Lean Practitioner

A trainer leading a session for a small group of delegates

Lean Practitioner is our core course for people who improve service operations. It teaches lean thinking as it applies to service work: claims, applications, enquiries and cases rather than parts on a production line.

The course runs in two blocks, three days and then two, about four weeks apart. Between blocks you carry out a short demand study in your own team, and in the second block you use what you found to design and test an improvement. You leave with a project under way, not just a set of notes.

Delegates are assessed on their project and a short written reflection. Those who pass are certified at practitioner level under the Service Operations Institute's Service Operations Competency Framework.

Accreditation
Accredited by the Service Operations Institute
Next course
10 November 2026
Schedule
Two blocks: 10 to 12 November and 8 to 9 December 2026
Duration
Five days
Price
£2,450 plus VAT
Location
Woodstock, Oxfordshire

Who it is for

Team leaders, operations managers, improvement specialists and analysts in any service organisation. You need no previous lean training, but you will need your manager's agreement to run a small study in your own area between the two blocks.

Modules

Lean Practitioner is delivered through these modules:

Seeing the service as customers see it

We start with the purpose of your service from the customer's point of view and the measures that show whether you are achieving it. You will learn why activity measures such as calls answered or cases closed can hide poor service, and what to measure instead.

Understanding demand

How to capture why customers contact you, sort value demand from failure demand, and spot patterns by time of day, channel and reason. You will practise classifying real contacts from other delegates' organisations, then design the two-week demand study you will carry out in your own team between the two blocks.

Mapping the flow of work

Following a single piece of work from first contact to completion, counting the handoffs, waits and rework along the way. You will measure end-to-end time from the customer's point of view rather than each team's, and see why local targets so often make the whole journey slower.

Designing and testing improvements

Using your demand study to design an improvement, then testing it on a small scale with clear before-and-after measures. We cover how to run an experiment without disrupting the service, and how to stop one that is not working. You will plan your own first test before the course ends.

Standard work and daily management

How teams agree a standard method for their most common tasks, make performance visible on a simple board and hold short daily reviews that solve problems rather than assign blame. We visit a working example and discuss what keeps these routines alive once the novelty has worn off.

Leading improvement

Making the case to your director, involving frontline staff from the start and keeping the improvement going after the project ends. On the final afternoon you present your project to the group, take questions and agree your next steps with a Halveron coach, who follows up with you a month later.