Free Continuous Improvement Training & Resources

(Includes Continuous Improvement Training, Resources, Forms & Tools...
Plus "The 30 Day Guide to Jumpstarting Your Continuous Improvement Skills"

Get the Training and Resources You Need to Start Improving Your CI Skills & Systems NOW!

What's Included?

  • 40+ Forms & Tools (with "How to" Content)
  • Access to 36 Lean Training System modules
  • Access to our CI Reference Guide (732+ Terms)
  • Much of our CI Development System
  • Several audio and video series
  • Our ‘Ramblings’ vlog archives
  • Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean? book online
  • Newsletter, Online News, and Member Handbook
  • Many sections from our premium content
  • The "30 Day Guide" to put this free content to the best use!
How this program works: You get immediate access to 35 forms and the CI Development System overview. Then, we release new content on a 'drip' schedule, including additional information on using those forms. If you are an active subscriber when that release date hits, you can grab that content. It's that simple.

Grab Great CI Content for Free

The Purpose of the Free
"CI Jumpstart Toolkit"

We call our free membership the "CI Jumpstart Toolkit" because it is designed to get you started quickly and knock down the barriers to CI success.

This starter membership guides you past obstacles so you can develop your CI skills and systems with less friction.

This brings you to the point where you know enough to make better choices about setting your path forward--whether it is with us using our premium products, or along another route.
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Tell me more...

Our training is designed to help you become a CI powerhouse-whether company or individual. 

Many training companies call something similar a ‘yellow belt’ package or something comparable, and charge a lot for it.

We have a diabolical reason for our alternative to that. We help you for free, knowing that you'll be able to get pretty good at continuous improvement, in the hopes that down the road, you'll stick with us what you want to move from pretty good to really great. 

76% of Companies Will Fail at Continuous Improvement

But you don't have to.

Why Continuous Improvement Efforts Fail

When I was researching my book nearly 20 years ago, I came across the stat that 76% of CI initiatives fall short of expectations.

Over the last 2 decades, I've observed the most common causes for that failure.

You'll notice that nearly all of these are the result of not starting off on the right foot.
Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean?
76% of CI Projects Fall Short
See What We've Learned
What Makes CI Flop?

Unrealistic Schedule and Goals

The biggest goal issue is time. People expect quick fixes, and fail. There's an expression attributed to W. Edwards Deming that there is no "instant pudding" in improvement efforts. You have to put in the work.
If goals take too long to achieve, people abandon them.

Not Knowing the Unknowns

One of the challenges with trying something new is that you often don't know where your gaps in knowledge are. When that happens, you don't even know there is something to learn.
In CI, that means that your blind spots can derail your progress.

Not Having a Long-Term Plan

People often focus on the immediate future, and don't think how their actions will impact their future efforts. Things down the road are significantly harder when the foundation is not layered properly.

Leaders Not Engaging

Some leaders choose not to change how they lead in a continuous improvement environment. They seem to think that they got where they are without it, so why start now. That undermines any potential change.

Putting The Full Load on Frontline Teams

Some leaders believe that CI success comes from changing how teams operate, That is only half the story. Without effective CI leadership, no amount of frontline change will improve the company.

Not Willing to Invest in Training Full Team

Great CI companies have 100% engagement. Everyone knows what CI is, and has a strong understanding of their roles and expectations. That doesn't happen by accident. Even if you are doing training in house, there is still a high cost to pulling people from production,

Loss of Focus

Building a great continuous improvement culture and business management system is a multi-year endeavor. It is easy to get distracted and lose focus.

Change of Leadership

When change is driven by a single individual, it presents a risk. If that person leaves, efforts can die on the vine.

Making Mistakes

As you might expect, if you make mistakes, you will hamper your progress. Attempting to reinvent the wheel is a great way to increase the number of mistakes you make.

Not Prioritizing Continuous Improvement

I am always amazed at the number of companies that don't staff for continuous improvement. If you plan on doing projects regularly, you can't plan for production 100% of the time. If you don't staff for CI, it won't happen. This includes creating a dedicated CI team.

The Cost of Failure

Our program helps you identify and avoid problems early, lowering the long-term costs of your CI program.
Personal Costs
Company Costs
  • Delay in professional advancement
  • Having to work harder than needed
  • Failing to meet the boss's expectations
  • Getting left behind or not fitting in to the CI Culture
  • Slow progress developing a CI Culture / System
  • Losing business to competitors who are better at CI
  • Higher costs than necessary
  • High turnover from frustrated employees
  • Customer issues
  • Lack of clarity and purpose for the team
  • Working at odds with each other

What Results Should You Expect from the Jumpstart Program?

You'll get out what you put in, but there are some pretty substantial benefits you can reap from our free program. Like we said, we provide some pretty substantial resources and training for free. If you put that content to work, you'll see the return.

