Lean Basics for Personal and Organizational Productivity

Traditionally, we think of lean in the context of manufacturing operations – the production of a “widget.” In the context of higher education, we don’t produce a typical product. What we aim to produce are students with the skills and mindsets capable of successfully completing their academic program and leading fulfilling lives. Lean focuses on the needs of the student, drives transparency through visual management (making the invisible, visible), focuses on solving problems at the root cause, pursues continuous improvement, and empowers staff closest to problems to enact solutions.

Lean is a set of principles and methods used to identify and eliminate waste in processes. Lean helps organizations and professionals improve the speed and quality of their processes by getting rid of unnecessary activity such as duplication, document errors, extra steps, and waiting time. In this session, advisors will learn the basic principles and easy-to-implement practices of the lean process improvement framework. Participants will leave with a set of methods and strategies they can enact in their individual work lives, in their offices, and across campus.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will:

Understand the principles of lean thinking
Learn the language, tools, and conceptual points-of-view to design and execute high-quality lean improvements on campus

Presenter

Mike Dial, Associate Director of Undergraduate Academic Advising, University Advising Center