2020 Looking Back – Opportunity to Rethink How to Be Innovative

I wanted to reach out at this holiday time to say thank you for being a learner and a supporter of the LPPDE community.

Looking back at 2020 it was a rough and challenging year for everyone and it’s a year we will never forget - this is the year we faced the traumatic health effects of an epidemic - a pandemic that transformed personal lives, work-life, services, industries, and online learning. It’s the year where many public events got canceled (including LPPDE’s in-person conferences) and many businesses allowed their employees to work from home which pushed the digital transformation to a whole new level. LPPDE was also forced to rethink this year's planned events which meant rescheduling in-person conferences and transforming to virtual conferences instead. 

Pivot and adapt

2020 was the year where the need to pivot and adapt to constantly changing conditions was in focus. This was the year where we learned to use digital platforms on a whole new level, we got used to being in front of the camera, got used to being social and network via digital platforms and what a change. Even though we haven’t met in person I have met a lot of new people in 2020 and I’m grateful for the new connections, the new learnings, new mentors - when I look back this year have taught me to rethink how to be innovative in all kinds of ways.

Digital transformation

2020 was the year where everyone was forced to speed up the digital transformation this also included LPPDE - we transformed liked everyone else and I’m proud to look back at our events:

• LPPDE Europe 2020 was flipped around to be an online event in May 2020
• LPPDE North America 2020 got rescheduled to 2021
• LPPDE Virtual Summit: 2020-2021 digital - offering Thursday workshops and Friday online conference (went from a European offering to a global offering).

We also thought about lean through webinars (click here to check them out)

• Injecting Knowledge into Innovation - with Bob Melvin
• More Creative More Fast Bringing Structure to Product Development - with Suzanne van Egmond
• Lean Product Development: Increase Speed and Accelerate Innovation - with Norbert Majerus

A new website was also launched and we are still expanding with new content, features to accommodate and bring value to our lean community. 

Board update

It’s also the year where three board members are retiring from the LPPDE board:

Bob Melvin, Suanne van Egmond, and Göran Gustafsson. I want to say thank you for being a volunteer to the lean community, thank you for your time, talents, insight, and your unique expertise. We are looking forward to continuing to work together with you and learning from you.

I also want to welcome three new board members: Carolyn Hutchinson Carter, Christer Lundh, and Arnoud Herremans - I'm excited to see new faces join the board and looking forward to new energy, new skill sets that will take LPPDE to the next level.

Plan for 2021

What’s the plan for 2021 - we want to grow and bring more value to our lean community from conference, digital summits to webinars. Stay tuned and if you can’t wait please join us and be part of the growth we are always looking for extra support and expertise.

I don’t think we will go back to what it was before - this is a new change and we are going forward -  be part of it!. Embrace businesses and individuals to be more agile, adaptive, and creative, join the new journey, and learn together with LPPDE.