30 August 2010 by Gary P. Cox
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| Speed vs. Quality | |||||||||||||
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Visit the Cox-Box Store for 2010 Calendars and Mugs The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2010 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights Reserved |
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| The Cox-Box | |||||||||||||
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| Posted by Gary P. Cox at 7:33 AM ET | permalink | comments [1] | |||||||||||||
21 August 2010 by Fang Zhou
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| Return On Investment in Education | |||||||||||||
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The September issue of US News & World Report has the most recent rankings of the Best Colleges. However, I think what's interesting is the article "Is College Still Worth it?" Instead of which college to attend, the question it asks is whether to go to college, given the rising costs at as much as $50,000 a year. What is the return on investment in higher education? What is the return? How do we measure? The article didn’t answer these questions but pointed in the right direction.
The common argument to support the ROI has been the fact that, on average, "people with a college degree earn significantly more money over their lifetimes than those without a college degree." But the flaw is in the unspoken "on average" in such data and the meaning of "significantly". The Six Sigma training in me always makes me ask "what is the variation in each group?" and "what are the factors that contribute to the variation?” People making decisions based on such general differences between averages run the risk of not getting sufficient ROI or any at all. Although education decisions are highly personal, people could apply DMAIC thinking to make it a more informed decision.
[I will write about applying LSS in education and about ROI in LSS training vs. conventional education in my future blogs.] |
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| General | |||||||||||||
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| Posted by Fang Zhou at 8:47 AM ET | permalink | comments [1] | |||||||||||||
20 August 2010 by Jessica Harper
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| A Smooth Handoff | |||||||||||||
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Making a seamless transition of an improved process from the project leader to the process owner is the topic of “Getting a Grip,” an article in the September/October issue of iSixSigma Magazine. Author Sean Rohen has seen firsthand how the transition can go awry; he is a Champion and Master Black Belt and has worked as an organizational development consultant for more than 15 years. To offer suggestions for how to make a smooth handoff, he’s taken inspiration from Gail Devers, three-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field, who analyzed the devastating handoff misses in the men’s and women’s 4 x 100 meter relay races during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Rohen compares the project leader to the incoming runner and the process owner to the outgoing runner – both have critical roles they need to fulfill for the “baton” handoff to be successful. The incoming runner must: The outgoing runner must: Unfortunately, the video of Devers’ analysis that Rohen references in the article has been removed from YouTube LLC’s site “due to terms of use violations.” I’ve contacted the Associated Press, which produced the video, and requested permission to use it but have not yet heard back. |
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| Methodology | |||||||||||||
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| Posted by Jessica Harper at 12:34 PM ET | permalink | comments [0] | |||||||||||||
16 August 2010 by Gary P. Cox
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| Busker Festival - Part 2 | |||||||||||||
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Visit the Cox-Box Store for 2010 Calendars and Mugs The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2010 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights Reserved |
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| The Cox-Box | |||||||||||||
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| Posted by Gary P. Cox at 8:36 AM ET | permalink | comments [2] | |||||||||||||
7 August 2010 by Fang Zhou
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| Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us | |||||||||||||
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I was reading the USAirways in-flight magazine while flying from Philadelphia to Boston the other day. The issue's Must Read is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of the book Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us by Emily Yellin. I thought it was interesting as it is filled with horror stories of how Customer Service treated (or more accurately, mistreated) customers. Bad customer service is prevalent in almost all industries, institutions and governments, and every individual has their personal stories. I’ve had several encounters in the past few months that were so aggravating and infuriating that I would never do business with them again. But my purpose here is not to whine or complain, but to ask why. Why do businesses choose to treat customers badly and refuse to listen? Yet, everyday they wonder why their products don't sell and customers don't come back. As a Lean Six Sigma professional, I connect everything we do to the Voice of the Customer: Definition of defects, CTQs, 7 types of waste, etc. No tool or concept can help us improve our business better than understanding customer needs. It seems painfully obvious that every customer interaction is an opportunity to learn about the market and improve the business. Market leaders use such deep understanding of customer needs as a strategic weapon to develop superior products, customer intimacy, and operational excellence. There are some commonly mentioned causes for poor customer service, such as focus on cost, wrong measure of performance, functional silos, or simply not caring (because of monopoly). Is such a problem an opportunity to introduce Lean Six Sigma to the organization or an indicator that Lean Six Sigma deployment would likely fail? Is Lean Six Sigma a solution in these organizations? Or is Lean Six Sigma even compatible to the culture and management of such organizations? I'd like to hear about your experience. |
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| Customer Satisfaction , General | |||||||||||||
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| Posted by Fang Zhou at 9:06 AM ET | permalink | comments [2] | |||||||||||||
3 August 2010 by Billy Wilkerson
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| It's always about the people | |||||||||||||
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Recently, someone asked me what I thought to be the biggest mistake of a manager. I believe that managers can get so caught up with processes that they forget about the people. People are what drives an organization. People are not machines, they are emotional. A manager needs to be able to sense the emotional response of the people around him, then respond in a positive way that helps the person stay on track while working within their process. Behaviour of the workforce changes whenever there is a significant emotional event...good or bad. You'll see it at work a lot. Someone is going through a divorce, their work product is impacted. Someone gets engaged, also impacts their work product. As a manager myself, I have found my job to be less about the processes I am responsible for, and more about the people reponsible for carrying out the work. When I think of servant leadership, this quote comes to mind..."I work for my people, but I report to my boss."
