IASSC Certified Lean Leader™ (Intermediate Level) — Lesson 1: Lean Leader Lean Principles, Customer Value, Waste, and Process Purpose

Learning Objectives

• Explain the roles, information, criteria, dependencies, and decision points governing value-stream leadership and waste reduction.
• Implement or assess customer value, waste categories, and process purpose using controlled evidence and acceptance criteria.
• Evaluate the condition where the planned value-stream leadership result cannot be trusted because waste reduction scope, ownership, or prerequisite evidence is incomplete and select a proportionate corrective response.

Detailed Topics

• value-stream leadership applied to the course scenario, expected behavior, stakeholders, controls, risks, and evidence.
• waste reduction applied to the course scenario, expected behavior, stakeholders, controls, risks, and evidence.
• customer value applied to the course scenario, expected behavior, stakeholders, controls, risks, and evidence.
• waste categories applied to the course scenario, expected behavior, stakeholders, controls, risks, and evidence.
• process purpose applied to the course scenario, expected behavior, stakeholders, controls, risks, and evidence.

Instructor Demonstration

The instructor traces a leadership team applying Lean Leader techniques to improve flow, reduce waste, engage people, and build a durable improvement culture. The walkthrough connects frameworks, processes, tools, decisions, and evidence captured in the Lean Leader value-stream map, waste register, improvement experiment, and sustainment plan. It also tests the exception where the planned value-stream leadership result cannot be trusted because waste reduction scope, ownership, or prerequisite evidence is incomplete.

Hands-On Exercise

Complete a controlled PeopleCert-aligned exercise covering Lean Leader Lean Principles, Customer Value, Waste, and Process Purpose and preserve the verified result in the Lean Leader value-stream map, waste register, improvement experiment, and sustainment plan.

1. Confirm scope, roles, criteria, prerequisites, information sources, dependencies, and acceptance conditions.
2. Execute the service, project, portfolio, risk, Lean, or operational workflow while recording decisions and evidence.
3. Test normal behavior, one boundary condition, and the stated exception using a controlled scenario.
4. Document findings, corrections, ownership, retest criteria, communication, and operational handover.

Scenario Analysis

• Identify which role, process, objective, control, information source, or decision most strongly influences value-stream leadership.
• Compare two defensible responses and explain service, project, quality, risk, operational, and business trade-offs.
• Determine how the Lean Leader value-stream map, waste register, improvement experiment, and sustainment plan should be approved, retained, reviewed, retested, and updated.

Troubleshooting Guidance

Start where expected behavior first differs from the observed result. Check scope, criteria, ownership, data quality, process sequence, policy alignment, version compatibility, dependencies, status, and evidence separately. Treat “the planned value-stream leadership result cannot be trusted because waste reduction scope, ownership, or prerequisite evidence is incomplete” as a hypothesis until records, interviews, configurations, calculations, and retest outcomes confirm the cause.

Validation Checklist

• Required roles, processes, criteria, controls, information, approvals, and dependencies are present.
• The Lean Leader value-stream map, waste register, improvement experiment, and sustainment plan connects each conclusion to objective, reviewable evidence.
• Normal processing, a boundary condition, dependency behavior, and the stated exception were tested.
• Corrections, ownership, retest criteria, documentation, communication, and operational handover are complete.

Lesson Outcome

Learners can apply Lean Leader Lean Principles, Customer Value, Waste, and Process Purpose, explain the resulting service, project, quality, risk, or operational behavior, and defend the outcome through the Lean Leader value-stream map, waste register, improvement experiment, and sustainment plan.