Henley Centre for Leadership Learning Event: Leading Continuous Improvement

This webinar will explore the pivotal role of leadership in cultivating a robust continuous improvement environment within organisations. While continuous improvement practitioners often receive focused training, the influence of leaders on continuous improvement culture and capability is frequently underestimated. Drawing upon research conducted by Steve Fannon, this session will delve into how leadership behaviours and understanding of their role directly impact the success of continuous improvement initiatives.

The webinar will examine the 'Continuous Improvement Environment' meta-model, which illustrates how leaders' values and beliefs shape their behaviours, subsequently influencing the continuous improvement culture and actions of their teams. It will also highlight the 12 primary leadership roles identified through extensive literature review and research, emphasising their significance in fostering an effective continuous improvement environment.

This webinar will be held on 1 October 2025 at 12:00pm via Microsoft Teams and is open to all. To register for this event, please submit the booking request form here.

The event will be hosted by Dr Sinem Bulkan, Associate Professor in Leadership and Organisational Behaviour at Henley Business School and Henley Centre for Leadership Alumni Learning Event Organiser. You will have the chance to hear from our speakers as they seek answers to the following questions:

• How do leadership behaviours influence the continuous improvement culture within an organisation?

• What are the key roles leaders must adopt to develop, support and sustain continuous improvement capability in an organisation?

• How can organisations develop leaders to effectively contribute to continuous improvement capability?

Steve Fannon is an organisation excellence consultant, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and continuous improvement leader, with expertise in problem solving, continuous improvement leadership and quality management. As a 'knowledgeable collaborator', he enjoys working with others and sharing techniques, tools and improvement approaches, which allow individuals and organisations to deliver real impact with their improvement efforts.

With more than 20 years of experience in product and process quality improvement, Steve uses many supporting techniques and tools throughout the automotive industry in various roles. This experience spans manufacturing, engineering and business domains within UK automotive original equipment manufacturers and their 'tier one' supply base, with additional consulting to develop improvement capabilities across a wide range of sectors. These include retail, business services, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and local government.

Alongside gaining significant experience in teaching and coaching Lean Six Sigma 'Belts' at all levels, Steve has also led the development of work-based integrated learning programmes for process excellence, quality improvement and leadership, delivering success through partnership and collaboration. Drawing from his experience as a Chartered Engineer and improvement leader, Steve understands practice across a wide range of improvement approaches, including strategic improvement planning and project portfolio management, process improvement, new product development and introduction, failure-mode avoidance and integration of operational expenditure approaches.

Harvey Leach is an inspirational transformation leader, whether as consultant, trainer or coach. He helps private and public sector operations to achieve what he refers to as 'high performance with ease' - a 'people first' approach to engaging and releasing the potential of their staff through better processes and collaborative ways of working that then deliver exceptional results consistently and with minimum effort.

An engineer by training, Harvey spent the first 27 years of his career in the automotive industry with BMW Group and its predecessor companies. He started in research, moving through roles in product development, new product planning, production control, manufacturing strategy and business planning. This has given him 'end-to-end' experience of the product lifecycle from a range of perspectives. The uniting theme in all his roles was improving ways of working to encourage cross-functional co-operation and focus on clear, effective processes that deliver threat results on time, every time. His breadth of experience enables him to take a 'whole system' approach to his client work to produce robust and sustainable solutions.

Working as a consultant, trainer and coach since 2004, projects have been as diverse as helping a client to redesign their New Product Introduction process, designing a new production operating model, improving the scheduling of patients through hospital theatres and introducing continuous improvement processes in multiple sectors. Consulting clients have included Jaguar Land Rover, Rotork, Smiths Detection, Edwards Vacuum and Johnson Matthey.

Harvey has also developed and now delivers a suite of training courses for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers covering all aspects of product lifecycle. As a passionate student of operational improvement approaches and transformational leadership, his pragmatic, hands–on approach helps people connect theory with their everyday work to great effect, bringing benefits to customers, colleagues and the organisation in equal measure.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list for these events, please contact the Henley Business School Alumni and Development team on alumni@henley.ac.uk