The geography of our projects is expanding to Montenegro - Leaners partners Antanas Dubikaitis and Robertas Šerėnas are starting work on a European Union-funded project here. It aims to strengthen the organisational capabilities of specialists in the transport sector of this country, increase operational efficiency and improve its results, as Montenegro prepares to join the European Union.   In this technical assistance project initiated by the European Commission, A. Dubikaitis and R. Šerėnas, together with other international experts, will advise representatives of the Ministry of Transport of Montenegro. Drawing on their long-standing experience in the transport sector and knowledge gained from consulting public sector organisations in various countries, they will prepare Montenegrin railway transport legislation in such a way that it complies with the requirements for railway transport in force in the European Union.   “International projects are one of the most important areas of our expert activity, which allows us to apply proven and truly effective management methods and discover new solutions needed for a specific country,” says Antanas Dubikaitis. “We always offer our clients insights that would best contribute to the creation of a culture of continuous improvement in their organisations and inspire them to transform into modern institutions that meet public expectations and the latest management trends.”   Leaners experts will work on the project of the Ministry of Transport of Montenegro from June to October this year. Learn more about our clients in Lithuania and abroad and the services provided to them here .

Photo: Georgia Railway Agency The international project launched in March 2025 and implemented by the Georgian Railway Transport Agency is now approaching its conclusion. Throughout this initiative, the Agency enhanced its management practices, aligning them more closely with European Union standards. Leaners' partner Antanas Dubikaitis collaborated on this effort alongside fellow international consultants from Germany, contributing expert guidance and practical insights. With the consultants' support, the agency’s leadership and staff explored the most effective ways to implement EU regulations in a real-world railway context. Participants also took part in targeted training sessions covering supervision of railway safety, train drivers’ licensing and certification, and transportation of dangerous goods. “Although the project focused specifically on railway safety supervision, we naturally touched on broader elements of organisational management - many of which were new to our Georgian counterparts. We encouraged managers to visit front-line operations to see firsthand how value is created and supervisory processes happen on the ground. This approach not only uncovered areas for improvement but also helped define the skills and competencies needed for sustainable progress,” says Antanas Dubikaitis. This initiative is part of a broader commitment by Leaners to international public sector excellence. Between 2018 and 2025, Leaners partners delivered management consulting services to 26 public sector institutions across 13 countries , in collaboration with international organisations such as the European Commission, the United Nations, and other donors. Explore more about our projects in Lithuania and around the world [ here ].

Photo: Frankly & Covey Lietuva At the invitation of the consulting company FranklinCovey Lithuania , Leaners partner Robertas Šerėnas took part in the event “The 7 Habits Effect” in June this year, which focused on leadership in the public sector. During the panel discussion, participants explored ways to empower managers and inspire meaningful change. “If culture eats strategy for breakfast, then good management eats... everything. I’ve witnessed this time and again—first as the head of organisations, and later as a board member. That’s why, no matter how difficult the path may be, I encourage public sector leaders not to give up, not to stop creating value for society, and to do so by using the right management tools,” shared Robertas Šerėnas. We thank our colleagues at FranklinCovey Lithuania for the opportunity to exchange ideas and for organising such a well-curated event that drew interest from HR professionals and managers across various organisations.

Robertas Šerėnas, partner of "LEANERS", consultant of public sector organisations. Organizations often face challenges in achieving their goals. In our experience, there are usually several reasons for this: There are simply no goals. Without clearly defined goals, organizations cannot measure progress or success. Goals are the map to success, without them the organization wanders without direction. There are too many of them. When organizations set too many goals, employees can feel overwhelmed. This can cause stress and reduce motivation, as employees do not know where to start or what to prioritize. Employees don't know what they are or don't understand them. Clear communication is vital. If employees do not know what the organization's goals are, if they are complex and difficult to understand, employees will not be able to achieve these goals effectively. Employees are not committed to achieving them and are not responsible for progress. Important factors that motivate employees to achieve goals are Commitment and Responsibility. Without them, the goals remain only on paper and there is no aim to achieve them. They don't know what to do. A clear plan of action is essential. Employees need to know the specific steps that need to be taken to achieve the organization's goals. You don't have time for them - you are drowning in everyday life. Time management and prioritization are essential. Organizations need to ensure that day-to-day tasks do not interfere with long-term goals and that there is time to pursue them. Have you wondered which of the reasons is relevant in your organization? Let's talk about where to start to achieve your goals.

