Who We Are
Who We Are
Who We Are
Books, Articles and Video
Books, Articles and Video
Books, Articles and Video
We are a paired master coaching team offering a unique blend of skills, talents and experience in the technical, social and cultural aspects of high performance leadership and transformation. We serve large, established enterprises seeking to transform their digital capabilities, as well as technology natives entering a growth phase where scale and operational excellence are required. We also work with large nonprofit organizations hoping to leverage technology deliver more value to those they serve. We are intentionally small and focused (what you might call a ‘boutique’ firm) and our highest value is to clients who intend to leverage our expertise to quickly develop and scale their internal leadership, management and coaching capabilities, to accelerate their journey forward.
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We can begin quickly and in a low-cost and low-risk manner, evolving our engagement approach as you learn and develop clarity – this is the principle of emergent learning (Plan-Do-Check-Act) that is the foundation of everything we do.
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Steve Bell is a pioneer of Lean IT and Lean Digitization, and author of Lean IT, Run Grow Transform, Lean Enterprise Systems, and numerous other published works. In 2011 he received the Shingo Prize for Research and Professional Publication. His career spans the evolution of enterprise-wide information technology, with hands-on experience in continuous improvement and innovation across most industries. Steve serves on the faculty of the Lean Enterprise Institute and the Lean Global Network, and is a co-founder of Digital Lean Strategies, LLC (formerly Lean IT Strategies, LLC) and Lean4NGO.
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Karen Whitley Bell is a co-founder of Digital Lean Strategies, LLC and Lean4NGO. Her professional background includes a 20+ year career in health care, as a hospice and palliative nurse, and author of the award-winning book Living at the End of Life. During this time she was actively involved in all aspects of Lean IT Strategies, LLC, including editing and contributing to published works, workshops and presentations. In 2012 Karen retired from health care practice, dedicating her skills with communications, human capability development, evidence-based problem solving, research and writing to Digital Lean Strategies. Karen is a co-author of numerous articles on digital transformation and continuous improvement. She recently led the creation of a chapter on high performance management for inclusion in the forthcoming book Accelerate: The Science Behind DevOps, by Jez Humble, Gene Kim, and Nicole Forsgren PhD. She is now leading the development of a new book, co-authored with Steve Bell, on the Digital Lean Enterprise.
We are a paired master coaching team offering a unique blend of skills, talents and experience in the technical, social and cultural aspects of high performance leadership and transformation. We serve large, established enterprises seeking to transform their digital capabilities, as well as technology natives entering a growth phase where scale and operational excellence are required. We also work with large nonprofit organizations hoping to leverage technology deliver more value to those they serve. We are intentionally small and focused (what you might call a ‘boutique’ firm) and our highest value is to clients who intend to leverage our expertise to quickly develop and scale their internal leadership, management and coaching capabilities, to accelerate their journey forward.
​
We can begin quickly and in a low-cost and low-risk manner, evolving our engagement approach as you learn and develop clarity – this is the principle of emergent learning (Plan-Do-Check-Act) that is the foundation of everything we do.
​
Steve Bell is a pioneer of Lean IT and Lean Digitization, and author of Lean IT, Run Grow Transform, Lean Enterprise Systems, and numerous other published works. In 2011 he received the Shingo Prize for Research and Professional Publication. His career spans the evolution of enterprise-wide information technology, with hands-on experience in continuous improvement and innovation across most industries. Steve serves on the faculty of the Lean Enterprise Institute and the Lean Global Network, and is a co-founder of Digital Lean Strategies, LLC (formerly Lean IT Strategies, LLC) and Lean4NGO.
