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		<title>Six Sigma Blogs at the iSixSigma Blogosphere</title>
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		<description>Six Sigma Blogs at the iSixSigma Blogosphere</description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Who Should Be in the Hall of Fame?]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/who_should_be_in_the_hall_of_fame.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Last year, we celebrated Bill Smith, widely known as the Father of Six Sigma, as the first inductee into iSixSigma’s Six Sigma Hall of Fame. We’re now identifying who should be the next person to join the Hall of Fame – someone who has made significant and lasting contributions in the Lean Six Sigma industry, who has consistently fueled corporate growth and shareholder value through the use of Lean Six Sigma during their career, who has commanded the respect and admiration of their peers for their extraordinary service to the industry. 
Help us decide who will be inducted in the Six Sigma Hall of Fame in 2010. Submit your nomination via email to sshof(at)isixsigma.com by Nov. 30.
Inductees will be announced at the upcoming iSixSigma Live! Summit &amp; Awards, Miami Feb. 1 – 4, 2010, along with the winners of the Largest-Breakthrough Improvement Projects, and Most Successful Lean Six Sigma Start-up or Re-energized Lean Six Sigma Program.
 ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Jessica Harper]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:36:31 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: The Psychology of Awards]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/the_psychology_of_awards.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[There’s a definite honor in being “award-winning.” I experienced this firsthand last year when iSixSigma Magazine received editorial excellence honors. The awards provided an opportunity for us to pause and recognize the work that goes into our editorial efforts and to celebrate the accomplishments. But, as I said in my Editor’s Notes following the announcement, entering a competition is more than just a pat on the back. It also reinforces what you want to do tomorrow and the next day and the day after. 
Recognition and reinforcement are just a couple of the reasons to enter the iSixSigma Live! Awards. Here are a few more reasons:
1. Just being nominated is a boost for an individual or team2. Finalist and winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in South Beach, Fla., Feb. 3, in iSixSigma Magazine, and on iSixSigma.com.3. This year, the awards ceremony will be accompanied by music. Think YouTube sensation, wedding entrance dance. (OK, maybe not exactly like that, but there will be fun music.)4. The ceremony is held in conjunction with the iSixSigma Live! Summit &amp; Awards, Feb. 1-4. You won’t want to miss the great program lineup, networking opportunities, and sunshine of South Beach.
Award categories include:* iSixSigma's Six Sigma Hall of Fame * Largest-Breakthrough Improvement Projects (Categories: Transactional, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Customer Service) * Most Successful Lean Six Sigma Start-up or Re-energized Lean Six Sigma Program 
Get more details on the awards categories and learn how to submit. The deadline for your chance to be “award-winning” is Nov. 30. 
But don’t wait until then. The first step of the submission process is a simple form, followed by submission of a storyboard or other support materials, depending on award category. So complete the first step now, and work on your materials over the coming weeks. Good luck!]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Jessica Harper]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:57:31 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Top Ten Best Places to Work Announced]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/top_ten_best_places_to_work_announced.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[The scoring is complete and the 2009 Top 10 Best Places to Work for Six Sigma professionals is out. 
Here is the Top 10 List in alphabetical order: I repeat, alphabetical order.


Cardinal Health Inc.
Computacenter AG &amp; Co. oHG
Ecolab Inc.
McKesson Corp.
Merck &amp; Co., Inc.
Pfizer Inc.
Piramal Healthcare Ltd.
Starwood Hotels, North America Operation
Vought Aircraft Industries Inc.
Xerox Corp.
The numbered order of this list will be revealed at an Awards ceremony and breakfast, February 3, 2010 during the iSixSigma Live! Summit and Awards in Miami. Congratulations to these companies as well as all those that participated.
There is still plenty of time to submit projects for consideration in other iSixSigma Live! Award categories:  

* Best Lean Six Sigma Start-up or Re-energized program* Largest Breakthrough Improvement Projects 
* Six Sigma Hall of Fame]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences]]>
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			<pubDate>Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:53:41 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Open Season For Awards]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/open_season_for_awards.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[iSixSigma is pleased to announce the opening of award nominations for the iSixSigma Live! Summit &amp; Awards in Miami in February 2010. Here’s what we are looking for:

* iSixSigma’s Six Sigma Hall of Fame: iSixSigma will recognize individuals who have significantly impacted corporate growth and shareholder value through the use of Lean Six Sigma by inducting them into the Six Sigma Hall of Fame. Last year Bill Smith was the first inductee into the Six Sigma Hall of Fame.
* Largest-Breakthrough Improvement Projects: In keeping with the conference theme of "Practices That Make Profits," iSixSigma will recognize Lean Six Sigma projects with the largest "breakthrough" results in four categories – supply chain, transactional, manufacturing and customer service.
* Most Successful Lean Six Sigma Start-up or Re-energized Lean Six Sigma Program: This award recognizes the most successful start-up or the most invigorating re-energized deployment. 
* iSixSigma MVP Awards: iSixSigma’s MVP awards recognize individuals that have made outstanding voluntary contributions to the Six Sigma community through the iSixSigma Discussion Forum, Blogosphere and Twitter. (Finalists and winners for the MVP awards will be determined by iSixSigma’s editorial team.)
The deadline for submitting projects and nominations is Nov. 30. For more information on award categories and entry requirements, visit: http://live.isixsigma.com/awards/default.html]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences]]>
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			<pubDate>Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:35:44 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: The Best Place to Work]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/the_best_place_to_work.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Nominations are open for iSixSigma’s second annual Best Places to Work List. If you are working for a top notch company using Lean Six Sigma, go ahead and nominate it to be included in our list of Best Places to Work.
Last year 10 companies made the list. McKesson took home the #1 spot, followed by Vought Aircraft Industries and Textron. 
Read all about what makes McKesson the Best Place to Work in the latest article on iSixSigma.com. (This article was previously published only in iSixSigma Magazine).
If your company treats its Six Sigma employees right, let us know by nominating it for this year’s list. 
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=o3tIVeS1bYHbYiosX5BGNg_3d_3d
 ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences]]>
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			<pubDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:24:46 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Last Chance! Call for Speakers: iSixSigma Live! Summit &amp; Awards 2010]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/last_chance_call_for_speakers_isixsigma_live_summit_amp_awards_2010.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[The deadline to submit a speaking proposal for the second annual iSixSigma Live! Summit &amp; Awards has been extended one week. If you were on the fence about submitting an idea, now’s the time to take action. 
More than 200 of the world’s top business leaders and operational experts will gather, Feb. 1-4, 2010, in Miami, Fla., USA at The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach. The theme is "Practices That Make Profits.” Don’t miss this chance to share your related inspirational stories, concrete examples and actionable strategies.
Extended deadline for proposals: Friday, Aug. 7, 2009. Visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=IUanv83qkQ3wpNlWCZF_2faQ_3d_3d to learn more.
 ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Jessica Harper]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences]]>
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			<pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:33:13 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Culture Change Keynote at the Energy Forum]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/culture_change_keynote_at_the_energy_forum.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Again and again, culture change comes up as one of the most important aspects of a successful Six Sigma deployment and reaching maturity. Yet effecting culture change is one of the most difficult parts to master. Almost 50 percent of respondents to a recent iSixSigma survey said their company was far from achieving its desired culture change.
Bringing the topic to the stage at the Energy Forum for Process Excellence is Stephen P. Tomlinson, vice president, operations support, for Cameron. The company provides flow equipment products, systems and services to worldwide oil, gas and process industries through its 11 operating divisions. 
With more than 300 Black Belts and 750 Green Belts, Cameron is moving from a culture of anecdotally based problem solving and improvement to one of a “classic Six Sigma.” The company’s goal is to take Six Sigma to every employee, instilling process improvement at all levels. Takeaways of the presentation:

Settling on overarching themes
Considering the new role of Black Belts and Master Black Belts
The importance of metrics
Deciding on a rollout strategy
Tomlinson’s insight into how 16,000-employee Cameron is energizing improvement in its more than 250 locations through Lean Six Sigma promises to be an informative, engaging presentation.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Jessica Harper]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences]]>
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			<pubDate>Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:15:39 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Three Great Workshops at the Energy Forum]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/three_great_workshops_at_the_energy_forum.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[There’s no time like the present to study up and learn a few new strategies. I’m a big fan of continuing education and benchmarking best-in-class practices. That’s why I’m excited about the upcoming workshops at the Energy Forum for Process Excellence. Just one problem: I’m having hard time figuring out how to be in more than one place at one time! 
Workshop A: Lean Labor Strategies – Uncovering Hidden Costs and Applying Best Practices From Operations to HRPresented by John W. Frehse, chief strategist and partner, Core Practice LLC, this workshop will start with a foundational education on operations and HR strategies, and end with new insights in low cost labor strategies, flexible scheduling for seasonal environments and specific energy sector solutions.
Workshop B: Lean Six Sigma Practices: How to Maintain Operational Excellence in an Unstable Economic EnvironmentSally Ulman, president, Variance Reduction International Inc., will present on the company’s 7 principles to achieving Operational Excellence. Attendees will review how to apply quality tools and simple statistics to core processes of the oil and gas industry to achieve cost reductions across the entire value stream. 
Executive Workshop: Lean Six Sigma for Executives – Driving Revolutionary Change in the Energy IndustryBob Silvers, managing director, SSA &amp; Company, will talk about the company’s next-stage model for continuous business improvement, Strategic Process Management, and how some of the world's leading companies are leveraging this new methodology to enhance their already strong process cultures to drive their business performance. 
Let me know what’s keeping you up at night and what you’d like to attend a workshop on, even if you can’t make it to Houston.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Jessica Harper]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:12:31 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Why Can’t an Energy Company Win a Shingo Prize?]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/why_cant_an_energy_company_win_a_shingo_prize.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
That’s the question that will be answered at one of the anticipated presentations at the Energy Forum for Process Excellence in May (live.isixsigma.com/energy). Presenting will be Steve Wells, Internal Continuous Improvement Consultant at Luminant. The power generation company received the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence last year. 
The Martin Lake Complex, a lignite-fueled plant and mine complex, received the Silver Medallion and the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant (pictured) the Bronze Medallion, in their first attempts at the Shingo Prize. They prove that this award, often associated with manufacturing operations, is not out of reach for energy companies.
Wells, who has been an examiner since 1999, was instrumental in setting up the program at Luminant and prepared the organizations to be assessed. He will share how the Shingo Prize can be used as a model for guiding and assessing continuous improvement efforts. 
What Is the Shingo Prize?The honor is named for Japanese industrial engineer Shigeo Shingo who helped create and write about many aspects of the manufacturing practices that comprise the Toyota Production System. Established in 1988, the prize promotes awareness of Lean manufacturing concepts and recognizes companies that achieve world-class manufacturing status and business performance.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Jessica Harper]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:07:04 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Photos of Miami Live!]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/photos_of_miami_live.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[ 
Photos stream of the iSixSigma Live! Summit and Awards in Miami. 
To browse all photos and download your favorites visit: 
http://photos.isixsigma.com/gallery/7136980_gHfnR]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:53:28 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Excerpts: Panel with Mikel and Don]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/excerpts_panel_with_mikel_and_don.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
Michael Cyger moderated a panel with Mikel Harry and Don Linsenmann.  Together they put on a good show, fielding questions from Mike as well as the audience. Don, as usual, instill humor into just about every story he tells.   On the economy and Six Sigma: 

Don: "We’re all impacted by this downfall. Take initiative. Let the Six Sigma process manage the layoffs. Differentiate which markets are growing. Look at each division. Not something across the board. It’s a hard, tough problem. Six Sigma needs to be a part of it."  
Mikel: "Get back to basics.  Not incremental, but breakthrough. Time to reexamine everything you do.  Have the courage to lead. You lead people to breakthrough, not manage them to breakthrough."  
Q: If starting Six Sigma in retail, from middle management, how do you convince the CEO?  

Mikel: “Pray. Middle-out is a hard row to plow.” 
Don: “You must give CEO water-tight compelling data.”
Q: Where is Six Sigma going in the next few years?

