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The Psychology of Organizational Change

kyle toppazzini — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:15:00 GMT

Many of us may be familiar with change management models used in organizational change, including aspects such as:

1) creating the urgency for change;

2) creating a compelling case for change;

3) creating and communicating the vision for change;

4) removing obstacles;

5) creating short-term wins;

6) making change a part of the corporate culture.

What I find most interesting are the differences between the standard change management model and the psychological process an individual experiences when faced with change. In my view, one of the reasons that change management models are ineffective is because they do not align closely enough with the psychological processes an individual undergoes when confronted with change. This article describes the journey people make when faced with change, and it recommends some suggestions to make change management more effective.

Psychology of Personal Change

According to the psychologists Prochaska and Di Climente, most people experience the following phases when confronted with change:

Pre-contemplation: People do not even consider changing, which may manifest itself as a form of denial.
Contemplation: People contemplate the change but giving up established behaviour patterns gives them a feeling of loss. During this stage, people assess barriers (e.g., time, expense, hassle, fear, “I know I need to, but …”) as well as the benefits of change.
Preparation: People make the decision to change. They may experiment with small changes as the wiliness to change increases.
Action: People take action to change. If prior stages have been neglected, action itself is insufficient.
Maintenance and Relapse Prevention: People take the required steps to sustain new behaviours.

Personal Change Process vs. Organizational Change Process

Comparing the change model previously described as experienced by the individual and the model used for change management reveal both similarities and differences.

For instance, contemplation may happen when the need for change is urgent and a compelling case can be made to act. However, a logical case made for change may not compensate for deficiencies in the implementation of a change management model that does not address associated barriers and the feeling of loss individuals feel when confronted with the change. Communications concerning the necessity for change may not adequately address failures in the workings of the current method as well as the significance such change will have to employees asked to enact it.

Additionally, action, maintenance, and relapse prevention may be addressed in a standard change management model to create short-term wins and make change part of the corporate culture. However, if prior phases in the change process undertaken by individuals are ignored then creating short-term wins may be insufficient in the management and implementation of change.

How can the standard change management model be altered to better address individual needs?

There are many ways that leaders responsible for implementing change can assist employees in the individual change process.

1) Use story telling in your communication. More and more politicians use story telling as a means to connect with voters and to help people better relate to the points they wish to make. Leaders can use the same strategy when communicating the need for change. For example, leaders often give speeches such as:

We need to work smarter and not harder. I see the sacrifices employees make day-in-day-out for this company, such as XXX, who like many of you has a family and consistently works until seven or eight o’clock at night. Working hard has gotten us this far, but companies like XXX or YYY have implemented AAA and productivity has increased by 60%. The employees of these companies now get to spend the quality time they need with their family.

Story telling is one way to assist people through the pre and contemplation phases.

2) Challenge yourself as a leader and be a role model for change. A leader simply claiming that change is difficult is simply not effective. You must be prepared to demonstrate first-hand experiences that change is difficult. Whether such change manifests itself as a personal challenge to lose weight, run a marathon, or face a reduction in salary, your employees look to you as role model when faced with change.

In addition, be prepared to demonstrate that the change you underwent or will experience is comparable to the change you are asking of them. Just saying you understand their pain is ineffective; you should be able to personally relate to the sacrifice you are asking them to make.

Being a source of motivation for your employees will help individuals accept and enact change.

3) Encourage action and learning over failure. It may be a tough pill to swallow, but if you want change to be successful then you must accept the possibility of failure. Instilling in your employees with the fear that failure will not be tolerated will not motivate them to change. Motivating people to change means removing the barriers that keep them from changing.

Encouraging action and learning over failure creates the safe environment employees need to embrace change.

Concluding thoughts

In this article I discuss the phases that individuals undergo when confronted with change; the phases that make up the standard change management model; differences and similarities between the two models; and suggested actions to improve the effectiveness of change initiatives. Share your thoughts. What has worked in your organization?

About the Author

Kyle Toppazzini is the president of Toppazzini and Lee (T&L) Consulting, and an international leader and consultant in lean Six Sigma. He publishes blogs and articles in Bloomberg Business Week, Digital Journal, Quality Digest Magazine and Social Media and is the author of the CFO Scorecard published in Exchange Magazine. (A global magazine produced by the Association of Financial Professionals). Kyle is currently working on a book that will bring new innovations in Lean Six Sigma and Quality Management.

Kyle is a six sigma master black belt and lean six sigma black belt receiving his training from the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College, a certified Balanced Scorecard Trainer, and a member of the Palladium Executive Group founded by David Norton founder of the Balanced Scorecard.

Kyle has conducted more than 30 performance and process improvement projects across the public and private organizations in government and health care yielding millions of dollars in cost savings and 80% improvement in performance.

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Using Process Simulation to Expedite Lean Six Sigma Implementations

kyle toppazzini — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:46:00 GMT

One of the recurring themes I hear about from business executives is that Lean Six Sigma simply takes too long to implement. Without senior management buy-in for an initiative such as Lean Six Sigma (LSS), implementing it is not only difficult, but also nearly impossible. What if there were an easier way to implement Lean Six Sigma that resulted in faster improvements and could engage the workforce better than do traditional methods? I believe there is such a way, and it is through the use of process simulation.

In this short article, I will discuss how process simulation can be used to streamline the Lean Six Sigma implementation process.

Getting employees to agree on the baseline more quickly

Many employees and organizations can get trapped in over analysis of the existing process. In fact, it is quite difficult to progress if employees cannot agree on the current procedures. Furthermore, employees have their own unique experiences and perspectives, which makes acceptance of the baseline process that much more difficult.

Employing a process simulation tool will enable employees to quickly determine what the normal operating process is as opposed to exception processing. Employees will be able to view how work is completed throughout the process and where work activities become constrained and bottlenecks start. Furthermore, employees can compare the model results to the actual process to determine whether the process simulation is capable of reflecting an accurate view of reality.

Once the process simulation model can accurately predict the actual performance results, discussions can move away from what the process looks like to how to make improvements to the existing method.

Establishing the expected benefits from the LSS initiative can be done with much greater accuracy

Once the process simulation model has been validated and is capable of replicating the existing process with accuracy, establishing the expected benefits from the LSS can be done with much more precision.

In the define phase of a Lean Six Sigma engagement, we typically will estimate the expected benefits from implementing some LSS projects. Normally, these estimates are high-level targets at best that address critical to quality components and voice-of-the-customer requirements.

With the use of the process simulation model, you may be required to do more detailed analysis and process mapping before identifying and quantifying the expected benefits; however, when you create what-if scenarios in a process simulation model, it is quite easy. For example, if we wanted to reduce processing time by 75 percent, we could easily validate that and the costs by creating some simple scenarios based on the baseline model we created. The output from the simulation model would not only tell us whether making certain changes would result in the desired goal, it would also tell us at what costs and any performance improvements that would result. Because we know at this point the simulation model will accurately reflect the current process, we can have some confidence in the estimated benefits derived from making changes to the model.

Evaluate numerous end-state models and improvements quickly and effectively

Typically, in the improvement phase of our Lean Six Sigma model, we identify the end-state process and improvements that are going to be made to the existing process to generate the objectives and benefits that are expected. There are many methods used to identify the end state and improvements to the existing process, from structured brainstorming sessions and statistical analysis to design of experiments, Monte Carlo simulation, etc. Once we have identified those improvements and some candidate end-state models, we will run short pilot studies to evaluate which options yield the greatestresults. Given the methods being used and the time required, there are a limited number of scenarios that can be evaluated and tested.

