At NWHPEC, we believe continuous learning extends beyond our own offerings. On this page, you'll find a curated selection of webinars and conferences from trusted external sources that align with our mission to support your efforts to foster a culture of continuous improvement. These recommendations are chosen for their quality and relevance and to compliment our offerings.
AME Webinar: Engage your team with love not fear leadership - Jan 21st @10am
Employee Engagement has never been more important and yet it is, according to Gallup at an eleven-year low of just 30% highly engaged and 17% actively disengaged. Clearly business as usual is not working, and it is time to follow the lead of organizations that are bucking this trend with intentional leadership and operational practices based on love, not fear. Love? Yes, love.
In this workshop, researcher, writer, and international speaker, Renée Smith, MSOD, LSSBB, shares insights on cultivating a culture of engagement based on love. This is a natural fit for any leader embracing deep respect for people, humility, and continuous improvement. She will review her Love not Fear Research and share her Loving Leadership framework. Smith will provide participants with a sample of the Loving Leaders assessment, emphasizing the leader’s role in embedding love in the organization’s structures and operations. These shifts promote safety, belonging, contribution, and meaning leading to improved engagement. Join us to learn the elements of this model and consider your strengths and opportunities for building engagement in 2025.
AME Webinar: Emotional Intelligence webinar series: Self Management - Jan 22nd @10am
Presented by Amanda Guthrie, this is the second of four sessions on Empowering Teams through Emotional Intelligence. The series will run from January 2025 through March 2024.
Learn about the pivotal role of self-management in EI and how leaders can either contribute to the success or the detriment of their teams based on their EI proficiency.
Leaders need to be able to effectively manage emotions and express them in a socially acceptable way.
AME Webinar: Stop wasting time, effort, and money on employee engagement : There is a something better! - Jan 28th @9am
Over the 35 years of the history of lean, the focus for many practitioners, consultants and academics has moved from tools and techniques to people and culture change. Within this, the spotlight is often shone now on employee engagement. However, is this really just a holy grail, as evidence from organizations such as Gallup (2024) show that engagement levels in the US are under 33% and employee turnover risks are increasing. The cost of disengaged employees is estimated by Forbes as $16K/year in terms of absenteeism, productivity loss and replacement cost. Sounds obvious we need to improve engagement. However, research by Dr. Hines shows that this is not the real issue and we are chasing the wrong question and the engagement levels are likely to fall more as the demands of Gen Z are not met. The questions we should answer are twofold. What are we doing that disengages employees and what do we need to do to get them ‘in the zone’ or light up their dormant intrinsic motivation.
In this session, we will explore the People Value Stream which is the natural, but often missing, companion to the organizations (Product/Service) Value Stream focus. We will explore how we can make our people ‘flow’, pulled by the needs of their organization as well as what is meaningful to them. We will show what leaders need to do in terms of organization supporting systems and people supporting to systems. We will then illustrate this with an example of Utah based O. C. Tanner, a firm Toyota now takes people to see.
AME Southern California Lean Tour - Feb 11-12th (Tour 4 companies!)
The AME West Region is hosting its popular So Cal Lean Tour again. This event always sells out, so register quickly!
We return to San Diego in 2025 and have four great tour sites that are demonstrating how to deploy and sustain Lean. Spend time seeing lean practices in action on the shop floor. This is a hands-on tour of four sites, not a presentation seminar.
What You Will See:
Argen Corporation in the technical center of San Diego near Qualcomm, Inc. will highlight their daily Gemba, their cellular one carrier flow, Ignition® scanning / mistake proofing transaction processes, and Kanban/Pull system.
Hologic, Inc., located in Sorrento Valley, will share their commitment to Lean principles and operational excellence. The implementation of 6S, their Kaizen Pipeline, Training System, and use of Innovation Boards will show a site culture that empowers people to innovate and continuously improve.
Radeus Labs, Inc. Located in Poway, Radeus is a small company but extremely Lean-focused. They will highlight their daily Gemba process, 2 second Lean process, and Lean teamwork from the CEO to the shop floor for a small company.
Watkins Manufacturing Corporation in Vista, will share their Continuous Improvement structure and their strategy for tool deployment and resource development. You’ll also see some of their key initiatives in Safety and Quality as well.
Info & Registration ($695)
AME Webinar: Emotional Intelligence webinar series: Social Awareness - Feb 26th @10am
This is the third of four sessions on Empowering Teams through Emotional Intelligence, presented by Amanda Guthrie.
Learn about the pivotal role that social awareness in EI and how leaders can either contribute to the success or the detriment of their teams based on their EI proficiency.
Leaders will learn to relate to others’ emotions by actively listening to others and participating in interpersonal communication to understand the nonverbal cues of behavior.
LEI Lean Summit - Atlanta, GA on March 5-6th
Join us at the 2025 Lean Summit, March 5 to 6 in Atlanta, Georgia, for a high-energy event that will shape the future of leadership. Our theme this year is, “Leadership for Tomorrow: Fostering Collaboration and Innovation.” (Additional workshops available March 3-4.)
