Senior Process Engineers and Lean Black Belts Dagmar Vlahos and Thomas Lencki Jr. of the Enterprise IT & Services – Project Management and Process Improvement Office knew that COVID had thrown them a curveball when it came to conducting Introduction to Lean classes. With an increase in demand for training and the changes happening throughout higher education requiring employees to look at how they execute their work they knew they needed to take action and do it quickly.
In the past, Introduction to Lean training which is available to all University System of New Hampshire staff and faculty was an in-person, hands-on course that entailed instruction, team building activities, and hands-on learning. Not knowing when they would be able to get back to in-person training due to the restrictions of Covid Dagmar and Tom got to work to redesign the Introduction to Lean course to be a virtual class. Being a 3.5-hour course they had to be creative with the materials, incorporate activities where participants could engage, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that participants walked away with tools they could implement when they got back to work later that afternoon.
Needless to say when the opened registration for November and December classes they filled up immediately requiring a need to add a third class. Twenty-two employees representing GSC, KSC, PSU, and UNH attended the November 19th virtual course and immediate feedback was positive.
Whether you are new to Lean or if it has been a while since you've attended training this class is for everyone. Whether you want to understand the basics of Lean and how you can contribute to continuing to build a Lean culture in higher education or you are curious about what everyone is talking about this class is for you. Tools such as 5S, 5 Whys, and Gemba Walk are just some of what you will learn.
For more information about Lean training programs, dates of training and to register go to: https://www.unh.edu/lean/training-learning-opportunities
This training is open to all University System of New Hampshire employees (GSC, KSC, PSU, UNH, and USNH).