With a process simulation model, several end-state models and improvements can be quickly designed and evaluated in a risk-free environment. Based on the simulation performance, we can select the top candidates to pilot.

Although the traditional method of identifying an end-state model and improvement appears to be a similar process to what is used with process simulation, the simulation method requires much less effort, is quicker, and can evaluate far more possibilities.

Concluding thoughts

In this short article, I discussed only some of many ways in which a process simulation model can be used to streamline the Lean Six Sigma process. What are some of the ways that you have used process simulation software to improve the outcomes form your LSS initiative? Please send us your thoughts.

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You need help with your Lean Six Sigma project, and your boss is not listening: What should you do?

kyle toppazzini — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 02:26:00 GMT

In Lean Six Sigma, management support is critical to the success of your project. The definition of management support, however, may be different between those charged with implementing Lean Six Sigma and the management team members who are required to support it. The support that management can provide is to bring in a Lean Six Sigma expert to assist you with your project. Sometimes, however, it is difficult to have a conversation with management to explain why you need outside assistance. After all, it has likely invested a significant amount of money into Lean Six Sigma training. The reality is that many Lean Six Sigma training courses teach students only the basics and do not adequately train people for what a transformation requires. Here are some points you can make to your boss that could warm him or her up to the idea of bringing in outside help.

1. Bringing about change is much more complex than Lean Six Sigma is

Just because you took or have been certified in Lean Six Sigma does not mean you are ready to move an organization from its current state to a future end state. You must consider many change management aspects that go beyond Lean Six Sigma training. For example, you need to consider the organizational capacity to deliver on this change. You need to consider both successful and failed initiatives of the past that may have left employees with bad memories. You also need to consider all the changes occurring in the organization, beliefs that employees hold, insecurities, and so on.

When you speak to management, I think the important question to ask is whether it is willing to take the risk of implementing a Lean Six Sigma initiative that fails to bring about the desired change because you were not able to execute the right change management strategies. It is quite possible that being inside the organization, you are not able to cultivate the required trust with employees to make change effective and outside assistance is required.

2. Going it alone may have dire impacts

Trying to implement Lean Six Sigma through trial and error can result in a longer than expected implementation, make the implementation more expensive than necessary, and bring about a loss of confidence in the initiative.

It is no secret that management often wants to see results fairly quickly. A Lean Six Sigma expert can show you various strategies you can use to implement Lean Six Sigma with the least amount of resources and effort to deliver benefits quickly. An expert should be able to show you how to conduct an extensive assessment that would uncover a combination of short, medium, and longer-term benefits that can be expected from the Lean Six Sigma implementation. This information can be used to generate a benefits schedule that keeps management and employees engaged throughout the implementation.

There are many other strategies that a Lean Six Sigma expert can show you to make your Lean Six Sigma implementation run smoothly.

3. A talented Lean Six Sigma expert can generate significantly greater results

Your return on investment for your Lean Six Sigma initiative can be greatly improved with the assistance of a Lean Six Sigma expert. Applying the standard Lean Six Sigma framework (DMAIC) correctly should result in improvements within your organization. However, if, for example, after the implementation has occurred, your organization structure is not optimized, internal capabilities and skills are not improved, supply chain and systems are not integrated, you are not likely to achieve the returns that you could have.

A Lean Six Sigma expert should be able to not only assist in the execution of the Lean Six Sigma implementation, he or she should also be able to assist in designing the most effective organization that is capable of delivering significant sustainable benefits.

Concluding thoughts

Many people often find themselves at a crossroads or running into challenges when implementing Lean Six Sigma. Furthermore, they sometimes miss the opportunity to achieve significantly greater benefits. Part of the reason for this is the inability to convince management that outside assistance could be beneficial. The next time you are stuck or facing a challenge, try having a conversation with management focusing on the points in this article, and let me know how that conversation goes.

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About the Author

Kyle Toppazzini is the president of Toppazzini and Lee (T&L) Consulting, and an international leader and consultant in lean Six Sigma. He publishes blogs and articles in Bloomberg Business Week, Digital Journal, Quality Digest Magazine and Social Mediaand is the author of the CFO Scorecard published in Exchange Magazine. (A global magazine produced by the Association of Financial Professionals). Kyle is currently working on a book that will bring new innovations in Lean Six Sigma and Quality Management.

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If you feel that my work has helped you and you'd like to support my mission in creating new innovation in Lean Six Sigma please make a donation below. I'm very grateful for your support.

Being supported by my readers enables me to share my creative output to the public domain. Please share it freely so that others may benefit from it.

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http://www.qualitydigest.com/

5 Great Ways to Make Lean Six Sigma Training More Effective

kyle toppazzini — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 04:26:00 GMT

It is not a surprise hearing people who have taken Lean Six Sigma training mention that these courses do not prepare students well enough for the realities of a Lean Six Sigma implementation. You should not be alarmed to hear me say that learning the Lean Six Sigma framework, DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and control), and the tools used within the framework do not prepare students for competing priorities and change management issues that exist within most organizations.

These concepts are fundamental; however, it is also important to learn how to apply these concepts to their Lean Six Sigma projects within their organizations. No two projects are the same, so are organizations. It is not a rocket science to design effective Lean Six Sigma training courses that provide students with the tools, knowledge and confidence to implement Lean Six Sigma implementation in their organizations. And here is a list of 5 “elements” that should be included in an effective Lean Six Sigma training:

Teach students how to manage and implement change – Teaching only the basics of change management is not enough; it should also integrate strategies and effective change management techniques as part of the training material. These techniques can make or break a Lean Six Sigma implementation;
Incorporate gaming into Lean Six Sigma training – Adding Lean Six Sigma simulation games into Lean Six Sigma training will give students the opportunity to see first-hand how their decisions would impact a Lean Six Sigma implementation in a non-risk environment.
Focus on teaching students to teach –As the old saying goes “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. This saying is equally applicable to Lean Six Sigma where organizations are often stretched too thin and simply do not have the resources available to take on a Lean Six Sigma project. For this reason, Lean Six Sigma training should focus on teaching students how to teach to others the methods of Lean Six Sigma,
Teach students through application not just practice – Practice makes perfect. This is true BUT it depends on what you practice. If you practice the proper “what”, you will be amazed to see the difference of how much of the concept you are able to retain. In a typical Lean Six Sigma training, there is no choice but to use generic examples and practice sets to teach people. However, what would happen though if as part of student’s learning, the student was asked to work in groups to map a process or value stream they knew really well, calculate some performance metrics using data they would make up and then explain to the class, what they did and their analysis. Chances are they would remember this experience more than a practice set they did in Chapter XYZ for an imaginary company ABC .
Get students trained in marketing Lean Six Sigma – Students should be able to explain to anyone from a first grader to the CEO of a company why they would need Lean Six Sigma, what to expect, who is involved, how long it will take, how many resources etc. I often hear students say they are confused when to use Lean and when to use Six Sigma. Students certainly need to understand the methods used in both frameworks but they need to understand the philosophies of one versus the other. Students also need to understand in what instances it is more likely to use a lean approach versus a six sigma approach. In short, students should understand the big picture, put Lean Six Sigma and its components in perspective as well as the methods that are used. If not, the return of investment from the Lean Six Sigma training will be discounted.

