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.
ALL TIMES PACIFIC
Webinar: Managing Up & Down in the Age of AI - Feb 3 @noon
Relationships matter more than ever.
How you build trust and influence with your team and direct reports, but also up the chain of command with your superiors, determines your success and your level of satisfaction at work.
Join this FREE event on Tuesday February 3rd at 3pm ET with two bestselling authors and internationally recognized workplace strategists:
- Erica Keswin, author of Bring Your Human to Work, The Retention Revolution, and Rituals Roadmap
- Melody Wilding, author of Managing Up: How to Get What You Need From the People in Charge and Trust Yourself
They’ll be in conversation about the nuanced skills and strategies today’s best leaders are using to stand out in our AI-enabled world…
Where everything happens at lightning speed and people are more disconnected and stressed than ever.
A replay will be sent to those who register.
AME 2 Second Lean Virtual Tour: Tennessee Cheesecake - Feb 11 @9am
Join AME and host Paul Akers for the next highly rated 2 Second Lean tour series! Following an introduction and overview by the company president, visitors will tour all areas of the bakery including the cheesecake production process from ingredient preparation to finished packaging. The focus will be on lean practices and people-centric leadership, as well as best practices in daily 3S, visual management, kaizen, SMED and Andon systems.
AME/KSC Webinar: Coaching Kata: Understanding the challenge - Feb 18 @noon
Join Coach Tracy Defoe for session on the first step of the Improvement Kata, Understanding the Challenge or Direction. Many people who try to practice the kata on their own end up starting on the wrong foot by misunderstanding the role of the challenge. How do we need to be performing by next quarter, next year? What will we measure or observe to confirm we have made the change? What are some good challenges for beginners? These are some of the questions we will answer in this webinar.
AME Webinar: Wiring to Win - Feb 19 @2pm
The Paradox: The gap between the best and everyone else is massive—and visible across every competitive dimension.
Why It Matters: Great performance depends on fast, continuous problem-solving before and during the work. Do this well and you deploy solutions safer, faster, and more often. Fail, and you’re always behind.
What the Best Do Differently: They “wire” their organizations with routines that unlock everyone’s intellect, not just a select few. Rivals show up with only a small slice of their brainpower on the field—a total mismatch.
Host Company
See to Solve was created by Dr. Steven Spear of MIT Sloan School of Management who noticed that small sparks persistently turned into big fires, damaged productivity, and even dethroned once-dominant companies. This is why Dr. Spear and his team created See to Solve: so responders know right away where their help is needed, so problems don’t fester, and managers have rich, real-time data to see where and why their attention should be directed.
AME Portland Lean Summit - Feb 25-26, 2026 (ALMOST SOLD OUT!)
Don’t miss this opportunity to attend a mini-conference right here in Portland!
Join us at the AME Portland 2026 Lean Summit for a high-impact, people-powered learning experience that explores the evolving edge of continuous improvement. This year’s Summit theme Foundations for the Future brings together forward-thinking leaders, practitioners, and innovators to explore what it truly takes to drive transformation in today’s fast-paced, tech-enabled world.
From human-centered leadership and resilient team cultures, to smart technology, grassroots innovation, and visual management systems, you’ll gain actionable insights and proven tools to strengthen your improvement journey. Whether you’re leading enterprise-wide change, launching digital transformation, or reigniting your CI culture—this event will equip you to lead with purpose, clarity, and impact.
Experience powerful keynotes, interactive workshops, and real-world tours that challenge the status quo and put people at the heart of sustainable performance. Because when people thrive, business thrives.
Learn more and register:
Portland 2026 Summit
NWHPEC member discount: NP-NWHPEC
MoreSteam Webinar: Building a Sustainable Lean Culture from Strategy to Daily Practice - Mar 19 @8am
Why do so many Lean initiatives deliver early wins, only to lose momentum months later?
In many organizations, Lean initiatives progress through training, implementation, and leadership approval, and early results look encouraging. Yet over time, habits drift back and improvement unravels.
In this webinar, Kim Koning, Global Director of Operational Excellence at Aurorium, presents a practical, system-level approach for building a sustainable Lean culture that connects strategy to daily practice. The session explores how leadership behaviors, management systems, and capability development must be intentionally designed so improvement becomes part of the operating fabric of the organization.
This session will cover:
- Why Lean must be intentionally designed as an operating system, not a collection of projects
- How Lean Maturity Assessments provide a quantitative view of current and future-state capability
- The core elements of a Lean Daily Management System (LDMS) and how they reinforce problem-solving behaviors at every level
- How to structure Lean Six Sigma capability development so projects drive impact
- How to build and manage a pipeline of customer- and business-facing improvement projects tied to the Annual Operating Plan
- Practical ways to reinforce culture through coaching, reflection, recognition, and enterprise knowledge sharing
Presenter: Kim Koning – Global Director of Operational Excellence @ Aurorium
Webinar: What is Kata - Mar 25 @9am
Each month Gemma Jones hosts a ‘What is Kata?’ presentation on Zoom.
People attend by booking a free ticket and then choosing (if they wish) to make a donation to the Kata Girl Geeks as a way too raise funds for our group, whilst also spreading the word about Scientific Thinking and Kata.
Note: Some people choose not to donate, and that is fine! Some donate a $1 and some donate more. It all helps.
This is a 60 min presentation about:
💡Why Scientific Thinking is important
💡Why practice routines are useful
💡Where the concept of Kata came from
💡The steps of the Improvement Kata
💡The Coaching Kata
💡What they could do TODAY to start thinking more scientifically
❓Maybe you’d like to come to see how I present the basics of this thing we love?
❓Maybe you’d like to prompt a colleague or friend (or spouse?) to attend, so they understand a little more about this ‘Kata thing’ you keep talking about?
The next three sessions are:
1️⃣ Friday 20th Feb at: 7am Pacific, 10am Eastern US time, 4pm UK time, 5pm Central European time.
2️⃣Wednesday 25th March at: 9am Pacific, 12noon Eastern US time, 4pm UK time, 5pm Central European time.
3️⃣Tuesday 28th April at: 9am Pacific, 10am Eastern US time, 4pm UK time, 5pm Central European time.
You can get tickets via the box office here.