Mikel: "Broadening and decreasing in depth. Consultants are watering down Six Sigma. We need need to police ourselves. The proliferation of books on the market is risky. Corporations think they can undertake Six Sigma on their own. The role of coaching is going to become more important. Are we doing the right thing, or the thing that’s right? The time has come that our industry needs breakthrough.  Now the time to apply Six Sigma to ourselves."    
Don: “Stick to the pillars.  ‘Adapt’ is the viable energy that keeps Six Sigma alive. Adaptive is the one word, but it needs to be constrained by what the pillars are.  It’s difficult.”
Don on “If you had a time machine and could start over with Six Sigma in 1999…”: "I’d run Six Sigma time faster than we did.  We were on a pace, we should have sped up the time.  Looking back it was possible to do things faster." 
Mikel on breakthrough: “Breakthrough is not crawl-walk-run. It’s take the leap of faith.”
Don on behavior that keeps Six Sigma alive: “Enthusiasm.”  ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:05:51 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Call for Speakers: Energy Forum for Process Excellence in Houston, May 2009]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/call_for_speakers_energy_forum_for_process_excellence_in_houston_may_2009.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Over 200 energy industry professionals will gather in Houston, Texas, May 19-22 for iSixSigma Live's premiere Energy Forum for Process Excellence, supported by Chevron, Halliburton, Hess and Marathon Oil. Here's your chance to be one of the speakers.
Click here for the speaking proposal form:http://isixsigma.com/KQ5
We're especially looking for process improvement professionals who can share their own experiences, project case studies and lessons learned. Submit a speaking proposal that will cover one of the following subjects:• Oil &amp; Gas Upstream• Oil &amp; Gas Downstream• Power Generation• Power Distribution• Up &amp; Downstream Service Providers• Storage• Internal Operations (Supply Chain, HR, IT, etc.)• Business Process Management
Nominate yourself, a boss or a client. Again, here's the link to the speaking proposal form: http://isixsigma.com/KQ5(Deadline: February 6, 2009) ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Cyger]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
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			<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:15:24 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Hmm... Which Deployment Model?]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/hmm_which_deployment_model.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I spent the Wednesday afternoon in the Deployment Models breakout session with Bob Crescenzi, from NewPage, Pam Cagle from Wal-Mart, and Stephen Turnipseed from Chevron.  
Each company is deploying Six Sigma with a different approach. Bob Crescenzi made a great point kicking off the discussions.  He said, “There is no vanilla deployment.” Top-down, middle-out, or grassroots, I think they all serve Rocky Road at some point! 
The most compelling story to me is that of Wal-mart.  Pam said they started in February 2007 with no money, no resources, and no curriculum.  They developed a training curriculum in-house, piloted it in Canada.  
“Our responsibility as LSS Leaders is to develop associates,” she said.  Although Lean Six Sigma is gaining traction at Wal-mart, it is still only used on the corporate level.  It hasn’t been introduced at the store level yet.  So don’t expect Six Sigma service from those associates just quite yet :)
The biggest takeaway here is that deployment models abound. There is no one, two or three ways to deploy Six Sigma. It’s been said time and time again that top-down deployments are most successful, but that just depends on what your definition of success is.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Got Courage?]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/got_courage.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Just got back from 2 awesome days at the 2009 iSixSigma "Back to Breakthrough" summit in Miami where I was surrounded by a gaziilion leaders and professionals who are passionate about excellence.   The summit was packed full of speakers, panels, and workshops all geared at helping companies get ’back to breakthrough’.  Thank you iSixSigma for leading the way.
Besides meeting some really cool people, the best thing for me was that that the experience helped me re-energize my personal commitment to excellence.   After all was said and done, I walked away with this . . . "Have the Courage to Lead".   Whether it’s a deployment, a business or a department, the one thing that each of us can personally contribute to achieving excellence in our company is to have the courage to lead.
The global economic situation has created a burning platform for all of us to reach beyond incremental improvement and focus on breakthrough.  Six Sigma provides a methodology to get you there.  The only question that remains is "Do you have the courage to lead?"  ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Gianna Clark]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
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			<pubDate>Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:19:46 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: MANY THANKS]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/many_thanks.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I was very honored to have been nominated for the iSixSigma MVP Award for "Best Blogger" - given the high quality of my fellow nominees, Robin Barnwell and Gianna Clark, I was not expecting to receive this recognition!  Attending the iSixSigma Live! conference was a blast, and I had a lot of fun and met a lot of great people (and learned a lot) in addition to the pleasure of receiving this reward.  The recognition items were great - the Cox Box mug from 10/15/07 and a mousepad with a quote from W. Edwards Deming:  "If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, then you don't know what you're doing."  Priceless.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has posted blogs - I'm constantly learning from your contributions - and to those who have contributed to the blogs by posting responses.  Your willingness to put your thoughts "out there" helps to broaden the discussion and is valuable to all readers.
I was able to meet Michael Marx and Michael Cyger in person, and I'd like to thank them as well for their support and encouragement during my tenure as blogger here.  I related the following story to Michael Marx and he told me to write about it in my blog, so here it is!
When I was a Clinical Laboratory Manager at a former employer, in 2003, the organization decided to try something new to help improve its quality.  A notice was sent out to all leaders regarding the introduction of something called "Six Sigma" and the need for four new "Black Belts" to lead hospital-wide process improvement projects.  There wasn't any job description, yet, and no salary decisions had been made, and there was no career path developed.  Well, I decided that regardless of the lack of specifics, I was ready to try out for it.  I'd been doing change projects for a long time time in my career, and felt that I could step up to the next level.  But, I didn't know anything about Six Sigma - and what the heck was a Black Belt if not an expert in karate?
I wanted to appear knowledgeable in my interview, so I went to the public library and took out "Lean Six Sigma" by Michael George.  Then I went on-line and searched for "Six Sigma."  One of the first sites that came up was iSixSigma.com.  I found a lot of information there, and it became my best resource for information such as - 10 attributes of Black Belts, how come they're called Black Belts, what is Six Sigma, and so forth.  As a result, I went into the interview knowing a little more (dare I say it) than the interviewers, and in fact I was brave (or foolish) enough to tell the panel that I didn't think their case study merited a Six Sigma project, since the scope looked more appropriate for a WorkOut.  (Well, that gave them the idea that I wasn't afraid to take risks, anyway!)  In spite of this, they liked what they saw and when they asked me where I had learned about Six Sigma, I told them I'd done a lot of research on-line and my primary source was iSixSigma.com!  The rest, as they say, is history and I was on my way to being a Wave I Six Sigma Black Belt.
I never would have guessed that I would be a blogger for iSixSigma a few years after that.  My first blog was posted in April 2006 and I hope to continue for a long time to come!
Thanks again everyone for responding to my posts and for sharing your great ideas in this forum!
--Sue Kozlowski]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Sue Kozlowski]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;General]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:04:57 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: iSixSigma Live! Opening Session Highlights]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isixsigma_live_opening_session_highlights.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[The iSixSigma Live! Miami Summit and Awards opened yesterday with a bang. Richard Willet, Jr., President and CEO of NewPage kicked off the morning session.   
Rick gave an enthusiastic overview of Lean Six Sigma at NewPage.  There was so much he spoke about, but one of the points really stuck me as unique.  He said that Green Belts are first asked to spend one week leaning out their own work process, freeing up 25 percent of their time.  They then use that new-found time to work on their Green Belt projects. 
I think we can all learn a lesson from that. If you feel you do not have enough time in the day to get your work done, consider investing time leaning out your own processes, an extra 2 hours a day can go a long way.  Use it wisely.  
Jason Tafler, CEO PointRoll spoke about how a creative company can utilize Six Sigma. Once again what struck me was his take on Lean.  After the initial Six Sigma deployment, PointRoll felt they needed more. So they deployed Lean and TPS. The Lean work caused an awakening at PointRoll. Growth is now scaled at the company through Lean efficiencies vs. hiring.  
Buzzwords from the morning…Lean, and economy.  More to come.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:00:27 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Best Places to Work Countdown]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/best_places_to_work_countdown.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Well we did it.  We announced the order of the Top Ten iSixSigma Best Places to Work list this morning.  If you were following my tweets this morning you already heard where the No. 1 place is… if not, here we go…
#10 Rio Tinto Alcan
#9 Volt Information Sciences Inc.
#8 EMC Corp.
#7 Xerox Corp.
#6 NewPage Corp.
#5 Masco Builder Cabinet Group
#4 Chevron Corp.
#3 Textron Inc.
#2 Vought Aircraft Industries Inc.
#1 McKesson Corp.
What a cool cadre of companies we have here.  Congratulations to all.  For advice from each of the Best Places on what it takes to be great, see the latest iSixSigma.com article, Tips from iSixSigma's Best Places to Work.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:29:01 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: iSixSigma MVP Awards]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isixsigma_mvp_awards.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I had the privilege of presenting the iSixSigma MVP Awards this morning to a fine group of Six Sigma professionals.  The MVP Awards are iSixSigma’s way of recognizing those people who volunteer their time and expertise making iSixSigma.com and the iSixSigma Blogosphere meaningful places to learn.  
Without purse or script, these knights and nobles selfishly give of themselves through open conversation, sharing their knowledge and passion for process improvement.  
And the winners are:
* Most Prolific Poster on iSixSigma Discussion Forums - Stan
* Most Useful/Helpful Poster on iSixSigma Discussion Forums - Mike Carnell, Owner CS International
Honorable Mention – Robert Butler
* Best Commenter on the iSixSigma BlogosphereMichael Cardus, Founder of Create-Learning-Team Building and TeamBuilding NY blogger
* Best iSixSigma BloggerSue Kozlowski, Manger Performance Improvement, Henry Ford Health System
Congratulations to the 2009 iSixSigma MVPs!]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:36:32 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: iSixSigma Live! Awards Announced]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isixsigma_live_awards_announced.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[

The iSixSigma Live! Awards ceremony went off beautifully this morning. Congratulations to all the finalists, and woo hooo! to all the winners! 
Winners: Largest-Breakthrough Improvement Projects        * Environment - Bell Helicopter, Textron Inc. for “Compressed Air Savings Headstart (CASH)”    * Supply chain - General Dynamics for “Submarine Material Receipt Inspection”    * Transactional - North Shore-LIJ Health System for “Increasing CT capacity in a Tertiary Hospital”    * Manufacturing - Xerox Corp. for “Photoreceptor Belt Tensioning System”    * Customer service - Sutherland Global Services for “Improving Customer Satisfaction”    * Solving the unsolvable - Shuuro Technologies for “Improving Revenue from Sales”    * Innovation - Delphi Corp. for “Joint Design for Electronics Cooling Heat Exchangers”
Most Successful Lean Six Sigma Start-up - NewPage Corp.
Most Successful Re-energized Lean Six Sigma Program - United Services Automobile Association (USAA)
iSixSigma’s Six Sigma Hall of Fame 2009 Inductee – Bill Smith. Accepting the award on behalf of her father, Marjorie Hook. Marjorie paid a tender tribute to her father honoring him as a loving father, husband and neighbor. 
 ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:38:26 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Tweet, Tweet, Flying South for the Winter]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/tweet_tweet_flying_south_for_the_winter.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[It’s a busy week for us here at iSixSigma.  The final day leading to the iSixSigma Live! Summit &amp; Awards in Miami... 
If you tweet you’re in for a treat. I’ll be tweeting live from Miami. Follow the iSixSigma tweet for mini updates on what I’m up to at the conference. Be the first to read the winners of the iSixSigma MVP awards... as well as everything else under the sunny skies of Miami.
You can also follow here on the blogs, by reading my tweet feed below or just look in the left sidebar up top for the latest. 
Tweet Tweet.


       
For Non Flash Users
iSixSigma Live! Twitter Updates

 follow me on Twitter
 



]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:08:41 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: iSixSigma Live Summit '09 Update - Reception &amp; Keynote]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/isixsigma_live_summit_09_update_reception_amp_keynote.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[iSixSigma Live Summit '09 Update - Reception &amp; KeynoteTrump International Beach ResortMiami, Florida
5:30-7:30 P.M., Tuesday, January 13, 2009Six Sigma Wine Tasting and Welcome ReceptionHosted by Six Sigma WineryOpen to All Summit Attendees
11:30 A.M., Wednesday, January 14, 2009Mr. Kaj AhlmannKeynote: "Six Sigma and Wine: Art or Science?"Founder, Six Sigma Ranch, Vineyards and WineryFormer Chairman, President and CEO, GE Capital Employers Reinsurance Corporation
iSixSigma Live! is pleased to announce that Kaj Ahlmann will be giving a keynote address at the upcoming iSixSigma Live! Summit '09 in Miami, Florida. In addition, Mr. Ahlmann's winery - Six Sigma Ranch, Vineyards and Winery - will be hosting the welcome reception on Tuesday, January 13.
Kaj's professional life led to a career in reinsurance, most notably as Chairman and CEO of Employer's Reinsurance Corporation and a member of the Board of Directors for GE's Capital Services. The management practice of Six Sigma became the standard by which Kaj ensured a consistently high quality both in his corporate life and in his transition to grape growing and winemaking.
In 1999, Kaj and his wife, Else, purchased 4,300 acres in Lake County, California, where they work to create a sustainable ranch with vineyards nestled into nature. In 2005, Kaj constructed Six Sigma Winery on the ranch, including a barrel cave and state of the art winery equipment.
For complete conference information visit the iSixSigma Live! web site by going to:http://www.isixsigmalive.com]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Cyger]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:25:10 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: And the Award Goes to...]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/and_the_award_goes_to.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[ 
iSixSigma Live! has announced the finalists for the awards that will be given at the Miami Summit in January.  
The top three finalists for the award, Most Successful Lean Six Sigma Start-up Program, are: Betfair, NewPage Corp., and Unlimited Technology Inc.
Finalists for the award, Most Successful Re-energized Lean Six Sigma Program, are: United Services Automobile Association (USAA), US Army TACOM LCMC, and Washington Mutual/JPMorgan Chase.
For the Largest-Breakthrough Improvement Project awards, there are 21 finalists in 7 categories. For all the details read the full press release. 
Congrats to all the finalists!]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:15:59 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Best Places Finalists]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/best_places_finalists.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
 
The Best Places to Work Competition has wrapped up and the top ten finalists have emerged.  Now we’re not going to tell you where the No. 1 place for Six Sigma professionals to work is yet…or what the order of the top ten is…. We’re saving that for the awards ceremony in January. 
But we will tell you in alphabetical order who the top ten finalists are:
ChevronEMCMasco Builder Cabinet GroupMcKessonNewPageRio Tinto AlcanTextronVolt Information SciencesVought Aircraft IndustriesXerox Corporation
We had over 50 nominations for companies all over the world.  Sixteen companies met all the entry requirements and completed a two part online survey. The senior Six Sigma leader submitted answers to an employer survey while full time Six Sigma personnel (BBs, MBBs and Deployment Leaders) at each company submitted answers to an employee survey.  
Companies were ranked by totaling the scores from the two surveys; the most weight was given to the employee survey.  The employee survey was also weighted giving the most weight to the job satisfaction category.  
Congratulations to these companies as well as all the companies who were nominated. The number one place will be announced at the iSixSigma Live! Awards breakfast in Miami in January. ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:21:18 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Photos of iSixSigma Live! Denver]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/photos_of_isixsigma_live_denver.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
Jeannine Hall and I returned home from the wild night out in Denver last night. The Social and Networking Party in downtown Denver was a success: people met, mingled, ate, drank and made new friends. Over 100 Denver-ites registered for this event, and we hope to have even more the next time. Thanks to our host, BMGI, we had a fantastic meeting space -- their beautiful training facility in the Tabor Center.
You can view the slideshow of the Denver Live! event here. (Press the "fast" link in the upper left hand corner to speed up the pace.)
The Party featured interesting people, fantastic conversations, an open bar, a lavish appetizer buffet, music, and a raffle (books, Minitab garb, BMG elearning, a $100 gift certificate to the iSixSigma Store, and much more). No one left disappointed -- even if they didn’t win a door prize, everyone walked away with an iSixSigma Live! goodie bag full of sponsor offers, tschochkes, coupons and discounts.
Thanks to everyone in the local area who came out, and thanks to all our wonderful sponsors for taking part in this fantastic event:



View the full photo gallery here: http://photos.isixsigma.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=6070505&amp;AlbumKey=zCVhY
Visit iSixSigma Live! and view our upcoming event calendar.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Cyger]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:24:50 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: iSixSigma MVP Awards]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isixsigma_mvp_awards.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Here’s some news you may not have heard yet... iSixSigma will be serving up some sweet awards at a breakfast ceremony during the iSixSigma Live! Miami conference.  All the details on each award can be found at: http://live.isixsigma.com/awards/default.html 
The iSixSigma MVP awards are my favorites... We’re looking for the: 
Most prolific poster on iSixSigma discussion forumsMost useful/helpful poster on iSixSigma discussion forumsBest iSixSigma BloggerBest commenter on the Blogosphere
If you participate in the forums or blogs, it’s time to get your game on. Impress the judges (aka iSixSigma editorial team) with your helpful and insightful prose and you just may walk away an iSixSigma MVP.  ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:41:14 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: iSixSigma Live! Denver - 2 Spots Remaining]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/isixsigma_live_denver_2_spots_remaining.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[If you live in the Denver, Colorado, area or are planning to be in town next Thursday, 9/25, be sure to make your way over to the Tabor Center for the iSixSigma Live! Social and Networking Party in Denver. Only 2 RSVP spots remain, so don’t delay -- sign up today.
Our first Social and Networking Party in Seattle was talked about for weeks after the event. We’re still receiving email requests to hold the next event -- and as soon as we get past the DoD Breakthrough Convention that iSixSigma Live has been hired to organize, we will! The photo archive from Seattle can be seen here.
This iSixSigma Live! event will unite and strengthen the Denver-area community of business process improvement leaders at all levels.
This social and networking party is an after-work social event for all Denver area quality professionals. We will have appetizers, an open bar, music, events and the most exciting change agents from leading Denver-based organizations. This is the one local event you don’t want to miss!
Attendees will include anyone involved or interested in process improvement. This includes current and aspiring Six Sigma professionals (Green Belts, Black Belts, Master Black Belts, Champions, Deployment Leaders, etc.), Lean experts, transformation leaders, continuous improvement professionals, Kaizen leaders, business process management managers, process excellence managers, students – you get the idea. Just remember, this is a social and networking party for change leaders and business professionals; so leave your catapults and control charts at home!
See who’s already signed up to attend!
Our wonderful sponsors for this Social and Networking event include:



Come meet, greet, chat and ask all those questions you’ve been meaning to ask these Six Sigma providers all these years!]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Cyger]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:50:05 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: iSixSigma Live! Seattle Video]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/isixsigma_live_seattle_video.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[If you haven't had a chance to view our latest video of the iSixSigma Live! Social and Networking Party in Seattle, here's your chance:
 
If you attended, be sure to forward this page to your friends and ask them to see if they can spot you! :)
The photo gallery from iSixSigma Live! Seattle is also available.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Cyger]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:07:34 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: The Great Discovery, Mikel Harry]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/the_great_discovery_mikel_harry.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[2008 ISSSP Leadership Conference, Day One
A few quotes and thoughts from Michael Harry’s presentation, The Great Discovery.
What is your life dream? Have we lost the dream in Six Sigma? The power of dreams is unbelievable. Belief in a dream united Motorola. That dream was Six Sigma.
Six Sigma Timeline:1980s: Quality Improvement1990s: Cost reduction2000s: Value creation2010s: Personal achievement
At Six Sigma corporations between two and five percent of employees are involved with Six Sigma.  Mikel asks, “What about the other 95 percent?”  Empowering the masses is the future of Six Sigma.  
The great discovery is a Six Sigma way of reasoning that will empower you to innovate and execute higher quality solutions for your:

Personal Life
Home Life
Work Life
It was developed after looking back at 20 years of successful Six Sigma deployment data. The Great Discovery is about teaching people in all stages of life (even kids) how to achieve their dreams by working towards them in a systematic, planned way.
Do the dreaming * Dream the doing * Plan the doing * Do the plan]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 21 May 2008 17:37:24 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: David Wickersham, President and COO Seagate]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/david_wickersham_president_and_coo_seagate.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[2008 ISSSP Leadership Conference, Day One
“Best practices need to continue to improve.”
David’s presentation covered the Seagate Business Excellence Journey over the past 10 years highlighting some of the things they’ve learned.
One of the best practices David is particularly proud of is the training curriculum.  They have gone from traditional classroom training over a four week period to a hybrid blended approach of classroom complemented with eLearning over a three week period. Even more unique is he specialty training.  All belts are all trained in a core set of Lean and Six Sigma principles and tools.  Then they either go on to operational fundamentals or transactional fundamentals.  After that they get to specialize further in their respective fields.  A brilliant innovation for training.  The college approach.  
The next best practice they developed is the career path for business excellence employees.  Business Excellence employees have the option to stay in the business excellence community after their service.  A unique alternative to traditional repatriation after a period of time as a belt.  
He closed with a few bullets on sustaining the initiative:

It’s a journey and deployment will change over time.
Get commitment from the top, educate the middle, engage the whole
Development of Business Excellence resources (hard and soft skill) is crucial
Sharing best practices through annual seminar and newsletters
Career path for employees in Business Excellence.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;Methodology]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2008 16:01:25 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Pinnacle Peak Hiking]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/pinnacle_peak_hiking.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Wake up to Life Hike, ISSSP Leadership Conference


5:00 AM

5:15 AM - the lively passengers

The Rowdy Back Row!

The "fast" group

Pinnacle Peak

The whole gang
]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2008 15:59:42 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Networking &quot;Orlando&quot; Style]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/networking_orlando_style.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Networking, by definition, is a supportive system of sharing information among individuals or groups having a common interest.   Next week, IQPC is hosting one of the biggest networking opportunities of the year.  It’s the 2008 Lean Six Sigma &amp; Process Improvement Summit.  This year hundreds of process improvement professionals will converge in sunny Florida to make new contacts, share experiences and celebrate some of the best improvement projects in the industry.   I’ve attended the summit every year for the past five years and have always come away with new ideas, innovative approaches and a fist full of business cards from people all over the world.   Hearing and seeing others succeed is inspiring and energizing. 
So, if you are in the neighborhood, drop by the summit.  It’s a great way to keep up with what is going on in the world of process improvement and even a better way to get involved in shaping process improvement for the future.  Hope to see you there!]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Gianna Clark]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 25 Jan 2008 03:14:59 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: A quality bubble?]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/a_quality_bubble.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Gianna Clark notes that several hundred companies began their Six Sigma journeys about seven years ago. 
Is Six Sigma the quality equivalent of a stock market bubble? Are we cheerleaders of an irrational exuberance where performance economics do not match the hype we create? Is Six Sigma on the verge of becoming the next TQM - run over by advances in technology and easier approaches to improving performance? ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Charles McKinney]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Change Management&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;Customer Satisfaction&nbsp;,&nbsp;General&nbsp;,&nbsp;Government&nbsp;,&nbsp;Guest Blog&nbsp;,&nbsp;History&nbsp;,&nbsp;Innovation&nbsp;,&nbsp;Leadership&nbsp;,&nbsp;Lean&nbsp;,&nbsp;Management&nbsp;,&nbsp;Methodology&nbsp;,&nbsp;Podcasts&nbsp;,&nbsp;Research]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Sat, 12 Jan 2008 12:32:57 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Lean Six Sigma Forum-Malaysia]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/lean_six_sigma_forum_malaysia.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[For those of you practising Lean Six Sigma in the Austral Oceania region of the world, IQPC will be hosting a Lean Six Sigma Forum from November 27-29 at the Prince Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Confirmed speakers include:

Quality Director- Reuters 
Senior Manager Business Enterprise- Motorola 
Quality/Operational Excellence Leader-GE Plastics 
Director, Six Sigma- Ingram Micro 
Vice President of Six Sigma- Merck Sharp &amp; Dohme 
Vice President Operations Australia-Asia- ALCOA 
Six Sigma Manager-BHP Billiton 
EMEA Quality Manager Global Business Operations-Hewlett Packard]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Holly Hawkins]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:51:26 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Predictive Index,  Bob Wilson &amp; Associates]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/predictive_index_bob_wilson_amp_associates.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[My favorite part of the Leadership Conference is diving into the softer side of Six Sigma, the people side of the equation.  I spent the afternoon on the first day in the Predictive Index session led by Heather Haas, the director of strategic initiatives for Bob Wilson &amp; Associates. 
First off, Heather did a fabulous job teaching the basics of PI to the class.  She is well versed in the subject matter and communicated the material effortlessly.  She loves what she does and it shows.  It’s always fun learning from someone who is passionate about their craft.
So what is the Predictive Index (PI)? As quoted from Heather’s slides…“A proven tool that helps us understand (and predict) why people respond to their environment and the people in it the way that they do.” 
In a nutshell it’s a kind of personality test, similar to Meyers-Briggs but it does more than chart your personality – It identifies the root causes that drive personality behaviors.
I am still amazed at the accuracy of my test results.  They are dead-on at describing the way I respond to people and situations in the workplace. Last year I attended a half-day workshop with Bob Wilson himself and was astounded at his ability to look at my PI graph and then describe me perfectly.   
PI is a tool that can help your company with communication, hiring the right people, you name it.  As Heather said, “A fool with a tool is still a fool.”  To use PI effectively you’ve got to know what to do with this newfound information about yourself and your co-workers.  You’d be surprised at how much better you could communicate with your workmates once you have their chart in front of you.  It’s like reading a book. The more you know about people, the more effectively you can manage and be managed. 
I can’t go into all the details about PI in one blog entry, but I can tell you as someone who has taken the test and been through a workshop, learning about PI has had a positive affect on my work and home life.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2007 12:42:10 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Mike Pestorius, Six Sigma in Sales and Marketing]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/mike_pestorius_six_sigma_in_sales_and_marketing.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Mike is the Associate VP of Six Sigma for sanofi-aventis.  He is also the author of Applying the Science of Six Sigma to the Art of Sales &amp; Marketing.
Mike is very energetic and enthusiastic.  Watch out Don Linsenmann, you’ve got competition. Mike made some great jokes, but not enough sugar had kicked in from our snacks to get much laughter.  Although the picture doesn’t show it, there were about 35 people in there, all in the back.  
Mike is going to tell us how to apply Six Sigma to transactional environments where you cannot control the variables like in manufacturing. The bulk of his presentation was delivering case study examples where DMAIC can be applied to sales and marketing processes such as improving sales rep competency, hiring profiles, the manager/sales rep field ride, territory planning, product promotion… If you are a member of ISSSP download this presentation.  It would be an excellent framework for starting projects in these areas.
Other areas where Six Sigma can be applied are: 

Customer qualification 
Product launches 
Sales training 
 “It’s like finding bags of money on the ground” (quote from Mike while he was explaining these areas) 
Contract compliance 
Professional education 
Channel effectiveness
Takeaways

Six Sigma in a transactional environment is not grassroots, needs to be driven from top 
Make sure there is a succession plan around your Six Sigma in sales &amp; marketing program.  Don’t make it a dead end for those involved. 
Six Sigma in sales &amp;marketing is not intended to replace “the last 10 feet of the sale” it is intended to facilitate its occurrence 
Try not to make it too complicated, lots of Six Sigma tools available start by teaching people to use a hammer, screwdriver and a saw.  Affinity diagrams, process maps etc. 
Get a good reward and recognition plan in place. 
This was the first time I’ve heard someone make any sense out of Six Sigma in sales and marketing.  His examples were sound and easy to understand all in the context of the DMAIC framework.  Others I talked to said similar things.  I’ll have to read the book now that I know it’s written by someone who knows his stuff and can communicate it effectively.     ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2007 17:23:19 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Jim Pearson, EMC Corporation]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/jim_pearson_emc_corporation.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Jim Pearson, VP Customer Advocasy at EMC Corporation, just finished his presentation about Lean Six Sigma at EMC. I interviewed Jim nearly two years ago about their Six Sigma deployment.  
Jim shared EMC’s Lean Six Sigma program building blocks: 

Centralized training program
Single online repository
Established financial guidelines
Certification and recognition programs
Mentor and facilitations offerings
For rewards and recognition, EMC gives out cash certification awards:  $2,000 for Green Belts and $4,000 for Black Belts.  That’s a nice chunk of change for anyone.  If you’re motivated by money, it’s also a good enough reason to get trained!  They also use Black Belt training as a part of their emerging leader program.  That kind of emphasis on the Six Sigma really does solidify the committment and thus shapes the culture of a company.
Key takeaways: 

Leverage existing culture
Lean Six Sigma does not have to be a mandate
Use big projects and grassroots to be most effective
Must prove the results
Over communicate the wins
Build a strong infrastructure (training, financial, reporting)
There are more than just financial benefits, measure them]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2007 12:49:30 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Chris Jones, Delphi]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/chris_jones_delphi.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Chris Jones, I&amp;CIM Global Deployment Champion for Delphi is speaking now. He’s laying out the case for change at Delphi. In a nutshell, because their customers demanded it. 
Delphi’s Enterprise-wide Strategy: Tools, process, and culture, encompassed by Kaizen: 