Concluding thoughts

In this short article, I have provided five tips on how to improve Lean Six Sigma training. Some of the tips are quite obvious; while others may seem new to you. The next time you are thinking about training or having employees trained in Lean Six Sigma, ask yourself if the training provides the necessary components for the student to effectively implement Lean Six Sigma.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Join Me on Squidoo

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Donate

If you feel that my work has helped you and you'd like to support my mission in creating new innovation in Lean Six Sigma please make a donation below. I'm very grateful for your support.

Being supported by my readers enables me to share my creative output to the public domain. Please share it freely so that others may benefit from it.

To donate via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the button below:

Learn more about our lean six sigma training

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Phil and Ted's Lean Six Sigma Adventures-Better Lean Six Sigma Training ROI

kyle toppazzini — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:00:00 GMT

In this episode Phil and Ted discuss how to use the train the trainer concept to maximize your training investment.

This is part of our regular lean six sigma video blogs that we will be providing along with our regular blogs.

Increasing the return on investment in Lean Six Sigma Training

or click Here to View it on You Tube.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Join Me on Squidoo

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What six-year-olds taught me about teaching Lean Six Sigma

kyle toppazzini — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:54:00 GMT

It may seem odd that children can teach us about learning Lean Six Sigma, but it may not seem so odd after you read this blog.

About a year ago, I was in an Apple Store and my son saw a display of iPads that were set up for children. There were four or five children around the age of six who were totally engrossed and engaged with these iPads. I was curious to find out why children loved them so much, so I watched as they interacted with the games: building animated objects and then trying to use what they built to accomplish a goal and move onto the next level. The key was that these children got to build something fun using the iPad. They were tasked with accomplishing a goal, and the game used various sounds and visual cues to provide feedback on how they were doing along the way. The children relied on sight, touch, and sound to interact with the game.

Training in Lean Six Sigma

In many situations, not all, Lean Six Sigma students are taught core concepts through reading or listening to an instructor. They go on to practice what they learn and are then tested on it. Most Lean Six Sigma certification programs require students to complete a few Lean Six Sigma Projects to obtain their certification.

Think about what senses you use when learning Lean Six Sigma. You use sight to read, hearing to listen to an instructor.. Sounds pretty much the same as those six-year-olds on their iPads, right? Well it is not. When you are learning Lean Six Sigma, are you learning by building, testing, and then receiving feedback? In most instances, the answer is probably no.

A different way of training for Lean Six Sigma

When I saw the children on their iPads, I immediately thought that in my next Lean Six Sigma training session, I would get the participants to learn in very much the same way as the children did using the iPad.

So, during a session in which I was teaching how to do process and value stream mapping, this is what I did, and the results were very much like those of the children on their iPads. I had a session with about fifteen people from across the entireprocess. I started the session by talking about what process and value stream maps were. Then I explained how to map the process and went through an example of how to facilitate such a session.

Next, I broke the group into three groups of five, and every group had equal representation from the various parts of the process. I asked them to nominate a facilitator and build a value stream map. Each team then presented their maps, and we had a dialogue with employees about each one.

What happened next was incredible. I had people spending their own time with their colleagues revising the maps, even though I did not ask or even suggest it. These people were very proud of their products and were eager to present them to senior management to be implemented.

Concluding thoughts

There you have it. Six-year-olds taught me the way to get adults engaged in Lean Six Sigma. Do you have a story to share?

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Join Me on Squidoo

Come and join me in making Lean Six Sigma better at http://www.squidoo.com/innovations-in-lean-six-sigma

Don't forget to share this article. Try sharing the article on Stumble Upon or Diggit.

About the Author

Donate

If you feel that my work has helped you and you'd like to support my mission in creating new innovation in Lean Six Sigma please make a donation below. I'm very grateful for your support.

Being supported by my readers enables me to share my creative output to the public domain. Please share it freely so that others may benefit from it.

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Phil and Ted's Lean Six Sigma Adventures-Teaching Lean Six Sigma

kyle toppazzini — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 16:52:00 GMT

In this episode Phil and Ted discuss a different way of teaching Lean Six Sigma.

This is part of our regular lean six sigma video blogs that we will be providing along with our regular blogs.

Lean Six Sigma Training

or click Hereto View it on You Tube.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Join Me on Squidoo

Come and join me in making Lean Six Sigma better at http://www.squidoo.com/innovations-in-lean-six-sigma

Don't forget to share this article. Try sharing the article on Stumble Upon or Diggit.

About the Author

Book a free training consultation for customized organizational training

Great Lean Six Sigma Links

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Lean-Six-Sigma-37987?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/

http://www.qualitydigest.com/

How to get your Lean Six Sigma Project to Go Viral?

kyle toppazzini — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:38:00 GMT

With the free consultation services I provided, I have had lots of opportunities to discuss various solutions to challenges people have within a Lean Six Sigma project. One of these discussions was about leveraging different communication tools to get people throughout the organization engaged in Lean Six Sigma.

In a lean six sigma engagement, we typically conduct working sessions with employees to identify root causes, map value streams etc. Right after these sessions, participants normally get very motivated and excited; however, it is not long after they return to their regular day-to-day functions that this motivation and excitement fades. The hard way to keep the momentum going is by continuing to do workshops, lunch and learns, educational series, standard communications etc, which may not be realistic to most organizations. In this short article, I am going to explain some methods that you can use to get your Lean Six Sigma word out to the most people in an organization and get them engaged and excited about it with the least amount of effort.

Leverage your communication tools

In your next working session, you may want to consider creating a series of communication products by videotaping, recording, or podcasting some of the highlights of the events, e.g. employees’ presentations, testimonies (with their consent!). You can also use a tool like Dragon Naturally Speaking converting the voice to text to easily create a few different articles. These communication products can be shared on the organization’s internal website, distributed through email etc so that more employees can acquire this information. Ensure that you make the content easy to share so that employees can share it with their colleagues

Leverage popular people within the organization

When conducting Lean Six Sigma engagements, I like to create what is called the “The Change Agent Committee”. This committee is composed of 5-6 of the most “popular” people within the organization or part of the organization in which the Lean Six Sigma initiative is being deployed. With their “popularity”, they can easily act as an advocate/supporter of the initiative by getting people engaged, and by educating their peers or superiors about the project. Get the committee to share all the communication that you produce during the Lean Six Sigma initiative such as videos, articles, events etc and get the committee involved in your working sessions.

Integrate Lean Six Sigma into something larger within the organization

If you want maximum exposure for your Lean Six Sigma engagement, align your initiative with a bigger and broader strategic initiative within the organization. Then take every opportunity to integrate your communications, events and even resources used in the Lean Six Sigma with other initiatives under the broader strategy. Doing this will raise the profile of the initiative to a new level that has a bigger and broader audience and more exposure.

Concluding Thoughts

This short article provides some ideas to raises the awareness of your Lean Six Sigma Initiative. If my ideas are deployed properly, then you can soon have everyone in the organization engaged about your Lean Six Sigma project, much like a video that has gone viral.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Join Me on Squidoo

Come and join me in making Lean Six Sigma better at http://www.squidoo.com/innovations-in-lean-six-sigma

Don't forget to share this article. Try sharing the article on Stumble Upon or Diggit.

