Embracing Lean Six Sigma: Sometimes Easier Said Than Done

Embracing Lean Six Sigma

Embracing Lean Six Sigma methodology is, for some, an impossible task. At first glance, that just doesn’t make sense. There are volumes of case studies that prove the value of the Lean Six Sigma methodologies and implementing them seems to most to be a ‘no brainer’. They say that success leaves clues and it just makes good business sense to follow the clues and rise to the top. For some, that is just easier said than done when considering Lean Six Sigma. Each of us respond to situations or events with either a feeling of pleasure or a feeling of pain. When you consider change events, there are those who feel a pain response to those events, thus they avoid them. For whatever reason, situations and experiences deliver them a pain response when confronted with change. No matter how much logic or data-based results are presented to justify the change, they will feel a pain response to the event.  You must be able to break that state of pain and replace it with a state of pleasure.

Reasons to Reject Lean Six Sigma

Changing that experience from pain to pleasure can be a challenge. Understanding some of the reasons people reject or avoid Lean Six Sigma methodologies will help to make the change. Here are some common objections to embracing Lean Six Sigma:

•  It’s Just a Fad – Just another ‘soup of the day’ in business.
•  We Don’t Have Time –  Our business goes at a high speed and it just won’t work for us.
• Our Business is Too Small – We are too small to see results.
• We Can’t Afford It – The costs of the program are just too much.
• We Have Done It Before – It Doesn’t Work – Our business just isn’t suited for the methodology.

Achieving Results With Confidence

Of course, anyone practicing Lean Six Sigma has heard some of these excuses, and probably many more. Each one is valid in the mind of some, but, at the end of the day, a result of feeling the pain of change. As a Lean Six Sigma professional, we should be able to comfortably and confidently address these fears and demonstrate the true value of the methodology. We should be able to break the status of pain and get them to associate the methodology with pleasure.

To increase the adoption of Lean and Six Sigma, education is great place to start. Check out our FREE Lean education materials. You can also access our Six Sigma DMAIC curriculum with a Shmula Pro membership.