Tools are tools.  You use them to help solve problems.
Process is THE problem solving framework integrated in all business processes.
Culture is the expectation at ALL levels of the org to effectively execute the process
Kaizen is the ongoing optimization of the tools, the processes and the culture.  
Delphi deployment is a middle-out deployment.  Meaning it is not driven from the top down, but more from the middle out.  
What I like about Delphi’s deployment is the Delphi Problem Solving process in the initiative.  The problem solving process allows Delphi to choose which tools will work best with which projects.  It weaves the tools together along with culture.  They do not just use DMAIC, or Lean or any other tool in the set.  They assign the proper tools to the right projects.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2007 11:01:31 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Day Two: General Session, Abbott Nutrition]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/day_two_general_session_abbott_nutrition.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I’m here for day two of the ISSSP Leadership Conference.  Rox is opening the general meeting, thanking everyone for the fun at the Grand Evening last night.  From Michael Cyger’s pictures, we know that Minitab had a good time…
Today we’re going to talk about change management. The emcee is Jeanenne LaMarsh, Founder and CEO of LaMarsh Associates.  The first speaker is Karen Welch, Director, Business Excellence at Abbott Nutrition.
Karen is going to talk about how Abbott Nutrition has integrated change management into their Lean Six Sigma deployment. 
Abbott uses of three simple change management tools to mitigate the change: They uses a Key Role Map to ID sponsors, change agents, targets.  They then identify resistance with an InfoMatrix.  And finally design plans to mitigate the resistance – with communication, training, and reward plan.
Although managing change is not as simplistic as just using a few CM tools, Abbott is doing much more as well. ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2007 10:23:37 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Wake Up To Life Hike, ISSSP LC 2007]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/isssp_wake_up_to_life_hike_isssp_lc_2007.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[5:15 am: I’ve always heard that the wake up to life is an experience not to be missed. People I spoke to last night at the Grand Evening went on and on about the sunrise, the moon set and the desert scenery. They even said they were going to show up *again* this morning to do the hike. Now, at 5:15 am, after getting my full 3 hours of sleep, the irony to "wake up to life" is not lost on me.
It is dark and I am without my coffee. More importantly, it appears all the people who said they were going to do the hike again this morning are seemingly missing from the bus, including our own Jessica Harper.
5:35: Our guide told us some interesting tidbits on the drive to Pinnacle Peak. We’re in the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix is 5th largest city in the US, and the city has been growing by 40 percent a year since 1990 while most cities are in the 14 percent annual growth rate (not sure if that’s an average across every city in the US or of just major cities...just quoting what the guide said). It also takes 30 years to grow a cactus arm.
5:50: Ok, I found Jessica and everyone else that said they were coming. In the early morning light (or my haze), I couldn’t see as clearly.
6:20: Ken, a native American Apache, met us on the trail and told us about Arizona and the Scottsdale history. It was a great break from the hike, and very interesting to learn more about the beautiful desert.
6:45: End of hike. What a glorious hike. Now I’m awake and alive. Prasad Raje, CEO of Instantis, championed both days of hikes and those that were lucky enough to take one of the spots (space is limited and they are taken *very* quickly) on both days had perfect weather. Snacks and water throughout highlighted ISSSP’S AND Instantis’s attention to detail and customer delight throughout.
Rob Tripp from Six Sigma Advantage loading the bus
Our ride was about 25 minutes to Pinnacle Peak
Sonora desert

The hike begins
Jessica Harper from iSixSigma enjoying the views

Ken performing a native American song, accompanied by Jessica Harper]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Cyger]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2007 09:38:07 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Grand Evening, ISSSP LC 2007]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/grand_evening_isssp_lc_2007.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[It’s closing in on 1:00 am and right about now I’m thinking my earlier commitment to hike Pinnacle Peak is appearing very silly. The bus leaves the hotel at 5:15 am. This is the second time I’ve typed this blog posting, and yes, even those of us in Internet-land mess up and lose entire postings by hitting the wrong key on our computer. Argh. My earlier posting was much funnier...I’m going to bed! :)
I met a lot of great people today -- the networking was terrific at this event, as always, and I’m walking out of the second day of the conference with some great ideas for articles and cover stories for both iSixSigma.com and iSixSigma Magazine. 
Tonight was the ISSSP Grand Evening which is a time for all the guests to get together, share a cocktail, some good food and great conversation. Entertainment was provided by "Dueling Pianos" (see pictures below), and a good time was had by all.
After about 10 minutes wrestling with my Treo, which is acting as my camera for the event, I was able to destroy incriminating photos and download the embarrassing ones (for others) to my computer. Sorry for the low resolution...the lighting was low. I hope you enjoy. Additional pictures may make it into this post at a later date.
Michael Marx and Jessica Harper, both from iSixSigma
Michael Pestorius from sanofi-aventis, and wife Cara
Me and Vanessa Lovatt from IQPC
Jeannette Kesmarki from ISSSP, the first to get on the dance floor(this year yet again)
"Dueling Pianos" were definitely entertaining
Jens Hansen from Microsoft, pleading for his song request
Becky Silver from Expedia, Jessica Harper and Jens Hansen.Are those smiles of success with respect to their request?
A really bad YMCA imitation by Six Sigma professionals
Me, Roxanne O’Brasky, president of ISSSP, and our emcee for the evening
JP Mulley from Minitab, Larry Goldman from Oracle, and Jeff Ozarski from YMCA-fame
The "Minitab table"
Unidentified and Rob Tripp from Six Sigma Advantage
A good time was had by all, (especially Becky)]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Cyger]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2007 01:50:07 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Valuable Connections at the Outback Oasis]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/isssp_valuable_connections_at_the_outback_oasis.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Last evening, about 100 of Six Sigma’s finest went up to the Arizona hills to the Outback Oasis for some R&amp;R after a full day of conference workshops. It was a great day for learning, and it was topped off with 80 degree F weather and cloudless skies. Roxanne O’Brasky, president of ISSSP, and her team never fails to host a terrific social and networking event and the party was true to form.








More pictures to come soon!]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Cyger]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2007 19:13:51 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Rusty Patterson, Raytheon]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/rusty_patterson_raytheon.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[After a much needed break, we’re back in the main hall and will hear from Rusty Patterson, VP Customer and Supply Chain Institute for Raytheon. His presentation is titled, “What’s Next for Six Sigma?  Transforming Your Company to Remain Competitive.”  Raytheon kicked off Six Sigma in the beginning of 1999.  For cornerstones for Six Sigma success to date:

Begin with the “to be state”. Visualizing the future instead of just making incremental improvement.
Tie Six Sigma to the business strategy
Target the constraints that limit how we provide value to the customer
Make it more than a toolbox for improvement
The challenges ahead:

Integrating value creation and value delivery. 
Complacent mentality = going out of business.  Need to rock the boat. 
Competitive advantage is innovation.  
Four cornerstones of the future? The same as before but you must must innovate, innovate, innovate...!!!Raytheons mantra, "The boldness to imagine the future – the passion to deliver it."]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2007 12:00:56 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Stephen Turnipseed, Chevron]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/stephen_turnipseed_chevron.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Next up is Stephen Turnipseed, Lean Six Sigma Advisor for Chevron Global Upstream.  I’ve heard Stephen speak before.  He is a great speaker.  
Chevron does not have the luxury of a CEO driven deployment.  They started Six Sigma as a grassroots deployment, and it has been expanding.  Now it’s moving into supply chain.  
Steve is going to contrast a grassroots deployment to a traditional top-down deployment.  This will be interesting.  
Assumption with a grassroots deployment:

Employee driven initiatives will have more buy-in
Early success will create pull 
Other parts of the company will try to emulate
It will expand as champions move around.  (this is the only true assumption)
The reality of a grassroots deployment: no career path, no recognition, no accountability, limited support, little buy-in, no time given to work projects, large degree of variability, slow maturation and financial benefit.
Critical success factors for grassroots deployments:

A tolerant company culture
Inspired individual –ability to influence, stake career on their belief, and able to carve out a position that allows her/him to continue the cause for the long term.
Able to get funding for training and coaching
Program achieves enough success to sustain itself
Develop other inspired individuals and convert leaders
Stephen goes on to talk about how to roll out Continuous Improvement in the supply chain.  And Chevron engaged their customers and suppliers to join them in Six Sigma training.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2007 11:12:01 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP General Session]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isssp_general_session.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[The ISSSP Leadership Conference general session has started. Roxanne O’Braskey is welcoming the attendees and giving a shout out to the 18 SKF employees from around the world that are here today.  
Marty Sherber is the Master of ceremonies, he is the senior VP of client development for AIT.  He’s also a 5th degree Master Black Belt as well.  That is very cool, a real MBB.  I wonder how many other people have a dual Black Belts or Master Black Belts? 
Chris Koelsch is up now and going to talk about Lean Six Sigma at DuPont.  He is the Supply Chain Director and Six Sigma Champion.   DuPont is at the Six Sigma conference regularly.  At every conference they talk about how the company is over 200 years old and that Six Sigma is going to get them through the next 100.    
Some DuPont Six Sigma stats:

1 billion in final validated benefits in 2006.  
18,000 Green Belts, 2,200 Black Belts and 300 MBBs trained in 2005.  
Pillars that drive Six Sigma success:

Message from the top
Full time belts
Best and brightest
Financial team validating the savings
“Supply chain is not just about movement of material.  It’s about meeting customers expectations faster and better than anyone else.  It’s about money, material, and information.  At the end of the day it’s about delta and cash flow.”
Lean has helped DuPont reduce lead times.  Lean tools added to the Six Sigma tool box: supply chain mapping, VSM, 5s, SMED, waste analysis, TPM, and Kaizen.  They’ve got a Kaizen playbook to aid in implementing Kaizen events around the world.  ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2007 10:19:00 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Larry Goldman on Simulation, ISSSP LC 2007]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/larry_goldman_on_simulation_isssp_lc_2007.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I’m at the ISSSP Leadership Conference with Jessica Harper, managing editor of iSixSigma Magazine and Michael Marx, our resident research manager and blogger-extrordinairre. The weather is beautiful - definitely not as green as Seattle, but the sun is glorious.
I’m sitting in a presentation by Larry Goldman of Crystal Ball (of Hyperion and Oracle acquisition-fame) entitled "Running Six Sigma Projects When You Have Limited or No Data." [PDF 436KB] I forgot my digital camera (of course) so throughout the conference you’re going to have to settle for the low resolution camera pics on my Treo phone unless I’m sitting next to Michael Marx.
The purpose of this presentation is how you can run Six Sigma projects with no data. What? Sounds like Larry might be sweltering under this Arizona heat, but in fact he’s talking about Monte Carlo simulation and process models that you can create. He provided an example from a company called Misys where a process can take up to three years. Using Crystal Ball they were able to develop a model, simulate it and be able to optimize their process within hours, delivering improved service to the customer immediately.
Where can you apply simulation? 

Product and process design 
Project management 
System design
Larry then went through a full example of a loan process simulation. 91 hours was the base case to process a loan -- with a standard deviation of 40 hours. Looking at the sensitivity analysis you can see a certain step represents 68.7% of all variability in cycle time. There were two other delays, but basically the simulation told you enough to go speak to the document verification process to tackle the biggest issue. A separate inventory optimization with uncertain demand example was presented as well.
If you would like to learn more about simulation, you can read an article written by Dirk Jordan of Motorola published a few weeks ago on iSixSigma and entitled "Using Monte Carlo Simulation as Process Control Aid." If you haven’t taken a look at simulation as a tool for your Black Belts’ toolbox, you should. I used simulation when I was at GE working on my first Green Belt project and it was instrumental to the improvement and savings of the project.
Check in later for an update on the Valuable Connections Reception at The Outback Oasis where I’ll be debating the pros and cons of modeling and simulating an automotive assembly line with a Poisson distribution after I’ve had a couple of drinks. ;)]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Cyger]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 07 May 2007 16:59:03 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Networking &quot;Chicago Style&quot;]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/networking_chicago_style.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Last week I joined several of my colleagues in Chicago to participate in the Conference Board’s 2007 Six Sigma Leadership Conference.    More than 115 Six Sigma leaders gathered to network and learn more about how companies are “Leveraging  Lean and Traditional Six Sigma to Optimize Business Process Delivery”.   
Mike Kirby, Deputy Under Secretary of the Army (Business Transformation) enlightened us concerning the largest deployment ever undertaken by a single entity – the U.S. Army.  Denis Gallagher, Vice President Six Sigma at Quest Diagnostics and Leslie Behnke, Vice President Business Excellence CIGNA Corporation gave us a glimpse of how Six Sigma can be effectively applied in the medical diagnostic and healthcare industry.
These were just a few of the numerous speakers that openly shared their experience.  In addition to an awesome speaker line-up,  the conference provided a terrific opportunity to network with Six Sigma professionals who have a keen interest in finding new and innovative ways that Six Sigma can help their company be even more successful. 
Networking by definition is a supportive system of sharing information among individuals and groups having a common interest.  Organizations like The Conference Board,  iSixSigma, IQPC, ISSSP and others offer a wide choice of opportunities and locations for Six Sigma professionals to network.  There is always something to learn and someone to meet.   Taking advantage of these opportunities is just one more way to keep in step with what’s going on in the world of Six Sigma!]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Gianna Clark]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;General]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:55:25 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: General Colin Powell on Leadership]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/general_colin_powell_on_leadership.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Keynote address at the 8th Annual Six Sigma Summit in Miami, Florida, USA
The Six Sigma crowd was on their feet before General Powell even said a word.  The General launched his address by telling us he got an A in statistics at The George Washington University.  That made all of us Six Sigma data heads happy.  Now that he was in good with the crowd he went on to tell stories from his personal career that demonstrated effective leadership.  A few of his thoughts paraphrased:
“Any manager who is not taking the most junior person in the company and listening to his/her innovative ideas is not being a good leader.”  He told the story about a time when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and let the most junior guy at the table tell him his ideas. And again as Secretary of State he had the action officer (lowest person) brief the President on a situation.  This sent a message of trust throughout the department, and did wonders for morale.  
“It is empowering to know that you can take your idea to the top of the organization.”  As Brigadier General, Powell consistently kept to the same walk routine in the afternoons.  This simple action sent a message to his subordinates that they could always reach him. They often caught up with him to talk directly to him, because they knew they could.    
“Our openness is our greatest weapon in fighting terrorism.” America will remain an open welcome place.   Even with the anti-American attitudes we’re still the trusted source for diplomacy.  We’ll be fine, as long as we remain open, follow the constitution, and believe in ourselves. “Leadership is about solving problems.  The world brings their problems to America.”  He told the inside story about how he resolved the July 2002 island conflict between Morocco and Spain – all from his home office over a single weekend.   His incentive for solving it so quickly…his grandkids were coming over to swim.  (Read the CNN article Spain, Morocco defuse islet row).
To demonstrate effective mentoring he told the story about the time he lost his pistol.  This story is also told in his autobiography “My American Journey” and can be found online by reading Excerpts from My American Journey on the 3rd Armored Div. History website.
The General gave us one last laugh and made his exit as if he were George Costanza, “Alright! That’s it for me. Goodnight everybody.”  
I had personally hoped he would talk more about the similarities and differences between leading in government and leading in the corporate world.  But I was not disappointed in the least.  General Powell is revered by many including the Six Sigma community – from standing ovation to standing ovation Powell filled our hearts and minds with the power to lead.  I was even lucky enough met him, shake his hand and get a picture.  It was humbling to shake the hand of a man who has spent his life serving and protecting the United States of America and who has no doubt shaken the hands of many of the leaders of the nations of the world.  ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:05:44 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: 8th Annual Six Sigma Summit: Photos]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/8th_annual_six_sigma_summit_photos.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Below are a few pictures from the IQPC Six Sigma Summit in Maimi.   

