Hello everyone, I am logging on after taking a short time off to be with my family. Time away has a way of making us think different thoughts, at least that has been the case for me lately.
Since the moment my hand went up for Six Sigma training (sometime in 2003), my engineering career has focused on the science (and the art) of incremental improvement. I was taking processes that were already running well and making them a tiny bit better: 5% better here, 2% better there, it all adds up, especially when you are working in a high-volume process. It doesn’t sound like much but it adds up to real dollars over time! Trying to explain this concept to non-Lean/Six Sigma people has been my main marketing goal for the last several years, and I have attempted to use metaphors from finding money under the couch cushions to editing out the boring parts of a movie. It’s a work in progress. Most people think it sounds too good to be true!
I have since discovered that I have unwittingly focused on just one type of problem, and that what I do applies only to businesses that are running at steady state, have processes that are basically stable, and leaders that have a clearly established set of goals and measurable objectives (which I can help them achieve more quickly, more safely, efficiently, at lower cost etc). In today’s increasingly disrupted and rapidly evolving world, so many more businesses are looking to refocus and pivot at the strategic level, the innovation level, the technology level, or even the business model level. They don’t just want to do the same thing a tiny bit better any more.
Thus I am pursuing a pivot in the way I serve my own clients. Another change for me personally is that I am finding myself increasingly interested in the conversation around how we make our workplaces (regardless of what industry we’re in and what thing we’re making or service we’re providing) a place that everyone can contribute to their highest potential. It’s another face of the leadership and workplace culture work that I have already been thinking about in the context of small incremental change. So where do these issues all meet up together? That’s what I am going to find out — up a level for my business! Stay tuned!
