It’s Not About the Badge

For us and our clients who participate on our Lean Competency System (LCS) accredited ‘learning by doing’ programmes – the value comes from the depth of benefits gained from the learning experience, and sustainable capability that is developed within the teams and individuals on the programme. It’s not about the LCS Certification and Badge – although this recognises the work, project implementation, benefits delivered and personal stretch and achievements of the individuals.

It’s a bit liked the Iceberg model – whilst the Certification and Badge show above the waterline – the hard work, overcoming significant challenges and frustrations, experiential learning by doing – making mistakes and learning from them, sustainable skills development and competences, behavioural and cultural change etc – all sit below the waterline.

The real value of the improvements made from working on real problems and projects at the workplace is complemented by the formal assessment and accreditation/certification.

Evidence I am seeing in portfolios is around:

Reflective learning during practical application of the training provided

Interesting that whilst the initial focus is on problem solving and application of Lean Tools and Techniques – the narrative in the case studies and reflective learnings are all around:

Improving the understanding of Customer needs
Stakeholder involvement and engagement
Lean as a ‘system of change’ or CI
Strategic change
Mindset change
Teamwork
Not jumping to conclusions and quick fixes, but working to a structure of sustainable problem solving and solutions to fix problems
Value adding for employees – and most importantly in providing better services for customers
Situational ‘leadership and coaching’

The overall experience is also equipping the successful candidates to have more meaningful developmental conversations during their annual performance review and objective setting for the next year – aligning projects with the strategy.

So if you want your teams to have breadth and depth of sustainable lean & CI capability to support your organisation, contact us to find out more about our Lean Competency System programmes.