Jami Smith from Expedia.com singing with the entertainment. Next year Jamie should "be" the entertainment.  She can sing!  

Fellow blogger Gianna Clark, Managing Director of Six Sigma at Dominion, meeting General Colin Powell.

Your very own iSixSigma:  Michael Cyger, Michael Marx and Managing Editor of iSixSigma Magazine, Jessica Harper.  

Kathi Swagerty and Rick Murrow of Air Academy.

Jessica Schneider of Breakthrough Management Group.

John Hubbs, Kim Bruce and Robert Gettys of George Group

The SBTI team: Joe Ficalora, Ian Wedgwood, and the lovely Debby Sollenberger.  

Tim Kelley and Smita Skrivanek from MoreSteam.

The Minitab crew.  Jeffrey Harpster, Cate Twohill, Jeff Ozarski, and Chris Paret. ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 26 Jan 2007 12:54:16 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Ellen Bovarnick, Nortel Networks]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/ellen_bovarnick_nortel_networks.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Ellen has personality.  She tells it like it is.  She is a recent addition to the “turnaround team” at Nortel Networks.  As the VP of Lean Six Sigma and Global Quality, she laid out Nortel’s plans to execute on their new Lean Six Sigma initiative launched in April last year.  

“Lean Six Sigma will be the largest continuous improvement and quality initiative in Nortel’s 110-year history.” - Mike Zafirovski, President and CEO of Nortel
Ellen said that the Nortel deployment will be more intense than GE’s deployment.  As I recall Jack Welch said of Six Sigma, “Six sigma will be the biggest, the most personally rewarding, and, in the end, the most profitable undertaking in our history.”  So it looks like Mike Zafirovski may still have a couple of GE plays up his sleeve.   
Nortel will focus the deployment on four “Big Y’s”

Customer Satisfaction (Responsiveness and Delivery)
Time to Market (Revenue)
Cash (Days Sales Outstanding &amp; Inventory)
CoPQ (Cost of Poor Quality)
Nortel Six Sigma Deployment stats:

Total leadership change in 2005 -- GE and IBM backgrounds are in charge now
Six Sigma training goals – by the end of 2007 1 percent of employee base will be Black Belts and 2 percent Green Belts.  Do the math, that’s 300 BBs and 600 GBs
All BBs will be internally hired and will serve for 30 to 36 months (Ellen thinks that 18 to 24 months, the typical BB assignment, is not long enough to get the best out of them.  
Green Belts will be trained in powerful thinking, not statistics 
Nortel will have 14 MBBs some internally hired some recruited
Curriculum has moved from DMAIC to more integration with Lean and Design for Six Sigma.
Learning points

LSS powerful in improving the pace and quality of innovation
Focus on facts and data effectively neutralizes historical bias and emotional attachments
Involve product developers
Address known pain points, build credibility quickly
Consider the whole system first then customize to meet business and customer needs
Ellen really went into it differentiating between using the “Six Sigma” tools and solving problems.  She said, and I paraphrase, “It’s not about using the tools. It’s about listening to the data, and really understanding what the root cause is.”  
The Nortel deployment is looking very promising.  Patterned after GE, it will have the added asset of hindsight to overcome the roadblocks that GE faced.  Plus the technology available today will greatly assist Nortel in launching their enterprise-wide initiative, technology that GE just didn’t have back then.  
I asked Ellen about the level of visibility and transparency that the public will see.  She assured me that Mike will continue to share information with analysts and the public alike as he has done since the announcement of Six Sigma.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:26:07 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Don Linsenmann: The Man, the Myth, the Comedian]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/don_linsenmann_the_man_the_myth_the_comedian.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Don Linsenmann, VP Business Process Excellence &amp; Corporate Six Sigma Champion at DuPont delivered a superb presentation on Tuesday.  If the only two people I heard this week were Don Linsenmann and General Colin Powell, I would have been satisfied.  
Once again, Don reviewed the faces of Six Sigma with his Rubik’s Cube analogy.  Each color/side of the cube represents a face of Six Sigma:  Strategy, Leadership, Management, Methodology, Technology, People.  
Don explained that today we have a new challenge – the 4x4 Rubik’s cube.  It’s not linear like the 3x3 cube, it’s exponential.  This generation of Six Sigma does not focus on defect reduction, or cost reduction – It is all about value.  
He passed an actual 4x4 cube around the room, giving people a shot at solving one side.  The United Airline attendee did very well, she got 7 squares on the blue side.  The Home Depot guy tried real hard and got all but three of the Orange side.  Then a smart engineer got all but one square of the green.  It was a good lesson in complexity.  All the while Don entertained, taught and shared his insights into what it takes to build a successful Six Sigma deployment:
Critical success factors for Six Sigma

Leadership commitment
Resource commitment
Data/technical rigor
Mechanism track results to the bottom line
Integrating all the pieces/innovating opportunities
Seven Key Innovation Tools 

Value chain analysis RMA/RVA (Rapid Market Assessment/Rapid Value Assessment)
Rank order priority list
Multi-generational offering plans
Technology road map
Comprehensive program management
Program staffing resource matrix &amp; project budget
Stage gate management and project execution
DuPont deployment stats:

Validated over $3 billion in Six Sigma savings. 
22,000 Green Belts (out of 24,000 employees) - That’s 92 percent of the company!
There is no doubt DuPont is committed to driving Six Sigma clear into the 22nd century.  Who knows, by then Black Belts may be synthetic intelligences manufactured by DuPont with the purpose of carrying out all Six Sigma projects to perfection....and in their spare time, they’ll wear LYCRA stretchy pants and play with Rubik’s Cubes…just for fun.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 24 Jan 2007 23:32:41 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: 2007 Six Sigma Excellence Award Winners]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/2007_six_sigma_excellence_award_winners.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I just came from the award gala dinner...and the 2007 Six Sigma Excellence Award Winners are:
Award for Best Defect Elimination in Manufacturing Project- Sponsored by Minitab
Winner: Delphi Thermal Systems - 2007 930 HVAC Module Snap Case MachineHonorary mention: Delphi Corporation - Process Optimization to Significantly Increase Product Strength
Award for Best Defect Elimination in Service &amp; Transaction Project- Sponsored by JMP
Winner: Dominion – Electric Load ForecastingHonorary mention: ADT Security Services – Reducing False Alarms from New Residential Customers 
Award for Best Innovative Six Sigma Project - Sponsored by George Group
Winner: Delphi Thermal Systems - Residential Air Conditioning Application Honorary mention: Delphi Thermal Systems – 2007 930 HVAC Module Snap Case Machine 
Award for Best Design for Six Sigma Project - Sponsored by SBTI
Winner: Tyco Safety Products - Visible Source Tag Development Honorary mention: Delphi Packard Electric – High frequency connection development 
Award for Best Lean Six Sigma Project - Sponsored by six sigma IQ
Winner: Christus Schumpert Health System – World Class Revenue Cycle Honorary mention: Lockheed Martin – Missiles and Fire Control - Lean Material Center
Award for Best Six Sigma Project in Financial Services - Sponsored by iSixSigma Magazine
Winner: Christus Schumpert Health System- World Class Revenue Cycle Honorary mention: Tyco International/ADT Security Systems - Increase Sales to Relocating Customers
Award for Best Six Sigma Project in Healthcare - Sponsored by ISSSC
Winner: NY Presbyterian Hospital – Global Throughput Initiative Honorary mention: Firstsource (formerly ICICI OneSource Ltd) – Improve Accuracy on Non-Keyable Claims 
Award for Best Six Sigma Project in Government - Sponsored by the iSixSigma Blogosphere
Winner: JEA – Electric Meter Testing at Commonwealth Improvement ProjectHonorary mention: Dominion – Virginia Legislative Survey Project ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:07:38 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Day One: 8th Annual Six Sigma Summit]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/day_one_8th_annual_six_sigma_summit.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[This week I’ll be blogging from the IQPC 8th Annual Six Sigma Summit in Miami, Florida.  Today’s sessions are over and I must say that I was impressed with the presentations.  My favorite speaker today was, hands down, Don Linsenmann, VP and Corporate Champion at DuPont.  Don is one dynamic speaker.  He’s part comedian, part instructor, and all entertainment.  He shared some great information about DuPont’s deployment; savings, to date, number of Green Belts, critical success factors and seven key innovation tools.  All of which I’ll share in a later post. 
Ellen Bovarnick, VP Lean Six Sigma and Global Quality at Nortel Networks, put on a great Six Sigma show as well.   More from her will come later too.  I also attended the CSX and Allstate presentations.  Both presenters shared excellent data on their deployments, and you guessed it, I’ll be posting that later on as well.  Tomorrow we’ll hear from General Colin Powell, the Keynote address.  I’m really looking forward to hearing him speak.
Tonight, I’m out the door to the Excellence Awards.  Stay tuned this evening if you are interested in hearing who the winners are…]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 23 Jan 2007 17:05:06 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Day Two: Photos]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_day_two_photos.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
Just three of the IQPC team that worked tirelessly to make the conference a success.

The George Group

Larry Goldman and Mark Briscoe of Decisioneering

Eric Nadler of iGrafx

The Instantis Team

jmp on a customer demo

The Quality Group

SigmaFlow showcasing Coach

SixNet Intelligence System

Clark Swain of NIMBUS

Richard Teerlink book signing

The Richard Teerlink Lunch Group
Additional Conference Photos
IQPC Day One: Photos]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 02 Oct 2006 11:30:28 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Day Two: Richard Teerlink, Harley-Davidson]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_day_two_richard_teerlink_harley_davidson.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Richard Teerlink, Former Chairman of Harley-Davidson, taught us that we need to embrace change if we are to be successful.  He opened with a quote from Eric Hoffer:

“In the times of change the learners will inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world than no longer exists.”
In this context he rode through the history of Harley-Davidson up to the 1981 and then talked about the changes they made from ‘81 to ‘85 that brought the company in to profitability again.  He presented the case that people are the only sustainable competitive advantage a company can have.  Below are a few quotes that stood out in my mind on various topics:
Culture:  “Culture begins with employee engagement in and understanding of the values, direction and purpose of the organization”
Change:  “Change is continuous and accelerating.. If you don’t like it, tough.”  
Communication:  “It’s not the words you write the words you say, it’s what you do.”
Organization chart:  “The right people getting together at the right time to do the right thing right.”  
Harley-Davidson Mission Statement: “We fulfill dreams through the experience of motorcycling…”
At the close of his presentation, a conference attendee asked Richard if he has a Harley tattoo…  He responded, “My Harley tattoo in on my heart and soul.”  
Related Conference Blog Entries
IQPC: Day One: Main Conference SessionIQPC Day One: William A. Steenburgh, Senior Vice President of Xerox Services
IQPC: Day One: Brad Dalton, Senior Vice President of Bank of America
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session: Michael Cyger, iSixSigma
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Liam Palmer, HSBC
IQPC Day One: Panel Session: Gaining Buy-in
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Raj Gohil, BP
IQPC Day One: Photos
IQPC Day Two: Richard Goldberg, Cisco
IQPC Day Two: Photos]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;Leadership]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 02 Oct 2006 11:30:05 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Day Two: Richard Goldberg, Cisco]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_day_two_richard_goldberg_cisco.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Day two began with remarks by Steve Dubrow, today’s conference chair.  Richard Goldberg, Vice President of Corporate Quality at Cisco gave a terrific overview of Cisco Lean.  First he explained what Cisco Lean is:
Cisco Lean is going:• From push to pull• From higher inventory levels to inventory reduced across supply chain• From redundant processes to simplified consol and more efficient processes• From higher IT systems complexity to increased flexibility and scalability of IT systems• From good supply chain management to best in class supply chain management
Next he spoke of the Lean change elements:• People – evolving roles• Process- simplify• Tools and systems – process focuses architecture• Strategy execution
And finally Cisco Lean results:• 40 % reduction in inventory to contract managers• Purchase order transition to partners• Component manufacturers accepting purchase orders directly from Cisco
Related Conference Blog Entries
IQPC: Day One: Main Conference SessionIQPC Day One: William A. Steenburgh, Senior Vice President of Xerox Services
IQPC: Day One: Brad Dalton, Senior Vice President of Bank of America
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session: Michael Cyger, iSixSigma
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Liam Palmer, HSBC
IQPC Day One: Panel Session: Gaining Buy-in
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Raj Gohil, BP
IQPC Day One: Photos
IQPC Day Two: Richard Teerlink, Harley-Davidson
IQPC Day Two: Photos]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Thu, 28 Sep 2006 12:04:12 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Day One: Photos]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_day_one_photos.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
We saw the King!

A special sign just for us.

Debby Sollenberger and Joe Ficalora of Sigma Breakthrough Technologies (SBTI)

Tracee Beebe and Bryan Carey of DeLeeuw Associates.

