Abstract Submissions
2025 LCI Congress Call for Abstracts
27th Annual LCI Congress • Arlington, TX • October 20-24, 2025
Join us this fall to share your Lean journey with other industry leaders committed to Lean practices. This year Arlington, Texas serves as the hub for the 27th Annual LCI Congress, where LCI showcases peer led knowledge sharing, lessons learned, and actionable insights.
With four tracks to support various areas of interest within the growing Lean community, the program is crafted to be relevant for everyone from frontline field leaders to top executives. We are seeking timely, relevant stories with a dose of inspiration to help attendees take their own next steps on their Lean journey.
Help us celebrate the many aspects of Lean journeys happening every day on job sites, in trailers, and in design and construction offices around the country.
Explore the tracks below and decide where your story and lessons learned fit into the 2025 LCI Congress core program. These are guidelines for your submission but feel free to cover other aspects of your Lean journey.
2025 Congress Theme & Tracks
Building Champions:
Constructing the Game Plan for Lean Success
Building the Team: Developing People and Gaining Buy-In
Every Lean championship team begins with its people.
Success begins with the right people. This track explores recruiting, developing, and inspiring people, fostering trust and collaboration, and creating alignment around shared goals. Sessions focus on leadership development, team building, strategies for gaining buy-in at all levels, and equipping attendees to build resilient, high-performing Lean teams.
Setting the Strategy: Laying the Groundwork for Success
Winning starts with a Lean game plan.
Championships are won with a strong plan. This track emphasizes the critical role of design and preconstruction in achieving long-term success. Sessions explore aligning stakeholders, establishing clear goals, engaging trade partners early, and proactively identifying risks to create a solid foundation for efficient Lean project delivery.
Executing the Playbook: Precision and Safety on the Field
Game day is all about Lean execution.
Success in the field demands precision and adaptability. This track focuses on strategies for managing field operations, meeting milestones, and maintaining a relentless commitment to safety. Sessions highlight Lean tools, proven workflows, and techniques for eliminating inefficiencies while adapting to real-time challenges.
The Winning Formula: Innovation and Continuous Improvement
Champions evolve through reflection and Lean innovation.
Growth fuels lasting victories. This track emphasizes adopting cutting-edge Lean tools and technologies—such as AI, digital collaboration platforms, and prefabrication—to drive efficiency. Sessions also explore learning from setbacks, celebrating successes, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement to keep teams motivated and resilient.
Building the Team: Developing People and Gaining Buy-In
Every Lean championship team begins with its people.
Success begins with the right people. This track explores recruiting, developing, and inspiring people, fostering trust and collaboration, and creating alignment around shared goals. Sessions focus on leadership development, team building, strategies for gaining buy-in at all levels, and equipping attendees to build resilient, high-performing Lean teams.
Setting the Strategy: Laying the Groundwork for Success
Winning starts with a Lean game plan.
Championships are won with a strong plan. This track emphasizes the critical role of design and preconstruction in achieving long-term success. Sessions explore aligning stakeholders, establishing clear goals, engaging trade partners early, and proactively identifying risks to create a solid foundation for efficient Lean project delivery.
Executing the Playbook: Precision and Safety on the Field
Game day is all about Lean execution.
Success in the field demands precision and adaptability. This track focuses on strategies for managing field operations, meeting milestones, and maintaining a relentless commitment to safety. Sessions highlight Lean tools, proven workflows, and techniques for eliminating inefficiencies while adapting to real-time challenges.
The Winning Formula: Innovation and Continuous Improvement
Champions evolve through reflection and Lean innovation.
Growth fuels lasting victories. This track emphasizes adopting cutting-edge Lean tools and technologies—such as AI, digital collaboration platforms, and prefabrication—to drive efficiency. Sessions also explore learning from setbacks, celebrating successes, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement to keep teams motivated and resilient.
Presentation Options
Choose from two options to tell your story —
you will be able to designate your choice in the form below:
Presentation
A Lean story and Q&A
Approximately 45-minute time slot to present a Lean story, which includes 10 minutes for Q&A.
Note that some individual presentation teams will be asked to present on a two-presentation panel.
Live Lab
Short inspiring demonstrations
from the trenches
20 minute time slot to demonstrate a Lean tool or process, which includes 5 minutes for Q&A.
What is a Live Lab?
We all eventually see little wins when we commit to continuous improvement. Live Labs are little or big wins that can be demonstrated with visual clarity in about 15 minutes or less, helping other design and construction professionals visualize what a win can look like and how they might apply the tool or process to improve their own work.
You might share:
- Your “win” involving your well-organized gang box that helps your crews be more productive and waste
less time hunting for tools and supplies - Your rules or tactics for running productive and collaborative meetings
- A tracking tool (manpower or material orders and deliveries)
If you have a compelling Lean story to tell that does not fit into any of the above presentation tracks,
the 2025 LCI Congress planning team still encourages you to submit.
Important Dates
March 5
2025
Abstract Submission Deadline
May 9
2025
Speaker
Notification
July 11
2025
Presentation outlines & registration ends
October 8
2025
Final presentation
deadline
Once your abstract is submitted, it will go through a detailed selection process by the 2025 LCI Congress abstract review team.
Still have questions? Please contact:
Joan Piccariello
PMP, Director, Program Development
Lean Construction Institute.
Tips for Abstract Success
Content
- Align with the 2025 Congress theme.
- Clearly identify a challenge(s) and provide a solution(s) for attendees.
- Provide robust learning examples and takeaways for attendees.
- Discuss challenges and failures that were overcome by using Lean thinking and tools; leverage lessons learned.
- Identify waste reduction or elimination.
- Emphasize specific Lean tools for success that can be applied right away.
- Congress presentations are not intended to be commercials or advertisements for specific products/services. For example, a sales pitch for a software product your team may have utilized should not be the sole focus of your presentation.
- Simplify your message: Provide in-depth focus the core elements, concepts or practices implemented versus covering many topics.
- Include clear visual(s) and video(s).
Presentation Team
- Feature speakers from cross-functional roles, i.e. owners, designers and trade partners.
- Have at least one LCI corporate member speaking.