About the Author

Donate

If you feel that my work has helped you and you'd like to support my mission in creating new innovation in Lean Six Sigma please make a donation below. I'm very grateful for your support.

Being supported by my readers enables me to share my creative output to the public domain. Please share it freely so that others may benefit from it.

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http://www.qualitydigest.com/

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Phil and Ted's Lean Six Sigma Adventures-Building Capacity Within a Lean Six Sigma

kyle toppazzini — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:17:00 GMT

In this episode Phil and Ted discuss how to build capacity within an organization while implementing Lean Six sigma.

This is part of our regular lean six sigma video blogs that we will be providing along with our regular blogs.

Building Capacity Within a Lean Six Sigma Implementation

or click Here to View it on You Tube.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Join Me on Squidoo

Come and join me in making Lean Six Sigma better at http://www.squidoo.com/innovations-in-lean-six-sigma

Don't forget to share this article. Try sharing the article on Stumble Upon or Diggit.

About the Author

Book a free consultation

Great Lean Six Sigma Links

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Lean-Six-Sigma-37987?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/

http://www.qualitydigest.com/

10 Ways to Rebuild Trust through a Lean Six Sigma Engagement

kyle toppazzini — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 05:21:00 GMT

Have you heard of this term: “flavour of the month” or “the more things change the more they stay the same?” I hear this expression used often when employees are faced with yet another large change initiative, especially one like Lean Six Sigma. Most executives should be aware of these terms; however, I am not completely certain that many people really understand why employees use them.

As a consultant, and an unbiased third-party, employees are more willing to share with me their skepticism in change projects is in part due to lack of trust, which is a result of one of two factors:

A series of un-kept past promises and commitments from projects they have been involved in
Lack of information about changes

My previous conversations with managers/executives suggested that neither of those factors is intentional, but unfortunately priorities change and things get dropped as a result. In addition, in change projects, such as Lean Six Sigma, people do not often take the time and effort to plan and execute an effective communication strategy.

The focus here is not to debate whether these situations/factors are intentional or not, but their impacts on employees (e.g. morale and attitude), which can sub-optimize the results that could be realized from a Lean Six Sigma engagement. I have compiled ten ways that you can rebuild that trust during a Lean Six Sigma engagement, and are as follows:

If trust issues exist in your organization don’t ignore them, solve them;
At the beginning of the engagement, your first task should determine if any past projects have failed to deliver what is promised. For an executive, you may want to hire an independent third-party to conduct interviews, focus groups, survey with people within the organization to understand what the trust issues are and these issues should be backed by specific examples;
Use the information from the assessment as part of the platform for change. For example, if your organization has had a history of not completing or following through on change projects, then this could be one of the reasons why you need a structured approach to implement process improvement projects;
For executives, you are already on the right track since you chose to implement a Lean Six Sigma project, which allows the organization to take ownership for some of the issues that have led to a lack of trust and to address these issues via the Lean Six Sigma Framework. For a successful Lean Six Sigma project, you must deliver on your promises and ensure that continuous communication is key and central to the way you operate.
As part of your Lean Six Sigma implementation, working groups should be created and made up of employees at all levels (i.e. across the end-to-end process). Make sure these people work closely together. Get them to build, test, and fix new processes, management frameworks, communication tools, training etc. Getting employees, who should but would not naturally work together, will be a key way of rebuilding trust with people.
Since Lean Six Sigma project works well when employees learn how to work differently but collaboratively; therefore, create opportunities for the teams of employees to be involved with some team building “exercises” in a less threatening environment, e.g. community service to help out seniors or children.
When facilitating workshops, instead of having employees to go through typical brainstorming exercises, you should get them to build and create. For example, if you (a black or green belt) are using a five why framework to determine root causes; you may want to teach people how to conduct the exercise and get them to do it. Then ask them to present the results. You would be amazed at how much capacity and engagement you can build in an organization through this approach. You can do the same thing with value stream or other techniques.
Find a way to give employees a sense that they have control of their destinies. As soon as you are able to not only paint a picture of the future but give employees the confidence that they have some control of how to get the results, trust issues will start to subside.
Try to obtain a win in your project every 3-4 weeks at the very least and make this as part of the design of your implementation. This creates motivation and incentives for people to continue the “journey”; and
Create a safe environment for those implementing the project. Failure will happen and that is acceptable as long as people learn from it.

Concluding thoughts

I have shared 10 of my ideas with you on how to rebuild trust through Lean Six Sigma engagements. Tell me what has worked for you?

My Book

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Lean Six Sigma Tonight with Comedian Jerry Leanfield

kyle toppazzini — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:08:00 GMT

Today we launch the second episode of Lean Six Sigma tonight. Come and join our host Jackson Jones as he interviews Jerry Leanfield (an animated character who looks like Jerry Seinfeld) comedian and expert in Lean Six Sigma about how to inject life and excitement into Lean Six Sigma.

Jackson Jones Interviews Jerry Leanfield about injecting life into a Lean Six Sigma Project

To view in Youtube Click Here

Next week's show will feature Dr Spock please join us.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

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Lean Six Sigma Manifesto - Making People Connection a Priority

kyle toppazzini — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:42:00 GMT

I had coffee the other day with other consultants practicing Lean and a recurring theme I heard was that organizational change was quite difficult. This conversation reminded me of one of the many conversations I have had over the years with what I consider to be great leaders and senior executives.

This senior executive, once told me what kept him up at night was to figure out a way to save thousands of employees’ jobs when his company was going through hard times. To keep the story short, at the end, he AND his employees all pulled together, weathered the storm, and were all now in a better spot (e.g. the company was healthy, employees were making more money, moral was high). This executive understood the value and power in relationships and connecting with people.

In Lean Six Sigma, it is my view that organizations often underestimate the power that can be gained when the organization focuses on strengthening its connection with its employees and that among employees. With our typical talk about Lean Six Sigma tools, change management, project management, or system management, do we place enough attention on nurturing our human development and relationships? Do you spend the time in a Lean Six Sigma project to really understand what motivates people and incorporate this into how the Lean Six Sigma initiative is rolled out?

Here are some ideas that you may want to consider during your current or next Lean Six Sigma Intervention.

Get to understand what motivates people – For some people, the motivation may be money, which actually is a means to something else. Money enables them to obtain financial freedom and power, or to boost one’s ego etc. For others, it may be recognition, contribution, developing relationships etc. In the Define phase of your project, spend the time to really understand what motivates/excites people who are involved or impacted by the Lean Six Sigma initiative. Ask questions that will help you to understand what’s in it for them. For example, you may ask the executive what he/she foresees as the critical issues facing the organization. However, you could have obtained a more informative answer if you asked these questions instead: “What organizational issues have really frustrated you?” and “Why do these frustrate you and how do they impact you personally?” The latter set of questions appeals to the emotional side of an individual. The same type of questioning applies to speaking with employees, stakeholders etc. These questions should provide you with an understanding of what people really want.