Engage in dynamic keynotes, hands-on sessions, and connect with peers passionate about lean thinking.
Discover strategies to tackle today’s challenges, drive innovation, and practice collaborative leadership. Leave with actionable insights and fresh perspectives to transform your leadership approach and inspire your team.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your leadership and set the course for the future.
AME Back to Basics Summit (virtual) - Wednesdays in March, 8-9:30
Event Details:
Free for AME members; $150 for a membership
- Dates: Wednesdays: March 5, 12 and 19 from 8 – 9:30 a.m. Pacific and March 26 from 2 – 3:30 p.m. Pacific
- Location: Online (accessible from anywhere via Zoom)
- Information: https://ame.org/ame-back-basics-virtual-lean-summit-2025
Refresh your lean knowledge or lay the foundation for your lean journey
Welcome to the Back to Basics Summit, a virtual event offered every Wednesday in March, designed to empower individuals at all levels of their lean journey. Over four sessions, we will explore essential Lean tools and methods that can be implemented in any organization, from the manufacturing floor to the executive suite. Thought leaders will provide practical knowledge and insights that participants can immediately apply in their work environments.
Whether you’re taking your first steps, seeking new perspectives on foundational topics or looking to refresh your knowledge, the AME Back to Basics Lean Summit will lay the groundwork for your lean journey. You’ll hear directly from industry-leading voices on topics around the following themes:
March 5 – Foundation of lean principles and tools
March 12 – Enhancing Lean with visual management
March 19 – Building a lean culture
March 26 – Strategy deployment
Summit goals
The AME Back to Basics Summit aims to:
- Provide a high-level overview of lean principles
- Focus on key Lean tools that drive improvement
- Foster discussions on Lean culture and strategy deployment
- Equip participants with actionable strategies to implement Lean concepts effectively within their organization
Who should attend
The summit is open to everyone who is:
- Just beginning their Lean journey
- Using Lean tools and seeking more examples and applications
- Looking for guidance on how to deploy strategies effectively
A virtual summit to fit your schedule
The AME Back to Basics Lean Summit will be presented virtually on four Wednesdays in March. Join us March 5, 12, 19, and 26 from wherever you access the internet via AME’s Zoom platform and hear foundational examples and information from lean leaders from around the globe. Each session is 1.5 hours, allowing you to balance your professional responsibilities and your professional development needs. You’ll hear basic lean concepts and come away with actionable takeaways every week. Check the Schedule for more details.
KataCon 11 + TWI Summit - Indianapolis, IN on April 1-2nd
The KATA Summit is an annual gathering of those seeking to grow personally and professionally by practicing, and coaching, scientific thinking. Most recently the KATA community has become passionate about connection, collaboration and giving back. Learning together rather than in isolation.
The Summit is full of learning opportunities!
- 20 minute keynotes
- breakout case studies
- the legendary Kata Geek Meet Up
- and more…
The TWI Summit is an annual gathering of those seeking to learn, implement, and sustain successful TWI Programs (Training Within Industry) in order to address some of the most common challenges in lean organizations. The Summit highlights companies who are addressing these challenges through TWI’s Job Instruction, Job Methods, and Job Relations programs which impacted Toyota in its formative stages.
The events happen concurrently.
Recordings of past webinars
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Lean Frontiers Webinar: Kata Got Us Started, What’s Happened Since? - Dec 18th (recording link below)
Join Dirk van Rossum from Helena Industries as Oscar Roche asks him to delve into why they chose to get started with ‘Kata’ and what that looked like and is looking like now (2 plus years in). They’ll then go further into key things that have been learned thus far and their interconnection. As both Dirk and Oscar will literally be between two ‘Getting Started With Work Standards’ mentoring sessions, Dirk will be able to discuss key learnings from participants practice of that routine.
Webinar key discussion items will include:
- How ‘Work Standards’ came to the surface as being a critical piece of the CI equation.
- Where Dirk can see/is seeing other TWI skills being pulled in.
JIT Cafe Webinar: Lean into AI: Using Artificial Intelligence to Transform Your Work - Dec 19th (recording link below)
Do you or your organization struggle with how to leverage Artificial Intelligence? Has fear of the unknown become an obstacle to integration? With something this powerful, education is your best friend. Guest Host, and Lean enthusiast, Jessica Blake will showcase the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence with real-world examples of the successful impact of AI implementations.
Jessica’s got first-hand experience with how AI can streamline your operations, enhance decision-making, and drive innovation in your business. She’s ready to share practical tips and strategies with us on how to integrate AI into our daily work. Join us at the cafe December 19th for an opportunity to stay ahead of the curve and discover ways to supercharge your continuous improvement work using this breakthrough technology.
Agenda:
- What is AI and how do natural language models work?
- Tool availability and pricing: Copilot, Chat GPT
- Prompt engineering
- Case studies and real life examples
- Best practice