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
LEI Webinar: Building Communities That Learn: Lessons from the AI Frontier with Gene Kim - Jan 21 @10am
Join host Tyson Heaton for a candid conversation with Gene Kim—Wall Street Journal bestselling author, 2025 Philip B. Crosby Medal recipient, and founder of the DevOps Enterprise Summit—as he shares hard-won lessons on navigating profound technological change.
AME Webinar: Sustaining employee engagement: How to ensure your employees are healthy, happy and productive - Jan 22 @9am
In this session, presenter Lonnie Wilson will present a series of three workshops to explain how you can improve the “stickiness” of your projects by improving your workforce engagement. This 1-hour webinar will introduce precisely how you can measure your engagement levels and achieve sustainability of improvement efforts. You’ll learn how you can measure your current levels of engagement, focus on the areas needing attention and make the necessary improvements.
We will show you how to use the System Dynamics model and other techniques to satisfy the intrinsic needs of the entire workforce where people are not only productive, but at the end of the day, they can say they achieved joy in their work. This happens when the management team can create an environment where “people have the opportunity to perform well and are able to become the best version of themselves at work.” You get all this for your people but also you will find the costs, accidents and employee attrition measurably drop, while profits, productivity, delivery, and morale measurably improve.
This webinar is designed for 1-hour, and we have designed it with lots of time for Q&A. Join us for this introduction to our workshops and watch the smile-to-frown ratios in your facility … skyrocket.
AME Webinar: What is Kata? An Introduction - Feb 4 @noon
Join coaches Mark Rosenthal, Tracy Dafoe, and Maria Grzanka for an introduction to the Coaching Kata and the Improvement Kata, two routines to bring daily continuous learning to your workplace, as set out in Mike Rother’s Toyota Kata books.
Where do these routines come from? Why put in the effort to learn and coach? They will take you through the background, reasons and results of practicing the Coaching Kata and the Improvement Kata, helping people solve problems scientifically even when the path isn’t clear.
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 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 Summit - Feb 25-26, 2026
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