Spend Time on Team Building – I believe the joy of Lean Six Sigma is not the newly acquired skills that a person obtains or the end result, but it is the journey. During your Lean Six Sigma Initiative, the people who roll out the initiative will be working very closely together. The experiences and relationships that people develop on this project should be one of the highlights and rewarding experiences of their career. It is important to conduct team-building exercises during the project to develop greater trust and relationships between the team members. These can be having off-site retreats or going for social outings with the team. Make an objective of the project to be a personally gratifying experience for all people involved. Have the team coming up with creative ways to engage and motivate employees so that workshops are fun.

Make Lean Six Sigma about People - This is probably the biggest departure from conventional thinking. The key to this is to make the project about bringing out the best in every single employee in the organization. Think about what happens when your objective is not to cut costs, improve process times, or decrease defects but it is about increasing workforce utility, satisfaction and voluntary contribution. Adding this as one of your project objectives that is to get people really motivated and wanting to contribute to the success of the organization. When you reach this stage, your gains will be far more reaching and sustainable.

This is not saying that you don’t need organizational objectives, but the way you achieve them is through your employees. You still use the philosophies and approaches of Lean Six Sigma but make the deployment about building and connecting with people and the rest will follow.

Concluding Thoughts

This manifesto maybe a little short; however, I hope my message is strong enough that it is all about the PEOPLE. I strongly believe that the greater you are able to connect with the people within your organization, the stronger your organization will be. What are your thoughts on having Lean Six Sigma to be more about people and personal connections?

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Lean Six Sigma TV

Phil and Ted's Lean Sigma Adventures

Phil and Ted's Lean Sigma adventures will be broadcasted on youtube every Monday and Friday. Join our animated actors as they explain various concepts of Lean Six Sigma.

To view all episodes Click Here

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Come and join our late night animated celebrity characters as they discuss various Lean Six Sigma issues, challenges and best practices.

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Phil and Ted Lean Six Sigma Adventures- Life of a Process Owner

kyle toppazzini — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:00:00 GMT

In this episode Phil's special guest Sam talks about a day in the life of a lean six sigma process owner. Sam is one of the process owner's at the bowling alley where Phil and Ted bowl.

This is part of our regular lean six sigma video blogs that we will be providing along with our regular blogs.

Day in life of a Lean Six Sigma process owner

or click Here to View it on You Tube.

This week's Lean Six Sigma tonight with Jackson Jones and his guest Gerry Leanfield

Join Jackson Jones as he interviews comedian and Lean Six Sigma expert Gerry Leanfield this Thursday. Jackson and Gerry will be talking about how to incorporate Lean within Lean Six Sigma the right way.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Join Me on Squidoo

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Google Understands Lean Six Sigma

kyle toppazzini — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 01:44:00 GMT

How many of you have called your Internet or cell phone providers, spent countless hours on the phone with them, and thought, “If only this person understood the Voice of the Customer and Lean Six Sigma?” If you speak to an operator about a billing error or other issue, chances are you will be bounced around from one department to another, continually needing to repeat your account information and the nature of the call. Finally, when you do reach the operator who is supposed to assist you, the agent tells you he or she does not have the authority to solve your issue.

Google Understands Voice of the Customer

Have you ever called Google? Yes, you can call Google (certain areas). I did, and let me tell you, it gets Lean Six Sigma and Voice of the Customer. When I called, it seemed the reception was not too great. The usual response I would hear from other telecommunication companies would be, “I can’t hear you,” (in a very frustrated tone). But with Google, I got, “We appear to have a bad connection, but that is OK—I will take care of you.” We proceeded with the phone call, and I could tell by speaking with the agent at Google that she loved working there and was focused on my needs. She understood Voice of the Customer (VOC). In the end, she provided me with viable options to solve my problem.

At the end of the call, I was given a customer survey. Even the automated voice used to conduct the survey was friendly and chipper. The survey covered those areas that for consumers were clearly important and was quite different from other customer surveys I’ve completed. I was asked such things as whether my problem was resolved during the first call, in two calls, etc. I was also asked whether the agent completely resolved my issue to my satisfaction. The design of the survey was clearly focused on what is important to me and demonstrated Google’s understanding of tying everything back to the customer’s requirements.

Google Understands Value Stream Optimization

Aside from the experience with a live agent, have you had the opportunity to use some of the collaborative tools produced by Google? Google’s social collaborative tool is called Google Plus. Google Plus is an integrated and collaborative social networking tool. With Google Plus, I can have a complete Internet experience all tied to one account and am able to share information seamlessly across multiple platforms. For example, if I write a blog, I can put in a type of signature called Google Authorship. This means that when people share my blog through the Google Plus icon, not only do their circles (Google’s term for network) have access to my blog, in the search ranking, my profile shows up with my picture and tag lines.

If you use Blogger and mention an individual @person’s name, if that person is on Google Plus, he or she will be notified. In addition, you can integrate your Google Plus account with YouTube, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Google AdSense, etc. This allows you to maintain multiple accounts, share information, and manage all relationships across those platforms seamlessly. Google can even suggest videos, blogs, and so on based on my search history.

Whether Google calls this value stream optimization or not, it has or has come close to optimizing a user’s experience across the Internet.

Closing Thoughts

Although this short article may seem like a plug for Google and its products, it is not. I simply wanted to share with you some of the ways I believe Google is utilizing Lean Six Sigma. If you have some examples of how Google is demonstrating great practices in Lean Six Sigma, please share them.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Lean Six Sigma TV

Phil and Ted's Lean Sigma Adventures

Phil and Ted's Lean Sigma adventures will be broadcasted on youtube every Monday and Friday. Join our animated actors as they explain various concepts of Lean Six Sigma.

To view all episodes Click Here

Lean Six Sigma Tonight

Come and join our late night animated celebrity characters as they discuss various Lean Six Sigma issues, challenges and best practices.

To view all episodes Click Here

Join Me on Squidoo

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If you feel that my work has helped you and you'd like to support my mission in creating new innovation in Lean Six Sigma please make a donation below. I'm very grateful for your support.

Being supported by my readers enables me to share my creative output to the public domain. Please share it freely so that others may benefit from it.

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Lean Six Sigma Tonight- Sustaining Lean Six Sigma

kyle toppazzini — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:33:00 GMT

Today we launch the first episode of Lean Six Sigma tonight. Come and join our host Jackson Jones as he interviews Bill Sigma (a animated character who looks like Larry King) expert in Lean Six Sigma about how to sustain Lean Six Sigma within an organization.

We have also given a special mention to Linkedin and groupo members of Linkedin Lean Six Sigma.

Jackson Jones Interviews Bill Sigma about Sustaining Lean Six Sigma

To view in Youtube Click Here

Next week's show will feature Jerry Leanfield (Jerry Sienfied look alike) please join us.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Join Me on Squidoo

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If you feel that my work has helped you and you'd like to support my mission in creating new innovation in Lean Six Sigma please make a donation below. I'm very grateful for your support.

Being supported by my readers enables me to share my creative output to the public domain. Please share it freely so that others may benefit from it.

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Phil and Ted's Lean Six Sigma Adventures-Make LSS Stick Part 2

kyle toppazzini — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:15:00 GMT

Meet Phil and Ted your Lean Six Sigma coach and student. In this episode Phil and Ted talk about methods to utilize to ensure your Lean Six Sigma initiative is sustainable.

This is part of our regular video blogs that we will be providing along with our regular blogs.

Phil and Ted Reveal Secrets on Ensuring that Lean Six Sigma is Sustainable

or click Here to View it on You Tube.