One cool Steve DuBrow of i-Solutions

The one, the only, Chris Paret showcasing the Quality Companion 2.  
Additional Conference Photos
IQPC Day Two: Photos]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 27 Sep 2006 21:59:33 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Raj Gohil, BP]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_day_one_breakout_session_raj_gohil_bp.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Today must be the day for metaphors; Raj Gohil, Process Fitness Master Consultant for BP, Lubricants Americas, taught us what it takes to make a Six Sigma project successful by telling intriguing stories that he learned from his father and grandfather.  He even threw in a Confucius quote. Each story had its own business analogy and the way he told them made for a lively presentation.  
Top 10 Must Dos for a Successful Six Sigma Project
1. Genuine focus on customers2. Global vs. local optimization3. Measurement and process variation4. Risk and failure analysis5. Accomplishing more with less6. Data, data, and data7. “What if…?” analysis8. Mistake proofing9. Performance and controls10. Soft vs. hard skills
Related Conference Blog Entries
IQPC: Day One: Main Conference SessionIQPC Day One: William A. Steenburgh, Senior Vice President of Xerox Services
IQPC: Day One: Brad Dalton, Senior Vice President of Bank of America
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session: Michael Cyger, iSixSigma
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Liam Palmer, HSBC
IQPC Day One: Panel Session: Gaining Buy-in
IQPC Day One: Photos
IQPC Day Two: Richard Goldberg, Cisco
IQPC Day Two: Richard Teerlink, Harley-Davidson
IQPC Day Two: Photos]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:18:17 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Day One: Panel Session: Gaining Buy-in]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_day_one_panel_session_gaining_buy_in.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Next, I attended a panel discussion called “Brainstorming Innovative Techniques to Gain Shopfloor to Boardroom Buy-in.” Panel Members were: 
HT Vassar, Abbot – Ross Products DivisionMerle Schneider, Clinical Research Operations, MerckMatthew Booth, VP Operations Development, Boston Financial
They each gave a quick overview of the beginnings of Six Sigma at their respective companies and then shared lessons learned.  Merck has a good story I’ll likely share later.
The familiar question arose as to which is better, full-time or part-time Six Sigma employees?  HT from Abbot answered with conviction – definitely full time!
Additional questions were asked about how to communicate quick wins to the organization.  Merle at Merck chimed in with the A+ answer.  They host Operational Excellence awards, where the senior leaders attend and the projects as well as the teams are recognized.  
Overall, I felt that the panel participants gave good insights that the audience could take back to their organization.
Related Conference Blog Entries
IQPC: Day One: Main Conference SessionIQPC Day One: William A. Steenburgh, Senior Vice President of Xerox Services
IQPC: Day One: Brad Dalton, Senior Vice President of Bank of America
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session: Michael Cyger, iSixSigma
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Liam Palmer, HSBC
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Raj Gohil, BP
IQPC Day One: Photos
IQPC Day Two: Richard Goldberg, Cisco
IQPC Day Two: Richard Teerlink, Harley-Davidson
IQPC Day Two: Photos]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 27 Sep 2006 16:44:03 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Liam Palmer, HSBC]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_day_one_breakout_session_liam_palmer_hsbc.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Next, I listened to Liam Palmer, Global Head, HSBC Securities Services Best Practice.  He was very entertaining as he talked about Six Sigma at HSBC, specifically teaching us what to do to sustain Six Sigma projects.  He shared a yoga analogy to bring the concept of sustainability home.  
Here’s the short version.  As a runner he wasn’t very flexible and wanted to be able to stretch and touch his toes…so he took a yoga class.  After nine months he was within 5mm of reaching his goal, so the solution to his problem was deemed  a success.  Five years later, can he touch his toes? No. But he can still do the crane pose.
So it is he said with Six Sigma projects.  You often have momentary success when we go through an action to solve a problem.  Three of four years later you’ve still got a solution but it looks like a crane instead of flexibility.  
He then told us more about a project HBSC is working on to improve the accuracy data of client profitability.  The project has potential savings of $22 million.  The key will be sustaining the gains.  Overall a very worthwhile presentation.
Related Conference Blog Entries
IQPC: Day One: Main Conference SessionIQPC Day One: William A. Steenburgh, Senior Vice President of Xerox Services
IQPC: Day One: Brad Dalton, Senior Vice President of Bank of America
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session: Michael Cyger, iSixSigma
IQPC Day One: Panel Session: Gaining Buy-in
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Raj Gohil, BP
IQPC Day One: Photos
IQPC Day Two: Richard Goldberg, Cisco
IQPC Day Two: Richard Teerlink, Harley-Davidson
IQPC Day Two: Photos]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 27 Sep 2006 16:26:23 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Day One: Breakout Session: Michael Cyger]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_day_one_breakout_session_michael_cyger.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I hit four sessions this afternoon.  I couldn’t blog real-time because there was no wireless available…so I’ve found time between sessions to fill you in…
First session, iSixSigma’s very own Michael Cyger, gave a fantastic presentation.  He listed five Six Sigma imperatives and qualified each with company examples and research from iSixSigma Magazine.  The Five Imperatives:
1. Set big goals2. Adapt3. Reduce, reuse, recycle4. Make it personal5. Build leaders
For the "Make it personal" imperative, he cited Mayor Graham Richard of Ft. Wayne, Indiana and his personal approach to building a Six Sigma city.  He likened the common reason that people do not vote – because they do not see the relevance to their personal life – to the reason people do not support a Six Sigma initiative – because they don’t see the relevance in their work.  The answer: make the quest for data personal to employees.  Make it part of their daily routine as the Mayor does. 
Related Conference Blog Entries
IQPC: Day One: Main Conference SessionIQPC Day One: William A. Steenburgh, Senior Vice President of Xerox Services
IQPC: Day One: Brad Dalton, Senior Vice President of Bank of America
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Liam Palmer, HSBC
IQPC Day One: Panel Session: Gaining Buy-in
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Raj Gohil, BP
IQPC Day One: Photos
IQPC Day Two: Richard Goldberg, Cisco
IQPC Day Two: Richard Teerlink, Harley-Davidson
IQPC Day Two: Photos]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 27 Sep 2006 16:14:43 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC: Day One: Brad Dalton, Senior Vice President of Bank of America]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_day_one_brad_dalton_senior_vice_president_of_bank_of_america.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Next up is Brad Dalton, Senior Vice President of Bank of America.  
Brad is talking about a project at BofA to build a single Six Sigma based change management capability – One that will integrate all existing practices and take advantage of the best of them all.  
The guiding principles for the project approach:
• VOC will drive the work• Use DFSS and Lean• Leverage best practices in industry and BofA• Stop spending time and money on conflicting processes and tools.  
What does Michael Angelo have to do with Lean Six Sigma?  It has been said that he said his sculpting is nothing more than removing the stuff he didn’t need and freeing the sculpture from the marble…
Six Sigma analogy--Everything that we need is right here, we just need to get rid of the stuff we don’t need and free the beautiful process inside.
Brad was very energetic, passionate, and very entertaining.  He presented the steps of the project as a story. A very good story.  Excellent presentation.  The best Bank of America presentation I’ve heard.
Related Conference Blog Entries
IQPC: Day One: Main Conference SessionIQPC Day One: William A. Steenburgh, Senior Vice President of Xerox Services
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session: Michael Cyger, iSixSigma
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Liam Palmer, HSBC
IQPC Day One: Panel Session: Gaining Buy-in
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Raj Gohil, BP
IQPC Day One: Photos
IQPC Day Two: Richard Goldberg, Cisco
IQPC Day Two: Richard Teerlink, Harley-Davidson
IQPC Day Two: Photos]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:52:18 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Day One: William A. Steenburgh, Senior Vice President of Xerox Services]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_day_one_william_a_steenburgh_senior_vice_president_of_xerox_services.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Key bullets from Bill Steenburgh, Xerox Services
First he gave us a rundown of the last six years at Xerox:

2000-2002: Xerox losing money on a sustained basis 
2002-2005: Investing for growth 
2005 +: Expanding customer relationships
Then Bill talked about how Xerox has combined Lean and Six Sigma to drive improvement.  He said “you really need to use both Lean and Six Sigma.”  He also reiterated Anne Mulcahy’s commitment to the program.

Lean = Speed plus Low cost 
Six Sigma = Culture plus Quality
Lean Six Sigma summary for Xerox Services:

Close performance gaps – DMA Umbrella Initiatives 
Implement strategic initiatives 
Fully integrated into Service Management Process 
Drive top line/improve customer satisfaction at customer site
Biggest Opportunities at XS

Cross functional initiatives 
Effective utilization of Green Belt projects 
Design for LSS 
Variability/replication opportunities 
Continued alignment of projects/resources with the vital few 
Ongoing succession planning 
Implementation when IM/Technology required , but limited funds available.
It’s good to see that even mature Six Sigma companies still see opportunities for improvement.  His final words were advise to getting to the “A” path of sustained commitment:

Change culture and leadership behavior 
Link projects  to business strategy 
Link projects to customer value
Related Conference Blog Entries
IQPC: Day One: Main Conference SessionIQPC: Day One: Brad Dalton, Senior Vice President of Bank of America
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session: Michael Cyger, iSixSigma
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Liam Palmer, HSBC
IQPC Day One: Panel Session: Gaining Buy-in
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Raj Gohil, BP
IQPC Day One: Photos
IQPC Day Two: Richard Goldberg, Cisco
IQPC Day Two: Richard Teerlink, Harley-Davidson
IQPC Day Two: Photos]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:23:20 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC: Day 1: Main Conference Session]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_day_1_main_conference_session.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Today is the opening day of the IQPC Lean Six Sigma Summit West 2006. Roxanne O’Braskey, President of ISSSP is the conference chair today.  Roxanne is a wonderful speaker.  She show so much passion for Six Sigma when she speaks about it. She’s pumped us up to hear and learn from the presenters today.
We’re about to hear from William A. Steenburgh, Senior Vice President of Xerox Services...  
 
 
 
Related Conference Blog Entries
IQPC Day One: William A. Steenburgh, Senior Vice President of Xerox Services
IQPC: Day One: Brad Dalton, Senior Vice President of Bank of America
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session: Michael Cyger, iSixSigma
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Liam Palmer, HSBC
IQPC Day One: Panel Session: Gaining Buy-in
IQPC Day One: Breakout Session, Raj Gohil, BP
IQPC Day One: Photos
IQPC Day Two: Richard Goldberg, Cisco
IQPC Day Two: Richard Teerlink, Harley-Davidson
IQPC Day Two: Photos]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 27 Sep 2006 09:41:14 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Lean Six Sigma Summit West, Las Vegas]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_lean_six_sigma_summit_west_las_vegas.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[This week I’m in Las Vegas for the IQPC Lean Six Sigma Summit West.  The event last year was fantastic.  This year I’m looking forward to the keynote from Richard Teerlink, former Chairman of Harley-Davidson.  There's also a nice line-up of speakers from The Home Depot, Cintas, and Cisco as well as case studies from Sun Microsystems, Volkswagen de Mexico, and BP Oil and Gas Company.  
The next few days are going to be a feast for Lean Six Sigma folks.  What happens in Vegas shouldn’t always stay in Vegas…so be on the lookout this week for blog entries from the City of Six Sigma.  ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 25 Sep 2006 18:42:26 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Choose Your Ideal Speaker for the Six Sigma Summit]]></title>
			<link>http://blogs.isixsigma.com/archive/choose_your_ideal_speaker_for_the_six_sigma_summit.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Who would you like to hear speak at the IQPC 8th Annual Six Sigma Summit in Miami?  Here’s you chance to be heard.  Please take this short --one question-- survey and choose your ideal speaker for the event in January next year.
To participate in the survey follow this link: http://www.isixsigma.com/miamikeynote07]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Cyger]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;General]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Aug 2006 13:24:49 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Leadership Conference: Recap]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isssp_leadership_conference_recap.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Last week Michael Cyger and I attended the 7th Annual ISSSP Leadership Conference.  I blogged a few of the presentations, but was unable to capture the aura of the event through regular blog entries.  Call it not-enough-time-in-the-given-day syndrome or too much wonderful food to eat (which really slowed down my presentation to blog entry cycle time), I did manage to write a few, but most importantly I gathered some great Six Sigma company deployment info that will be sure to show up in future blog entries. 
If you’ve never attended an ISSSP Leadership conference you are missing out on some good instruction.  The CEO Keynote, this year by Chad Holliday of DuPont, is the chance to listen to a seasoned business leader share personal stories about the successes and “key learning points” of Six Sigma.  
The Valuable Connections Reception (party) held in the Outback Oasis (sweet backyard) of the president of ISSSP’s (Roxanne’s) home is the best Six Sigma networking event you could possibly attend.  This year’s VIP list included Mikel Harry (everybody knows Mikel), Tim Tyson (CEO Valeant Pharmaceuticals), and Mike Carnell (the infamous iSixSigma discussion forum poster).  I talked with Mikel Harry for less than a minute before someone more important than me needed him…never even came close to Tim Tyson, but spent a good while talking with Mike Carnell about the Six Sigma success stories at his client Lonmin.  
The rest of the week was a balance of Six Sigma workshops and leadership training. The one drawback, there’s just not enough time to sit in on all the shows.  It’s hard to choose which session will bring the most reward. My advice – follow your bliss, don’t try to soak up too much, get to know the people that are there.  Attend the leadership and soft skills training workshops.  As I’ve heard at each of the conferences I’ve been to, Six Sigma is the easy stuff…it’s the people thing that's the hardest.  ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 May 2006 15:58:38 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Lance Secretan, ONE]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/lance_secretan_one.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[At an event where the most common number mentioned is SIX, it was really nice to hear a presentation where being ONE was more important than being SIX.  Lance Secretan is inspiring.  His presentation, ONE, The Art and Practice of Conscious Leadership, delivered at the ISSSP Leadership Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, was a welcome deviation from the Six Sigma mean.  
He created a room of trust with his voice while he shared stories of real people consciously changing their lives for the better.  

