Have you ever head the saying that the "the Cobbler's children have no shoes"? Sometimes you get so caught up in teaching the Lean and Six Sigma methodology that you forget that the methodology can improve the outcome of what you teach. It is no myth that the most difficult "output" of any Lean and Six Sigma Implementation is actual consistent project closure. We tend to "get the train going" with the training of new Green Belts, Black Belts, and Champions and then let them loose to "Slay Dragon's" ... often times with weapons that they don't know how to use.
As MBB's, we teach the methodology and help to implement, but we often fall into the trap that many college professors fall into ... WE have a deep intimate knowledge of what we are teaching, and we expect (often subconciously) our budding belts to fill in the blanks. We expect the potential belts to ask questions, but alot of times they get so much information that they don't even know how to formulate the questions. This "input" leads to students that go back to work and either consistently communicate with me or SSDSI's other MBB's to "fill in the blanks" and complete the projects ... or they go back to work and revert back to their "reactive" modes and the project is pushed off indefinitely. Thus, project closure becomes an issue.
Being a Lean and Six Sigma practitioner, I have developed an informal Six Sigma project from this "opportunity". My "Y" is project closure rate. My "X's" include many aspects of each belt curriculum, tools, and project structure information. What i have found so far is really a "no brainer" ... Belt students want education but need structure. I took the Voine of the Customer, and they said "we need help getting started". I have added that structure into my RESOURCES page in the form of a Six Sigma Green Belt Project Progression (Flow Chart) and Tollgate Reveiws for each of the DMAIC process. The flow chart helps the student to undertand the basic flow of a project. The Tollgate reviews are the "rubrics" by which each of the phases are assessed before moving on to the next phase. This structure ("input") has led to a marked increase in project closure ("output").
If you want to learn more, contact me at kclay@sixsigmadsi.com or call 479-739-4940. Check out my other blogs at http://www.sixsigmadsi.com/.
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It will take time for them to deal the projects without any structure and the reason behind this is the improper training. Training should be given in such a way that they can think further and try to solve everything by their own.
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