Don't Waste Your Innovative Efforts

Just the other day I read a press release titled, “Consulting Firm Warns Companies Not to Overuse Lean and Six Sigma.”  I laughed—for about five minutes.  And then I had an image of this consultant’s next announcement:  “Consulting Firm Warns People Not to Overeat.”   In fact what I really wanted to do was throw the bullshit flag (if you don't know what it is, go to www.bsflag.com).

As I laughed, I supposed that if you want to make your mark by warning others not to overuse something, you can pitch yourself as an expert at just about anything.  Because you don’t have to be an expert—at anything—to know that over use or under use means anything but proper use.

Let’s be serious though.  Anyone reading this has at least a fleeting understanding of the principles of Lean and Six Sigma.  Many of you could be considered experts in your own right.  So you’re probably laughing, too.

But beyond a good laugh, we all have a responsibility to ourselves and our companies to push for proper use.  In fact one of the words that underlies Six Sigma is “optimization” which is just a fancy word for “proper use” when it comes to a business process.  In Six Sigma we look to optimize everything—even the use of Six Sigma. So a good implementation of Six Sigma would focus on just the right amount of effort going into six sigma—not too little and not too much.

Similarly one of the basic tenants of Lean is the identification and elimination of Waste.  So if we’re putting too much effort into six sigma, our lean thinking would help us realize we’d passed the point of optimization and have entered the point of waste.

Interestingly, all the hubbub seems to be about innovation.  But in the words of an engineer at 3M that was worried that Six Sigma was killing its innovation culture, for every 6,000 ideas one makes it to market.  I don’t know about you, but if it were my company I’d be thinking about how to get my win rate from 1 on 6,000 down to 1 in 600.  Or maybe even 1 in 60.  It sounds like 3M still needs to work on optimizing its innovation efforts, despite all the concerns.  And maybe it’s that too many people want to cling to an old, out-dated culture.  Other companies are realizing that the best way to increase the win rate and lower costs is to collaborate with others while at 3M it sounds like they pride themselves so much on themselves that the culture will resist such change.  If you really want to start reading up on innovation though—from a guy that has a long history of success with both six sigma and innovation, I’d point you to another blog (but don’t stop reading mine) by Dr. Phil Samuel.  It can be found at http://www.chiefinnovatoronline.com

In the end, I don’t really know for sure what 3M needs—or if it needs anything—because I’m not there and I can’t draw conclusions like most business writers do by using the anecdotal words from three or four interviews.  My Six Sigma training has taught me that’s not data.