Real Continuous Improvement in Virtual Workplaces (The Sequel)

Practical Lessons for Sustaining Lean, Engagement, and Improvement in Remote and Hybrid Teams

Remote and hybrid work environments have fundamentally changed how teams collaborate, solve problems, and improve. While many organizations quickly adopted virtual tools, sustaining real continuous improvement in distributed workplaces requires more than just video calls and digital whiteboards.

In this on-demand webinar, a diverse panel of Lean practitioners and leaders share candid, experience-based insights into what actually works when applying continuous improvement in virtual settings. Building on the first session in this series, this sequel explores deeper challenges, practical adaptations, and leadership behaviors that help improvement efforts thrive—despite physical distance.

Through real examples from healthcare and consulting environments, the panel discusses facilitation techniques, virtual gemba practices, engagement strategies, and lessons learned from operating in fully remote and blended work models.

View all previous KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Webinars

What You’ll Learn

• How continuous improvement practices must adapt in fully virtual and hybrid workplaces

• Techniques for facilitating Kaizen, problem-solving, and collaboration remotely

• Practical approaches to virtual process mapping and improvement workshops

• How leaders can maintain engagement, focus, and psychological safety online

• Ways to balance productivity, trust, and flexibility in remote teams

• Lessons learned from healthcare and service environments operating under pressure

Key Insights

Sustaining continuous improvement in virtual workplaces isn’t primarily a technology problem—it’s a leadership and facilitation challenge. The panel highlights how simply moving existing Lean practices online often exposes underlying issues around trust, engagement, and clarity that may have existed long before teams went remote.

Virtual improvement work can actually move faster than in-person efforts, but only when sessions are intentionally designed. Smaller group sizes, clearer norms, and shorter, more focused meetings help prevent fatigue while creating space for meaningful discussion and learning.

The discussion also surfaces how traditional signals—such as body language, side conversations, and informal check-ins—are harder to detect online. As a result, facilitators and leaders must be more deliberate about drawing people out, checking assumptions, and ensuring all voices are heard.

Rather than pausing improvement during disruption, the panel emphasizes that certain forms of continuous improvement become more critical in times of uncertainty. Visual management, huddles, and coaching still work in virtual environments—but only when adapted to fit the realities of remote and hybrid work.

Finally, the conversation underscores a mindset shift for leaders: moving away from monitoring activity and toward supporting outcomes. When teams are trusted, aligned around purpose, and given the right structures, continuous improvement can thrive—regardless of physical location.

Who This Webinar Is For

This webinar is especially valuable for:

• Continuous improvement, Lean, and operational excellence leaders

• Healthcare, service, and knowledge-work organizations

• Managers leading remote or hybrid teams

• CI facilitators adapting in-person practices to virtual environments

• Leaders seeking to maintain momentum during disruption and change

Whether you’re refining virtual improvement practices or rebuilding momentum after disruption, this session offers realistic guidance grounded in experience.

The Presenters:

Crystal Y. Davis, CLSSBB

Founder, CEO, and Principal Lean Practitioner @The Lean Coach, Inc

Crystal helps leaders create a culture of problem solvers allowing them to focus and deploy strategically. Specializing in the "Toyota Way" Lean model. Over 20 years of proven Lean experience in automotive, beverage and supply chain industries. STEM Industry focus. Client roster consists of Fortune 500/1000 Companies. Formally mentored by Toyota Senseis. Led companies to award-winning results, recognized for operational excellence at the "Lean Enterprise Institute Summit" and "Industry Week Best Plant".

Karen Martin

President @TKMG Group & TKMG Academy

Karen is the President of TKMG, Inc., a global consulting firm that specializes in operational excellence, Lean management, and business performance improvement. They help their clients create strategies, operations, and work environments that drive profitability and growth, deliver exceptional customer value, and maximize human potential. She is also the Founder & President of a new online learning destination, TKMG Academy, Inc. They aim to be the premier online learning choice for business performance improvement, Lean management, and leadership development. Karen is the author or co-author of five business performance books, including two Shingo Award-winning books: The Outstanding Organization and Value Stream Mapping. Her latest, Clarity First, centers on her core belief that all success in life—both business and personal—is a result of operating with clarity.

Mike McGowan, LSSBB, MBOE

Director, Process Excellence at Marietta Memorial Hospital

Mike McGowan directs and oversees a team of Continuous Improvement specialists and works to apply lean thinking and tools to improve the current system. He was previously the Senior Director of Diagnostic Services for Memorial Health System. He has a Masters of Business in Operational Excellence degree from The Ohio State University.