Lean Leadership - hard lean tools and soft leadership skills
A development program integrating the two pillars of the Toyota Way: hard operational lean tools (Value Stream Mapping, A3 Thinking, PDCA, Standard Work, 5S, Improvement Kata) with soft servant leadership (Gemba Walk, coaching through questions, respect for people, Hoshin Kanri). The training addresses the most common failure pattern in lean rollouts - the separation of operational tools from daily leadership practice. Participants learn to lead Gemba Walks, coach their team using Toyota Kata (Mike Rother), apply A3 structure to problem solving and build a continuous improvement culture rooted in respect for people. An intensive two-day format with workshops, paired exercises and case studies drawn from lean rollouts in services, IT and manufacturing.
Why this training?
Most lean rollouts stop at the tool level - 5S, Kanban, visual boards - ignoring what Toyota treats as fundamental: daily leadership practice. Leaders learn “how to run Value Stream Mapping” and “how to deploy PDCA”, but no one teaches them how to be a lean manager on a daily basis: how to walk gemba, how to coach using Toyota Kata, how to ask questions instead of giving answers, how to respond to problems in the spirit of respect for people.
The result? Organizations that spent hundreds of thousands on “lean transformation” slide back to previous habits after two years. Tools stay on the walls, leadership reverts to command-and-control. What’s missing is integration - and this training addresses exactly that gap.
What sets the program apart?
- Two pillars in one program: hard lean tools (VSM, A3, PDCA, Standard Work, 5S) combined with soft leadership competencies (Gemba Walk, Coaching Kata, servant leadership, Hoshin Kanri) - the way Toyota connects them.
- Mike Rother’s Toyota Kata: practical Coaching Kata exercises in pairs - the most underappreciated part of Toyota’s system.
- Case studies from three industries: manufacturing, services and IT - the tools are universal, but interpretation depends on context.
- Workshops, not just lectures: participants leave with their own Value Stream Map, A3 report, Hoshin Kanri draft and a 90-day leader development plan.
- Integration with the participant’s reality: the final module is work on a personal Lean Leadership model tailored to the participant’s style, organization and industry - not a Toyota copy, but a mature adaptation.”
Outcomes for the organization
After the training, leaders run daily Gemba Walks, coach teams instead of controlling them, use A3 as the standard for problem solving and cascade goals through Hoshin Kanri. For the organization this means durability of the lean deployment - tools don’t gather dust on the walls because they are sustained by daily leadership habits. Teams raise problems on their own because leaders respond in the spirit of respect for people rather than looking for culprits. The outcome is a continuous improvement culture that doesn’t need to be re-deployed every two years.
Benefits
- Understand the Toyota Way philosophy as the integration of hard tools and soft leadership
- Master Value Stream Mapping, A3 Thinking, PDCA and Standard Work at a practitioner level
- Acquire the skill of conducting Gemba Walks as a daily leadership practice
- Learn coaching via Toyota Kata (Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata)
- Develop servant leadership competencies in the context of continuous improvement
- Master Hoshin Kanri - cascading strategic goals throughout the organization
- Draft a personal Lean Leadership model tailored to the participant's organization
Who is this training for?
Prerequisites
- Experience in team or project management
- Basic familiarity with lean concepts (5S, Kaizen, muda) - welcome but not required
- Openness to personal development as a leader, readiness to change daily management habits
Training program
Toyota Way - the philosophical foundation of Lean Leadership
- Two pillars of the Toyota Way: Continuous Improvement and Respect for People
- The leader's role in the Toyota system - coach and developer, not command-and-control
- Jeffrey Liker's Lean Leadership - the four stages of leader development
- Why lean rollouts often fail - the separation of tools from leadership
- Discussion: how lean leadership differs from traditional management
Lean Thinking in a nutshell - 5 principles and 7 muda
- Womack and Jones's five lean principles: value, stream, flow, pull, perfection
- Seven wastes (muda): transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing, defects
- The eighth muda - untapped human potential
- Mura (unevenness) and Muri (overburden) - completing the picture
- Workshop: identifying waste in the participant's process
Value Stream Mapping - diagnosing the value stream
- Current State Map - capturing today's state
- Bottleneck and waste-source analysis
- Future State Map - designing the target state
- Value Stream Mapping in services and IT (VSM for digital processes)
- Workshop: mapping a value stream of a process chosen by the participant
A3 Thinking - structured problem solving
- A3 report structure - 8 sections: background, current state, goals, root cause analysis, proposed solution, implementation plan, follow-up, lessons learned
- Root cause analysis: 5 Whys and Ishikawa (fishbone diagram)
- A3 as a coaching tool - the leader as mentor to the report's author
- Workshop: drafting an A3 report for a selected problem
Standard Work, PDCA and Kaizen
- Standard Work as the foundation of continuous improvement
- The PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) as the team's operating rhythm
- Kaizen events vs daily Kaizen - two levels of improvement
- 5S and Visual Management as a visible manifestation of the standard
- Case study: PDCA rollout in a service team
Toyota Kata - Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata (Mike Rother)
- Improvement Kata - the four-step rhythm of moving toward a goal
- Coaching Kata - the leader-coach's five questions
- Coaching practice: the leader coaches the team, the sensei coaches the leader
- The Kata Board - a tool for daily practice
- Workshop: Coaching Kata simulation in pairs
Gemba Walk - go see, ask why, show respect
- Gemba philosophy - the place where the work happens
- Gemba Walk as a daily leadership practice, not an inspection
- The art of asking questions: 'what do you see?', 'what standards apply?', 'how do you know they work?'