New Program Coming Soon View the Trailer

Lean Six Sigma Late night with Jackson Jones

Join Jackson Jones as he interviews famous Lean Six Sigma celebrities. Jackson Jones and guests will not only provide deep insights into Lean Six Sigma they will provide great entertainment.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Join Me on Squidoo

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If you feel that my work has helped you and you'd like to support my mission in creating new innovation in Lean Six Sigma please make a donation below. I'm very grateful for your support.

Being supported by my readers enables me to share my creative output to the public domain. Please share it freely so that others may benefit from it.

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Phil and Ted Lean Six Sigma Adventures-Make LSS Stick Part 1

kyle toppazzini — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 02:22:00 GMT

Meet Phil and Ted your Lean Six Sigma coach and student. In this episode we start to get a feel for the characters' personalities as they begin to explain Lean Six Sigma. This episode portrays the humorous side of both Phil and Ted.

Although this maybe a review of Lean Six Sigma for some you may enjoy starting to discover the personalities of these characters.

This is part of our regular video blogs that we will be providing along with our regular blogs.

Phil and Ted Reveal Their Personalities Explaining Lean Six Sigma

or click Here to View it on You Tube.

New Program Coming Soon View the Trailer

Lean Six Sigma Late night with Jackson Jones

Join Jackson Jones as he interviews famous Lean Six Sigma celebrities. Jackson Jones and guests will not only provide deep insights into Lean Six Sigma they will provide great entertainment.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Join Me on Squidoo

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15 Methods to Maximize Lean Six Sigma Sustainability

kyle toppazzini — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 04:36:00 GMT

One of the most challenging issues I hear from people within the Lean Six Sigma community is how to ensure that your Lean Six Sigma project is sustainable. If your Lean Six Sigma project is highly dependent on top leadership support to keep it going, then you run into a risk of losing the focus and support for Lean Six Sigma when that leadership leaves. I have compiled a list of 15 methods that you can use to improve the sustainability of your Lean Six Sigma efforts:

Make Lean Six Sigma less about projects and more about a way of operating and working;
Make education and communication a key priority when implementing Lean Six Sigma;
Modify job descriptions to better reflect the Lean Six Sigma focus and requirements;
Implement process owner and process manager model;
Integrate Lean Six Sigma with your strategic, business, operating, and human resource plans;
Focus less on “belts” and more on operational excellence;
Align compensation and recognition (monetary and non-monetary) with the Lean Six Sigma objectives;
Make Lean six Sigma simple and easy to understand;
Make Lean Six Sigma Town Hall and Leadership Summits as part of your regular organizational activities. These are forums for sharing best practices and new innovations;
Make continuous improvement a part of everyone’s performance and training;
Make your Lean Six Sigma organization an undeniable success;
Make your organization as the “employer of choice” because of the way you have implemented Lean Six Sigma;
Give all employees the tools they need to be able to demonstrate (ideally through quantitative and qualitative measures) the positive contributions they made to the organization, its employees, customers, stakeholders etc;
Make celebrating success a priority; and
Cultivate an organization of learning, improvement, and innovation.

Prior to developing this list, I did a quick online search to see what others have written about this subject and there did not appear to be a lot, and certainly nothing concrete.

You will notice that nowhere in the 15 methods mentioned do I suggest to obtain management support and there is a reason for this. When you are implementing Lean Six Sigma for the first time, management support is critical; however, in order to sustain long after those managers might have left, I believe focusing on the success of the organization and its people should be one of the most important success factors to making Lean Six Sigma stick.

Concluding thoughts

I have shared some of my ideas on how to sustain Lean Six Sigma, what are your thoughts? What has be working for you? For more discussion on this, stay tuned for Lean Six Sigma Tonight with Jackson Jones (an animated host who looks like Borat) with his special guest Bill Sigma (an animated character who looks like Larry King).

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

Lean Six Sigma TV

Phil and Ted's lean Six Sigma adventures will be broadcasted on youtube every Monday and Friday. Join our animated actors as they explain various concepts of Lean Six Sigma at http://youtu.be/tEh4p9OUTUs.

Coming soon Lean Six Sigma tonight with Jackson Jones.

Join Me on Squidoo

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Don't forget to share this article. Try sharing the article on Stumble Upon or Diggit.

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If you feel that my work has helped you and you'd like to support my mission in creating new innovation in Lean Six Sigma please make a donation below. I'm very grateful for your support.

Being supported by my readers enables me to share my creative output to the public domain. Please share it freely so that others may benefit from it.

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Lean Six Sigma Innovations– Validating Trust In An Organization? [Part 2]

kyle toppazzini — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:00:00 GMT

In Part One of this article, I set up a fictitious example using Google to demonstrate how you would measure trust within a Lean Six Sigma project. More specifically, this is part of our FUSE© methodology. For those of you who have not read Part 1 of this article, we presented a series of data collected from a fictitious Google example through a survey and the following results were compiled:

The survey was sent to 10,000 people in 10 different countries for a total of 100,000 people.
The survey was sent to 8,000 employees in each country and 1,000 managers, 1,000 partners;
We received 6,000 employee, 800 managers and 700 partner responses back from each country;
The founder of the company believes that 90% of all employees and managers share the same interpretation of the vision that he has;
70% of the employees and 88% of managers select the explanation of the vision which was the same as founder across all countries. In order to keep the math simple, we have assumed that there are no differences in results across the countries.
75% of the employees, 80% of managers and 60% of partners selected the interpretation of the values, which were the same as the founder. Again, we are trying to keep the math simple so we assume no differences across countries as well as across values.

So now, we want to use this data to set up some hypotheses tests that will help us understand if there are trust issues for this fictitious example I have provided.

Hypotheses Test #1 – To Identify if Trust Issues Exist from employees and from managers

Here is the first question we may want to answer:

Do managers and employees (individually) share the same interpretation of the vision as the founder?

To answer the question, we will conduct the following hypothesis testing.

We will need to set up our null (H_o) and alternative (H_a) hypothesis and test our assumptions (assume that we want a confident of 95% or a level of significance of 5%). The null hypothesis is the opposite of the claim so in our case that less than 95% of Google employees have the same interpretation as the founder. Now let’s also assume that we want to be more confident of our results 19 times out of 20 (or 95% of the time), this means our confidence level is 95% and level of significance is 5% (or 100% minus 95%). The null and the alternative are stated below.

Ho₁:The percentage of employees with an interpretation of Google’s vision that is same as its founder is less than 90% or P<90% (P being the percentage)
Ha₁: The percentage of employees with an interpretation of Google’s vision that is same as its founder equal to greater than 90% or P≥90%

Ho₂:The percentage of managers with an interpretation of Google’s vision that is same as its founder is less than 90% or P<90%
Ha₂: The percentage of managers with an interpretation of Google’s vision that is same as its founder equal to greater than 90% or P≥90%

The rule for our test is if the Z_score, which I will show you how to calculate in a moment, is greater than -1.65 than we reject the null hypothesis otherwise we accept the null as true.

To calculate the Z_score we use the following formula:

Z_score= (P1-P₀)/sqrt[(P₀)(1- P₀)/sample size]

Putting the numbers into the formula

Z_score _employees= 70%-90%/0.0039

Z_score _employees = -51.64

Z_{score managers} = 88%-90%/0.0107

Z_score _managers= -1.89

Since the Z_score for employees is much less than -1.65, then we accept the null and accept the statement that less than 90% of Google employees have the same interpretation of its vision as the founder. On the contrary, we reject the null for managers and say that 90% or more of Google managers share the same vision as its founder.