Personal Skills

With all 36 of our original Lean Training System modules and the entire Continuous Improvement Companion reference guide, you won't lack for the tools to become a significant CI practitioner.

A Budding CI Culture

The CIDS (Continuous Improvement Development System) is our blueprint to make a CI Culture. You get access to loads of it, especially for the early phases where the foundation of a culture is laid.

A Business System

You'll get the tools and info to start building a business management system that both creates your CI Culture, and is powered by it. The structure is based on powerful leadership tools at your disposal.

How Does the CI Jumpstart Toolkit Work?

It is a free program where we unlock 'keys' to enroll in courses, or to download content. Downloads come with permanent licenses. The keys give you standard access to courses--whatever they normally come with when purchased, but you can renew as often as you want.

You do need to stay subscribed to our newsletter to keep this benefit. It comes about once or twice a month.
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Time Released Content

When you sign up, we start unlocking content every week for a year. Once the year is up, you keep access to all the previous content, and we even throw in additional temporary content, though most likely, you'll be a full member by then. 

You Get a Variety of Resources & Training

  • Full Courses
  • Links for PDF Forms & Tools early on
  • Links for Full Versions of Forms & Tools later
  • Access to sections from our premium content
  • Reference materials and resources

It is a Bridge from Novice to Competence

We know it can be hard to take the leap of faith to get started. Our program is intended to help you get to the point where you are confident in your ability to make great progress with the right tools

Why Start Now?

  • Improvements compound like interest.
    You can never make up for delays.
  • Opportunities don't wait. Be ready.
  • Start the unlocking clock now. Get it all sooner.
  • Special offers. Don't miss out.
    Not just savings--sometimes extra free content.
  • Start building relationships in the community. 

Who We Help With the Jumpstart Toolkit

Our Jumpstart Program is designed to help people wanting to bridge the gap from inexperience to a modicum of competence. Once you sort of know what you are doing, the power of our tools and systems becomes a lot more apparent (and much easier to justify investing in.)

01

You Want to Learn on Your Own

For some people, their companies will spring for expensive, immersive training. For most, though, learning costs come out of your own pocket. We want to help with that. It is in our best interest to have a massive pool of individuals who are competent at continuous improvement. They are the future decision makers in companies. So we offer free training to get you to the point where you can (and will) choose to use our services.

02

Your Company is Just Starting

The hardest, and most important, decision for a company just starting on its CI journey is where they will get their support from in charting their course. We want to make that choice easy for you. That means low cost, low risk, and low friction--combined with powerful, effective tools. That's the primary purpose of our Jumpstart. To get you started while providing a seamless transition to our services later.

03

Your Company is Having Trouble

76%. You aren't alone if you are having trouble with your continuous improvement efforts. Our Jumpstart Program gives you a good way to 'check your work' and see where you might have gone wrong. If this is you, there's hope. You probably have some really good stuff going on. The Jumpstart can act like a reset button where you can clear out the bad stuff but keep the good stuff. You'll progress pretty quickly. (And we do have an option to pay to jump ahead in this program if it isn't fast enough for you.)

04

Your Company is Doing Well

If you are already doing well, our Jumpstart Program isn't the best tool for you, but it can still help. It's never a bad idea to get more ideas. Even if you just choose a few morsels from this program, it is worth the cost. And we think that is unlikely. We think, with your experience, you'll find a lot more than a bit of help. You'll be able to understand the power of the system far better than those who are just starting out.

Why Trust Us?

It's a great question, and an important one. It's also an unnecessary one--for now at least. Our free system means you don't have to trust us.
You can trust our results.

But, if you want to verify, you can check out our Amazon products for when we started selling them, the time our site has been indexed on Google, and our history on YouTube (click 'more' under the description to see total views and our 'joined date'.)

8500+

8500 YouTube subscribers shows how people see our value.

16 Years

We've got a verifiable history of doing what we do.

25k+

Subscribers/members over the years. We've purged and changed our systems, but we constantly attract people because of our value.

Who is Jeff?

I'm Jeff Hajek. I'm the founder and primary trainer at CI Central.
I am a West Point graduate with an MBA. I've worked for a few companies, and have run my own training business for the better part of two decades. It started as a side job while I stayed home with my kids, and is now picking up steam as life evolves and the kids are becoming adults.

I was a high school valedictorian. I was an armor office in the army. I de-tassled corn for a day when I was I was a teen (it is as hard of a job as it sounds). I worked hard to save money for college by doing every rough job at K-mart in high school (before I knew I was accepted to West Point). I love outdoor sports-skiing and biking and hiking--though age has slowed me down.

So that's my background. I don't need to tell you much about my professional philosophies, as you can spend a few minutes watching my YouTube channel or reading my copious writings on my website, or diving into my book to find out what I believe and how I can help you on your CI journey.
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What Comes After Jumpstart?

