From Symposium to Action: How FPW Initiatives Are Reshaping the Future of Workplace Improvement

Two weeks after our transformative symposium at O.C. Tanner's Salt Lake City facility, the Future of People at Work (FPW) community is already translating ambitious ideas into concrete action. Our July 11 monthly check-in revealed something remarkable: when improvement professionals from different methodologies come together with genuine intent to collaborate, meaningful progress accelerates.

What began as an effort to increase lean's relevance and usage has evolved into a movement with 11 active initiatives, each tackling a critical challenge in how we work and improve together. Here's how our community is turning the symposium's energy into tangible progress.

Report outs at the Symposium

Breaking Down Methodology Silos: The Adjacent Communities Initiative

Bruce Hamilton from GBMP shared an eye-opening statistic: his team has identified 38 different improvement communities currently operating in relative isolation. Think about that – 38 distinct approaches to making work better, each with passionate practitioners, proven tools, and success stories, yet rarely learning from each other.

The Adjacent Communities initiative is flipping the script from "lean versus other approaches" to "lean plus." As Bruce noted, "Each has some very good qualities, and if we could just harmonize those, we would have a more effective continuous improvement model." The team is developing outreach strategies to make cross-methodology collaboration a practical reality.

Preparing the Next Generation: Academic and Next Gen Initiatives

Two initiatives are ensuring that future professionals benefit from integrated improvement thinking. The Lean Education Academic Network (LEAN), now officially sponsored by the Shingo Institute, is exploring the creation of a lean body of knowledge. Imagine university instructors having access to comprehensive resources for teaching lean thinking – not just tools, but the underlying philosophy.

Dave Ostreicher from the University of Michigan painted the vision: "I could get an entire syllabus and materials to teach an introductory lean class." Combined with plans for student case competitions, this initiative bridges the persistent gap between academic theory and workplace practice.

Meanwhile, the Next Gen Lean initiative, led by Vicki Pisowicz from Learning to See, is still defining its direction with potential focus areas including outreach to underserved communities and neurodivergent populations. This isn't just about teaching lean to more people – it's about reimagining how improvement methodologies can serve broader societal needs.

Navigating the AI Revolution: The Lean Into AI Initiative

The Lean Into AI initiative generated significant interest during our check-in. Peg Pennington from MoreSteam outlined a webinar series launching in August, designed to help lean practitioners understand AI as "countermeasures" within the continuous improvement framework. The partnership between MoreSteam, Shingo Institute, and Ohio State's Center for Operational Excellence represents exactly the kind of cross-organizational collaboration FPW aims to foster.

But the conversation took a thought-provoking turn when Rachna Shah shared preliminary research showing AI's negative impact on worker learning and future training participation. Her observation that "sites that had lean training were less likely to be negatively impacted" suggests that lean thinking might actually be a protective factor against AI's potential downsides. This isn't anti-technology sentiment – it's recognition that human-centered improvement remains essential even as we embrace digital transformation.

Making Improvement Accessible: The Ways of Working Initiative

While some initiatives tackle big philosophical questions, the Ways of Working group is getting wonderfully practical. Their partnership with the Michigan Science Center represents improvement thinking at its most accessible: helping staff who "don't do CI today" achieve their 2026 goals, and even developing a museum exhibit about continuous improvement.

Susanna Watson captured their purpose beautifully: "How might we promote continuous improvement in an open and flexible way that empowers people to act with confidence, accelerate performance, and create meaningful impact?" This team is proving that improvement doesn't require jargon or complex tools – it requires clear thinking and human connection.

The Power of Distributed Leadership

What struck me most about our check-in wasn't just the progress – it was the distributed leadership model emerging organically. FPW has grown from 7 to 9 sponsoring organizations, but more importantly, each initiative has found its own rhythm and approach. Some meet monthly (Ways of Working, LEAN), and some are still finding their cadence. This isn't lack of coordination – it's recognition that different challenges require different approaches.

The technical hiccup with an empty Marketing & Branding breakout room perfectly illustrated our adaptive spirit. Within minutes, participants redistributed themselves to other initiatives, turning a potential lost opportunity into cross-pollination possibilities. As Eric Olsen noted, these are "11 different experiments on how we're going to make this work."

Your Invitation to Shape the Future

The August 8 meeting will feature formal report-outs from all initiatives, but you don't need to wait. Each initiative welcomes new perspectives and contributors. Whether you're intrigued by harmonizing improvement methodologies, passionate about education, curious about AI's impact, or simply want to make work better for humans, there's a place for you in this community.

FPW isn't trying to create yet another methodology. We're building bridges between existing ones, creating spaces for honest dialogue about what works, and most importantly, remembering that all improvement is ultimately about people. As our collective efforts show, when we stop defending our methodological territories and start learning from each other, everyone benefits.

The workplace of the future won't be improved by any single approach. It will be transformed by practitioners who can fluidly integrate the best of all approaches, who understand both human psychology and digital technology, and who never forget that work should enhance human life, not diminish it.

Join the Future of People at Work community and stay tuned for upcoming events, collaborative opportunities, and ways to contribute to these groundbreaking initiatives. Whether through our monthly community calls or initiative working groups, there's always a way to get involved in shaping how we make work better for everyone.

Connect with us:

• Follow the FPW LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/future-people-work/

• Register for monthly FPW conversations: https://forms.gle/yXPbCXURdfvYtjmn9

• Check out this FPW related event from our partner organizations: https://www.fpwork.org/fpw-events

This post was developed through collaboration between the authors and synthesized with Claude.AI assistance, demonstrating the potential of human-AI partnership in knowledge sharing while maintaining authenticity through author review and validation.