Lean Six Sigma - Next Generation

I was reading an article by Megan James, Executive Director of Profit Through Process Week. She was advertising the 2011 Lean Six Sigma Summit and posed the question to a number of her most trusted contacts across the Six Sigma & Process Excellence IQ network, "What does a successful and profitable Lean Six Sigma program look like in the post recession era"? The key discussion points that they perceive to be changing the Lean Six Sigma landscape and the way organizations develop their program deployment would not surprise anyone who is familiar with Measurable Management. They were of the opinion that:

"Culture is key to sustainable success. Having a Lean Six Sigma program is one thing, but taking the next step and making process excellence part of the organizational DNA is another. Many organizations fall at this hurdle, so how can you embed process thinking as a way of life"?

My book "Cultural Change Through Measurable Management" not only makes the same point but offers an answer to the question and shows how to embed process thinking as a way of life within the workforce through Measurable Management.

Cultural Change is essential to a successful Lean Six Sigma program in order to avoid Lean Six Sigma existing in organizational silos. Here are two quotes from my book:

"The culture of an organization directly affects the health of the organization. It affects the agility and speed at which it can respond to change. The role of leadership therefore should really be to develop a healthy culture in order to shape a healthy future for the organization, a culture where people work in association with one another, not in conflict, a culture that involves people and respects their contribution".

"While Lean and Six Sigma are excellent tools for process improvement they are weak culture changing initiatives. They focus on the technical side of process improvement and they forget about the people and how these changes will affect them".

Much of the success of Measurable Management lies in the development of a "Pull Style" of leadership, a listening and involving style that engages the workforce and harnesses their expertise. You can bolt on to Lean Six Sigma a teambuilding workshop and a leadership training package but like any aftermarket item it will never be as good as the factory fitted option and it will eventually fall off. By truly developing team leaders to use the "Pull Style" long before allowing them to put their hands on the technical side of Process Improvement, Measurable Management is building in these behaviors at the factory, changing the culture and making process excellence everyone's responsibility. It's like adding a turbo charger to your Lean Six Sigma initiative.

You can view all of Megan's article by clicking on the title of this post.