On-demand training is coming this winter, and I admit I was wrong.
Tl;dr: We're introducing new on-demand training options! Our Lean Leaders™ innovation certification program will re-launch in February; MMANC members have until Dec. 13 to pre-register at a special pilot rate. Lean 101® will follow soon after. For the details about pricing and signups, jump to "How will it work?" at the bottom. For the full story of why we're doing this, read on!
Ryan eats his words the first time
One day in 2019, when I was leading the Lean program in San Francisco, I got an unusual training request: The Public Utilities Commission maintains a watershed and reservoir in the high Sierra, and they wanted us to provide Lean 101® training to their off-site staff in Moccasin (a company town owned by SF -- look it up!). It was too far for us to run a half-day training as a day trip. They asked us to do it online.
I said no.
Our training is too interactive, I said. The only online trainings I'd ever had were boring webinars, reading off a PowerPoint, and I wasn't about to do that. I make people talk in tables, get out of their chairs, put stickies on the wall. How can I do all that on a screen? Plus, as a trainer, I get a lot of energy from working a room, pacing around. I didn't think any of that would come through over a screen. It'll never work online.
And then COVID happened.
Suddenly, we all had to reconsider what work really had to happen in person. We were forced to innovate. And wouldn't you know, we discovered online whiteboarding tools that were light years beyond PowerPoint that did a fine job of replicating collaborative in-person work. We learned how to manage breakout rooms and preserve dynamic small group discussion.
We did lose a few things by going online -- I really can't stop you if you want to check your email during class -- but we gained a ton:
We can train dispersed teams or cross-jurisdictional teams without having to get everyone to be in the same place.
Removing the need to organize conference rooms and gather physical materials saves a lot of time, energy, and money.
We introduce people to online collaboration tools that many continue to use with their teams afterwards (who are often hybrid themselves nowadays).
We have a standard way of teaching Impact-Effort that can be deployed in person or live online.
Plus we didn't lose the ability to train people in person -- now we can flexibly deploy either one, depending on the client and the need.
COVID forced us to innovate, but it came too late for the staff in Moccasin. By then I'd left SF, and we never did train them.
Ryan eats his words again
Fast forward to 2024, and we're again noticing problems with people being able to access our training content:
Live training requires coordinating the schedule of a couple dozen people. This takes a ton of work for our clients; in some cases, it's impossible.
We have to peg training to specific dates -- especially Lean Leaders™, which requires pre-committing to taking whole days off work months in advance. We always lose people who have planned vacations or who can't step away during a busy work season (year-end close anyone?). Sometimes people get sick or must deal with a crisis, and then they miss out entirely.
We can only offer live Lean Leaders™ once or twice a year. We also have to get enough people together to justify a cohort. When we have individuals or small groups who want to take it, we've had to turn people away.
Cost is prohibitive -- Live training is expensive, but a live Lean Leaders' spot (with a $4500 price tag) exceeds what most staff can manage on their own.
So we're trying something new to address these obstacles: we're creating on-demand training.
Like before, I've been skeptical: We've all taken on-demand training that's just a video of someone reading off a PowerPoint. And like before, I'm anxious about what we'll lose: I love having different agencies learn from one another, I love responding to questions in real time, and I think my own style is best live.
But here's what we're now going to be able to offer:
Flexibility: Trainees can start whenever they want. They can take the training all at once, or break it up into chunks. You can give Lean 101® to your whole team without requiring your whole team to get into a room at the same time. You can train one staff or a hundred without having to worry about filling 25-person cohorts.
Ongoing access. Trainees will be able to re-watch modules for up to a year. Want to review process mapping five times to get it right? You can!
Incorporating the toolbox. We've always given our trainees access to our reference guides, templates, and tools, but honestly they get buried in our current Miro boards. Now they will be downloadable with each module.
Subscription plans. Agencies who want an org-wide innovation approach can subscribe to the training and make it free to their staff.
Reduced cost. Turns out that using live staff to teach the same content over and over is a fair amount of extra work. If we can standardize the parts of the training that are the same every time, we can reduce our time required -- and therefore reduce what we have to charge to cover our own costs.
And just like before, we're getting creative to preserve so much of what makes our training great:
Live coaching: We've always been laser-focused on getting to implementation -- coaching from our PPI experts helps people apply what they're learning to their own context. We can now spend our staff time focused on the individual problems of our trainees, rather than continually teaching the content. Lean Leaders™ will keep its 1-1 coaching, while Lean 101® will introduce group coaching sessions.
Certification: We've always considered Lean Leaders™ a major professional development landmark and a certification program -- but we've been inconsistent in referring to it that way. We're now more clearly articulating Lean Leaders™ as a credential, with specific requirements to meet to become a certified Lean Leader.
Live options still available: If you want live training for your team, online or in-person, we'll still offer them by client request. We're now quite adept at kicking off an improvement effort and a team huddle using a Lean 101®, and those are great in-person.
So we're doing this! Justine and I are furiously writing scripts and re-designing exercises. Liz is cranking out lessons in Teachable. Filming began November 18, and our videographer is editing as I write this.
It's a ridiculous amount of work, when we'd really rather be cooking turkeys and hanging tinsel. But we're also really excited about being able to dramatically expand access to what is, frankly, one of only a handful of programs in the country designed specifically for public sector process improvement.
How's it gonna work?
For now, we are moving two trainings to on-demand:
Lean 101®, our half-day introductory training in public sector improvement
Lean Leaders™ certification, our multi-month certification program for emerging leaders in leading process improvement projects
Other trainings in our catalog may follow later, depending on interest and our capacity.
As before, anyone can jump right into Lean 101®. Lean Leaders™ still requires participants to work on a project during the course of the training. They will develop the project scope early on, and they will need to present their analysis out to their boss or process owner in order to complete the program and earn their certification.
What is it? | Instructional time | Planned total time (with exercises) | Coaching | Individual registration price | |
Lean 101® | Introduction to public sector innovation | ~4 hours | ~8 hours | 2 hours group coaching | $549 ($399 w/o coaching) |
Lean Leaders™ certification | Emerging leaders learn to lead innovation projects through hands-on experience | ~8 hours | ~40 hours | 5 hours 1-1 coaching | $2199 ($1499 w/o coaching) |
During the pilot period, we're excited to be partnering with MMANC for this pilot, and we're currently offering $600 off Lean Leaders to MMANC members who pre-register by Dec. 13. (Put differently, you can pay the $1499 non-coaching price but get coaching!) And, MMANC just approved Lean Leaders™ as a Certified Government Leader (CGL) course in Creative and Critical Thinking, so MMANC members can work on two certifications at once!
Lean Leaders™ is on track to go live in February 2025. At that point, registration will be open to anyone, anytime. Lean 101® is the next priority and should be ready in March or April.
Agency-wide subscriptions
If you want to build innovation skills across your agency, you can also get an annual subscription to get unlimited access to both Lean 101® and Lean Leaders™ for a year. It's a better deal if you're training more than a couple dozen folks. You can even work with us for training content while providing your own coaching! Contact us for pricing details.
We're trying to practice what we preach, piloting new things quickly and making rapid iterative improvement! We're really looking forward to feedback from our early Lean Leaders™ to iron out any issues. I promise that any bumps you experience will be counterbalanced with extra TLC from us and your coach.
If you're an MMANC member, I hope you'll hop on board the Lean Leaders™ train today! For everyone else, we'll see you in February!
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