In recent decades, the Lithuanian public sector has undergone a significant transformation, trying to get rid of the Soviet legacy. The understanding that the public needs services that create a comfortable life for the public in our country has become established. There are achievements, but in many areas change is not happening fast enough. We talk about what can help the Lithuanian public sector to create a new level of service quality with Antanas Dubikaičius, an international expert in organizational management and partner of "Leaners". Over the past few years, you have implemented dozens of projects in the Lithuanian public sector aimed at improving the management of organizations. What are the most common problems they face? The biggest challenge for public sector organizations is a strategic change in culture - the emergence of the awareness that improvement must be continuous. After switching to this way of thinking, questions arise on how to make activities more efficient, how to involve employees of all levels in this creative process. This is highly unusual for many public sector organisations. By improving the management of companies and institutions, they gradually learn to focus only on their main functions, and to transfer auxiliary ones to others. It is not easy. As is cutting costs when budget constraints are a challenge in themselves. At the same time, in the process of change, the collective of the organization also changes - it is natural, it renews itself, and the people who left need to be replaced by others. This presents its own difficulties. When helping clients, we often come across situations where an organization has to go beyond its boundaries in order to improve services and increase efficiency. Encountering the complex bureaucratic apparatus of the state, numerous and growing requirements, often hinders efficient operation or causes additional costs. In addition, with the ever-increasing risks arising from the environment, society demands full transparency. Communicating costs and results is a mandatory norm these days, without which people do not understand the value created by the public sector. Many organizations are still learning in this area. I think the most important thing is to look at challenges, no matter how many and what they are, as an opportunity to create something new, better - without them, evolution does not take place. What are the benefits of more efficient processes? Customer satisfaction increases The reputation of the organization improves The well-being of employees in the organization improves The adaptation time of new employees is shortened Employee knowledge is accumulated Process performance improves Processes are speeding up The quality of the service, product or result improves Accountability is improving Productivity improves Process costs are reduced Risks are reduced What problems can process improvement solve for a public sector organization? When working with our clients, we always start with the basic question of what we want to change - we try to clearly name the improvement goals, so that later we can make sure that we have achieved them. And the ideas of what to improve can be endless, because no process is perfect, they can always be refined and updated. As for the implemented projects, our clients usually aim to improve productivity, quality of services, products, performance results. Working together, we not only theoretically, but also practically train the client's team to improve the selected process and increase its speed, to find solutions to reduce costs and risks. It is important to mention that by streamlining processes, it is possible to create a positive effect in the field of human resources as well - to improve the well-being of employees and their involvement in the organization, to reduce the integration time of newcomers, and to accumulate knowledge more successfully. In addition, to improve the organization's reputation, which is primarily related to its internal culture, management practices, and efficiency. Streamlining processes is an exciting journey where everyone involved is learning. Can you share a story where a public sector organization was surprised by its own discoveries while improving processes? Such cases occur regularly not only in Lithuania, but also in other countries. For example, we advised an international public sector organization in France, helping it to improve the quality of its operations. When analyzing one of the processes, all employees were able to describe exactly how it was performed. However, when we tried to name who is the client of this process, the user and what is the purpose of this process - no one could answer. Therefore, the development group came to the conclusion that this process should be abandoned altogether, because it is not clear who needs it, nor who uses its results. After making this decision, the organization managed to save 160 thousand per year. hours, which is really quite a lot. In fact, the financial effect obtained after streamlining the processes surprises public sector institutions and inspires them to improve further - after all, by using these funds, new, good things can be done. Antanas Dubikaitis, partner of the "LEANERS" company, is an international process optimization expert who has accumulated more than 10 years of consulting experience in various public sector institutions in Lithuania and abroad. He specializes in the application of efficiency methods and conducts practical training for public sector teams. in 2018 The consultants of the organization development company "LEANERS" founded in 2015 have already helped Lithuanian organizations such as the General Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Veterinary Service, the Vilnius Public Health Office and many others to solve management efficiency problems. The geography of the company's activities includes Ukraine, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Egypt, Morocco. Learn more about LEANERS services here .