Hypothesis Test #2 – To Test if Trust Issues Exist for employees and managers collectively

Here is another question we may want to answer:

Do managers and employees collectively share the same interpretation of the vision as the founder of Google?

We probably suspect the answer to be no but we will go ahead and show you how to conduct that test. To answer the question, we will conduct the following hypothesis testing.

In this instance what we are saying is that P₁=P₂ or P₁-P₂=0 (P1=percentage of employees and P2=percentage of managers). In order to conduct this test we also need to know the percentage of all employees and managers that share the same interpretation as the founder at Google and it is approximately 72%. This is denoted as P₃.

We set up our null and alternative hypothesis as follows:

Ho₁= H₀₂ (There is no difference in the percentage of employees and managers that share same interpretation of Google’s vision as its founder.)
Ho₁≠ H₀₂(There is a difference in the percentage of employees and managers that share same interpretation of Google’s vision as its founder.)

We use the following equation and calculate our Z_score

Z_score = P₁-P₂/sqrt [P₃*(1-P₃)*(1/n₁+1/n₂)]

(n₁=sample size for employees, n₂=sample size for managers)

Z_score=0.70-0.88/0.017

Z_score =-51.3

Note that this is a two tales test, the rule is that if the Z_score >1.96 or <-1.96, we reject the null hypothesis; otherwise, we accept it.

In this instance, since the Z_score of -51.4 (which is <-1.96), we reject the null and we say that there is a difference in the percentage of employees and managers that share the same interpretation of Google’s vision as its founder.

We will not go through the remainder of the calculations’ however, what we can see from this example is that there appears to be a difference in a unified vision; and thus, trust issues likely exist and should be examined further as we implement the FUSE methodology.

Concluding Thoughts

This article (Part 1 and 2) show hypothesis testing can be used to determine if there is a misalignment in vision and values between employees, managers and its founders/leaders. Many leaders and its employees may have their own assumptions; it is only when these statistical tests are conducted to have substantive proof that trust issues exist, which may hinder any change effort.

So what are your thoughts about measuring the level of trust within an organization using statistical methods?

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Lean Six Sigma Innovations– Validating Trust In An Organization? [Part 1]

kyle toppazzini — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 04:26:00 GMT

I strongly believe that people within an organization should be unified behind a common vision and values; otherwise, it will likely lead to confusion and mistrust between employees and managers, and this will potentially impact stakeholders, partners and customers. Therefore, for any Lean Six Sigma project, it is crucial to validate the unified vision and values are shared across the organization. This critical concept is also integrated in my FUSE© methodology.

We can easily test whether all employees, customers, partners, stakeholders share the same or similar values and whether all employees (includes managers, founders, executives) share a unified vision through 1) a well designed stratified survey, and 2) a simple statistical hypothesis testing. Since Google has some similar values as what are presented in my FUSE framework; therefore, I am going to use Google as a fictitious example of how you would go about achieving this.

Example: Google

Google’s Vision and Values

According to Google (http://www.google.com/enterprise/end_user_experience.html), its vision is to deliver relevant results across all data sources – the Internet, a user’s local computer, and the corporate network. And its values (http://www.google.ca/about/company/philosophy) are:

Focus on the user;
It is better to do one thing exceptionally well;
Faster is better than slow;
Democracy on the web works;
You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer;
You can make money without doing bad things;
There is always information out there;
The need for information crosses all borders;
You can be serious without a suite;
Great isn’t just good enough.

Collecting Data to test the Level of Trust

For simplicity, let’s assume that we administered a few different surveys on behalf of Google. First, we administered a survey to Google employees to see if they share the same vision and values. Rather than simply asking them to select the correct statements about the company’s values and vision, we provide them with various interpretations of the vision/value and ask them to select the one that is most correct.

In relates to vision, we included an interpretation obtained from the founder and another interpretation obtained from employees input when asked to select a statement best reflects their understanding of Google’s vision. We segmented the survey to compare the results of senior management versus employees at different managerial and non-managerial levels. Furthermore, we stratified the survey by country because we assume that some interpretations of the vision maybe distorted because of the translation of the survey and perhaps cultural differences.

We conducted a similar design to see if employees share a similar interpretation of Google’s values. Besides Google staff, its partners should also be invited to participate in the survey related to values.

For simplicity, let’s assume the following results were compiled:

The survey was sent to 10,000 people in 10 different countries for a total of 100,000 people.
The survey was sent to 8,000 employees in each country and 1,000 managers, 1,000 partners;
We received 6,000 employee, 800 managers and 700 partner responses back from each country;
The founder of the company believes that 90% of all employees and managers share the same interpretation of the vision that he has;
70% of the employees and 88% of managers selected the explanation of the vision, which was the same as founder across all countries. In order to keep the math simple, we have assumed that there are no differences in results across the countries.
75% of the employees, 80% of managers and 60% of partners select the interpretation of the values, which were the same as the founder. Again, we are trying to keep the math simple so we assume no differences across countries as well as across values.

Now that you have collected the raw data, it is time to design a hypotheses test. This will be covered in the second part of the article.

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

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Phil and Ted Explain Change Management in Lean Six Sigma

kyle toppazzini — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 23:52:00 GMT

Meet Phil and Ted your Lean Six Sigma coach and student. This is their television debut and today they will offer some tips on implementing change mangement in Lean Six Sigma.

This is the first of our regular video blogs that we will be providing along with our regular blogs. There will be more than one program so get to know the characters you like.

Phil and Ted's First Lean Six Sigma Video

My Book

My first of two books has been completed and is in the final stages of formatting and editing. I hope the book will be coming to a bookshelf close to you soon.

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If you feel that my work has helped you and you'd like to support my mission in creating new innovation in Lean Six Sigma please make a donation below. I'm very grateful for your support.

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I Want Results Now- Balancing Executive Pressures with Lean Six Sigma

kyle toppazzini — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:24:00 GMT

For projects involved with Lean Six Sigma, it is not uncommon for the project team to face a challenge of balancing between realizing short-term results (e.g. cost reduction) demanded by Executives and to achieve sustainable long-term benefits by implementing Lean Six Sigma framework. Change principles are simple but change is not easy, and it takes time. And here is how to strike this balance.

Golden Fruits

This can be done through the Define phase, i.e. first Phase of the Lean Six Sigma framework. During this Phase, you identify the burning platforms of the organizations and define the projects that will result in break-through performance.

When you conduct the preliminary value stream mapping and data analysis, you are likely to come across issues that are relatively easy to fix in a given process and result in immediate pay back, which I refer these issues as “Golden Fruits”. However, you should do your due diligence by avoiding to apply a Band-Aid solution that results in temporary relief. For example, I have seen people attack a backlog in one area by assigning a crew to work over-time in that area and clear the bottle neck only to push the problem to another area.

Classifying Short and Long Term Performance Improvement

I recommend that you should begin by classifying performance improvement projects as short- or long-term in the Define Phase. Your short-term projects should be a strategic project that will address a pain point in the process that generates immediate relief but also can be used for long-term change.