“Whenever we are happy or inspired we are one with what and whom we love. Whenever we are not, we are separate from what and whom we love. This explains all our lives adventures.”  
Simplistic yet true.  So our journey towards becoming ONE is stepped in practicing the CASTLE principles.  “All the castle principles are in us already.  We do not need to learn anything new but we do need to rediscover them.”
C.A.S.T.L.E. Principles: Courage, Authenticity, Service, Truthfulness, Love, and Effectiveness.  Lance explained each CASTLE principle with a story, a real story about real people who exemplified each principle.  As the session ended and we all started shuffling off to lunch, “One” by U2 proudly played like an anthem in the background.  
The entire presentation including the stories accompanying the slides can be downloaded from Lance’s blog.  This isn’t the exact presentation (the graphics were much more professional in his live presentation) but the same stories are all in the notes section).  
I also attended the detailed workshop with Lance, where he took us out of the typical classroom lecture structure.  We formed small circles of groups and talked about the Courage principle.  Sharing stories from our lives where we used courage to get through a difficult time or event.   Lance then asked us to think about a current event or problem we are having, personal or work related, and then use the same level of courage we had shown earlier, to get through it and to commit to an action that will get us started.  
Thank you Lance for inspiring us to become ONE on our journey towards being SIX.  ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;Leadership]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 May 2006 13:36:57 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Leadership Conference: Charles Holliday, DuPont]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isssp_leadership_conference_charles_holliday_dupont.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[The general session opened with Chad Holliday, CEO of DuPont.  His presentation was titled “Six Sigma from the 9th Floor” (the ninth floor being his office).  He spoke with confidence, wisdom, energy, and humor.  I’m sure it takes all that and more to be a CEO.  
The main takeaways of his message (two pieces of learning as he called them) that I’ve heard reiterated in several other presentations over the past two days, are these:
First, don’t dishonor what is already going on at the company.  Meaning, do not put down the previous quality and improvement efforts.  Build upon them.  Second, you’ve got to keep renewing the Six Sigma energy.  
Chad Holliday leads by example.  He spoke about his own Green Belt project that involved the communication to investors process and when asked if he plans another one he said he is thinking about it.  He is currently involved in three other Green Belt projects as a team member.  
Five additional points he spoke to that enable the success of a Six Sigma initiative:

Commitment of senior leadership
Full-time Six Sigma resources as project leaders and change agents 
Visible data, tracking and results
Six Sigma must be integrated into vision, strategy, and tactics
People!  
Chad Holliday was also honored with the ISSSP Six Sigma premier leadership award.   ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 May 2006 08:51:36 -0800</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Leadership Conference: Six Sigma and Innovation Workshop]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isssp_leadership_conference_six_sigma_and_innovation_workshop.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I’m here at the ISSSP Leadership conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.  Not a far trip for me as I live in Phoenix, but to beat the traffic I’m staying at the hotel.  The Westin Kierland Resort and Spa is spectacular.  I brought my family along with me to enjoy the pool (since I sure wasn’t going to have any time to swim).  
Day one was the warm up.  I sat in on two workshops.  The first run by George Byrne and Monica Painter of IBM Global Services.  Their presentation titled, “Using Lean Sigma to Expand the Innovation and Growth Horizon” was based on the study they conducted this year called “Global CEO Study 2006: Expanding the Innovation Horizon”. We discussed what innovation is and how Lean Sigma can help get us there.  
First, the definition of innovation according to IBM: “New ideas or current thinking applied in fundamentally different ways resulting in significant change.”  As groups we collaborated to refine or expand this definition and decided that the result of “significant change” was not enough.  The new thinking needs to add significant value as well!  
The Myths and Realities around innovation:  

Myth: Innovation means developing new products and services…Reality: Business model innovation matters.
Myth: Innovation is too critical and propriety to involve outsiders…Reality: collaboration is indispensable to innovation.
Myth: Innovation should be delegated…Reality: Innovation must be orchestrated from the top.
The workshop was very interactive.  Not a lot of lecture, but facilitation.  Getting companies to share their stories was a great way to learn.  ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Thu, 18 May 2006 18:14:03 -0800</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Leadership Conference]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isssp_leadership_conference.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Later this month (May 16-19) the International Society of Six Sigma Professionals will host the 7th Annual Six Sigma Leadership Conference in warm and sunny Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.  I attended the event last year and had a great time.  You can read my blog entries from last year here.  
This year Chad Holliday, Chairman and CEO of DuPont, will be the keynote.  DuPon’t Six Sigma program is exemplar.  His words will no doubt inspire.  
I’m also looking forward to Joseph Grenny of VitalSmarts teach about managing those “crucial conversations,” which often get in the way of Six Sigma success.  His presentation and workshop last year were outstanding.  This year Lance Secretan will share the practice of Conscious Leadership through living the CASTLE Principles -- Courage, Authenticity, Service, Truthfulness, Love and Effectiveness.  (To learn more about Lance and his work read his blog).  Dave Timmons will also entertain and educate us with his ensemble "Six String Leadership Meets Six Sigma."
What I really enjoy about the ISSSP Leadership Conferences is that they really are less about the nitty-gritty of Six Sigma more about learning the secrets of effective leadership, which are applicable far beyond managing a Six Sigma deployment.  Hope to see you there. ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 03 May 2006 17:32:53 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Day Two: IQPC DFSS Conference, Chicago]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/day_two_iqpc_dfss_conference_chicago.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Over the last two days many of the presenters have all touched upon a common theme:  The hardest part of a Design for Six Sigma implementation is not the technical aspects of DFSS, but the organizational challengers, the soft side of the equation. Success is more about influencing the people than using the methodology.  
Today’s presentations included, Raytheon, Boston Scientific, AMETEK, CSC, Ansell Healthcare, and NewYork-Presbyterian.  A highlight for me today was the presentation by Ed Craven of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.  He outlined their Six Sigma program in great detail, which I will no doubt post to the blog.  
In speaking with many of the conference attendees, they all agreed that the conference was very helpful.  From networking to learning new techniques, the attentive attendee takes away a bit of knowledge to steer their DFSS implementation towards greater success.  ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Sat, 22 Apr 2006 20:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Day One: IQPC DFSS Conference, Chicago]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/day_one_iqpc_dfss_conference_chicago.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I’m in Chicago attending the IQPC 8th annual Design for Six Sigma conference.  Today’s events included presentations from HP, Bank of America, Bechtel Nevada and Motorola.  Joe Ficalora, of SBTI, chaired the day.  For the DFSS enthusiast today was a feast.  To anyone else it probably sounded like an acronym convention.  
I really enjoyed the presentations by CMC Electronics, Bank of America and Motorola. Alexandre Boussetta, Director of Six Sigma at CMC Electronics quoted someone at his company who said “The hard stuff is the soft stuff”.  Meaning it is the soft skills, it is the people management, change management that is the hard part of DFSS, not DFSS itself.  Tom Judd of Motorola agreed, and said to the effect, “the tools part is the easy part, it’s the people that are tough.”  
I enjoyed the practical illustrations of DFSS at Bank of America.  Richard Paxton called them “real world applications of DFSS” where voice of the customer drove the projects.  They included a project to simplify account moves from state to state, one that enabled real-time online banking, and a project that created senior citizen friendly banking centers.
The real value in attending these conferences is the people side of the equation -- networking with others.  There is a lot to be learned in the conference room as well as outside.  
I’ll have more tomorrow.  Stay tuned.  (Day Two)]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Thu, 20 Apr 2006 20:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Rudy Giuliani, Lessons on Leadership]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/rudy_giuliani_lessons_on_leadership.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Rudolf Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, spoke to a large audience of Six Sigma professionals on Wednesday, January 25 at the IQPC 7th Annual Six Sigma Summit in Miami, Florida.  He gave the group sound advice for developing leadership skills through six principles, each explained through stories from his own experiences.  I’ve summarized a few key points from each principle.
Rudy’s Leadership Principles: The most important lessons in developing leadership.  
One:  The single most important thing that a leader must be is a person of conviction. To be a leader you have to have convictions, set of rules, ideas, know what you stand for, know what is important to you.  There is nothing more powerful than ideas.  Rudy’s role model for this principle was Ronald Reagan.  He also spoke about Martin Luther King and Jack Welch as men of ideas.  
Two:  It is critically important to know how to use accountability, normally defined as what you require of other people.  Rudy defined accountability further: the ability to take that goal, that vision, and make it quantifiable, or in other words, accountability is figuring out how to measure what you are trying to achieve.  Rudy used two examples from NYC; Comstat, the program he instituted to reduce crime, and Jobstat, the program to decrease the number of people on welfare.
Three:  Leaders must have courage, the courage to take risks.  He asked this question: Does fear immobilize you or do you use it to become more productive and more effective?  You should only let fear motivate you to prepare.  
Four:  To be a leader you have to understand ethics, both work ethics and moral ethics.  “Work ethics means you cannot accomplish anything without preparation and hard work” and he noted this is especially true of the person in charge. You cannot get people to work hard if you don’t work hard.  Also, you have to have a sense of right and wrong and you have to deliver it to your organization.  Messages of ethics have to be given from the top.  
Five:  Surround yourself with very effective people.  Leadership is a team sport.  Biggest illusion that happens sometimes with leaders is that they begin to believe that it is all about them.  It’s not, it’s just the opposite.  If they can identify their weaknesses and surround themselves with other people to help, they’ll be successful.  A leader has to be self-analytical.  
Six:  Have a positive attitude.  A leader must be an optimist.  Example of optimists:  Ronald Reagan, Dr. King, and Winston Churchill.  If you can’t see your organization improved, or your vision realized, how can you expect to get it there?  You have got to envision success.  He said this principle has worked for him in every situation except for one, playing golf.  
The standing ovation proved that the audience enjoyed his words.  I was proud to stand and show my thanks to Rudy, not only for his lessons on leadership but for his inspiration.  He truly embodies the leadership principles he taught.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;Leadership]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jan 2006 12:42:17 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Baking with Gianna Clark]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/baking_with_gianna_clark.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[IQPC Six Sigma Summit 2006: Day 2
Gianna Clark, Managing Director Six Sigma, Dominion
Gianna Clark is full of energy! Her presentation entitled “Maintaining Six Sigma Momentum, Recipe for Success” was indeed a recipe with real ingredients and instructions to baking up Six Sigma success.
The staple ingredients are: Projects, Engagement, Metrics, and Sponsorship.  With the right mix of each, throw the secret ingredient, Passion into the bowl, and BAM!, you’re baking a Six Sigma masterpiece. (Gianna was excited to use Emeril’s BAM! in her presentation).  Passion is the secret ingredient because the more passion you have, the less time it takes to bake.
One quality take-away is what Gianna said at the end of the presentation; if you don’t have all the ingredients, just do what all Mom’s do, improvise.  It is clear that Gianna has plenty of the “secret ingredient” to share.  To read more advice from Gianna on implementing Six Sigma, read her blog! ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;General]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Bank of America, Milton Jones]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/bank_of_america_milton_jones.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[IQPC Six Sigma Summit 2006: Day 1
Milton Jones, Global Quality and Productivity Executive, Bank of America
Mr. Jones speaks often at the Six Sigma conferences.  Bank of America is one of the most vocal Six Sigma companies, updating their continuing story of Six Sigma every step of the way.  He started off with their numbers: 5000 Green Belts, 400 Black Belts, and 100 MBBs (as well as over a billion dollars in savings).
Bank of America has two goals over the next 12 months.  They will focus on execution, and game changers.  Three examples where they are using Six Sigma to “change the game”: 

Universal bank, becoming a financial supermarket, creating value for customers.
New product introduction (NPI): Keep the Change™ product.
SiteKey™: two way identification for information security.   
What’s next at Bank of America? 

Six Sigma for enterprise wide staffing and recruiting process.
Six Sigma engineers have world class business acumen, training and coaching.
Streamlining of internal Green Belt certification to increase the yield of those trained to those certified.
Focus on intellectual capital.
Overall, a positive outlook for Bank of America.  Six Sigma is helping them reach their goal, to become the most admired company in America.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;General]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jan 2006 21:01:46 -0800</pubDate>
		</item>

		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: iSixSigma Sponsors Two IQPC Six Sigma Excellence Awards]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isixsigma_sponsors_two_iqpc_six_sigma_excellence_awards.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Later this month, IQPC will host the 7th Annual Six Sigma Summit in Miami.  At the conference will be keynote speaker Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York.  I am excited to attend the event and am looking forward to hearing him teach his lessons on leadership through the worst of times.  Other speakers include Don Linsenmann, Corporate Champion at Dupont and Gianna Clark (our very own iSixSigma blogger!), Managing Director of Six Sigma at Dominion. 
The presentation of the Six Sigma Excellence awards is one of the highlights of the event and iSixSigma is proud to sponsor two awards new to the line-up this year. iSixSigma Magazine will present the award for best Lean Six Sigma project and the iSixSigma Blogosphere will present the award for best Six Sigma Project in Healthcare. We are very pleased to recognize the achievements of business professionals who strive to achieve the best for their organizations.  
The IQPC Six Sigma Summit is the largest gathering of Six Sigma professionals in the United States.  There is no better place to meet new people, share ideas, and enjoy the associations of a respected business community.  To learn more about the conference and register, please visit: http://www.isixsigma.com/sixsigmasummit2006.    ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Buzz/Press&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;General]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jan 2006 07:57:56 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Summit, Day Two, Mayor Graham Richard]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_summit_day_two_mayor_graham_richard.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Mayor Graham Richard, City of Fort Wayne Indiana, delivered a non-partisan view of why Six Sigma is important for the public sector.  He began by sharing what he wanted each of us to get out of the presentation:

“One hope is that you will think about what you can do in your community, even if it is just inviting an elected official to lunch and sharing with them your passion about Lean Six Sigma and how it can help the government do a better job.”
The Mayor has taken a strategic focus, just like a corporation, to reach the goals and objectives of the City of Fort Wayne.  He shared his campaign story and why he believes “performance is the best politics”.  He won the election in 1999 by a mere 76 votes (he jokes about a Floridian recount) and during his re-election campaign in 2003 he ran performance campaign ads, not negative ads and won by 7,562 votes.  (If only the US government shared his view on performance politics…)
He shared projects and success stories a plenty: 

More than $10 Million saved from Six Sigma
Building permit cycle time reduction for 47 to 12 days
$1.7 Million cost avoidance at wastewater plant
Pothole repair cycle time reduction from 48 hours to 3.5 hours
Lost work days due to accidents from 1841 in 2000, to 346 in 2004
Increase in property damage claims collected
Reduction in street lighting inventory
He closed with the challenge: “What have you done in your community to promote high performance government?”  His suggestion was simple.  We (the Lean Six Sigma advocates) should partner with companies in our cities that are engaged in Lean Six Sigma thinking. Let them help us, by offering plant tours, lending Black Belts, and hosting other awareness events so that the elected officials take notice.
It is clearly up to the public to push quality and systems thinking up to the government table.  With the help and influence of companies that understand the power of Six Sigma, we just might muster up enough excitement that the government can hear us through the political noise, which is most likely much louder than corporate noise.    
Links
Six Sigma, City of Fort Wayne, Indiana
Best Practice: Fort Wayne Adopts Six Sigma Methodology to Improve City Services, The United States Conference of Mayors]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 02 Nov 2005 11:58:36 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: Day Two, IQPC Summit, Gillian Mann, Air Canada]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/day_two_iqpc_summit_gillian_mann_air_canada.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Gillian Mann, Master Black Belt at Air Canada, gave a very enthusiastic presentation at the IQPC Lean Six Sigma Summit West.  Air Canada began their corporate-wide Six Sigma flight in 2002 with GE captains at the helm of their training.  Since then they have been very successful internalizing the program and making it their own.  Gillian gave a quick overview of their deployment:

