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Jay Arthur
888-468-1537
303-756-9144
KnowWare
International, Inc.
DBA LifeStar
2253 S. Oneida
Ste 3D
Denver, CO 80224
We work with companies
that want to fire up their profits using
Lean Six Sigma
Copyright © 2011
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I recently heard a woman tell a story about starting a relationship with
a man who loved "free climbing." He liked to scale cliffs, mountain
sides, whatever, without any safety lines of any kind. Frankly, he scared
her.
On one of their early dates, he took her to some dunes in California and
they walked up to the top and had a picnic dinner.
Six months later, she found herself on top of an 800-foot pinnacle in
Utah.
Baby Steps
In 1990, when I started my NLP training (www.nlpco.com),
we started with simple exercises. At the end of the training they brought
people in off the streets. The young woman they assigned me said: "I
used to be a heroin addict. Then I was on methadone until they diagnosed
me as HIV positive. Then, I went back on heroin for awhile. Later, I was
retested and found to be HIV negative."
When I started my training, this would have freaked me out. At the end of
the training, it was no different from free climbing an 800 foot pinnacle.
I just said: "And what do you want?" And guided her through some
NLP transformations about early traumas.
Crawl-Walk-Run
In Lean Six Sigma, we send belts to one to four weeks of training about
how to free climb the cliffs of quality improvement, but we don't really
walk them up a dune for a picnic dinner.
Most Lean Six Sigma training throws participants into the deep end and says
"swim!" Too few of these trainees can actually solve real business
problems.
Growing Money Belts
All of my training seeks to walk people up a dune and let them solve a problem
using the improvement methods and tools. My methodology: Focus-Improve-Sustain-Honor.
Start with the essential methods and tools of quality and let them experience
success. Then let them add tools and methods as needed.
While most Green Belt and Black Belt training is designed to teach people
how to free climb cliffs, I fear that it doesn't build the stepping stones
to success that enable people to embrace these methods for life.
Just-In-Time Training: I prefer just-in-time training: teaching people
what they need to know to solve a real problem in their work space. Don't
teach them everything they might ever need to know (I call this "just
in case" belt training).
Only teach them what they need to know to walk up this dune.
Next time, take them up a taller dune or hill.
Then, a steeper one with more technical challenges.
In six months, they'll be climbing sheer cliff faces.
Here's My Point
You can read every book ever written about golf or free climbing or whatever;
you can know everything there is to know about golf (or any other sport
for that matter), but until you try to hit a golf ball, climb a dune or
whatever, none of it will make any sense.
The same is true of quality. Learn the basic methods and tools of quality.
Apply them. Learn how to succeed. Then add more tools and methods until
you become a formidable improvement specialist. In a matter of months, you'll
have climbed the pinnacles of quality without breaking a sweat.
© 2008 Jay Arthur, the KnowWare® Man, works with managers who want
to plug the leaks in their cash flow.
Hire Jay Arthur to train your staff
in his one-day Lean Six Sigma Workshop!
Contact Jay at (888) 468-1537, support@qimacros.com.
Rights to reprint this article in company periodicals is freely given with
the inclusion of the following tag line: "© 2008 Jay Arthur, the KnowWare®
Man, (888) 468-1537, support@qimacros.com."
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to increase your profits and slash costs by $250,000? Consider our risk-free
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