For example, perhaps we have a backlog and processing delay in a particular value stream. Rather than conducting a full-scale assessment and implementation across the organization, we can simply implement it in a single area within the organization that is keen on using Lean Six Sigma and use it to demonstrate the improvements. We can also have the staff in the “pilot” area to advocate and educate their colleagues in other areas about Lean Six Sigma and the benefits they realized from it. This will result in buy-in and longer lasting change.

Stroking Everyone’s Egos

The advantages recognized through the demonstrations conducted by the “pilot” area staff to their peers are two-fold. The peer employees can relate the benefits from its results in a way that is most meaningful to them, as well as the pilot area staff is able to establish credibility and recognition to its peers. This approach results in a win-win for everyone.

Concluding Thoughts

Change takes time; however, if we leverage our resources in the right way we can generate short-term wins that contribute to long-term sustainability. This is only one of the approaches. Share with me what other approaches that worked for you in terms of satisfying executive demands and establishing a stable process improvement process.

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How to Write a Popular and Timeless Lean Six Sigma Blog

kyle toppazzini — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:00:00 GMT

You want to write a Lean Six Sigma blog that people love and will always love. It is not easy, but not impossible. I wrote many blogs in 2012 and many of those happened to be more popular than I thought, while others were a bit of a flop. I’m going to use one of each of my previous blogs as a case study for each of the scenarios, i.e. a successful blog and less successful one.

What matters are what others are interested in in terms of blog writing and not what I think their interests are, as I have discouvered. I have also come to realize some of the key success factors are in writing a timeless and popular blog about Lean Six Sigma and are as follows:

An Interesting title – You probably only have a few seconds to grab readers’ attention to persuade them to start reading your blog. A great title is one of the attention grabbers. When I first started blogging, many bloggers suggested to use blog titles that start with “10 amazing ways to …”, “Why … is the only way to…..”, which becomes old and boring fast. My suggestion is to keep the title short, interesting, relevant and new. It does not have to be controversial or have to be peppy to grab readers’ attention; but it should tell the readers that they are going to read about something that is interesting to them and is new. “New“ does not necessarily imply new invention; it could be a new way of looking at a topic/idea, solving a problem etc.
An introduction that gets the reader to want to read more – Now the title grabs your readers’ attention, you have another four to five seconds to convince the reader they should start reading the rest of the article. For me, topics related to interesting quotes or survey results, and new/interesting concepts seem to work well in terms of extending readers’ attention spans.
Introducing social media – Learning more about classical Lean Six Sigma tools are likely to be interesting to those involved with Lean Six Sigma; however, learning about how to apply or use social media in Lean Six Sigma and process improvement is of interest to other types of audiences. By discussing how social media can be used in Lean Six Sigma, you are likely to interest those that have heard of lean six sigma and would not normally read about it but do so because they are interested in social media.
Introducing innovative concepts/ideas – Don`t be afraid to introduce innovative Lean Six Sigma concepts. Since the introduction of Lean Six Sigma, there have been very little that has been added that I would classify as new and revolutionary. I believe that many people are eager and very interested in hearing about new ideas in Lean Six Sigma.
Use great pictures – Blog readers tend to skim through the content, and great pictures can make a huge difference in drawing readers to important concepts.
Write about “newsworthy” issues – Something relating to how Lean Six Sigma can or could have used to solve an “issue” that has sufficient important to warrant reporting in the media, it is likely to be interesting enough to draw readers’ attention.
Inject a little humour in your blogs – Lean Six Sigma blogs do not need to be highly technical and serious. For example, the video below is somewhat comical and critical; but can also be used to point out the need of educating people properly about Lean Six Sigma.

Concluding thoughts

In this article, I have provided you with some of my ideas on how to make Lean Six Sigma blog a success and timeless. Share with me what has worked for you.

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How Lean Six Sigma Can Fix Congressional and Senate Indecision?

kyle toppazzini — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Recently, US politicians talk about eliminating waste in government, but here we are, a day before going over the Fiscal Cliff and politicians cannot come to a compromise on how to fix their country`s fiscal challenges. In Lean Six Sigma, we traditionally define “waste” as one of the following:

Transportation – Product/activity moves from one area to another risks being damaged, lost or delayed, and thus more transportation, the more chance of waste.
Inventory – Inventory that sits without being sold represents money being spent without any income being generated from it.
Motion – Damage is created when a product/activity is being processed. This could include the wear-and-tear to the product or accidents happened to employees.
Waiting – If a product/service is waiting, i.e. not in process or in transportation; there is no value to the customer;
Over-processing – More work is done than what a customer requires;
Over production – More products/services are created than what a customer requires.
Defects – A product/activity must be performed more than once due to imperfection/unmet standards, resulting in additional costs and time.

While one can argue that there are many other wastes that are more severe, Congressional and Senate leaders inability to come to a compromise is definitely a waste that should be eliminated. Here are a few ways that Lean Six Sigma can be used to make the political decision process more efficient and effective.

What can the government do to bridge the divide in US politics?

Improve the predictability and stability of the political decision making process – In Lean Six Sigma, one of the goals is to reduce process variability so that we are better in predicting the outcomes of the process. Given that the political processes are inherently unpredictable, which can create havoc on capital markets and national and international economies, US leaders should find ways to reduce the variability in the decision-making processes.
Identify non value added activities in the political decision making process - Clearly when politicians, senior aids and other government resources spend countless hours, and tax dollars to develop proposals that are certain to be turned down, resources are not being used on value added activities. This is only one example in which non value added activities exist within the US political decision making process I am sure there are many others that can be considered. None the less, all non-value added activities across the value stream within should be identified through a value added analysis exercise and assessment.
Identify and eliminate the root causes of process waste and non value added activities – Once the non-value added activities in the political decision making process have been identified then the next step would be to identify the root causes of such waste. The five-why framework is a great tool that can be used to identify the root causes. Once the root causes are identified, a new and more effective value stream (end to end process) can be developed in which non-value added activities are minimized.

Concluding Thoughts

As we approach the US Fiscal cliff, whether the cliff is adverted or not, it is time for US leaders to take a hard look at the way political decisions are made and utilize Lean Six Sigma to design a better and more effective process going forward. What are your thoughts on how US politicians can improve the political decision making process through a Lean Six Sigma assessment?

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15 Objectives for your Lean Six Sigma Projects in 2013

kyle toppazzini — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Based on the conversations this year I had with both executives and lean six sigma black belts from at least four continents to identify specific challenges, below is a list of the top 15 areas/objectives I think you may want to consider in your Lean Six Sigma projects in 2013:

Change Management and Change Models
Leadership Engagement
Driving Innovation
Creating quick wins throughout the project
Creating sustainable results
Building organizational capacity
Establishing trust throughout the organization
Creating an environment of continuous learning, innovation and process improvement
Generating noticeable results quickly, i.e. the wow factor
Increasing personal satisfaction and contribution from all employees
Increasing the return on all organizational assets
Solving long lasting and persistent organizational problem
Winning the hearts and minds of employees
Getting the organization to focus on both short- and long-term objectives
Increasing the return on investment from training so that training is not viewed as an expense but an investment.

What other areas/objectives would you consider in your next lean six sigma project?

About the Author

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If you feel that my work has helped you and you'd like to support my mission in creating new innovation in Lean Six Sigma please make a donation below. I'm very grateful for your support.

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