Lean Practitioners Association
of Saskatchewan
2023 LPAS Speakers
Katie Anderson
Keynote: Leading to Learn: Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement by closing the GAPS
How do you move from a culture of “doing” to a culture of continuous improvement?
Problem-solving is about closing the gaps between where we are today and where we need to be. In many organizations, the focus of problem-solving is on closing business or process gaps that need to be closed – of business results that are needed. However, to create a sustainable Leading to Learn culture of continuous improvement across the organization, that enables the ability to achieve these results, leaders also need to focus on closing behavioral gaps -- in themselves and their team members -- to enable more effective problem-solving capabilities. This means closing the gaps between a traditional culture of “doing” and transitioning to a people-centered culture of learning. Discover the four essential G.A.P.S that enable leaders and team members alike to cultivate learning in others – and themselves. Be inspired to set your intention and take action to close your own GAPS.
Workshop: Break the Telling Habit: Coaching Skills for Continuous Improvement
Join this interactive workshop with internationally recognized leadership consultant and best-selling author Katie Anderson and learn how to break your telling habit and transform your leadership!
You’ll learn how to use powerful questions and purposeful listening to make your leadership and coaching more effective and empowering, freeing you from having to be the expert who has have all the answers, and teaching your team how to learn and create solutions that far exceed what any one person could come up with alone.
You'll spend time together practicing creating and asking powerful questions, where you will both practice giving and receiving live coaching question so you can know for certain exactly how to bring this learning home and start applying it in your organization.
If you can learn to break the “telling habit” and start tapping into the power of effective questions, you open up whole new horizons of possibility for your organization, your team, and yourself!
About the Speaker:
Katie Anderson is an internationally recognized leadership and learning coach, consultant, and professional speaker, best known for inspiring individuals and organizations to lead with intention, and increase their personal and professional impact.
Katie is passionate about helping people around the world learn to lead and lead to learn by connecting purpose, process, and practice to achieve higher levels of performance. She has deep expertise and experience leading and coaching change in a variety of industries and is highly regarded among experts in the lean leadership space.
In 2015 Katie and her family moved to Tokyo for an 18-month experience in Japan. What began as a connection filled with deep conversations evolved into the international Amazon #1 bestselling book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn: Lessons from Toyota Leader Isao Yoshino on a Lifetime of Continuous Learning.
Katie retains a strong connection to Japan and leads frequent study trips to Japan for leaders looking to deepen their knowledge of lean leadership, the Toyota Way, and Japanese culture.
Katie holds a BA with honors from Stanford University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Australia, where she received her Master’s degree in public health from Sydney University. Katie currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two sons, nearly a dozen chickens and hundreds of daruma dolls.
Lead with Intention | Katie Anderson | Leadership Coach & Author (kbjanderson.com)
3sHealth
Bold and Courageous Leadership At Every Level - How 3sHealth Employees Make Meaningful Improvements Every Day
3sHealth has worked together for over a decade to build a culture of continuous improvement. Hear from two 3sHealth front-line employees about how they have been able work with their teams to improve their everyday work. Debbie Barabash, a Senior Payroll Specialist and trainer, was initially skeptical when 3sHealth asked employees to meet a monthly target for implementing small improvement ideas. Today continuous small improvements is one of the things she loves most about her job. Sherri Welsh is a Benefits Information Coordinator who, as part of an in-house lean training program, mapped out a process and helped her team achieve a dramatic improvement. Both of these employees will share how 3sHealth’s culture helps them produce excellent results and feel good about coming to work every day.
Presented By:
Debbie Barabash - Senior Payroll Specialist
Debbie Barabash is an experienced payroll resource with 37 years experience. She currently works with 3sHealth as a Senior Payroll Specialist in the Provincial Payroll and Scheduling Services Department which is responsible for providing payroll service to pay and report on Saskatchewan healthcare employees. Debbie has successfully implemented new clients to the payroll service, provided training, and is passionate about lean. Debbie is always highly customer centered. Her expertise is payroll system knowledge, planning, accuracy and details. In her free time, Debbie spends time with her three puppies and enjoys gardening and puttering outside. She is known for growing big garlic and says that the garlic growing cycle is a spiritual journey! Connect with her on LinkedIn for a chat!
Sherri Welsh - Benefits Information Coordinator
Sherri supports the governance of the Employee Benefit Plan Trusts that provide benefits to 46,000 Saskatchewan health care workers. Sherri is a recent graduate of 3sHealth’s Lean Improvement Leader Training Program. Sherri is always ready for a new challenge. She strives to achieve excellence in every process and always puts her customer first. When Sherri is not at work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two young sons camping, golfing, and being at the hockey rink.
Level: Intermediate
SaskEnergy
Voice of the Employee - Organizational Channels and Tools for Connecting with Employees
In a large and distributed organization, building a culture of continuous improvement needs to be multi-faceted, with a variety of tools and mechanisms used to create an engaging dialogue with employees. Through the implementation of a comprehensive People Strategy, three “Pillars of Success” were developed. This strategy includes an imbedded multi-channel approach to engage and empower employees throughout the organizational hierarchy in a culture of continuous improvement. We observed that employees throughout the organization are very passionate about improving the outcomes within their own business units and generally have the best solutions to the challenges the business faces. However, employees did not always have the tools to implement these ideas. As part of this program, we determined that a systematic approach to capture, communicate, and empower those ideas was necessary. Through the Voice of Employee Strategy, we are effectively identifying, actioning, and solutioning everyday opportunities, while engaging and supporting employees along the way.
Presented By:
Dan Dietrich - Manager, Operational Effectiveness
As the Manager, Operational Effectiveness, Dan is focused on fostering a culture of CI by helping create an organization that uses data to drive decision making. Dan was instrumental in establishing SaskEnergy’s Management Operating System. This system included the development of a standardized approach for monitoring business performance and driving data driven decisions, creating a capacity to action CI opportunities. With a BSc. and MSc. in the fields of environment and sustainability, he brings a unique perspective to the application of CI. His interests include data driven management, employee engagement and business sustainability. He has participated on several industry committees, focused on reducing waste, while promoting responsible industry development. Dan and his team were recently nationally recognized by the Canadian Gas Association for their efforts in streamlining and automating cultural, environmental and geotechnical screenings for natural gas infrastructure.
A-Jay Medwid - Director of Operations Support
A-Jay Medwid is the Director of Operations Support for SaskEnergy, where he has spent the past seven years leading and setting the overall workforce management direction for the organization. His leadership was instrumental in the organizations efforts to amalgamate SaskEnergy’s distribution and transmission field services work into one common work management system. A-Jay is passionate about CI, which was evident through his leadership in the strategy development and implementation of the Operational Effectiveness team at SaskEnergy. This team is responsible for developing a coordinated approach to facilitate CI across the core business, which includes field operations, contact centers and divisional management. As a Professional Engineer, A-Jay has spent most of his career with SaskEnergy in Regina. Outside of work, he enjoys golf, music, family time and is actively involved in youth sports with his two children.
Level: Beginner
Brandt
Halftime Adjustments - The Strategic Application of PDCA to Advance the CI Culture During Record-breaking Growth
PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Adjust/Adapt) is probably one of the first lean tools we learn on our journey, so why not apply it to our CI strategy? Join us as we discuss some of our experiences evolving a CI culture after one of the largest years of growth our company has ever seen.
Presented By: