Purpose – To implement lean in a broader and more efficient manner, national programmes have been initiated to support organisations in their development processes. The purpose of this paper is to identify activities and characteristics of the design and implementation of national programmes to support the implementation and sustained development of lean in organisations.

Design/methodology/approach – Empirical data were collected for more than 15 years from three national programmes, in the manufacturing industry, public sector and agriculture sector, respectively, including interviews, questionnaires, observations, document studies and analysis seminars. The total background data includes 256 interviews and 3, 304 questionnaires.

Findings – The study illustrates how activities for support, steering and stirring up can improve the sustainability of the programmes and the change processes in the participating organisations and also improve employee experiences of their work environment. Examples of such activities are support activities for coaching, broad institutional support, courses and training, learning activities and evaluation research, active external funders, active programme and organisational management and active unions.

Practical implications – The study has identified key organisational challenges for national lean programmes to promote sustainability, economy and working conditions. It provides guidance for designing effective and long-term change initiatives, relevant to funding organisations, management, unions, change agents, researchers and policy makers.

Originality/value – This paper addresses a research gap concerning national programmes. Research is strongly needed into how to design and operate well-structured and continuously improved national change programmes. The findings are of high relevance for designing and improving the methodology for programmes and for adapting the methodology to different sectors, industry types and business sizes. © 2026 Karin Andersson, Agneta Halvarsson Lundqvist, Pernilla Lindskog, Henrik Barth, Martin Melin, Jenny Ståhl and Jörgen Eklund.