Maintaining Standards in Lean Six Sigma Training

Lean Six Sigma training must focus on competency in applying it, if it is to avoid the demise of TQM.

Suppose I took you aside for one or two weeks and taught you how to use every single tool in a motor mechanic’s toolkit. As a tradesman I could show you how to use a torque wrench so you correctly tension bolts and nuts, how to use ring spanners so you don’t skin your knuckles or round off the heads of different bolts and even how to use a reaming tool to safely and effectively polish a steel brake cylinder. Would you consider yourself a motor mechanic after that experience? Of course not, you and I both know it would be ridiculous to make such a claim.

What would it take before you would be considered competent enough to be able to use the qualification?

A Motor Mechanic qualification is only given after a person has learnt not only how to use each tool, but when they demonstrate the ability to: (1) Make decisions about which tools to use when confronted with different mechanical problems; (2) Apply the tools and processes in the dynamics of an actual work environment; and (3) Achieve and maintain new levels of performance as a result of their work.

Would you consider yourself a doctor after learning how to use each of the tools used in surgery? Would you consider someone to be a dentist after they learn how to use the tools of dentistry? More importantly, would you go to a dentist who had just learnt how to operate dentistry implements? Of course we wouldn’t for the same reasons.

It seems to me that in the world of business improvement, in particular Lean Six Sigma Training, there has been a shift in some quarters away from this competency based thinking. There are so many providers of Lean Six Sigma Training these days that we are overwhelmed with offerings. It seems like every consulting company has got on the band wagon. Correspondingly, the duration of Lean Six Sigma Training offered for project team leaders varies greatly. For example, advertised Black Belt training can range from as long as six weeks of face-to-face delivery to as short as five days to get a certificate as a qualified Black Belt. I still struggle to work out how the latter can be genuinely achieved!

Learning to become a competent Black Belt or Green Belt is like learning a trade. When we had our Lean Six Sigma Training programs accredited with the national training body in Australia that certifies all formal tertiary qualifications, I was not surprised that the Black Belt program met the requirements for an Advanced Diploma qualification.

We all must recognise that competency in the tools is not what was intended with these qualifications. Someone who does a bit of online learning and few days of face-to-face training in the tools and key concepts may end up with an understanding of Lean Six Sigma and its tools. That does not set them up to be a qualified practitioner. Learning the tools does not make the Black Belt or Green Belt.

Competent Black or Green Belts are people who can describe and use the tools relevant to their level of qualification in the context of the processes that are core to their business. They can also effectively facilitate an improvement project within the challenges of working with a project team, generate and analyse data using advanced statistical methods appropriate to the outcome they are seeking, facilitate the generation of creative solutions from those who work with the process, and manage the challenges of building sustainable commitment to change in a dynamic environment.

To be able to demonstrate this type of competency requires hands on training in an environment where they have to work with other people. It requires a good deal of coaching, mentoring and application of the tools and concepts under the constraints and limitations of day-to-day business.

The goal of any Lean Six Sigma Training must be the achievement of results and that only comes through competent application of the methodology. World-class providers of Lean Six Sigma Training do not issue certificates or qualifications without competency or results, so be cautious of anyone claiming to be able to accelerate the issuing of qualifications in Six Sigma. They may be teaching people some tools, but if you are considering buying their product take the time to assess whether or not they are teaching people to become competent practitioners.

‘Just as a toolkit does not maketh the motor mechanic, the Lean Six Sigma process and tools do not maketh a Six Sigma practitioner.’’

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Visit Soarent Vision’s website to learn more about how that company is raising the bar with competency based Lean Six Sigma Training – http://www.soarent.com.au/lean-six-sigma-training