Level 2b
Improvement Master Coach

Summary

Compared to a Level 2a practitioner, a Level 2b practitioner will have :

• Higher levels of responsibility in implementation projects, for example, having sole responsibility, as opposed to being part of a leadership team.
• Greater experience through holding a variety of senior CI roles in organisations.
• More Involvement in implementation projects or programmes with a significant scope, for example with inter-organisational dimensions, high strategic or transformational impact, or encompassing the extended enterprise or supply chain.

A maturer and deeper understanding of CI thinking and associated schools of thought.

Prerequisites for the Improvement Master Coach course

• Qualifications/knowledge: LCS Level 1 (a/b/c), Level 2a or equivalent
• Typical experience:
• Approximately five years practical improvement experience at a leadership level, involved in several strategically aligned projects.
• Gained either through in house improvement or consultancy activity
• Has undertaken CI roles in more than one organisation, division, or department.
• Improvement activity encompassing cross-functional teams, supply chains or value streams.

Learning Focus
Deliver a practical implementation project that provides evidence that they can:

• Deploy resources and implement projects.
• Lead and sustain workplace change
• Perform a leadership role, with high levels of responsibility.
• Plan and design a strategically aligned, business-critical improvement project, identifying the appropriate approaches required.
• Mentor, guide and support team members.
• Engage and communicate at all levels.

Level Knowledge Outcomes
The Improvement Master Coach practitioner outcomes are the same as the Improvement Coach, as follows:

• Strategy formation and policy deployment techniques
• Design and deployment of effective and relevant performance measures
• Leadership skills for effective lean team management
• Supply chain management (where sectorally relevant)
• Advanced lean thinking knowledge and techniques, complementary approaches
• Sustainable change and continuous improvement
• Project management, implementation and control

Indicative Topics
The Improvement Coach programme is likely to reference the topics listed below. The list is indicative; some topics may not be relevant, some will require passing reference only and there may be other relevant topics that are not included in the list.

Those selected will depend on several factors, such as the nature of the organisation’s processes, whether it is manufacturing physical goods or delivering intangible services – internally or externally, whether it is private or public sector, etc.

• Advanced CI techniques: eg Factory Physics, lean design, new product/service introduction methods, TRIZ, Appreciative Inquiry
• Associated thinking: eg Theory of Constraints, Six Sigma, Systems Thinking, JIT, TQM, TPM, Agile etc
• Change management; sustaining change
• Coaching, guiding & mentoring
• Communication & facilitation
• Critical thinking, critical analysis
• Lean innovation & design
• Leader standard work, lean management
• Lean implementation frameworks and models
• Performance management & measures
• Strategy development, Policy Deployment/Hoshin Kanri, ‘catch ball’, visual management, QFD, setting direction, visioning, etc
• Project/programme management, implementation and control.
• Sustainability and cultural change
• Team leading, training, developing others

Delivery
A course or programme designed to deliver Level 2 outcomes can be organised in several ways and there is no prescribed format. It will typically use a combination of:

• Face to face, taught in groups – in modules or blocks of days.
• Digital delivery and eLearning.
• Blended learning
• Workplace based guidance and support – going to the ‘Gemba’.
• One to one coaching

The total learning time guidance for a course aligned to L2 is 40 hours. This can include face to face teaching, elearning, assessment, pre/post course reading/research, practical project development, offline group work, on the job training and one-2-one support activities.

Level Assessment
The assessment shall demonstrate that the outcomes have been achieved.

Knowledge
A knowledge assessment shall evidence the practitioner can understand Level 2 knowledge, for example, through a multiple choice test, problem or case-based exams, oral exam or essay exam. Tests can be delivered physically or online.

Practical Application
Practical application shall be evidenced by an implementation report of an improvement project with strategic or transformational dimensions. Consideration can also be given for interviews and presentations by candidates.

The evidence can be in a variety of formats, such as an A3 summary with supporting evidence or an implementation report which typically would contain the following information:

• Executive summary
• Aims & background
• Description, method
• Results & analysis
• Conclusions, reflections & sustainability