- What not to do during a Gemba Walk - classic leader mistakes
- Workshop: Gemba Walk simulation with debrief
Servant Leadership - the leader as coach
- Greenleaf's servant leadership and its application in lean
- The leader's ego as the main barrier to transformation
- Humility, patience, continuous learning - traits of a lean leader
- Developing people as the leader's key KPI
- Case study: Toyota leaders facing crises - posture vs decisions
Respect for People - the second pillar of the Toyota Way
- Respect for People in daily practice - what it really means
- Cultural differences: Japanese Toyota vs Western context
- Building trust as a prerequisite for raising problems
- How to react to team mistakes - culture of learning vs culture of blame
- Exercise: audit of the participant's own response style to team errors
Hoshin Kanri - cascading strategic goals
- Hoshin Kanri as the Japanese answer to Management by Objectives
- Catchball - cascading dialogue between organizational levels
- X-matrix as a visualization tool for strategic goals
- Cascade to daily work - from strategy to the Kata Board
- Workshop: sketching Hoshin Kanri for a chosen strategic goal
Continuous improvement culture - how to build it
- Three levels of culture: artifacts, espoused values, underlying assumptions (Schein)
- The four stages of lean leader development (Liker, Convis) - self-development, coaching others, supporting daily Kaizen, creating vision
- Typical lean rollout mistakes - imitating tools without the leadership
- Lean culture indicators - how to measure the unmeasurable
- Leader development plan - 90 days
Integration - your personal Lean Leadership model
- Audit of the participant's own leadership style through the Lean Leadership lens
- Three changes I'll implement in the next month
- Leadership rituals: daily, weekly, monthly, annual
- Building a community of practice in the organization - sensei-led learning
- Training close - individual participant commitments
Delivery Methods
Online
- Convenience of participating from anywhere
- Interactive live sessions with trainer
- Materials available for 30 days
- No travel costs
On-site
- Direct contact with trainer and group
- Intensive hands-on workshops
- Networking with other participants
- Full focus on learning
Frequently asked questions
Who is this training for?
For middle and senior managers, lean managers, operations directors and scrum/tech team leaders. The program works in manufacturing, services and IT contexts - the tools are universal, the case studies are matched to the participants' industries.
Do I need to know lean to participate?
No. The training includes a condensed Lean Thinking section (5 principles, 7 muda) at the start of day 1. People familiar with lean gain a new leadership perspective; newcomers gain solid foundations and tools.
How is this different from standard lean management courses?
Typical lean trainings focus on tools (5S, Kanban, VSM). This training integrates hard tools with soft leadership (Gemba Walk, Coaching Kata, servant leadership, Hoshin Kanri) - exactly the way Toyota uses them in real operational practice.
What is the training format?
The training lasts 2 days (16 hours) and is available online and on-site. It combines lecture blocks with workshops (VSM, A3), paired exercises (Coaching Kata, Gemba Walk) and case study discussions. We can customize the schedule to fit your team's needs.
Will I receive a certificate?
Yes - every participant receives an EITT completion certificate and a full set of materials, including an A3 report template, Hoshin Kanri X-matrix template and a Gemba Walk checklist.
Request a quote
Funding Options
Check funding options for your company
Development Services Database
Up to 80% funding for SMEs from EU funds
Check availabilityNational Training Fund
Up to 100% funding for employers
Learn moreTrusted by
We train teams at Poland's largest companies
Interested in this training?
Contact us - we'll prepare an offer tailored to your organization's needs.