leadership Archives

14Apr 2025 by Jennifer Ayers

Building Your Lean Management System – April 2, 16, & 30th (FULL)

Application~, Deploying Strategy~, Developing People~, Events, Intermediate~

Reach out if you want to join the waitlist. Join us for this 12-hour Lean Management System workshop, spread out over five weeks to provide a fully immersive experience where you design your pilot program, tweak, or revamp your existing LMS. Summary Most initial attempts at lean and continuous improvement focus on tools and improvement events (aka kaizen events). Unfortunately, after a while, people notice that the “lean journey” has lost most of its momentum, energy, engagement, focus, and breakthrough results. The lean management system (LMS) is a framework for building a culture of continuous improvement and shared learning. Its focus is on developing people to solve problems to improve performance. In this environment, improvement is not driven by a few lean champions but by everyone. Now everyone has a…

30Jul 2024 by Jennifer Ayers

Lean Leadership Skills to Engage the Heart, Head, and Hands (3H) – Starts Sept 18th (FULL)

Application~, Classes, Developing People~, Leadership~

A day in the life of a Leader can be challenging. Leaders are faced with pressures from the business (quality, delivery, productivity) along with the often highly emotional demands of managing people. Your people are the foundation and critical link to the success of your business. To be an effective leader, one must first develop an understanding of and a system for building and maintaining relationships (engaging the heart 💜). Culture begins with us. If we are not primed to emulate the core values and culture of our organization, we can’t expect our team members to consistently perform and respond to situations and problems in ways we expect by engaging their critical thinking skills (using their head 😊). Unleashed potential is a hidden gem within your team/organization. The leading indicator for morale and engagement is the willingness of our employees to step…

07May 2024 by Jennifer Ayers

Lead with Respect – May 15 & 22 (FULL)

Application~, Classes, Developing People~, Intermediate~, Leadership~

Practices to Enable Engagement, Teamwork & Accountability Facilitated by Mike Orzen, Shingo Prize Winning Author & Lean Enterprise Institute, Shingo Institute and The Ohio State faculty member How We Lead Matters Building a great organization requires effective leadership at all levels. How we lead determines the quality of our connection with others. Perhaps now more than ever, we need to connect with our people to build safety, trust, and healthy relationships. It turns out these skills can be learned. A key element that is often misunderstood is what it means to Lead with Respect (LwR) and connect with people on a level which inspires engagement, teamwork, and accountability. This hands-on workshop explores why leading with respect is essential, how to put LwR into practice to inspire people to drive better relationships…

25Jan 2024 by Jennifer Ayers

Webinar: Creating & Sustaining a Lean Culture with Model Cells – Feb 7th

Webinar

Join us for a lean webinar on the use of Model Cells to create and sustain a Lean culture. In late 2021, North Coast Container (formerly Myers Container) embarked on a journey to establish a culture of sustainability and efficiency, starting with the implementation of a "Model Cell" strategy. Shawn Valladolid enthusiastically shared their inspiring journey with NWHPEC during a webinar in February 2022 (you can watch it here). The introduction of the Model Cell concept provided a valuable testing ground for North Coast Container to explore and refine various lean principles and behaviors that they aimed to promote. It provided them with the perfect opportunity to experiment and further enhance their standards for a Model Cell that could be replicated not only at their CA site, but also at…

25Jan 2024 by Jennifer Ayers

Leader Standard Work – Feb 9th (FULL, join waitlist)

Application~, Beginner~, Classes, Leadership~

Leader Standard Work: Creating your new leadership routine (online class) Class Description The February 9th class is full, but the waitlist is growing. Please let Jennifer know if you’re interested in this topic, we will likely hold another class in March. The true purpose of leadership is to empower and develop your employees so they can achieve awesome things. To accomplish this, you need a standard way of working that will allow you to maximize your efficiency and impact while fulfilling your most important duty to your people.As the whirlwind takes over our day, we quickly lose control of our priorities. Once we fall into firefighting mode, our ability to improve and sustain processes and activities becomes secondary. This is where Leader Standard Work (LSW) comes into play. LSW is the…

24Jan 2024 by Jennifer Ayers

Webinar: How You Lead Matters – Feb 21st

Leadership~, Webinar

How You Lead Matters: Key elements to creating an engaged team We often encounter what seems to be a crisis in employee turnover, but in truth, it is a crisis of leadership. According to the Harris Poll Toxic Bosses Survey, a staggering 85% of American workers believe that having a respectful and nurturing manager would greatly enhance their engagement at work. Dan Shannon experienced this firsthand. He was entrusted with the task of leading a customer service team that lacked engagement and experienced a high annual turnover rate of 40%. The employees had been conditioned to think that their work was a job, not a career. Furthermore, making mistakes and seeking assistance were viewed as a major inconvenience. Dan used the upside-down pyramid philosophy of a servant leader to influence…

12Jan 2024 by Jennifer Ayers

Leader Standard Work – Jan 19th (FULL, join the waitlist)

Application~, Classes, Intermediate~, Leadership~

Leader Standard Work: Creating your new leadership routine (online class) The January 19th class is full, but the waitlist is growing. Please let Jennifer know if you're interested in this topic, we will likely hold another class in February. The true purpose of leadership is to empower and develop your employees so they can achieve awesome things. To accomplish this, you need a standard way of working that will allow you to maximize your efficiency and impact while fulfilling your most important duty to your people.As the whirlwind takes over our day, we quickly lose control of our priorities. Once we fall into firefighting mode, our ability to improve and sustain processes and activities becomes secondary. This is where Leader Standard Work (LSW) comes into play. LSW is the foundation…

Tag: leadership