Killing the value of Lean Six Sigma through training.

If there is one thing that drives me crazy today its the endless number of professional training organisations getting on the ‘Lean Six Sigma Education’ bandwagon. Great work by the leaders of those businesses ….. responding to trends, changing strategy to meet market demand, developing and offering products that customers seem to be wanting.

BUT … is this only about them and not the customer?

What if the customer is unable to determine whether or not the product is actually any good? Is the product training or is the product actually business improvement? Training and business improvement don’t necessarily go hand in hand.  Let me give you an example to help explain what I mean.

A training organisation offers Lean Six Sigma education at a competitive price. Not only is it cheaper, this particular product can be completed in a much shorter time than many other offerings, even as fast as 7 days or even 5 days.

Companies place their people on the course and they receive their attendance certificates.

They return to their company to apply their new found knowledge thinking they have the ability now to lead improvement projects using the array of Lean Six Sigma tools they were just taught, and generate massive returns for their company.

Here’s the reality, most companies … most companies today are struggling to get value out of the education their people are being given and it is killing the perceived value of Lean Six Sigma in many quarters of business.

Do you want to know what the problem with public training is?

You are being offered cheaper, shorter time frame training because the company offering it is unable to generate a return for you. So training is the product and COST and TIME become the differentiating factor. As long as COST is the primary issue, it is unlikely to become an INVESTMENT with a reportable return. Lean Six Sigma costs should only be relevant in the calculation of your return on investment.

You are being offered training by professional training organisations such as Universities. As strange as this might seem, many of these training courses do not result in a formally recognised qualification; instead the participant receives a local qualification that is not part of any governance framework. The perception of value is created by the aura of training at a University.

On the job mentoring is one of the most important elements in making Lean Six Sigma education work. The most successful companies in the world continually apply mentoring programs. Just like an MBA never guarantees competent leadership, Lean Six Sigma education without an appropriate operating system can never guarantee a benefit.

The hardest factor to deal with is not the technical aspects of process improvement. The hardest factor to deal with is people. And the training being offered mostly focuses on that which is easy to teach – technical elements and tools.

Let me leave you with a few thoughts.

SHEEP DIPPING, in other words training lots of people in Lean Six Sigma, will never guarantee your success. In fact it can turn an improvement initiative into a liability that financially hurts the company.

Be very clear about WHAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE (e.g. increase margins by 5 percent) rather than what you want to do (e.g. implement lean six sigma, train people etc) and understand how any education contributes to that outcome.

Lean Six Sigma education MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU NEED right now. Your most rapid returns may well be generated through project leadership support from highly competent professionals.