Be wary of the Benjamin Franklin ($100) Certification (#5)


Recently, a Senior Vice President at a company engagement asked me what the future looked like for Lean and Six Sigma. I was intrigued by his question when he added that he heard rumors of its weakening popularity. The main reason he brought this topic up was because his own organization’s deployment of Lean and Six Sigma was not generating the results he had expected.

There could be a few factors behind this lack of accomplishment in project savings, but one of the main components to the failure of their deployment would be that they hired “Paper Belts.” I’ll search the web and often see that the scope and cost of Lean Six Sigma Certifications vary drastically. It baffles me how simple it is to attain a certification on the web. One quick search I did on a Dallas Six Sigma class led me to find that you can earn a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification just by watching a couple of webinar videos and passing a test; all for less than $100.

Due to the fact that Lean and Six Sigma are two commonly unregulated methodologies, many training organizations will have short cuts to earn a certification. A lot of seasoned Lean Six Sigma professionals define those who partake in these short cuts as “Paper Belts.” Companies often cannot tell the difference and inadvertently hire these “Paper Belts.” Hence, due to lack of accurate training, many Lean and Six Sigma deployments initiated by a “Paper Belt” will fail leading people to believe that Lean and Six Sigma does not work.

Following is a list of traits to look for in an effective Lean Six Sigma Training Company.

1.       Are they willing to “give it away for free?”
I, along with my colleagues, understand the necessity of giving away what you know at no charge. We know that we are most valuable as advisors. The methodologies that we teach change organizations and they change lives. The road towards becoming a productive, accredited change agent is a huge investment. We know that you, as the customer, want to feel confident and assured in your trainer’s knowledge and experience.
But how can you be sure that we as your “trainer” actually know what we are doing? All our knowledge about Lean and Six Sigma is available on the internet. We create blogs and articles full of information pertaining to Lean and Six Sigma and post them on our website and social media platforms. We explain the process of earning your certification, as well as main points of the methodology, though entertaining stories that you can relate to, so you can understand easily. These blogs show the way that Certified Lean and Six Sigma professionals think by using stories about our own experiences teaching these methodologies at various companies. Some of our articles pose various questions, some go through funny stories about our experiences, some provide free templates that guide the use of necessary statistical tools. All of these articles can be found on our website, http://sixsigmadsi.com/category/ssdsi-blog/
2.       Do they provide support to the student through their entire Certification journey?
For a beginning learner, Lean and Six Sigma methodologies can be very complex. Expecting to complete a project on your own, after taking just a week long class, is pretty disheartening. From our research and experience, trying to complete a project without someone to coach you through it will often result in stalled or incomplete projects. We offer assistance to find projects with effective and measured Scopes before class and provide support towards completing your projects after your class is over by providing tools, resources, and your very own Black Belt Mentor.

3.       Do they provide a road map towards project completion?
There are plenty of Lean Six Sigma organizations that provide trainings with a huge “shock and awe” factor. When the training is over, those star struck students return back to their jobs and use the training binder as a paperweight. Like everything else, it is so easy for them to slide back into their reactive, comfortable mode. Starting a project is hard when you don’t know what path to take to get to your end goal. When you don’t know how to get there, you won’t take that first step, which leads to stalled and incomplete projects with incomplete certifications. Six Sigma Development Solutions Inc. partners with Mr. Tom Dunbar at Dunbar Innovations to provide our students with “My Hawkeye,” an online Project Management Tool. This system helps SSDSI build a detailed Tollgate map that acts as a guide for the student as well as allows the instructor to track the student’s project progress.


If you would like to become a Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt, contact me (Kevin Clay) at kclay@sixsigmadsi.com or 241-731-3176 to schedule a conversation about goal strategy!

About Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc.

We are Certified as an Accredited Training Organization with the International Association of Six Sigma Certification (IASSC)

“The IASSC Accredited Training Organization (ATO) designation validates Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc. has demonstrated adequate management systems, courseware with a high degree of correlation to the subject matter contained in the IASSC Bodies of Knowledge, delivery schema consistent with such content and highly qualified instructors.”

We Provide Public Lean Six Sigma Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Training Courses in 34 Cities across the globe.


We Provide Onsite Lean Six Sigma Certification Training. Some of the training's we provide are: Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, Lean Six Sigma Champions Training and Lean Certifications for Healthcare, Finance, I.T, Manufacturing, Processing, Logistics, Retail Sales and Government.

SSDSI will come to your site to train for your choice of the Lean Six Sigma Certification Levels. Onsite training is more cost effective than open enrollment training when training larger groups of team members.

Benefits of Onsite Training:

The Training is focused on Your Opportunities

SSDSI uses your opportunities in class (vs. generic examples)

You will get the experience of a seasoned Lean and Six Sigma Master Black Belt who will help mentor you while completing your Lean and Six Sigma Project

You can train up to 20 employees for one fixed cost (this cost includes courseware and the instructors travel & lodging)

Our courses are full of games, simulations, and active learning to help the adult learner

SSDSI can customize the training to meet your company’s particular training needs

For More Information Contact: Kevin Clay, MBB at 866-922-6566 or kclay@sixsigmadsi.com

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