personal development

By Anne Foley, MBB, CSSBB, PMP
Director of Lean Six Sigma, IIL

There is a popular quote that says the definition of insanity is doing the same things the exact same way while expecting the results to change. That is what tends to happen when we have a goal without a plan. It would be like a farmer expecting to reap a harvest without planting anything.

Here are five concepts from the Lean Six Sigma framework that will help you to reap the harvest you need in 2016. Not only have I used these concepts to make improvements to processes and results at work, I have used them to accomplish personal goals.

Concept 1 – Clearly Define the Necessary Improvement

Saying you want a better year in 2016 isn’t enough. What is it that you want to improve? Identify the starting point and a realistic goal. Do you want to increase sales or reduce billing errors?  The more specific you are about your goal, the higher your probability of achieving it.  This also applies to personal goals. For example, many people resolve to lose weight in the New Year. That’s a good start but things go south quickly when they try the same tactics that they’ve tried in years past, expecting different results.

Concept 2 – Identify the Factors That Impact Results

There is a statistical expression that you probably learned at some point of your educational journey that states y = f (x). If you were like me, you quickly forgot this expression because you had no idea how it can help problem solving and goal fulfillment. Believe it or not, this easily forgotten statistical expression is a key part of improving results.

As a quick review, y is the statistical symbol for an output. It is something measurable that you want to change. In our weight example, the “Y” would represent weight loss. X is the statistical symbol for inputs or factors that generate the “Y” output. The factors are going to be things like caloric intake, exercise, and water intake, just to name a few. So the first step is to identify all the factors that impact the result.

For example, I once ran something called a Design of Experiment (DOE) to determine what the correct factors and levels of those factors are to help me lose weight. I learned that my optimal recipe (pun intended) for weight loss is to eat 250 calories, five times a day, and drink no less than 64 ounces of water daily. Additionally, I have to walk and jog in intervals for 30 minutes per day – five days per week. For me, that results in a 2-3 pound weight loss per week. I don’t share this with you because I expect it to be your optimal recipe. The levels of these factors might be different for you but you could easily identify your own factors and levels by learning to run a Design of Experiment.  This means experimenting with key factors in a controlled environment and measuring the results.

Concept 3 – Expand your “Line of Sight”

Knowledge is the power we need to accomplish our goals. Measurement is a great way to gain that knowledge. What things do you measure? In your business, I expect you to measure revenue, labor costs and some sort of customer satisfaction metric. What about in your personal life? I know someone who sets a goal to read a certain number of books each year and keeps track of how many he reads. I once had a student who decided to measure all the factors around his family’s consumption of gasoline for their cars. He tracked how often they purchased gasoline, the number of miles per gallon they were getting, the number of times they drove somewhere per week, and where they drove and why. The information he uncovered from his data collection helped his family reduce their gasoline expenditures by $1,000 that year.

If your goal is to save more money this year the first thing to evaluate are the factors that will allow for this. The obvious ones are to reduce expenses or increase your income/revenue. Whichever one you chose should be broken down into the factors that will drive that result. In the previous example they decided to focus on the reduction of gasoline expenditures.  Others may focus on reducing food expenditures. There are many paths to the same result and each of us has the freedom to choose our own path.

Concept 4– Get Rid of Waste

Another goal of the Lean Six Sigma methodology is to reduce the amount of time wasted in trying to fulfill an objective. By reducing the waste, you speed up the process. One of my favorite techniques from Lean is utilized to create better organization in your life. It is called 5S.

• Sort. Take a look around your work or home environment. Do you see anything that is outdated, broken, or just collecting dust because you never use it? Get rid of it.
• Set in Order. Once you remove all the waste, evaluate what is left and find a place for each item. That place should be clearly labeled and arranged in the order of use. If the extension cord for the snow remover is located across the garage from the snow blower… behind the stack of boxes… rearrange the garage. The point of this step is to promote the most efficient flow, with the things that are used most often, located in an area that is easily accessible.
• Shine. This is also known as systematic cleaning. At a pre-determined time – daily, weekly or monthly depending on what space you are in, clean out the space. If you notice that inventory is low, follow the process to refill. Things that you frequently use should be inventoried. There are two goals for this step. First, to ensure that the space is kept clean and free from things that could cause problems. Second, to ensure that you can clearly see when you are low in inventory so you can restock.
• Standardize. Make it a point to put things back in the same space after each use. The rest of your colleagues or family needs to do this too. That means labeling spaces and making sure everyone knows where the most commonly used items belong.
• Sustain. Schedule a 5S review on a regular basis. Most people do some sort of spring or fall cleaning and it’s a large undertaking. If you do this frequently, those types of full day cleanings can be spent doing something more enjoyable.

Concept 5 – Put Things in a Logical Order

When ATM machines first came out, the user got their card back prior to the money and 60% of users left their card in the machine within the first year. I guess the cliché “take the money and run” is true. Banks re-arranged the order of the process to have the card come back before the money and it reduced the problem by 90%. Things have a natural flow and you’ll have fewer defects/costs if you set up your process to match that flow.

If you are feeling hopeful about 2016, take advantage of the energy surge that the New Year brings. Apply Lean Six Sigma concepts to different aspects of your life and you will dramatically improve the likelihood of meeting your goals!

[trx_infobox style=”regular” closeable=”no” icon=”icon-desktop”]Learn more about IIL’s Lean Six Sigma training at www.iil.com/leansixsigma. [/trx_infobox]

Anne F. Foley, PMP, MBB, CSSBB has been teaching Lean Six Sigma (DMAIC) and Project Management for eighteen years. Anne has served as the Director of Lean Six Sigma at IIL for the past thirteen years. She is also the author of The Passages to Peace (a novel) and a frequent contributor to Project Management, Lean Six Sigma and other various publications. Anne has a Bachelors of Science degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from Kansas State University.