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| Change Management , General , Government , Law Enforcement , Leadership , Lean , Management , Methodology , Military , Police , Research | |||||||||||||
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| Posted by Billy Wilkerson at 2:58 PM ET | permalink | comments [6] | |||||||||||||
2 August 2010 by Gary P. Cox
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| The Audition | |||||||||||||
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Visit the Cox-Box Store for 2010 Calendars and Mugs The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2010 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights Reserved |
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| The Cox-Box | |||||||||||||
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| Posted by Gary P. Cox at 8:59 AM ET | permalink | comments [1] | |||||||||||||
1 August 2010 by Fang Zhou
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| Statistics in Everyday Life | |||||||||||||
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The internet has brought us so much more information. Statistics are often used to support our opinions or views, and they show up in all types of media, including the internet. But are we more informed and educated on issues as common and important as health care? Let's take a look at some numbers that appeared in a recent US News article "Health Reform Takes Aim at Hospital Readmission Rates." Here is one.
So how much does "jumped by 3 percentage points" inform us about the change? Is it too much or too little? Compared to what baseline? It could be a lot if the rate was at 1% and is now 4%, or it could be insignificant if it was 90%. What is the variation or measurement error? Here is another example:
Is 23.0% really different from 15.9%? How do you define "much-better-than-average?" Are 20.8% and 14.6% different? What is the variation within each hospital year to year? What is the variation among all the hospitals? How can you determine if the two are different if you don't know these variations? There is a table showing 10 hospitals with the Highest Readmission Rates (31.6-32.4%) and 10 with the lowest (17.3-19.3%), with an introductory statement that "Medicare payments to hospitals that readmit too many patients within 30 days of discharge will be trimmed. " How do you know whether the difference observed is due to statistical variation in the system or a particular hospital? Or in other words, the best/worst ones could show up as the worst/best the next time you measure, without any change in their own practices? The following two statistics come under the subtitle Better Stats. (Really?)
How do you know if the drop from 12% to 7% is not due to statistical variation? What would be the value if we measured in another 30 days? And again, is 13.8% really different from the average (20%)? Or is it just statistical variation? These questions are obvious to people familiar with Edwards Deming's management teaching. His books Out of the Crisis (1982) and The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (1994) beautifully illustrated the importance of statistical thinking and the devastating effects of incorrect use of data and measures. The world is rapidly changing, and we know its impact. However, there is still a lot that hasn't changed for decades, including the need to learn and continuously improve our ability to understand the change around us. If not, we will continue to be misled by the wrong information and decisions. |
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| General , Methodology | |||||||||||||
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| Posted by Fang Zhou at 10:06 AM ET | permalink | comments [5] | |||||||||||||
1 August 2010 by Fang Zhou
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| Improving Health | |||||||||||||
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Health care is on everyone’s mind nowadays, from individuals to the government. Employers often try to lower health care expenses by sponsoring wellness programs. How effective are these programs? Not much, according to a report by the National Institute for Health Care Reform:
A successful program involves many factors, the majority of which (not surprisingly) overlap with those of other corporate change initiatives, such as Quality and Continuous Improvement. For example, just take a look at the Key Takeaways from this report:
Any change in the fundamental health of an individual or a corporation requires long-term commitment and investment in people. What senior management needs to succeed in change is not another shortcut or quick fix. It is simple — Leadership. |
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| Change Management , Leadership , Management | |||||||||||||
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| Posted by Fang Zhou at 7:40 AM ET | permalink | comments [2] | |||||||||||||
28 July 2010 by Billy Wilkerson
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| Emotional Intelligence...The Hidden Component of Great Organizations | |||||||||||||
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Daniel Goleman, Author of Emotional Intelligence wrote, "The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds."
After my brain quit hurting from reading this, I started to understand what he meant. So, I decided to take the quote and break it down into a leadership perspective. Here goes: 1) "The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice" - I was in a meeting not long ago with some very high ranking individuals. In the blink of an eye, a well thought out decision made by a process improvement team was overturned. The high ranking individuals gave little reason. Basicially, they limited their thinking to what they "failed to notice." That a team of highly skilled people already came up with a good solution, which addressed the same concerns that they were citing. I have to wonder, how engaged will this team be once they go back to their normal work environments? How much extended damage did these, "leaders" just do by "failing to notice" someone else's hard work? Certainly, decisions need careful review by leadership. But, careful review and servant leadership models show that dialogue between leadership and the people who do the job should take place before overturning and disempowering a team. Only then will they believe that you care, and trust you as a leader. 2) "And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds." - The "leaders" in part one are not bad people. Nor do I consider them to be poor leaders necessarily. Having worked with them, I have come to understand the constraints on their time. I also understand that law enforcement, by its very nature, is a system known for quick decision making. In several instances, this can be a very good thing, as hesitation can get someone killed. As the second sentence reads, they simply failed to notice what they failed to notice. Leaders sometimes do not recognize the impact of their decisions on the people that do the work, until long after they have made their decision, if ever. This equates to the beginning of, 'What were they thinking," by line personnel. After that, the shut down starts. Line personnel and middle managers quit offering ideas because they believe, "leadership" doesn't care about what I say anyway. Leadership then starts to believe people need constant guidance since they never offer solutions. Line personnel then start feeling micromanaged and disengage...it goes on and on and on, until you have a culture of followers. This happens until one day, a leader realizes that he "failed to notice" an important factor in his decision...input from the people that do the job. From then on, he becomes the people's advocate. How much do your leaders,"fail to notice?" What is your organization doing to realign and prevent this from happening in the future? Do you have the courage to tell leaders that they are "failing to notice?" Someone's I can only ...Ponder. |
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| Change Management , Customer Satisfaction , General , Government , Innovation , Law Enforcement , Leadership , Lean , Management , Military , Police | |||||||||||||
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| Posted by Billy Wilkerson at 2:43 AM ET | permalink | comments [1] | |||||||||||||
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