I’m going to take a slight personal detour before writing more technical guidance of tools. However, it isn’t 
completely unrelated to the overall theme of Seek the Art of the Possible or the topics about which I commonly write. It is important to set goals - personal, professional or even project goals. Goals give us something to work toward, a means to keep us focused (difficult for those of us with a Low C Predictive Index profile) and a measure to judge success. Of course, we don’t always achieve our goals, which doesn’t necessarily mean we have failed if we view it as an opportunity to learn, improve and maybe even try again. So, I am sharing these tangential thoughts because I have just received my certificate for completing the Detroit Free Press Flagstar Marathon. It is still somewhat surreal to me that I actually ran 26.2 miles, until, of course, the residual pain in my knees and toes without toenails remind me that it, in fact, is a reality. It isa goal I set on my 30th birthday to run a marathon before turning 40. That goal I beat by a little over a year. Once I started training, I set another goal to run it in 4 Hours, 30 mInutes. Well, that one I didn’t accomplish. I hung with the 4:30 group thru 18 miles then fell behind. Considering the challenges I faced in the weeks leading up to the race (pulled calf muscle, bronchitis, sick kids, etc.) I’m satisfied with my performance. Further, the reaction of my almost-5-year-old daughter when I returned home from the race and she saw the medal around my neck is even more gratifying than finishing - “Mommy, you WON!” and that’s exactly how I feel! Set goals, stay focused, measure success and learn from failing. If we can do that personally, professionally, in Six Sigma projects, in the turn-around efforts in businesses and communities, WOW! Think of the possibilities!
Saludos,
Aimée
Sticking to the theme “back to breakthrough,” I wanted to share another recent encounter that reminded me of the early days of Six Sigma. Every August, we host our annual Celebration of Life. For Gary’s explanation and history of the party see the posting in Miscellaneous Musings. This year, we were honored by the presence of a long-time colleague of Gary’s, Mike Carnell, who taught me the what good project support looks like. Thank you, Mike!
In a previous posting, I said that strategic project selection is the most important job of leadership. The follow up to good project selection is giving project teams every opportunity to succeed. This includes picking the right people to lead projects, giving team members time to focus, and providing necessary training and application support. I will comment on each in successive postings but will begin here with what I consider the most important factor of successful projects at the change agent level.
It takes time and practice to become proficient users of the tools we teach as part of a Lean Six Sigma curriculum. How much time? Not as long if we have selected the right people to be change agents using Predictive Index (High A, Low C, Lower D than A). You can see more on this subject at Gary Cone’s Blog (http://blog.gpsqtc.com) in his May 20, 2008 posting titled, “Getting the Right People on the Bus,” filed under Human Architecture. Still, there are challenges to use the tools when it comes time to apply them beyond the textbook examples that are worked in training.
Whether you have internalized your efforts or are using outside resources, project support needs to be provided and by someone who has mastered the toolset. During the Define phase, a session begins by reviewing the status of the project with the team leader and getting a thorough understanding of the nature of the problem, the baseline performance of primary and secondary metrics, and how the scope of the project was determined. Ideally, the same person provides ongoing project support so this doesn’t need to be repeated every support session. Often, there is some additional data collection that needs to be implemented immediately.
In the Measure phase of a project, a team usually needs some facilitation to create the process map and capture all possible sources of variation. In my experience, teams often get stuck on how much detail to include, what to call an input or output vs. a process step, what format to use, or worse, they want to leap from a fishbone to an action plan. A good process map will identify where additional data collection is necessary, where in-process capability should be quantified, and what measurement systems are being used and need to be analyzed. During the analyze and improve phases, a person proficient with the toolset gets creative to streamline data analysis.
Check out recent and upcoming postings in the Techie Talk category for further insight into the questions that should be asked during project support. I have started with some of the most commonly misunderstood or abused tools. I hope you find it helpful if you deliver project support or are a team working without support. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send them my way!
Saludos,
Aimée
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