LEAN Six Sigma and Who Moved My Cheese?
iSigma Group Consulting
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In explaining to my daughter who has been with me throughout my Six Sigma certification training and job journey over the past few years, What is LEAN Six Sigma? I referred her to a book I shared with her several years ago “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Dr. Spencer Johnson.??
LEAN Six Sigma uses a collective team effort to improve performance and remove waste (such as Defects, Over Production, Waiting, Non-Utilized Talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, and Extra-Processing) referred to as D.O.W.N.T.I.M.E. In the book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” Dr. Johnson introduces us to characters that have to use their collective efforts to get what they need from the maze, more CHEESE.?
In appreciating the journey of these characters, we get a better understanding of some of our own life challenges to CHANGE. Let’s take a few minutes to understand the metaphor CHANGE in the story “Who Moved My Cheese?” and how it may have some similarities to CHANGE in LEAN Six Sigma.
In the book, we are introduced to four characters (Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw) who go about their journey in the life of finding cheese in a maze. Sniff and Scurry are mice, which may represent parts of us that are simple. While Hem and Haw are little people, representing the complexity within ourselves or the team. ?The maze is the organization process that challenges their efforts to get to the cheese (their GOAL). We can look at this as a metaphor for where we work and the organizational processes that affect us from achieving our performance goals.?
The Innovator in the group “Sniff” has the ability to sense and respond to CHANGES happening in the environment much more quickly than the others and gets excited about creating new things. This is a good thing to have in a team because if you have a person who can sense change, they tend to be more adapted to it, rather than being scared of it. Often in LEAN Six Sigma, we have to have members of our team willing to challenge the prevailing assumptions by understanding and measuring their true impact on the problem.???
The Producer in the group is “Scurry” who has the ability to run and do work from early to late. He tends to get frustrated when there are obstacles in his path and seeks to run around or through them. Team wise this can be an asset or deterrent to the group, depending on the quality of work.? In LEAN Six Sigma it’s a team effort in addressing the problems that prevent us from achieving our performance goals, which are expected from our internal and external customers.?
The Stabilizer in the group is “Hem” who makes things controllable, and organized. In the book, he gets left behind because he saw change as a real threat. Someone who excels at control and stability may see this as a threat in a team. In LEAN Six Sigma we have team members who see the new changes as threats to their span of control and influence.??
The Unifier in the group is “Haw” who has empathy and connects with others. This is necessary for teamwork. No team can be fully effective without a connection to the problem and the passion to solve it. In LEAN Six Sigma we are often faced with the challenge to garner support in addressing the problem. ? ?
In summary, the thing that this book teaches most is that CHANGE can be either a blessing or a curse depending on a person’s perspective. The importance of teamwork is seen throughout the book and the personalities on how they can conflict or work congruently are shared. The character's influence on one another shows us how our strengths can be used to overcome challenges.? Like in the story Who Moved My Cheese?, LEAN Six Sigma is a metaphor for improving performance and removing the waste that affects our business maze on the way to finding our cheese (GOAL).
Remember the handwriting is on the wall:
“Change Happens” They Keep Moving the Cheese
“Anticipate Change” Get Ready for the Cheese to Move
领英推荐
“Monitor Change” Smell the Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old
“Adapt to Change Quickly” The Quicker You Let Go of Old Cheese, the Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese
“Change” Move with the Cheese
“Enjoy Change” Savor the Adventure and the Taste of New Cheese!
“Be Ready to Quickly Change Again and Again” They Keep Moving the Cheese
“Quality depends on good data. It also depends on executive leadership in using that data.” - Juran Institute, Inc.
“I believe the leader’s ultimate job is to spread hope. “ - Bob Galvin (Motorola)
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.” - "It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory" - W. Edwards Deming
Resources
Who Moved My Cheese and the Four Forces
About Us
iSigma Group is a consulting service and solution firm in the area of OSHA Safety mitigation and Business Operations Excellence. We assist clients in mitigating OSHA safety risk challenges and improve our client’s business operations with LEAN and Six Sigma quality practitioner expertise. We expand Business Operations Excellence services through capacity building by ensuring systems are in place to measure, analyze, and bring value propositions to our clients.