Let me start by saying this – I have never been a big fan of Six Sigma all my life.  That said-I don’t hate it and I don’t love it, either.

The irony is that in my last 4 years of corporate life, there has never been a single month or a single project where I have not applied Six Sigma tools and techniques at my work. I like Six Sigma for many reasons e.g. its break-down approach, the training, the change that it brings about in a person’s life etc. There is no denying the fact that those who go through the rigorous training end up becoming experts at Statistics and other quantitative and qualitative tools. It is also a fact this extrapolated jargon has created thousands of jobs. Yet, I am not satisfied!

The only complaint that I always have about Six Sigma is that it kills creativity, spontaneity and intuition – the three things that you need to take crucial decisions which help in running a successful business. The approach of Six Sigma is a very structured approach where it breaks down the problem to different modules and tackles the individual module separately. Some might differ with me, but essentially that is what it is and in the process, the time delay in getting the right solution is so much that the purpose of the whole problem is dissolved.

In today’s competitive world, if you had minutes to try and solve the problems, how on earth can you afford to waste time to break the problem into pieces, define, measure, analyzes, improve and control ?  Yes, this will help those organizations that have large cash pool which can afford the waiting time and the combined wisdom of selective individuals who give their ways of solving it. This is not meant for businesses and individuals who rely on quick, creative and intuitive solutions

If you sit in a Six Sigma brainstorming discussion, the way the problems are resolved, might lead you to ask yourself “Is this something that I don’t know of ?” They are nothing new. They follow the simple rules of cause and affect, the various failure modes and mitigation of risks that come out of it. You don’t need Six Sigma for that. All you need is Common Sense.

Some might argue that Six Sigma is a disciplined data driven approach, where the historical data gives you indication of a future behavior. It is an approach that tells you how your performance have been over “X” period and if there are failures, it will point out at what levels and what needs to be done to mitigate that. To put it simply it is a name given to a statistic tool.

I might sound a bit negative here, but the point that I am trying to make here is that at the end of the day what matters most is how effective you have been in your decisions. Have your decisions given results? If so, great. If not, you need to take a look at your fundamentals. No amount of Six Sigma training or Management training can give you what you need.

The importance should be given to create a strong foundation to the fundamentals that build you as a leader. That is,

a) When in doubt, ask ? Ask the right questions

b) Get to the root cause of the problem and its effects

c) Weigh the options and choose the right one

d) Implement it quickly, efficiently and effectively.

If you have got all these ingredients right, it doesn’t matter what tool you use or what you name the “tool” as. All what matters is the result and that is what counts.

This might lead us to another question about “What” and “How”, though..More on that, later.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Image Credit: Central Asian

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