Five Initiatives, One Mission: Building the Future of People at Work

On a Sunday afternoon in October, in Manchester, New Hampshire, something remarkable happened. Twenty-six continuous improvement practitioners gathered—some in person, others joining virtually—not for another conference session, but to actively build the future they want to see. The FPWork Sunday Working Session ahead of the Northeast Lean Conference demonstrated what happens when organizations stop competing and start collaborating.

Beyond Presentation: Working Together

This wasn't a typical meeting with presentations and passive listening. Five initiative teams broke into concurrent sessions, each tackling different dimensions of the same challenge: how do we make continuous improvement more accessible, more effective, and more human-centered in an increasingly complex world?

The energy in the room reflected genuine excitement about practical problems being solved in real time. Teams weren't waiting for perfect conditions or complete alignment—they were planning, learning, and building momentum together.

What's Being Built

Lean into AI: The Two-Way Street

Kelly Reo and the Ohio State team are halfway through their six-part webinar series, and the "wine and cheese pairing" format—combining AI experts with lean practitioners—is resonating strongly. But here's what makes this initiative particularly valuable: it's not just about how continuous improvement practitioners can use AI. It's equally about how AI development itself needs to incorporate continuous improvement thinking.

As artificial intelligence transforms workplaces, someone needs to ensure these tools actually serve people and processes rather than just automating problems. The Lean into AI team is exploring how to extend their webinar content into targeted blogs, video clips, and podcasts—all with an appropriately lean approach to content development.

NextGen: Starting with Scientific Thinking

Jeanne Carey and Vickie Pisowicz are asking a foundational question: What if the challenge with engaging the next generation isn't about teaching them specific improvement tools, but about cultivating scientific thinking as a prerequisite mindset?

Their hypothesis shifts the conversation from "which methodology should we teach?" to "how do we help young professionals develop the experimental, evidence-based thinking that underlies all improvement work?" They're developing surveys and reaching out to leaders to better understand the relationship between scientific method thinking and improvement adoption, testing approaches that could strengthen environments supporting this fundamental capability.

By engaging people early in their careers—high school students, two-year program participants, and young professionals—this initiative could provide a universal foundation that helps practitioners make informed, contextual decisions about which improvement methods and tools best fit their challenges.

Adjacent Communities: Navigating Multiple Methodologies

Bruce Hamilton, Toshiyuki Kitamura, and their team are building something organizations desperately need: a decision matrix for selecting improvement methodologies based on specific problems and contexts. Their core hypothesis acknowledges what most practitioners already know—organizations benefit from having multiple approaches available.

Toshi emphasized the importance of starting with the right questions and understanding organizational frustration points before selecting methodologies. The team is expanding its scope beyond operations to include design, sales, HR, and other functions, recognizing that improvement work doesn't stop at the manufacturing floor.

They're engaging real end-user organizations like Joy Goor at Stanford Health Care and Amberly Carter at O.C. Tanner to understand how practitioners actually navigate methodology selection in practice. The goal isn't to declare one approach superior, but to help organizations match tools to challenges effectively.

Ways of Working: Integrating the Human Dimension

Susanna Watson's team is tackling what might be the most challenging integration of all: ensuring that people patterns are embedded alongside technical improvement work, not added as "sprinkles on ice cream" afterward.

Colleen Soppelsa's framework treats people patterns like value stream mapping, but for behaviors—examining the human dimension while using technical tools rather than as a separate activity.

Dana Miller is experimenting with business architecture integration, while Angela Wolfram at JSW Steel is exploring how 5S implementation can focus on individual benefits.

As Deb Thompson framed it, this work is about building cultures where people can grow and thrive. Or as the team puts it more directly: documenting how to make work "suck less" through holistic approaches that honor both technical and social transformation.

CEO Outreach: Finding the Right Foundation

Josh Howell's team, presented by Dan Fleming, is planning a 2026 event at Toyota headquarters in Dallas while refining their understanding of which organizations are ready for lean transformation. They've identified five key values that indicate lean-readiness: long-term focus, people focus, strategic fit, leadership stability, and servant leadership.

The timing may be particularly favorable. Reshoring considerations, tariff concerns, and extreme stress in healthcare (with financial pressure and burnout-driven turnover) are creating urgency. The team's goal isn't to convince every organization to adopt lean, but to find the 10-20% who already have the right cultural foundation but don't yet know that lean offers solutions to their challenges.

What's Emerging

Across all five initiatives, several connecting themes surfaced. Scientific thinking serves as a universal foundation. The reality of needing multiple methodologies is acknowledged rather than debated. AI emerges as a tool to enhance rather than replace human capabilities. And perhaps most importantly, cultural prerequisites—not just technical skills—determine whether improvement efforts succeed.

The visual metaphors tell the story: interstate on-ramps providing access points to improvement methods, tree branches showing different pathways, people patterns examined with the same rigor as technical processes. These aren't separate initiatives working in isolation—they're different perspectives on the same transformation.

Continue the Conversation

The monthly FPWork virtual gatherings (second Friday, 11-12 Eastern) continue this collaborative work. Each session builds understanding across initiatives while advancing specific objectives. Carnegie Mellon is being considered for the next in-person gathering.

Join monthly FPW discussions: https://forms.gle/yXPbCXURdfvYtjmn9

 

Follow FPW on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/future-people-work/

Knowledge Map: Connecting to Your Context

Process Keywords: Collaborative problem-solving, cross-organizational learning, initiative development, methodology selection, scientific thinking, AI integration, cultural transformation, people-centered improvement, multi-methodology approaches, experiment design, knowledge sharing, community building

Context Keywords: Multi-generational workforce, technology adoption challenges, methodology confusion, cultural prerequisites, sustainable improvement, human-centered transformation, organizational readiness, cross-sector collaboration, improvement adoption barriers, next generation engagement

Application Triggers: 

• Struggling with AI integration → Lean into AI insights on two-way learning 

• Engaging younger workers → NextGen's scientific thinking foundation 

• Using multiple improvement approaches → Adjacent Communities methodology matrix 

• Improvement efforts feel purely technical → Ways of Working human integration 

• Questioning organizational readiness → CEO Outreach cultural prerequisites

Related Continuous Improvement Themes: Systems thinking, organizational learning, change management, problem-solving frameworks, leadership development, respect for people, knowledge management, collaborative innovation

People to Connect With: @Kelly Reo @Bruce Hamilton @Jeanne Carey @Vickie Pisowicz @Rachel Reuter @Josh Howell @Susanna Watson @Jamie Bonini @Eric O. Olsen

Hashtags: #FutureOfPeopleAtWork #ContinuousImprovement #LeanThinking #OrganizationalTransformation #CollaborativeLearning #AIandLean #NextGenLeadership #SystemsThinking

This post was developed through collaboration between FPWork initiative leaders and community members at the October 26, 2025 working session, and synthesized with Claude.AI assistance. Special recognition to Rachel Reuter, Eric Olsen, Joseph Pesz, and Christopher Ferrier for their editorial contributions and insights. It represents ongoing work by the Future of People at Work initiative, a collaboration of Catalysis, Central Coast Lean, GBMP Consulting Group, Imagining Excellence, Lean Enterprise Institute, Shingo Institute, The Ohio State University Center for Operational Excellence, and Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC).