Your Lean in Design Forum Learning Day Lineup Is Here!
Clarity Upstream, Confidence Downstream: It All Begins on Learning Day
Before the core program of the 2026 LCI Lean in Design Forum kicks off on April 29 in Chicago, attendees have the chance to go deeper in our optional Learning Day on April 28. This full day of focused, hands-on sessions is designed to sharpen your Lean design skills, with each session registered with AIA CES for LU credits.
This year’s Learning Day features nine sessions spread across morning and afternoon tracks, giving you the flexibility to build a schedule that matches your experience level and professional goals. Take a moment to review and set your schedule to get the most of your time in Chicago.
What’s on the Learning Day Agenda
This year’s Learning Day lineup covers the full spectrum of Lean design practice, from foundational principles to advanced application:
Getting Decisions That Stick
Indecision is one of the worst forms of waste in design and construction. This interactive session teaches ten techniques, from decision psychology and personality types to Gemba walks, A3s, and simulation modeling, that you can use immediately to help others make better-informed decisions and reduce costly last-minute changes.
LCI Building Foundational Behaviors for Project Lean Leadership
This full-day workshop helps professionals with foundational Lean experience grow their leadership skills through simulated experiences, group discussions, and practical exercises. You’ll strengthen key behaviors including psychological safety, reliable promises, coaching, and PDCA thinking.
LCI Target Value Delivery Module 2: Setting the Stage for Success
Learn how early alignment around the owner’s Business Case, Value Statements, and Conditions of Satisfaction anchors every decision that follows. This hands-on course also covers techniques for intentionally building high-performing teams through interviewing, onboarding, and operational alignment.
LCI Target Value Delivery Module 3: Organizing for Flow and Efficiency
Discover how cross-functional work cluster organizations within TVD teams drive innovation and productivity through concurrent work, without burning out your people. A hands-on project simulation brings these concepts to life.
LCI Target Value Delivery Module 4: Modeling for Predictable Outcomes
Through hands-on simulation, you’ll experience a framework for predictive cost modeling, target setting, and rapid innovation capture in collaborative TVD environments. Topics include benchmark comparisons, project validation, cost model structuring, and risk/opportunity management.
LCI Last Planner System® in Design
Unpredictable design workflows drive up project costs and schedules, just as they do during construction. This course shows how collaborative planning with LPS® stabilizes your delivery process and improves outcomes specific to the design phase.
LCI Intermediate Last Planner System® for Design Practical Application
This intermediate workshop takes you through all five connected conversations of LPS® in Design via a hands-on simulated project. You’ll practice developing meaningful milestones, pull planning, and weekly check-ins to identify constraints and build handoff reliability.
LCI Lean in the Design Phase
A foundational course introducing Lean approaches and tools that optimize team communication, collaboration, and results during the design phase. Group activities and a Lean simulation exercise make it practical and engaging for anyone involved in preconstruction.
New this year!
LCI Advancing Set-Based Design for the Lean Practitioner
We’re especially excited about a brand-new session joining the lineup this year! Built for practitioners who want to move faster and deliver higher value, this hands-on course teaches you to explore multiple design options in parallel, narrow with confidence, and connect Set-Based Design with LPS®, Target Value Delivery, and Choosing By Advantages. You’ll leave with a clear, actionable blueprint for applying Set-Based Design on your own projects.
Learning Day is Where Breakthroughs Begin
Learning Day is a rare opportunity to step away from day-to-day project demands and invest in the tools, frameworks, and thinking that drive better outcomes upstream before misalignment becomes expensive to fix.
Whether you’re a designer looking to integrate Lean into your workflow, an owner seeking to reduce rework and protect capital value, a trade partner aiming to clarify scope before work begins, or a general contractor focused on building trust and clarity from concept through completion, Learning Day sets the stage for everything that follows in the Core Program.
Ready to Align Early and Build with Confidence?
The Lean in Design Forum is where alignment begins, decisions gain clarity, and project confidence is built early. Join peers from across the industry who are committed to shaping better outcomes before they’re expensive to fix!
Questions about the Lean in Design Forum program? Email Joan Piccariello for more information.
Interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at this year’s Lean in Design Forum? Email or call Ilene Goldberg at 703.785.9087.