AME People-Centric Leadership 101 and SnapCab Learning Experience: Building Sustainable Organizational Excellence
Overview
Lean tools improve processes. Leadership transforms organizations.
Join us for a two-day workshop and benchmark visit to Snapcab.
The highest-performing organizations understand that lasting operational excellence is created when leaders intentionally build a culture where people are engaged, accountable, continuously learning and improving the work every day. Sustainable results come from leadership behaviors reinforced by effective management systems - not improvement initiatives alone.
This immersive two-day workshop equips leaders with practical tools and behaviors to build organizations where people and performance thrive. Through interactive learning, hands-on exercises, and a benchmark visit to SnapCab - an internationally recognized human business - participants will experience how leadership, culture, and management systems work together to create sustainable excellence.
Participants will learn how to:
- Build a culture that supports continuous improvement
- Create psychological safety while maintaining accountability
- Coach people to think critically rather than simply provide answers
- Strengthen engagement through authentic communication, listening and recognition
- Develop leaders while improving organizational performance
- Design management systems that reinforce alignment, accountability and continuous improvement
- Integrate lean principles with people-centered leadership to achieve sustainable results
Participants will leave with practical leadership techniques they can immediately apply within their own organizations.
Experience organizational excellence in action
A highlight of the workshop is an exclusive benchmark visit to SnapCab, where participants will observe how the company's human business philosophy is translated into daily leadership practices. During the visit, participants will experience gemba, coaching, visual management, and continuous improvement in action while seeing how leadership behaviors create a culture built on trust, engagement, learning and accountability.
More than a facility tour, this is an opportunity to benchmark an organization that has intentionally aligned leadership, culture and operational excellence to achieve exceptional people-centric leadership.
Host Company
SnapCab’s journey began in 1983, when founder Glenn Bostock launched his fine woodworking business. His commitment to high-quality craftsmanship led him to the elevator remodeling industry, where he encountered the challenges of traditional installation methods. Driven by a desire to improve the process, Glenn invented and patented the Interlocking Panel System (ILP), making elevator interior installations faster, easier, and more reliable.
This innovation set a new industry standard, solidifying SnapCab as a leader in elevator interior systems that are both aesthetically pleasing and highly functional. He established a second location in Canada, where custom privacy pods are also produced. Glenn Bostock’s personal challenges, including learning disabilities, shaped a company philosophy and framework, “A Human Business,” that embraces continuous improvement through transparency and collaboration.
At SnapCab, employees are encouraged to leverage mistakes, fostering a fear-free environment where empathy, authenticity and service to customers are paramount. These values -Be kind, Be authentic and Be useful - guide our approach to everything we do. Homepage - SnapCab
For more information on what the founder, Glenn Bostock refers to as 'A Human business', watch this video.
Presenter
Lisa Weis is a people centric, lean/continuous improvement expert, with over 28 years of demonstrated success in helping hundreds of public and private organizations achieve their vision and meet their strategic goals by engaging people, implementing enterprise excellence and inspiring innovation. Lisa is currently the founder and president of EngageExcellence, LLC, providing consulting, coaching and educational services to support organizations in achieving sustained success through the integration of continuous improvement and respect for people.
Prior to establishing EngageExcellence, LLC, Lisa was the Director of the Enterprise Excellence program for the Delaware Manufacturing Extension Partnership, DEMEP. She was part of the core team that developed the US national lean initiative to help small to medium-sized manufacturers become more globally competitive as part of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, (NIST), Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program. Lisa has a Bachelor of Science degree, cum laude, in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware. She is the Director of People-Centric Leadership for the Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME) management team, a member of the AME Mid Atlantic regional board and an AME Excellence Award assessor.
Allan Coletta is Principal of Lean 3P Associates, where he helps organizations achieve operational excellence through team engagement, transformative product designs and efficient operations. A seasoned lean practitioner, Allan has led rapid turnarounds of distressed plants and serves as an executive coach with Encouraging Leaders LLC, using stakeholder centered coaching. He also assesses applicants for the AME Excellence Award.
Previously, Allan was senior dfirector of engineering and facilities at Siemens Healthineers, where he built high-performance teams and led lean-driven operational excellence and 3P-based operations and facility design. Earlier, he held leadership roles in the chemical process industry, including site leader for ICI’s largest specialty chemicals plant in North America.
Allan authored The Lean 3P Advantage, a 2013 Shingo prize winner, and has served on the Fiduciary Board of the Delaware MEP. He is an AME Champions member and part of the AME PCL KRA team. A trained chemical Eegineer, Allan brings people-centric leadership to manufacturing, driving sustainable improvement and business success.
Agenda
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Eastern time
Day 1
8 a.m.
- Welcome and introductions
- Defining people-centric leadership and impact
- Basic thinking and mindset, core values
- Leader behaviors
- Self reflection
12 p.m. Lunch
12:30 p.m.
- Leader behaviors
- Confident humility and continuous learning
- Building trust and high performing relationships
- Communication/listening
- Celebration and recognition
- Management systems that sustain culture and performance
4:30 p.m. Conclude
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Day 2
8 a.m.
- Developing capability: Supporting the growth and development of people
- Inspiring change
- Effective coaching
- Developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills
- How to provide actionable, informative feedback
- Productively addressing conflict/uncomfortable situations
- Link between building a people-centric culture and lean/CI tools
12 p.m. Lunch
12:30 p.m. Tour - SnapCab benchmark learning experience
Experience organizational excellence in action. Participants will visit SnapCab to observe how people-centric leadership and lean principles are intentionally integrated to create a culture of continuous improvement. Highlights include:
- The Human Business philosophy
- Leadership and daily management systems
- Gemba and visual management
- Kaizen and employee engagement
- Practical applications of lean culture
- Lessons learned for sustaining organizational excellence
Wrap-Up translating learning into action, key takeaways and personal leadership commitments
3:30 p.m. Conclude
PARTICIPANT BENEFITS
Participants leave with more than ideas—they leave with a practical leadership framework for creating an organization where people grow, improvement becomes habitual, and organizational excellence is sustained. By combining leadership behaviors, psychological safety, meaningful metrics, coaching, and management systems, leaders will gain the tools to build organizations that are not only operationally excellent, but places where people are inspired to contribute their very best every day.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This workshop is designed for leaders responsible for improving organizational performance through people, including:
- Executive leaders
- Operations and plant mnanagers
- Continuous improvement professionals
- Lean practitioners
- Human Resources leaders
- Front-line leaders
- Emerging leaders
- Anyone responsible for leading teams through change and continuous improvement. Whether your organization is beginning its organizational excellence journey or working to sustain a mature lean culture, this workshop provides leadership practices that strengthen culture, improve performance,and create lasting competitive advantage.
Safety Requirements
Dress attire/PPE requirements:
- Business casual
- Closed toe shoes and safety glasses are required for the plant tour. Safety glasses will be provided
OTHER REGISTRATION INFORMATION
We strive to host events that are inclusive and accessible to everyone to fully participate and engage. Please email events@ame.org if you have any questions.
If you are not already a member of AME, we invite you to join at this time. Membership benefits include complimentary and discounted event registrations throughout the entire year. To learn more about membership benefits, please visit here.
By participating in this event, you grant AME, or anyone authorized by AME the right to use or publish in print or electronic medium any photograph or video containing your image or likeness for educational, news, or promotional purposes, without compensation.
Cancelation Policy: This event may be canceled by AME for any reason. AME is not responsible for incidental costs incurred by registrants. For paid events, registration fee less a $20 administration fee will be refunded up to one week before the event. Substitutions may be made up to three days prior to the start of the event.
