While everyone has a role in applying lean in the workplace, senior and mid-level management must be particularly committed to lean. That's why this workshop has been designed to assist and engage management in defining the organizational and cultural problems faced in a continuous improvement environment.

Based on the book Managing to Learn by John Shook, this workshop will teach participants A3 thinking and how to engage performance improvement from an organizational perspective. To facilitate group discussions, training will be combined with examples of completed A3s. Breakout team exercises will then be used to progressively challenge the thinking of the attendees in terms of using A3s as both a tactical tool and a tool to teach and mentor employees.

Each step of the A3 process will be defined and the challenge of managing cultural change will be discussed. Attendees are encouraged to bring an actual A3 from their organization to think through, share and discuss during this workshop.

In this workshop:

• Hear about the problems organization face as change is approached in a traditional manner.
• Find out how to link cultural problem-solving to the A3 process.
• Learn the shift in leadership role within a continuous improvement culture.
• Practice engaging an organization in surfacing cultural and social problems associated with their selected problems.
• Develop a PDCA cycle for a management system to support the problem-solving efforts.
• Prepare an A3 document to communicate and engage with your staff.
• Take home new management approaches to adopting lean.