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Karen Whitley Bell is a co-founder of Digital Lean Strategies, LLC and Lean4NGO. Her professional background includes a 20+ year career in health care, as a hospice and palliative nurse, and author of the award-winning book Living at the End of Life. During this time she was actively involved in all aspects of Lean IT Strategies, LLC, including editing and contributing to published works, workshops and presentations. In 2012 Karen retired from health care practice, dedicating her skills with communications, human capability development, evidence-based problem solving, research and writing to Digital Lean Strategies. Karen is a co-author of numerous articles on digital transformation and continuous improvement. She recently led the creation of a chapter on high performance management for inclusion in the forthcoming book Accelerate: The Science Behind DevOps, by Jez Humble, Gene Kim, and Nicole Forsgren PhD. She is now leading the development of a new book, co-authored with Steve Bell, on the Digital Lean Enterprise.
We are a paired master coaching team offering a unique blend of skills, talents and experience in the technical, social and cultural aspects of high performance leadership and transformation. We serve large, established enterprises seeking to transform their digital capabilities, as well as technology natives entering a growth phase where scale and operational excellence are required. We also work with large nonprofit organizations hoping to leverage technology deliver more value to those they serve. We are intentionally small and focused (what you might call a ‘boutique’ firm) and our highest value is to clients who intend to leverage our expertise to quickly develop and scale their internal leadership, management and coaching capabilities, to accelerate their journey forward.
​
We can begin quickly and in a low-cost and low-risk manner, evolving our engagement approach as you learn and develop clarity – this is the principle of emergent learning (Plan-Do-Check-Act) that is the foundation of everything we do.
​
Steve Bell is a pioneer of Lean IT and Lean Digitization, and author of Lean IT, Run Grow Transform, Lean Enterprise Systems, and numerous other published works. In 2011 he received the Shingo Prize for Research and Professional Publication. His career spans the evolution of enterprise-wide information technology, with hands-on experience in continuous improvement and innovation across most industries. Steve serves on the faculty of the Lean Enterprise Institute and the Lean Global Network, and is a co-founder of Digital Lean Strategies, LLC (formerly Lean IT Strategies, LLC) and Lean4NGO.
​
Karen Whitley Bell is a co-founder of Digital Lean Strategies, LLC and Lean4NGO. Her professional background includes a 20+ year career in health care, as a hospice and palliative nurse, and author of the award-winning book Living at the End of Life. During this time she was actively involved in all aspects of Lean IT Strategies, LLC, including editing and contributing to published works, workshops and presentations. In 2012 Karen retired from health care practice, dedicating her skills with communications, human capability development, evidence-based problem solving, research and writing to Digital Lean Strategies. Karen is a co-author of numerous articles on digital transformation and continuous improvement. She recently led the creation of a chapter on high performance management for inclusion in the forthcoming book Accelerate: The Science Behind DevOps, by Jez Humble, Gene Kim, and Nicole Forsgren PhD. She is now leading the development of a new book, co-authored with Steve Bell, on the Digital Lean Enterprise.
Who We Are
We are a paired master coaching team offering a unique combination of experience, talents and skills in the technical and cultural aspects of creating and sustaining a high-performance learning organization.
We focus on rapid internal capability development, guiding organizations as they develop and improve their structure, practices and culture to optimize flow, performance, value and learning.
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We bring a principles-based, method-agnostic coaching approach to coaching engaging complementary communities and practices — including Agile, DevOps, Lean, Scrum, Kanban, Continuous Delivery, OKR/Hoshin, Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Kata, Six Sigma, ITSM, BPM, Obeya, and Balanced Scorecard — to optimize end-to-end flow and learning across the enterprise.
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Steve Bell is a master coach and pioneer of Lean IT and Lean Digitization. He is the author of Lean IT, Run Grow Transform, Lean Enterprise Systems, Accelerate, and numerous other published works. He is a two-time recipient of a Shingo award, in 2011 for Lean IT (Shingo Prize for Research and Professional Publication) and the 2019 (Shingo Publication Award) for Accelerate.
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Karen Whitley Bell is a master coach, Shingo Publication Award recipient and co-author of Accelerate and numerous other articles and publications on enterprise performance and learning.
Together Steve and Karen are researching and writing their next book on Creating a High Performance Learning Organization.
Phone 503-789-8627
Twitter @LeanITCoach
LinkedIn LeanITCoach