Leveraging Lean and Sustaining Six Sigma

Lean Six Sigma is a synergised managerial concept conceived by Michael George nearly 10 years ago to combine Lean's waste elimination projects (which originated at Toyota) and the Six Sigma projects based on the critical to quality characteristics (which originated at Motorola).

FranklinCovey's latest experience of this comes from a UK client interaction where the lead built his experience of Lean Six Sigma from his time at Toyota and Ford.

The key insight he shared is that many people (mistakenly) think that the primary goal of Toyota when they pioneered Lean thinking was to improve performance (increase quality / reduce cost) whereas the actual goal was to improve the culture, a side effect of which would be increased levels of productivity.

An example he gives for this is Quality Circles and how Toyota approach these as opportunities for team member development, rather than specifically to increase quality or decrease cost. Their approach is to develop and engage the capabilities and energies of the 'whole person', which they believe enables good judgement, which in turn creates the conditions for greater empowerment and allows better decisions to be made at lower levels of the organisation. This, they believe, is the key to creating a sustainable Lean Six Sigma culture. 

The connection he then makes with FranklinCovey, is that the mindsets, skillsets and toolsets we develop (drawing from material such asThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Powerful lessons in personal change /5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity /The Third Alternative - Solving Life's Most Difficult Problems /Principle Centred Leadership /Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times - How to win in any environment /Speed of Trust - The one thing that changes everything /The 4 Disciplines of Execution - Getting strategy done)

are a perfect fit for the qualities of Self Mastery, Relationship Mastery and Leadership Mastery required to sustain and maximise the returns from Lean Six Sigma through the talent and engagement of those working at all levels of an organisation.