A Black Belt with a Black Belt

I am proud that this month, after almost five years of hard work, I was awarded a first-degree black belt in Hawaiian Kenpo.?Making it all the more special, I was lucky to have done so alongside my wife.?

“Hey, Michael, Linkedin is a professional networking service, why are you sharing this personal achievement?” Please keep reading, and I will tell you.?

First, some history and context.?“Black Belt” is a sought-after credential in the process improvement world, one initially limited to the originators, GE & Motorola, as six sigma professional roles before proliferating to vendors as a credentialing service to be marketed.?“Green Belt” was also a level addressed within these organizations. Outside of those companies that adopted six sigma as a strategy, there is a nebulous idea of what having a black belt means; there is no accreditation body overseeing a set of standards by which to confer this certification. To properly earn the credential of black belt in process improvement, it takes a lot of time, and, if not done within one’s company (a topic that could be an article itself), a lot of money.?Further, the success of GE cast an image of six sigma as a magic solution to success leading to high demand for six sigma black belt consultants. To address the demand for a credential, additional certifications with belt title were created: yellow belt and white belt training, for example. This enabled companies to publish in outward-facing reports that they had six sigma-trained experts on the payroll, thus appearing more positive in the eyes of investors and accrediting bodies, while in reality the impacts were marginal at best. The easily recognizable term of ‘black belt’ began to be applied to other process improvement methodologies, further watering down the meaning.

In spite of the commoditization of process improvement credentialing, the act of process improvement, in my opinion, remains imperative for organizations.?A workforce that accepts the reality that problems exist and have a system through which they can continuously fix those problems will help grow and evolve an organization.?And when an organization faces turbulent situations, which it will, the organization’s workforce will be one that is adept at change and will be nimble in those situations.

I do hold a ‘black belt’ credential in lean six sigma, earned through a reputable vendor based on the successful completion of the coursework, multiple tests, and scrutinized and accepted improvement projects worked through at my place of employment demonstrating applied competence.?My recent personal accomplishment had me reflecting on the professional credential, and I wanted to share some of the parallel thoughts:

Research the organization through which you are being trained

Martial arts schools and strip malls are a regular pairing in the United States.?If interested in martial arts, one does not have to go far to find a school.?And just as there are numerous purveyors of martial arts, so are there several entities offering process improvement training.?In either scenario, it is vital to research the organization, research the instructor(s), and research the reputation.?

Be sure to take into consideration your own goals with relation to the training.?For example, if you want to simply learn more about process improvement, then a one-day ‘white belt’ course will provide that overview.?In parallel, if you are looking for exercise, for example, then a cardio kickboxing class could be ideal.?But just as a cardio kickboxing course will not prepare a person to go rounds in a ring or benefit self-defense capability, nor will a one-day overview in process improvement provide expertise in process improvement.?Be sure to know your goals and seek out the appropriate education accordingly.

One helpful avenue in finding the right place would be to contact professional organizations that should have a familiarity with the organization.?Just as there are professional organizations for the process improvement world, so are there for martial arts.?All you have to do is ask about the school or vendor; you’ll learn that process improvement professionals and martial artists alike have a passion for what they do and will be happy to talk with you and guide you accordingly.?

“The purpose of knowledge is not to have it, it’s to share it”

This is a quote by Jesse Enkamp, the self-described “Karate Nerd” and best-selling author.?There were several instances in which I have witnessed a consultant, a team of consultants, and even a black belt-holding employee approach an environment necessitating improvement as if they envisioned themselves with a cape on their shoulders, hands on their hips, head tilted arrogantly to the side and only a moment from spouting, “never fear, Six Sigma Man is here!”

Because workplaces are populated with people who have been promoted for ‘action’, cultures dictate that one must be a person of expertise and action in order to be recognized.?This resulted in process improvement, and especially six sigma with its statistics-heavy tools, in being held close as a black box, one that could only be utilized in the hands of a certified professional.?

In Hawaiian Kenpo, a black belt is referred to as Sensei, or teacher.?One of the responsibilities of a black belt is to teach and grow others in our martial art.?In this same line of thought, one of the key responsibilities of a process improvement professional should be to teach continuous improvement to business operations, thus planting the seeds for a continuous improvement culture.?The process improvement professional is then not the sole possessor of the knowledge and tools of improvement processes, but evolves into a teacher and mentor for a larger group of employees capable of real improvement.

There is not a be-all, end-all method

Hawaiian Kenpo is an amalgamation of several martial arts.?What we have come to learn, and continue to evolve, today comes from past experts who learned from one another. It includes traditional karate, jiu jitsu, judo, kenpo, kickboxing, and escrima.?Along those lines, we have seen process improvement evolve and take pieces from other areas.?Six sigma is not the best improvement method, nor is TQM, nor is lean.?And within those, there are tools that better suit certain problems than others.?In certain situations, I may need to utilize my kickboxing instead of my judo, just as in business a lean approach may be more appropriate than a six sigma approach.?A hard and fast, dogmatic mentality for an improvement methodology will lead to stagnation and, I believe, failure.?Just as you should be leery of a martial artist instructor who is uncomfortable with you training a different art at a different school, so should you be concerned about a process improvement provider selling you that their method is the only way to move forward.?

Brief thoughts

• If it were easy, everyone would do it.?Just as the journey to a martial arts black belt takes dedication, time, and effort, so will a process improvement journey.?But it’s worth it.
• As a kid, a black belt was a mystic, magical being; an invincible force that couldn’t be stopped.?The reality is a black belt is someone who busts their hump, takes coaching, overcomes self-doubts, gets knocked down but never stays down.?Do not mistake a black belt consultant as an invincible force. Consider instead cultivating a workforce that can handle adversity, see opportunities for improvement, try something, fail, and try again through to success.
• A black belt is not the finish line, it is a starting point.?Continue to practice, learn, teach, and apply the knowledge.?

In closing

I shared a photo one of my instructors and me (right) from a tournament over three and a half years ago with that instructor.?I said with a bit of humor, but with certainty, that that guy (me) wouldn’t stand a chance against me today.?I loved his response: "the you today won’t stand a chance against you three years from now."

Every class I attend, my goal is to become a little bit better than I was before.?And I believe that should be the mentality of every department in an organization: become a little better than the day, the week, the month before.?The cultivation of a continuous improvement environment and system will achieve just that.??