3.4 per Million: Smart Talk
When you examine the success of Six Sigma at Motorola, one characteristic that is frequently listed as a critical success factor is the common language it created. That attribute meanders its way into all types of Six Sigma conversations....
3.4 Per Million: Forget Silver Bullets and Instant Pudding
There are no silver bullets or instant pudding waiting to be discovered. There never has been and never will be. This does not mean that there is not some level of benefit to be gained by an organization embracing Six Sigma, the new and improved...
3.4 per Million: Six Sigma in Everything We Do?
I was lucky to work for Motorola in the 1980s and early 1990s - right in the middle of the company's transformation. Motorola was at risk as were many U.S. businesses....
3.4 per Million: Put the Pieces Together
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This isn't a particularly new idea; it has been around for years. We even have an entire profession built around it....
A Solid Foundation
Any discussion of implementing Six Sigma is typically accompanied by a conversation around top management buy-in and the fiat that it is a top-down initiative. They are independent issues, so I'll separate them for discussion and clarity....
The Six Sigma Mambo
South Beach, Miami, starts to come alive about midnight. As I travel from club to club, I am mesmerized by the dancing. I have a desire to participate, but I don't know how to dance....
Column: Frontiers of Quality: Gathering Customer Feedback
Most people have heard the cliché, "If you are going to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk." As such, the Six Sigma community has claimed a linkage with customer values, but are we really aligned?...
Implementation and Institutionalization
Learn how to properly handle a large amount of change in your organization
Just as change needs the infrastructure of a change policy, a change policy needs the infrastructure of a business operating system. A standalone change policy, which is not an integral part of a business operating system, is as likely to fail as no chang...
Column: Frontiers of Quality: Implementation and Institutionalization
[abstract from article]
Effectively managing the overwhelming volume of change is the only option for today's leadership teams. Some basic things to help enable other change efforts are:
- Create a change program.
- Create an...
