From Forum to Full Staff Meeting: Lean 101 in Action at the City of Ontario

Getting new ideas to stick in a large organization isn't easy. But sometimes the right framework, introduced at the right moment, can change how an entire team thinks about their work. That's exactly what happened when the City of Ontario's Community Life & Culture department discovered how Lean process improvement methodologies could be used for public sector teams.

From Forum to Full Staff Meeting: How Ontario's Community Life & Culture Team Is Bringing Process Improvement to Life

When Andrea and her colleagues from the City of Ontario attended the Spring Forward Forum hosted by the Municipal Management Association of Southern California (MMASC), they weren't expecting to walk away with something they'd immediately want to bring back to 80 of their coworkers. But that's exactly what happened.

Through a Lean 101 certification session led by Partners in Public Innovation at the MMASC's Spring Forward signature event, the team was introduced to Lean process improvement and they knew right away it was worth sharing.

Taking It Back to the Team

Rather than let the momentum fade, Andrea and colleagues Danielle Guevara and Marcella Marina Medina developed a presentation and brought it to their agency's full-time staff meeting for Community Life & Culture, a department that spans Museum, Arts & Culture, Library, Housing, and Recreation & Community Services.

About 80 staff members participated. The diversity of roles in the room wasn't incidental, it was part of the point. Cross-departmental participation meant a wider range of perspectives and a natural opening for the kind of collaborative problem-solving Lean encourages.

The presentation walked through what the Lean Improvement Cycle actually is: a structured approach to defining challenges, measuring results, testing solutions, and iterating based on what you learn. The goal was to make it practical and applicable, not abstract.

A Real Problem, Ready for Lean

One of the most valuable moments in any training is when participants stop seeing frameworks as theoretical and start seeing them in their own work. For this team, that moment came quickly.

The group identified the Ontario Living Magazine, a seasonal publication distributed citywide to highlight programs and events, as a strong candidate for applying the cycle. The magazine involves contributions from multiple departments, making the production process both complex and time-intensive.

By mapping out each step, clarifying roles, and identifying friction points, the team saw an opportunity to improve coordination and efficiency in a process that touches nearly everyone in the agency.

Early Shifts in How the Team Thinks

It's still early, but something is already changing in how staff approach problems:

One tool the trio brought to their team stood out as especially transferable: the Fishbone Diagram. Its visual, accessible format made it easy for staff to map out the potential causes of a process challenge, no matter their department or role. Simple, practical, and immediately useful; exactly the kind of tool that spreads organically.

What Comes Next

The team isn't stopping with the magazine process or a single staff meeting. The goal is to build something more lasting.

Going forward, they plan to create space for departments to present at future staff meetings sharing how they applied the Lean Improvement Cycle, what changed, and what they learned. It's a way of reinforcing not just a methodology, but a mindset: that continuous improvement isn't a one-time project, it's how the work gets done.

As Andrea put it after the presentation: "Looking forward to continuing this journey of continuous improvement and putting Lean into action."

That kind of energy, moving from a forum session to a full agency presentation in a matter of weeks, is exactly how a culture of improvement takes hold.

Stories like Andrea's are a reminder that learning doesn't have to stop at the door of the training room. When people are given the tools and the trust to bring new ideas back to their teams, improvement becomes contagious. We're proud to partner with MMASC in making that possible.

Interested in bringing Lean 101 to your team? We partner with agencies across the country to make practical, impactful training accessible to local government professionals.