Katie Labedz from Learning to Lean will lead us through an interactive session focused on the early pitfalls we often encounter in problem solving—and how to avoid them. 

Join us to discover the most common mistakes teams make at the start of the problem‑solving process and learn practical ways to correct them.

Katie Labedz is the President and CEO of Learning to Lean, Continuous Improvement | Learning to Lean | United States, a leading process improvement consulting firm dedicated to helping organizations achieve revolutionary results through continuous improvement. By leveraging expert coaching, training, and kaizen events, Learning to Lean empowers companies to embrace and implement sustainable improvement strategies.

With over 20 years of experience, Katie is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Project Management Professional (PMP), and certified Emotional Intelligence Coach. She is also a highly sought-after keynote speaker known for her expertise in Lean, Six Sigma, and Project Management. Katie's unwavering commitment to process excellence and innovation has made her a respected leader in the industry.

In addition to her consulting and speaking engagements, Katie is a published author of three books: How to Improve Absolutely Anything: Continuous Improvement in Your Home, Office, and Family Life, How to Improve Absolutely Every Process: Kaizen for Process Improvement and Fun, and The Learning to Lean CI Planner.

This session, led by Thomas Groth of Novonesis, Senior Operational Excellence Manager,  will focus on practical methods for keeping teams aligned, engaged, and accountable to strategic goals over the full calendar year. 

Participants will explore how to translate high‑level strategy into clear, measurable actions; how to build rhythms of review and adjustment; and how to create ownership at every level of the organization. The course highlights real examples from Novonesis’ approach to sustaining momentum, reinforcing priorities, and ensuring that strategic initiatives remain visible, actionable, and connected to daily work.

William Harvey, the 2026 AME International Conference Chair, will guide participants through an online, hands-on exploration of how AI can support and accelerate problem solving. This will not be a lecture—William will share the tools and links he uses, and you’ll be able to follow along in real time to see how AI can enhance your approach.

William Harvey is a continuous improvement leader, systems thinker, and manufacturing executive who helps organizations solve the right problems before solving them fast. With over two decades of experience across chemical manufacturing, packaging, printing, and logistics, he brings deep expertise in disciplined problem identification, causal analysis, and structured learning.

Grounded in Lean, Toyota Kata, Training Within Industry, and quality engineering, William is known for translating theory into practical systems that improve decision quality, stability, and capability. He helps leaders surface hidden assumptions, challenge mental models, and reason more clearly about complex systems, strengthening the integrity of problem solving beyond surface-level fixes.

This 90-minute interactive workshop shows how to use AI as a disciplined thinking partner for continuous improvement, not an answer engine. Participants will learn a practical workflow to sharpen problem framing, surface hidden assumptions, and stress-test hypotheses before jumping to solutions. Through hands-on exercises, AI becomes a cognitive sparring partner that exposes blind spots, challenges bias, and improves the quality of root cause thinking. The session closes with a repeatable CI + AI operating model and open Q&A.