Lean in training providers

Lean for training and employability providers

Month end is a scramble. Your advisers and tutors spend more of the week on evidence than with the people they are there to help. The contract counts one thing, the audit checks another, and every funder defines the same word differently. None of that is your staff failing. It is a process that was never designed, and it can be.

Chapter 1

Does this sound like your provider?

"Month end is a scramble for evidence."

Evidence chased at the end is evidence that was not captured when the work was done.

"Our advisers do more paperwork than advising."

Most of it is the same fact typed into more than one place.

"We hit the starts target and missed the outcomes."

A target shapes who gets help first. That is a design choice, even when nobody made it.

"Every contract means something different by the same word."

One definition, one owner, one place to change it.

"Audit tells us what we already knew, too late."

A check built into the work finds the fault on the day, not the quarter after.

Chapter 2

What you get

Not more forms. Evidence captured once.

Not a target chase. A flow from referral to outcome.

Not blame at audit. A process that passes it on an ordinary day.

The promise One process from referral to outcome

Mapped as it really runs, then fixed with the staff who run it, so it holds after the work ends.

At the source Evidence captured once

Done right the first time rather than inspected and corrected at month end.

Definitions One name, one owner

The words your contracts and reports depend on, kept in one register by someone who can say no.

Fairness Targets that do not push people aside

Measures that do not reward helping the easiest people first and leaving the hardest waiting.

Chapter 3

How it works: the Chido method

Every engagement runs through the same five chapters. Each one ends with something you can see before the next one starts.

01 Dream It

Walk the process as it really runs, find the pain people have stopped mentioning, and agree the problem and the future you want.

02 Evaluate It

Measure the gaps, put a cost on the delay and the rework, and rank what to fix by impact, not by who is loudest.

03 Learn It

Design the fix with the people who will run it, and test it small before you commit money and reputation.

04 Build It

Put it in: processes, systems and people lined up from day one. Technology only where it serves the work.

05 Scale It

Make the new way the standard, measure it against where you started, and leave your people able to keep improving.

Chapter 4

See it worked through

A worked example I published Kestrel Pathways

A constructed employment services provider paid by results, and what its targets do to the people who deliver them.

Worked example, role by role The people at Kestrel Pathways

Every role from adviser to board: what each answers for, and what each can change.

The idea behind it Creaming and parking

What payment by results can do to who gets help, and how to measure it honestly.

Schools, colleges and universities Lean Six Sigma in education

Enquiry to enrolment, marking turnaround, and what must never be standardised.

Chapter 5

Where to start

Start with one flow: referral to start, or start to outcome. Finish it, then decide what is next.

Free, thirty minutes Book a discovery call

Tell me about one process that is costing you. I read every enquiry myself and reply within one working day.

A fixed price first step The Process Check

A two week check on one process: mapped, measured, and a clear verdict, with a stop at day five if it is not the process.

Tell me where your month end hurts

A free 30 minute discovery call about one flow in your provider. No learner or participant details needed, only how the work moves.

Book a free discovery call