Manufacturing Leadership Program

Operational change consistently puts pressure on results and can pull teams off focus from their goals. In this lab, leaders practice integrating new technologies and processes while keeping goals visible, maintaining performance, reinforcing standards, and holding team members accountable during transition.

This 30-minute lab helps leaders: 

• Keep their team focused on performance goals while new technologies/processes are implemented by putting critical priorities first and making progress visible.
• Use measurement to track progress and assess outcomes (choose metrics that are objective, actionable, trackable, and relevant).
• Strengthen accountability by assigning clear ownership, communicating expectations/impact, setting follow-up methods, and providing coaching.

Competency practiced:

• Driving for Results

When safety, quality, or standards are at risk, leaders need to respond quickly and effectively. In this lab, leaders practice coaching in the moment to address potential risks while avoiding damaging relationships or causing defensiveness.

This 30-minute lab helps leaders: 

• Apply a ready-to-use coaching approach—Ask, Connect, Energize (ACE)—in moments where safety is at risk.
• Evaluate the impact of ACE on team members’ commitment to safe decisions and behavior.

Competency practiced:

• Safety Leadership

When performance falls short, effective leaders move beyond correction and focus on development. In this lab, leaders practice clearly defining performance gaps, holding team members accountable, and coaching in ways that build capability—not dependency—across manufacturing cells, warehouses, and field crews.

This 30-minute lab helps leaders: 

• Use STAR and STAR/AR feedback to deliver specific, fact-based feedback that separates observations from assumptions.
• ​Address performance gaps by clarifying expectations, exploring better next-time actions, and confirming the individual’s commitment to improve.

Competency practiced:

• Coaching

Staffing gaps can lead to work overload and missed goals. In this lab, leaders practice prioritizing and aligning critical work to continue to meet high demand during periods of workforce shortage.

This 30-minute lab helps leaders: 

• Analyze a real-world staffing shortage to determine what gets done, what can wait, and where people are needed most.
• Apply sound priority, allocation, and adjustment decisions under pressure without putting people and the operation at risk.
• Evaluate the plan and adjust as conditions change to maintain safety, quality, morale, and goal achievement. 

Competency practiced:

• Planning and Organizing

Pressure on output, timelines, and workflows is often unavoidable and requires fast decisions. In this lab, leaders practice diagnosing what is happening, asking focused questions to understand how safety, quality, and production may be affected, and making clear decisions that protect standards while minimizing unnecessary disruption.

This 30-minute lab helps leaders: 

• Ask focused questions to understand how a decision could affect safety, quality, and production before acting.
• Use a simple decision skill to make a clear, timely operational call without overanalyzing or relying only on instinct.
• Take action that protects safety and quality standards while minimizing unnecessary disruption.
• Recognize how stronger in-the-moment decisions help reduce process variability by preventing deviation, limiting workarounds, and avoiding quality drift.

Competency practiced:

• Decision Making

New systems, processes, or standards often meet resistance on the floor. In this lab, leaders practice communicating what’s changing and why, addressing concerns directly, and reinforcing new behaviors until adoption sticks.

This 30-minute lab helps leaders: 

• Utilize the Three Change Accelerators to help team members implement workplace change more quickly: Describe what’s changing and why; Seek reactions and feelings; Regain a sense of control.
• ​​Respond to resistance in a productive way by drawing out concerns and emotions using open questions and acknowledging what team members hear, rather than trying to “push through” the resistance.
• Increase ownership and follow-through by helping team members identify what they can control or influence and agreeing on a small next step to move implementation forward.

Competency practiced:

• Facilitating Change

When unresolved tension isn't addressed early and directly, it can slow throughput and damage morale between team members and across shifts. In this lab, leaders practice coaching team members to address and resolve conflict constructively, restore working relationships, and prevent disruptions to day-to-day operations.

This 30-minute lab helps leaders: 

• Identify when coaching vs. mediating is warranted to minimize the escalation of conflict in their workplace.
• ​Use coaching skills that help team members feel confident to take responsibility for resolving their own conflicts.
• Use Powerful Questions to clarify the situation and develop solutions that team members will act on.

Competency practiced:

• Resolving Conflict

Energy dips. Repetition sets in. Operational fatigue spreads. These cycles can result in unengaged team members and have a negative business impact. In this lab, leaders practice identifying the factors that motivate individual team members, asking effective follow-up questions, and gathering insights that help sustain engagement, performance, and commitment in daily operations.

This 30-minute lab helps leaders: 

• Identify why a team member is withdrawing or checking out based on the person’s feelings about their work, their value as an individual, or their work environment.
• Use motivating words and actions to help team members envision the impact of their work and move toward higher levels of performance.
• Use practical dialogue to clarify purpose, provide recognition, and build trust during routine shifts and peak cycles.
• Evaluate how addressing engagement reduces absenteeism, sustains effort, and improves long-term employee retention.

Competency practiced:

• Inspiring Others

When errors or near misses occur, effective leaders shape what happens next through their response. In this lab, leaders practice responding to errors and near misses in ways that encourage early reporting, reinforce accountability, and turn operational setbacks into continuous learning.

This 30-minute lab helps leaders: 

• Apply trust-building skills that encourage team members to speak up when errors or near misses occur and reinforce accountability.
• ​Model trust-building behavior that creates a safe environment for reporting and strengthens operational learning.

Competency practiced:

• Creating a Culture of Trust

Complement your manufacturing leadership program with proven leadership courses that help leaders build critical skills, improve performance, and drive business results. View all DDI leadership courses.