Craig Szelestowski

Craig Szelestowski is a recovered executive, the founder of Lean Agility Inc., an instructor at the Telfer Centre for Executive Leadership, University of Ottawa, and a Subject Matter Expert at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Retro black-and-white illustration of five office workers, one holding a rolled blueprint, standing beside a row of small vintage toy robots, looking up at a modernist glass office building precariously balanced on a crumbling rock pedestal. A sign beside the rubble reads

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To Succeed with AI, Modernize Your Lean Toolkit

Craig Szelestowski: October 7, 2026

Recently Harvard Business Review ran an article titled "To Succeed with AI, You've Got to Nail the Basics".

Retro black-and-white illustration of a professor at a chalkboard covered in real equations (Maxwell's equations, Euler's identity, the Basel problem, a Gaussian integral) alongside

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Every AI Output Is a First Draft. Here's How to Catch Workslop.

Craig Szelestowski: September 28, 2026

You fed your AI a good prompt. The output looks polished. Complete sentences, confident tone, clear structure. Send it?

AI & Automation Preventable Work (Failure Demand) Productivity Standard Work & Checklists Practical AI Harnessing AI

Retro black-and-white illustration split in two. On the left, a group of coworkers smiles and gives a thumbs up at a large cracked, crumbling wall under a sign reading

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Process Debt: Why AI Can’t Fix What You Haven’t Cleaned Up

Craig Szelestowski: September 23, 2026

If you work near Information Technology, you know the term "technical debt" - the accumulated cost of every shortcut, workaround, and "we'll fix it...

AI & Automation Eliminating Waste Streamline Before You Digitize Value Stream Mapping Standard Work & Checklists Practical AI Harnessing AI

Retro black-and-white illustration of a woman in a 1950s suit pointing with a stick at a whiteboard process flow of five boxes joined by arrows. A tall stack of papers piles up on the middle box, marking it as the bottleneck. A silver robot holding a wrench and toolbox stands beside her while two men in suits watch, one taking notes. The setting is a vintage office with filing cabinets and a wall clock.

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Six Things AI Can Do in Your Process Right Now

Craig Szelestowski: September 17, 2026

Most of the AI conversation I hear in government and large companies is either far too abstract ("AI will transform everything") or far too narrow...

AI & Automation AI Strategy & Investment Documents & Approvals Capacity & Demand Practical AI Harnessing AI

Retro illustrated robot sitting at an office desk looking confused, surrounded by books labeled Empathy 101, Context, Nuance, Subtlety, and Social Cues, a notebook titled Human Interaction Handbook Volume 2 Revised 1951, desk trays marked Outbox and Confusion, wall signs reading Efficiency Through Standardization and Respect Listening Trust Collaboration Success, with diverse coworkers collaborating in the background. Caption reads

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What Your Team Is Actually Afraid Of (And What to Do About It)

Craig Szelestowski: August 28, 2026

You can feel it in the room when AI comes up. A director presents the productivity numbers. The team nods. Two people smile. And at least one person...

Change management AI & Automation Buy-in & Execution Lean Leadership Trust & Psychological Safety Practical AI Harnessing AI

Black-and-white retro-style photograph of a woman lost in a hedge maze, holding a stack of folders with her hand pressed to her forehead in frustration. A robot labeled

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The AI Investment Trap

Craig Szelestowski: August 10, 2026

Once you build a chatbot for a bad process, something interesting happens. The chatbot develops a constituency. It has a project team, a budget line,...

AI & Automation AI Strategy & Investment Lean Leadership Streamline Before You Digitize Practical AI Harnessing AI

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The Slide They All Photographed

Craig Szelestowski: July 28, 2026

How do you know which slide is the one people care the most about? Easy - it's the one they take pictures of.

AI & Automation AI Strategy & Investment Lean Leadership Streamline Before You Digitize Strategic Planning Practical AI Harnessing AI

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I Built an AI Agent in 10 Minutes. Here's Why That Matters for Process Improvement

Craig Szelestowski: July 7, 2026

Last week I opened up Microsoft 365 Copilot, clicked "Create Agent," and pasted a 10-item checklist for staffing request completeness. Then I tested...

AI & Automation Better Forms & Web Tools AI Agents Standard Work & Checklists Practical AI Harnessing AI

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Building Your Team the Smart Way - First Followers and the Art of Creating a Movement

Craig Szelestowski: June 26, 2026

One of the most common mistakes Lean practitioners make is spending enormous energy trying to convince every skeptic in the room. They host...

Lean Yellow Belt Change management Lean Green Belt Buy-in & Execution Lean Leadership High Performing Teams Mindsets & Behaviours

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Where AI Actually Saves Time in a Lean Six Sigma Project (And Where It Doesn't)

Craig Szelestowski: June 24, 2026

I've been tracking where AI saves time in Lean process improvement projects. Not the marketing claims - the actual hours, on real engagements, with...

AI & Automation Time Management Productivity DMAIC Projects Practical AI Harnessing AI

Black-and-white retro-style photograph of a robot at a desk, diligently filling out an endless paper form that unrolls off the desk and coils onto the floor. Beside it sits a small, untouched

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Five Questions to Ask Before You Build a Chatbot

Craig Szelestowski: June 17, 2026

Chatbots are the new shiny object. Many process improvement presentations I’ve sat through lately include a recommendation for a chatbot somewhere....

Lean Green Belt AI & Automation AI Strategy & Investment Chatbots Streamline Before You Digitize Practical AI Harnessing AI

Office workers cheerfully feeding gold bars and watches into an industrial shredder at MAX SPEED, under a banner reading

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Chatbots: Are We Automating What Should be Eliminated?

Craig Szelestowski: May 26, 2026

A team in HR builds a chatbot to walk hiring managers through a 14-field hiring request form. It takes three months and a meaningful chunk of their...

Lean Yellow Belt Lean Green Belt AI & Automation Better Forms & Web Tools Eliminating Waste Chatbots Streamline Before You Digitize Practical AI Harnessing AI

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