Lean Agility Blog

The AI Investment Trap

craig@leanagility.com (Craig Szelestowski) — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 18:00:00 GMT

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, a vendor relationship, and a shiny success story in someone’s performance review. And that constituency has a strong incentive to keep the chatbot alive - even when the smarter move is to simplify the process so the chatbot isn’t needed.

The Slide They All Photographed

craig@leanagility.com (Craig Szelestowski) — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 13:00:00 GMT

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

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

craig@leanagility.com (Craig Szelestowski) — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Last week I opened up Microsoft 365 Copilot, clicked "Create Agent," and pasted a 10-item checklist for staffing request completeness. Then I tested it with an incomplete request - the kind a busy director would actually submit.

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

craig@leanagility.com (Craig Szelestowski) — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:15:00 GMT

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

five-questions-before-you-build-a-chatbot

craig@leanagility.com (Craig Szelestowski) — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Chatbots are the new shiny object. Many process improvement presentations I’ve sat through lately include a recommendation for a chatbot somewhere. “Guide the client through intake”. “Answer FAQs”. “Validate form fields”.

eliminate-before-you-automate

craig@leanagility.com (Craig Szelestowski) — Tue, 26 May 2026 11:00:00 GMT

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 budget. When they launch it, the percentage of correctly completed forms improves from 30% to 75%. There is much rejoicing. “AI Wizard” coffee mugs are awarded.

backlogs

craig@leanagility.com (Craig Szelestowski) — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:30:00 GMT

The backlog is the great shame of the public service. It fills staff with dread, leaders with pressure and clients with frustration. Every team that has one also tried to attack it - temporary resources, weekend sprints, heroic effort - and most have found it come right back, sometimes bigger than before.

Failure Demand: The Work That Should Never Exist

craig@leanagility.com (Craig Szelestowski) — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:45:00 GMT

If you asked most managers where their team's capacity is going, they'd tell you: answering emails, processing requests, attending meetings, reviewing files. All of it necessary. All of it just the job.

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

craig@leanagility.com (Craig Szelestowski) — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:15:00 GMT

One of the most common mistakes Lean practitioners make is spending enormous entry trying to convince every skeptic in the room. They host information sessions that get ignored. They send emails that get archived. They push harder, and resistance pushes back. Sound familiar?

Why Multitasking Hurts Productivity (and What To Do About It)

craig@leanagility.com (Craig Szelestowski) — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Multitasking looks impressive—juggling emails, meetings, and deliverables—but it’s a productivity illusion. What we’re really doing is switch-tasking: rapidly shifting attention from one thing to another. Each switch burns time, energy, and focus.