iLean

If you missed our recent Agile Kitchen session on How to decide when you don’t know, we just put the core insights into a quick-read recap blog post. 🤓 We spent the evening dissecting why strategic decision-making usually feels like guesswork. The consensus? Most teams aren't failing due to a lack of data. They are failing because backward-looking data tools cannot predict a volatile market. When certainty is an illusion, relying on gut feeling or the loudest voice in the room is a liability. In this recap, we break down the practical, rational framework shared by Stijn Decneut and Geert De Cang to help your team navigate unknowns with confidence. What’s inside the blog post: 👉 Why traditional data tools often look in the wrong direction. 👉 The structure needed to replace opinion-driven debates with logic. 👉 A full photo lookback at the evening in our new Kontich office. https://lnkd.in/e9CFN2Ef #AgileKitchen

Meet our next iLeaner in the spotlight: Tom van Baarle. Tom is an advocate for clarity and continuous improvement, and brings a unique blend of dedication and constructive challenge to our team. Together with Philippe Vandessel he is also the driving force behind our Agile Kitchen sessions. As an organizational coach, he helps companies look under the hood to find focus, clarity, and real results. So, what sets Tom apart? 🤝 He is deeply committed, completely genuine, and knows exactly how to challenge teams constructively. 🧠 He looks at the system as a whole, reminding us that organizational challenges are rarely just black and white. ✨ He creates cultures built on ownership and continuous improvement. Tom is a lifelong learner at heart. Whether the topic is organizational design, systems thinking, or strategic focus, he is always looking to sharpen his toolkit. For instance, he dove into a Claude Cowork program this month. And if you work with Tom, this is what you can expect: 1️⃣ A systemic perspective that looks beyond the surface-level symptoms. 2️⃣ A relentless commitment to making work visual so teams can solve real problems. 3️⃣ A focus on making the journey enjoyable Oh, and if you ever need someone for a trivia night, Tom is an absolute quiz talent. Tom, we’re so glad to have your unique perspective in the team. 🙏 #iLean

Obeya often fails for one simple reason: people treat it like a design project. They argue over digital tools, whiteboard templates, and data columns. Then they launch, and the leadership team keeps running the exact same fragmented, siloed meetings as before. At that point, your expensive visual setup is just a high-maintenance wallpaper. Leading with Obeya lives or dies by the behavior inside the room, not the metrics on the wall. To help teams get actual value out of this method, we are hosting Mark Uijen de Kleijn at iLean for the official Leading with Obeya - Foundation Training. Over two days, you will use your own organizational challenges to practice the method, while mastering meeting routines and leadership habits required to keep it alive. The payload: 1️⃣ The official Leading with Obeya handbook by Tim Wiegel. 2️⃣ The practical capability to apply the method to your team's context. 3️⃣ A Certificate and digital badge. 4️⃣ Post-training support. Seats are limited. Grab a spot via the link below. https://lnkd.in/ej45k_2J #Obeya #Leadership #iLean

Two weeks ago, we officially inaugurated our new office space in Kontich with a packed house for our Agile Kitchen session: How to decide when you don’t Know. 🥳 A massive thank you to everyone who joined us, shared their challenges, and stuck around for drinks afterward. Special thanks to our hosts, Stijn Decneut and Geert De Cang. They pushed us to look past simple gut feelings and backward-looking data, handing us a rational framework to navigate unknowns with confidence. The biggest takeaway from the room: The best decisions aren’t made by the loudest voice, but through a structured, repeatable approach to the unknown. Missed this one? We are already prepping the next Agile Kitchen. Stay tuned. #AgileKitchen

🚨 NEW TRAINING 🚨 Most leadership teams don't suffer from a lack of data. They suffer from a lack of overview. Strategies get trapped in slide decks. Obstacles stay hidden in departmental silos. Operations become completely disconnected from the bigger picture. The result? Endless alignment loops and status meetings just to figure out what is actually going on. That is why we are partnering with expert trainer Mark Uijen de Kleijn to bring the official Leading with Obeya - Foundation training to the iLean community. 👏 Obeya (Japanese for "big room") is a visual management workspace that acts as the central nervous system for your team. It pulls your entire organizational system onto the wall so everyone can see the truth in one glance. True to the iLean style, this official two-day training is intensely interactive. You will bring your own real-world leadership challenges to the table, step away from the slides, and actively practice designing a workspace that drives real collaboration. Enroll now: 👇 https://lnkd.in/ej45k_2J #LeadingWithObeya

