementers and practice the skills needed for each practice


Course Outline:

  • Look at the common image of the coach and examine the myths and realities of the role
  • Describe the work of a lean coach and how to tell if it is effective
  • Consider the special requirements and challenges of coaching and developing the implementers of lean improvements
  • Recognize the role of lean problem solving thinking in lean implementation
  • Examine the  developmental approach to coaching and its value in lean implementation and recognize you do not have to be a lean expert to coach  for development first hand
    • Giving the lean implementers the task or project as their own responsibility
    • Letting them think & practice on their own
    • Helping them see results vs. processes, plan vs. actual
    • Forcing reflection and learning from it
    • Recognize the four essential practices of the lean coach

Who Should Attend:

Lean project leaders, lean coordinators, lean change agents, continuous improvement executives, six sigma black belts, staff experts. Leaders and change agents who have faced the challenges of project completion and implementation of changes and improvements. Leaders, change agents, managers, executives who have experience with lean in manufacturing, service operations, healthcare, or not-for-profit organizations.

Facilitator Biography:

Judy Worth got her first introduction to lean from one of her business partners, who left their company in Lexington, KY, to work at the start up of Toyota’s first North American plant in Georgetown, KY. She got additional exposure to the value-stream mapping tool when she served as instructional designer for LEI’s Mapping to See Kit for lean in office and services. For the past  eight years, Judy’s focus has been on implementing lean in healthcare. She has extensive experience facilitating value-stream mapping workshops in healthcare organizations, including hospitals and primary care, and has also provided training and coaching services for healthcare in-house lean facilitators. Judy is the co-author of Perfecting Patient Journeys and a white paper on lean competencies, “Building Capability for Success with Lean: The Critical Competencies.” She currently aids companies implementing lean through the Lean Transformations Group.

What does it mean to be a coach? Coaches in athletics do not compete in the sporting events themselves. They have to achieve success through four basic activities: preparation, practice, adjustment, and review. Do these methods work in situations where you’re responsible for lean improvement projects but others have to implement the changes? The answer is yes, if one key condition is achieved and maintained: responsibility for making the changes is given to and kept with the people who have to implement and maintain the improvements. That’s the key to the developmental approach.

The purpose of this workshop is to help lean leaders and change agents understand the importance of the role of coach in improving value-stream performance and developing the basic skills and perspectives to function effectively in that role. Specifically this program is designed to help you switch from trying to be the person out front leading the charge to being someone with knowledge and experience who’s by the side of the people in the operation who are the real problem owners. In other words, try the developmental approach to coaching and leading.