Podcast: Crafting a Comprehensive Training Roadmap

How do you build a comprehensive training roadmap for lean and continuous improvement? While there is not one “right” way, this episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement shares what podcast hosts John Dyer and Dr. Mohamed Saleh consider key elements to crafting a training roadmap to successfully guide an organizational transformation.

It is a logical next step to the previous podcast episode, in which the hosts discuss how to develop a specific training class.

Saleh emphasizes the need to assure that alignment exists between training goals and the leadership team’s expectations when developing a roadmap. Failure to do so is a mistake he has made in the past, Saleh says, “and then midway [through rolling out a training program], the leadership team was like, that's not what we signed up for.”

Saleh outlines a four-step process he has used to develop a roadmap but emphasizes the need to avoid a cookie-cutter approach. “Context is everything,” he says. “There has to be a period where you as a teacher have to understand the current state and assess the current state and understand the context of what you're working with.”

Both Saleh and Dyer emphasize the need to design roadmaps that address gaps in capabilities, not simply develop them to achieve certifications, which is “like checking a box” rather than meeting the three goals of training, Dyer says. Additionally, they discuss the need for flexibility in a training curriculum and being prepared to pivot as gaps in capabilities are observed.

The continuous improvement experts also discuss the importance of everyone receiving basic lean training. The effort provides a common language as well as a common set of shared experiences, Dyer notes.