COE Forums

The pace of change is moving faster than ever, and organizations are becoming defined by their ability to adapt and anticipate disruption. Growing as an innovative, adaptive organization means supporting a culture of continuous learning. Each year, The Ohio State University Center for Operational Excellence offers an opportunity to get your cross-functional teams in front of the latest best practices in leadership and problem-solving at the COE Summit.

What is Lean and why is it important? We sat down with Eric Olsen, Director for Central Coast Lean and Professor of Industrial Technology in the Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, to discuss the benefits of Lean and his upcoming New to Lean workshop. Check it out here:

In September 2021, I had the pleasure of presenting a webinar on a topic I am passionate about: Leading with Respect. If you missed this webinar, it is available in COE's Members Only Digital Content Archive. If you don't have an account, you can create an account.

I recently led a webinar for Fisher’s Center for Operational Excellence on the topic of “The Curious Leader,” which members can view in COE's Members Only Digital Content Archive (February 2020). We had a great discussion about how curiosity can help leaders build better relationships, grow their expertise, and become more innovative.

This is our first year hosting our annual Leading Through Excellence summit virtually, but we've spent years perfecting the multi-day learning session that happens every April. We'll miss the lunches, VIP reception, and in-person networking -- but we're excited to offer the myriad of benefits that come along with hosting a virtual event.

What do great organizations look like today? Do they have the best strategy? Are they the most efficient? Whilst both of these factors are essential, strategy (what we do) has become almost irrelevant and operational excellence (how we do things) is not easy to achieve.