Last week, our colleague Eva Dierickx crossed the North Sea for a very special assignment with her client, UCB. 😎 As part of the UK Learning Week, she headed down to Slough to facilitate interactive workshops centered around digital tools and how teams can use them to collaborate smarter. And when you are working in the UK, a visit to London is a must. After a high-energy week of workshops with the UCB teams, Eva spent her final day exploring the city. Looks like she had good luck with the British weather this time! ☀️ #iLean #UCB #LearningWeek

We are almost at capacity for next week. 👀 Our upcoming Agile Kitchen session focuses on a universal challenge: How to decide when you don’t know. It is a hands-on session where we dive into a practical framework designed for navigating high-stakes choices when the future is foggy. Former iLeaners Stijn Decneut and Geert De Cang are taking over to show you how to look past backward-looking data, silence the loudest opinions in the room, and use structured logic to navigate unknowns with confidence. We have just a few seats left at the table. The essentials: 📅 Wednesday 3 June 2026 | 18:00 – 22:00 📍 Veldkant 7, Kontich (2nd floor) 🅿️ Free parking right at the door https://lnkd.in/e9KmrjmY #AgileKitchen #DecisionMaking

Meet our next iLeaner in the spotlight: Kasia (Katarzyna) Sikora-Smets. Kasia is an advocate for personal growth, and brings a unique blend of persistence and perspective to our team. She helps organizations and teams understand how their internal systems actually work and what they can do to become more effective. So, what sets Kasia apart? 🤝 She asks the questions that truly make you think. 🧠 She sees the hidden patterns in how people and organizations interact. ✨ She prioritizes making people feel confident and supported in their choices. If there’s one thing keeping her awake at night, it’s the following question: “How can we create environments where people feel supported enough to keep exploring new perspectives, even long after the initial change has started?” It’s easy to focus on short-term wins. Looking at the long-term impact on people and culture is far more challenging. Yet that’s where sustainable change begins. Kasia is a lifelong learner at heart. Whether the topic is coaching, agile leadership, or psychology, she always has a great book recommendation ready (and she will gladly lend it to you). That same curiosity drives her this year as she moves beyond basic AI chat tools to explore how agentic AI can help teams work smarter. And if you work with Kasia, this is what you can expect: 1️⃣ A constant exploration of different perspectives. 2️⃣ Lasting support that goes beyond the project deadline. 3️⃣ Greater clarity and confidence in your decision-making. Kasia, we’re so glad to have your unique perspective in the team. 🙏

Stop me if this sounds familiar: You’re staring at a product backlog or an organizational change roadmap, and you have to make a call. But the feedback is unreliable, the "data" only tells you what happened yesterday, and the loudest person in the room is winning the argument. You’re not deciding; you’re guessing. On June 3rd, we’re ending the guesswork. We’re hosting a hands-on session at our Agile Kitchen to show you how to make confident, well-supported decision, even when the future is uncertain. Why should you join us? ✅ You will be able to confidently identify and address unknowns in your product strategy by applying practical decision-making techniques. ✅ Understand why data-driven tools often fail in uncertainty and discover practical alternatives that actually look forward. ✅ You will be able to apply a rational framework to navigate uncertainty in both product development and organizational change. ✅ Learn how to replace the loud voices with a repeatable structure that drives clarity and alignment. Join us on 03 June 2026 https://lnkd.in/e9KmrjmY

We are thrilled to welcome two experts who combine deep theoretical knowledge with decades of “boots on the ground” experience. Meet Stijn Decneut and Geert De Cang. Both ex-iLean, and happy to return for our upcoming Agile Kitchen session Stijn is the creator of The VALUE Method. He’s spent years researching how humans make choices when the outcomes are uncertain. He is known for a pragmatic, no-nonsense attitude. Stijn excels at distilling rigorous research into practical, “no-fairies” tools that teams can use the very next day to navigate the unknown. Geert brings 20+ years of experience leading R&D teams through disruptive change. He’s the guy you call when the handbook fails. He specializes in tuning agile principles into organizational designs that actually work in the real world. Together, they are going to show you how to handle the unknown with courage and rational logic. 👇 Join them at our next Agile Kitchen session: https://lnkd.in/e9KmrjmY