The Jumpstart Program is a stepping stone. Our hope is that you will use it to choose us as your guide once you get all you can from the free program.
  • Best option: You use us to provide training for your team and to support your leaders in charting the course. It is the 'all in' option of using our full membership programs, buying our physical training kits, and using our platform to support your in-house training and certification program (soon to be released...stay tuned).
  • Good Option: Just use our membership programs to give your leaders the tools they need to thrive as you develop your culture and management system.
  • Alternative Option: You go with someone else for your training (we think that's a mistake...) You can choose to use our training/tools/resources to augment the other services. Keep your Jumpstart membership to take advantage of the free option.

About Our Free Content

In our Jumpstart Program, all of our content is released in the 'bonus content' library. In our full memberships, it is easier to manage. You can search catalogs, and won't have to renew enrollments. In the bonus content library, you can enroll in titles as if you are purchasing them individually, so there is an expiration date. Don't worry though. You can always renew. And downloads come with permanent corporate licenses.

One more thing. For the most part, our free content is identical to our premium content-just not as much of it. We do offer PDF versions of forms to get them in your hands right away, but you'll eventually get some full versions if you stick around.

Course Player

Our course player is the backbone of our training platform. It is fantastic at delivering content, including downloads.

Variety of Media Formats

Everyone learns differently. That's why we combine written lessons with audio and video content to make sure the information is understood and retained.

Interactive

Our system lets you engage. You can dive into discussions, answer surveys or workbook style questions, take notes on content, and complete quizzes. We've barely scratched the surface on what's to come.
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WHY DO WE REQUIRE AN ACCOUNT
FOR FREE CONTENT?

It's based on feedback that we've heard from the 20,000+ people we've given free content to over 14 years.

Over the years, we've tried a lot of ways to give away free content. By far, the most positive responses have been from delivering it in our course player. It lets us add supporting content, and slice off premium content for our guests to access.

That requires an account to unlock it all.

Frequently asked questions

What if I just want a free form?

We did this for a long time, but realized that it didn’t go very far in developing a relationship with guests to our site. Most people grab a form and never learn about how much more we have to offer.

So, we changed the free program to focus on people who want a more substantial level of help.
If you just want a form, without the training materials that support it, we suggest looking at our purchase options in our Continuous Improvement Storefront.

Can I keep my downloads?

Yes.

Most content you download while enrolled in this free program will be yours to keep. Unless specified otherwise, content comes with a permanent corporate license.

You must download it while your account is active, though.

What is the purpose of this program?

This is a win-win. We have found that most of our customers have made some progress on their own and are a little stuck. They need help continuing their journey.

The people who just show up for a form don’t tend to stick around long. Because they came for a specific thing, they don’t look around enough to see how much more we can help.

This program entices people to stay around longer by giving them what we think is an unrivaled level of free support. And the longer people stick around, the more likely they will be to become customers down the road. Our Jumpstart Program members get better, and we get more satisfied customers.

What are the general terms of the CI Jumpstart Program?

We release content over the course of a year. Once you’ve been here longer, you will get special access to additional content on a rotating basis.

Nearly all downloads come with a permanent corporate license that lets you share content.

If you unsubscribe from our newsletter, you lose access to the program. That means any progress in courses and any notes or responses you entered will be deleted as well. You can rejoin later (if you didn't report us as spam), but you'll start from scratch on everything.
Guest Contents

What Comes in Our CI Jumpstart Toolkit

Our free CI Jumpstart Program comes with loads of content that is released to you each week.
CIDS Content
A selection of our CI blueprint to get you started
Handbook
A guide on how to get the most from CI Central
CI Terms
Our entire CI Reference Guide, unlocked over the course of the year.
Forms & Tools
Loads of forms and tools to get you started. Free ones early on. Full forms later. Plus some training on select forms.
Latest Ramblings
Get Jeff's latest thoughts about random CI topics
Recorded Webinars
Get access to the recording of a load of webinars
Free Course Sections
Most courses have free sections to get you started
In return for all this great content, all you have to do is stay subscribed to our newsletter.
We send it out once or twice a month.

CI Jumpstart Toolkit Free Content

The longer you stay a member, the more content we unlock for you!

Courses

"Guest Membership" content is part of the Jumpstart Program and is included for free.

Membership Overview

You get free access to free courses, select sections of premium courses, and our newsletter
1

Free Courses

Some of our courses are designated as free content, and are accessible to our guest members. Simply click the 'Register for Free' button on the course landing page.
2

Free Sections of Premium Courses

Many of our premium courses have free sections in them. Our free forms & tools are distributed this way. Look for the 'Free' icon by the section information in our course content listings.
3

Our Newsletter & Email Series

We have a periodic newsletter that we send to all our subscribers. We also offer a variety of email series that are packed with perks to help you with specific topics.
Training and Resource Catalog

Guest Membership

Our guest membership gets you access to all our free content.

Want the best FREE option?
Get a free 3-day trial of our CI Leader Membership.
(Shhhh....you can harvest loads of forms in that time...)