What is The Lean Agile Visual Management Program™?

Jim Benson
Visual Management is the application of Lean and Agile practices to build new, flexible, and continuously improving ways of working for individuals and teams. 

The Lean Agile Visual Management Program is the gateway to productive, professional, human ways of working. It doesn’t entail rote learning. It is not a canned process. It is not easy.  You will build proficiency in a variety of practices that will allow you to respond rapidly to change, build healthy cultures, and complete work quickly.
Certification / Accreditation is the recognition that you have learned and mastered the visual management content to a level where you can apply it. The certification level is designed for the practitioner: studied, applied, and capable. The accreditation level is designed for the professional: learned, invested, and with expertise. 

The main difference between the two is your time investment.

If four months of intensive work doesn’t fit your schedule you can alternatively take our regular courses self-paced and get a certificate of completion with the Modus Institute Platinum Subscription.

Flexibility is at the core of the choice between certifications and accreditations. The Lean Agile Visual Management certification can be completed in as little as four months, but you can take as long as you need. In contrast, the accreditation is highly collaborative and deadline-driven: you focus on your work and participate in regular discussions with a cohort of 12 to 18 other professionals.

Systems Thinking

Systems Thinking is at the heart of LAVM. The study is broken down into four sections:

  1. See the System: Can we see the work, the relationships, and the priorities of our team?
  2. Share the System: Can we communicate quickly, effectively, and humanely? Do we understand what is expected of us and what we really expect of others?
  3. Build the System: Can we look at the demands of customers, the people on our team, our relationships with our company, the speed of delivery, the number of unknowns, and other context and really build a system that lets us deliver a quality product or service?
  4. Power the System: Are our meetings effective? Are we seeing and responding to opportunities or problems? Are we aligned? Are we satisfied with our product?

Systems-creation runs the risk of being mechanistic, dogmatic, or limited to focusing on efficiency. These systems become anti-human and ultimately, self-defeating. We must work together in ways that allow us to grow and thrive as professionals. 

So we look at every visual management lesson through key lenses that keep our work collaborative and humane:

  1. Communication - Our systems must get the information professionals need to those who need it, when they need it.
  2. Relationships - Our systems must focus on professional interactions, new ideas, and collaboration (quality).
  3. Respect - Professionalism runs on an engine of respect. It is the basis of trust and psychological safety.
  4. Flow - Work flow and psychological flow require clarity, direction, and priority. Understanding our work and its operations supports healthy operational and personal flow.
  5. PDSA - Continuous improvement (the grail of all this work) requires lenses 1 through 4 supporting a professional environment that cares enough to systematically improve.

Enhance your understanding of psychological lenses in professional communication and improve your work environment.

We’ve poured our hearts and souls into these visual management courses. We are committed to giving rise to a world of professionals who actively work each day to make work life better and more profitable. Leave the world of mediocrity behind and join the Modus Institute Community.

Interested? Check out the Lean Agile Visual Management Certification program.