Society expects competence, helpfulness, speed, efficient use of costs, and leadership in the implementation of what it regulates and communicates from public sector organizations. These expectations are growing because life in our country is compared with other advanced countries, people's citizenship is increasing and they understand that they themselves finance the state apparatus. But how can a public sector body or company improve its services if it does not have a clear idea of where it is going and what it is aiming for? LEANERS partner Robert Šerėnas comments on the importance of a quality strategy for a modern organization. What are the characteristics of an effective public sector organization? In helping public sector organizations in various countries, we see that effective are those institutions that achieve their ambitious goals and openly declare it. Such organizations do not have many goals, they are quite clear (for example, "making the civil service professional" is a vague goal). Effective organizational action plans are not limited to solving local problems, such as reducing paper consumption or complaints. It has numerically clearly defined results aimed at improving the quality of services and increasing customer satisfaction. I would also single out one common essential feature of effective organizations - it is the continuous improvement of strategic management competence and its consistent application in practice. What challenges do public sector organizations face when they want to create strategies that actually help them? The situation, which we see after implementing dozens of projects in Lithuania and abroad, is similar in many organizations: not enough time is allocated to strategic planning, the competence of conducting strategic sessions needs to be strengthened, there are not enough human resources. However, the constantly growing number of requests shows us that organizations understand these shortcomings, are looking for help from the outside, first of all, to strengthen their people with new knowledge, to "turn on" the correct processes. What should organizations pay attention to when they no longer want to create strategies "in the drawer"? For public sector organizations planning strategy renewal work, we advise them to include no more than three measurable very important (SMART) goals. It should be understood by any person within ten minutes, the document should fit on one page and respond to the main strategy of the state and the expectations of stakeholders. The important thing is to involve the employees of the organization in the development of the strategy, so that it does not remain only a matter of the "strategy department". This department should not develop strategy, but involve all stakeholders in co-creation and help agree on the essentials. This is what we talk about in strategic sessions, which we not only facilitate, but also help capture insights, but at the same time we train our clients to do it themselves.

If ten years ago public sector organizations that decided to apply LEAN methods in their activities were looked upon with skepticism, now they are already well known and tested by many. However, what should public sector professionals who are new to the field know? Antanas Dubikaitis, partner of the organization development company "LEANERS", shares his insights. In the world, public sector organizations widely use such improvement methods as "LEAN management", "Six Sigma", "Total Quality Management", "Process Reengineering", "Theory of Constraints", "Agile" and "Scrum", "Design Thinking" to improve their operations. ". If they can be applied by an institution in one country, then an analogous institution in another country will be able to apply them on a mirror basis. Lithuanian public sector organizations can also learn from the international experience we have accumulated. Improving your organization always starts with yourself. You can get acquainted with procedural management and efficiency improvement methodologies in training, reading books, and the latest scientific articles. In the trainings we conduct, we help to do this not only in theory, but also in practice by improving the real processes of the organization. Working with consultants helping to improve the organization begins with a clear alignment of the project's goals and the desired result. After doing this, it will always be possible to assess whether the client's expectations have been met. At the beginning of the project, it is important to define the problems from which the process improvement will begin. Often they are just the tip of the iceberg, with a huge, invisible part of the problem underneath. It needs to be examined and only then to think about solutions. All so that the same problems do not happen again and again. The value created by improving process efficiency is defined differently in different projects. Some organizations reduce the cost of their services, save the working time of employees, others increase the transparency of their activities, accountability, etc. All of them are united by tangible benefits enjoyed by managers, colleagues, stakeholders, customers and founders. When projects are finished, victory should be celebrated. This is an important part of the whole project, because small and big wins should always be celebrated with the team. Another important thing is customer feedback, which we ask for in order to continuously improve our services. In this way, we apply the same improvement concepts in our activities that we encourage our customers to apply as well.

"LEANERS" partner Antanas Dubikaitis advises I often get questions about which tool to use for process drawing and representation? So far, I haven't found artificial intelligence programs for this purpose, so it remains to choose from well-known options. Of course, it is possible to draw processes with simple programs such as MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint or others, but they are not designed for this, so it will not be convenient to work and it will take a lot of time. That's why I always recommend charting processes with programs that are designed specifically for this purpose. The most important thing when choosing a tool is to check if it supports the BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) standard used around the world for drawing and rendering. Some tools may have a free version, but it will always be limited. For example, you will only be able to draw a certain number of characters, you will absolutely need to be connected to the Internet, or there won't be any features or functionality you need. Another tip from practice - always see if you can convert the process you have drawn into a picture, pdf document or other format. To test the tools, I always recommend using the free versions for at least a few days, so that you can assess whether you like them or whether they are comfortable to work with, and then you can pay for a license and use them continuously. I myself use MS Visio in my work because it integrates well with MS Office 365, is convenient for process drawing, and has extensive import and export capabilities. But of course there are other tools like Lucidchart, Drawio, Bizzagi, Miro, Creately, EdrawMax or others. The variety is wide, so you can definitely try a few and choose the one that suits you best.