Today they have 11 Master Black Belts, 51 Black Belts, and over 1,200 Green Belts
Training is done in-house
Over 1200 projects in project database and more than 700 closed projects
They have realized more than $450M in benefits of which over $400M is hard benefits
Best Demonstrated Practices (BDP) is a program used in connection with Six Sigma to leverage best practices across the organization.  To explain the program Gillian said, “In school it is called plagiarism, in business it is called not reinventing the wheel.”  The true definition of a BDP is, “A proven technique or strategy that effectively delivers results and achieves business objectives.”  One example of a BDP at Air Canada is the Six Sigma Express program that helps Green Belts close projects quicker without “short-cutting” the Six Sigma methodology.  
In January, Rita Toporowski of Air Canada will be speaking more about Six Sigma Express at the IQPC 7th Annual Six Sigma Summit in Miami, Florida, USA.  
Articles and Links
Air Canada hopes system spawns savings, July 7, 2003
Six Sigma in the Airline Industry]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Airline&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 01 Nov 2005 16:57:54 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Summit Keynote Speaker, Jack Welch]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_summit_keynote_speaker_jack_welch.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I have to admit that I didn’t think that a satellite session with Jack would be all that great, but I was dead wrong.  The question and answer format suits his leadership style and seeing him up on two giant screens made the grandeur of Jack all the better.  My fellow colleagues Michael Cyger and Dian Schaffhauser have already written excellent blog entries about the session and I will follow with my thoughts on two of his remarks.
First, Roxanne O’Brasky, President of ISSSP, asked a question about choosing a mentor and Jack replied, “If you’re looking for a mentor you might end up with a turkey! Do not fixate on a mentor.  You should be looking everywhere for mentors, taking the best of everyone.”  That reminded me of something my father-in-law has always said. Simply, "you can learn something from everyone.  There is not a person in the world that can’t teach you something."  What Jack and my father-in-law are saying is that you don’t need to look to the big shots, the successful gurus for advice on leadership or business.  You should look for the mentorship qualities in everyone.  Don’t limit yourself to one mentor, open yourself up to learning and you will find that anyone can be your teacher.   
Second, Roger Hoerl asked Jack, “Would you have done anything differently if you had to do over again?” (speaking of GE’s Six Sigma implementation). Jack responded he would have gone right on to Lean Six Sigma.  He also said he would have liked less “puffery” and that there wasn’t anything he couldn’t improve…but was happy about the results.  Interestingly Jack threw the question right back at Roger, “What would you have done differently?”  Roger replied along the lines of slower planning so they could hit the ground running.  This is where Jack emphasized the need for over-the-edge fanatical commitment on the fringe of lunacy: “Without all the proclamations and hype you don’t get above the noise level in the organization. If you pet this thing just right, do you get through the noise?”  According to Jack, slower planning and special care doesn’t put out the decibels required to get through the corporate noise.  Jack knows how to push the needle, and as he suggests, there’s no such thing as pushing the needle too far.   ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;Leadership]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 31 Oct 2005 13:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Summit: Day One, Roger Cockroft, Constellation Energy]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_summit_day_one_roger_cockroft_constellation_energy.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Roger Cockroft, Corporate VP, Business Performance Improvement, spoke brilliantly about the way Constellation energy is using Six Sigma to manage change in their organization.  Constellation Energy is the oldest utility company in the United States and also one of the largest.  Cockroft said that post 911 there were a lot of changes in the organization and they knew they had to change their culture. The company culture was steady as you go and it had been going steady for a long time.  Constellation chose a blended methodology of Six Sigma, change management, project management, and problem solving to effectively address the need for change in the organization.  
The most interesting point he made was the method they used to deliver the value proposition of Six Sigma to business leaders.  They did not say “we are doing Six Sigma to get xx dollars in savings...”  Instead they said this: “Let me help you streamline you getting your goals and objective achieved.  This (Six Sigma) is a process that will help you with your objectives.”  (Gianna Clark recently wrote about this exact theme in her blog entry, Selecting Black Belts.)  Once business leaders understood that Six Sigma was going to deliver on their goals and objectives, they caught on.  
Constellation Energy gets it. They understand that Six Sigma is not about a set of tools used to save money or reduces costs.  It’s about effectively managing change.  It’s about solving business problems. It’s about creating a culture that thrives on improvement.  Cockroft said that whenever they are changing anything in the organization, they use Six Sigma.  It’s always nice to see companies effectively utilize Six Sigma.  They make it their own, and they let the business results speak for themselves.  Constellation Energy is on their way to becoming a Fortune 100 company and Six Sigma is helping them get there.   ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;Energy&nbsp;,&nbsp;Fortune 500]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 28 Oct 2005 18:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Summit: Day One, Roger Hoerl]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_summit_day_one_roger_hoerl.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Roger Hoerl, of GE Global Research, kicked off the conference with a presentation titled, “A fresh approach to integrating Lean and Six Sigma”.  His presentation was quite “Lean” at only 12 slides, but the message was clear…The way Lean and Six Sigma have been integrated in the past is based on faulty assumptions and he suggests a better way. Below are the three faulty assumptions and their correct counterparts:
Faulty Assumption 1: There are “Lean tools” and “Six Sigma tools”Correct Assumption: Neither Six Sigma nor Lean has "invented" tools – Therefore, there are no such things as Lean or Six Sigma tools: each can steal whatever tools it likes
Faulty Assumption 2: Six Sigma works for quality CTQs, but not for waste or cycle timeCorrect Assumption: Roger said that half of his Six Sigma projects at GE focused on reducing waste or cycle time.  Reducing waste and cycle time are CTQ’s
Faulty Assumption 3: Lean is an improvement methodology, comparable in nature to Six SigmaCorrect Assumption: Lean is not an improvement methodology.  It is fundamentally a set of principles (as quoted my Michael George)
He then defined what Lean and Six Sigma truly are, stating that understanding how they are different is key to integrating them: 


“Fundamentally, Lean is a documentation of the key attributes of the Toyota production system.”

"Fundamentally, Six Sigma is an improvement methodology (with a dynamic tool set).”
And finally the better way: Hoerl suggests that applying each initiative according to its strengths – “Six Sigma for its deployment methodology and infrastructure, and Lean for the universal validity of its time-tested principles”, is the best way to integrate them.  
You can bet the next time someone asks me how to use Six Sigma and Lean together, I’m going to refer them to Hoerl.  He’s got more than the answer, he’s got vision. ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Thu, 27 Oct 2005 09:30:00 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Lean Six Sigma Summit West]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_lean_six_sigma_summit_west.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Today was my first full day at the IQPC Lean Six Sigma Summit West, in Las Vegas.  I attended as many events as I could and have met some great people in and out of the Six Sigma world.  
I briefly spoke with Roger Hoerl (still hoping for a more in depth conversation later), joined a conversation between Frank Ducceschi, editor of isixsigma.com, and Mayor Graham Richard of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Mayor is a serious Six Sigma zealot for the public sector.  After listening to him explain how desperately the public sector needs Six Sigma, Frank and I both wondered…just when is he going to run for President of the United States? 
Over the next few days I’ll be posting my thoughts and reviews of the events I have attended, including Roger Hoerl’s presentation on Lean and Six Sigma integration, Roger Cockroft’s overview of Six Sigma at Constellation Energy, and how could I not say anything about the keynote satellite speaker Jack Welch.  It was my first time listening to him speak live.  He was funny, witty, and really engaged the audience with his drilling questions.  He has that CEO legend aura about him.  He gave some great advice not only for Six Sigma implementation, but also for selecting mentors, and what managers should be doing to help their teams excel.  Thanks for the advise Jack.
Conference Post Links
IQPC Summit: Day One, Roger Hoerl
IQPC Summit: Day One, Roger Cockroft, Constellation Energy
IQPC Summit Keynote Speaker, Jack Welch
Day Two, IQPC Summit, Gillian Mann, Air Canada
IQPC Summit, Day Two, Mayor Graham Richard]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:50:10 -0800</pubDate>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: IQPC Lean Six Sigma Summit West, Las Vegas]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/iqpc_lean_six_sigma_summit_west_las_vegas.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[The International Quality and Productivity Center (IQPC) is hosting the Lean Six Sigma Summit West, October 26 - 27, 2005 at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.  I’m looking forward to attending the conference, soaking up the Six Sigma sun, and blogging the events.  Jack Welch will be there via satellite and will take questions…so if you’ve got a question for Jack, bring it. 
Just a few events on my “must attend” list:

Roger Hoerl from GE Global Research is a Six Sigma guru in my opinion.  He will be presenting a fresh and simple approach to integrating Lean and Six Sigma.
Zafar Khan of Coca-Cola will be speaking about their Business Process Excellence program.
Mayor Graham Richard will take us on a virtual tour of Six Sigma at Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Six Sigma made Fort Wayne famous, and Fort Wayne made Six Sigma famous in the private sector.
Roger Cockroft of Constellation Energy will be speaking about the cultural transformation the company has achieved through Six Sigma and Lean.  His remarks will be just what I need for a deployment review of this Fortune 500 company…
As always, it’s great talking to the folks at Minitab, meeting with the Six Sigma consultancies, and networking with the many Six Sigma leaders, Black Belts and Master Black Belts that attend these conferences.  Hope to see you there! ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 12 Oct 2005 10:52:09 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Leadership Conference: Stephen Turnipseed, Chevron Corporation]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isssp_leadership_conference_stephen_turnipseed_chevron_corporation.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Stephen Turnipseed, Lean Sigma Process Advisor, presented an overview of Chevron’s Lean Sigma activity in the San Joaquin Valley Strategic Business Unit (SJVBU).  Although he said Chevron Corporation is only two and a half steps into enterprise-wide deployment of Six Sigma, the SJVBU has benefited from the tools since its first project at a water plant in 1999.  Lean Sigma at Chevron continues to grow and is presently expanding into all of North America Exploration and Production as well as select business units overseas.
The majority of Steve’s presentation was about how Chevron has gone about engaging their business partners in Lean Sigma and he included best practices, success stories, and “must do’s”.   He first addressed the question, “Why involve business partners?” and gave the following answers:

Chevron processes are dependent on / tied to our business partner’s processes 
To make step change improvements in Chevron performance, the performance all along our value stream must improve 
To make improvements in the Chevron value stream, our business partners must be part of the improvement effort 
To make rapid process improvements, we must have a joint effort
Next he suggested alternative methods to working with them (training, consultation) and two ways to define the relationship: contractual or voluntary. Chevron chose to invite their business partners on a voluntary basis which proved to be successful as every one of the invited business partners participated in the program plus Chevron received requests from additional companies to be included in the training.
Steve concludes with a list of ‘must do’s’ when involving business partners in your Six Sigma program:

Create a safe environment for participants 
Develop a supportive, not a punitive approach 
Make it safe for business partners to bring forward improvement suggestions 
Let them know it is OK to point out where Chevron is the bottleneck 
Split direct competitors into separate training events
Keep internal processes of business partners strictly confidential
Examples of joint projects: 

Reduction of oil well workover rig cycle time
Reduction of lead time for Engineering Drawings
Implementing “flow” in above-ground pipe installation and replacement
Improve productivity of installing thermal insulation on aboveground pipe]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;Fortune 500&nbsp;,&nbsp;Oil &amp; Gas]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 05 Jul 2005 14:55:40 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Leadership Conference: Michael Slocum, BMG]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isssp_leadership_conference_michael_slocum_bmg.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Michael Slocum of Breakthrough Management Group (BMG) presented a workshop on Six Sigma and Innovation.  He began with a stream of quotes from innovation authors such as, Gary Hamel, David Kirkpatrick and Peter F. Drucker.  (He said Hamel was his favorite).  

“There are no strategies for creating wealth in the long term that are not driven by innovation.” Gary Hamel
“The challenge …is how to use innovation to reinvent the core of your company in a world where strategies die faster than they used to and where any company that’s not constantly renewing itself is simply becoming irrelevant.” Gary Hamel
“Innovation is business’s lifeblood…”  Gary Hamel
“In today’s economy, good ideas aren’t just good for business, they’re essential for growth.” David Kirkpatrick
“The best way to predict the future is to create it”. Peter F. Drucker.  
After the introduction to innovation he reviewed innovation methodologies such as DFSS and TRIZ (Russian Acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem Solving).  
The highlight of the presentation was an introduction to the “Total Performance Improvement Model”, a methodology that leverages a combination of improvement tools to manage strategic planning, process management, Lean principles, process improvement, design and R&amp;D.  The TPI model is much more than the marriage of Lean and Six Sigma.  It is a family reunion of management philosophies and business improvement techniques all under one grandfather umbrella.  
He capped off the workshop teaching the concept of the “ambidextrous organization”. Introduced in the April 2004 Harvard Business Review, the ambidextrous organization has two sets of eyes, like the Roman God Janus, one set focusing on the past and the present, and one set focusing on the future.  He cited an example of a company that has done exactly this. Sterno, part of Blyth Inc., proactively reinvented its namesake product before the competition did.  Now they control market entry, product cannibalization, and price.  Not their competitors.  Companies today must be courageous and execute this forward and innovative thinking to survive.  
One thing Michael Slocum said that remained with me, “Innovation transcends Six Sigma”.  I think most people will agree Six Sigma is not enough to save an organization from failure.  But I think it is also true that innovation is not enough.  Companies need to manage many factors that play significant roles in the success of the business.  The Total Performance Improvement Model just might be an answer for the company that wants to do it all.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Tue, 05 Jul 2005 09:26:44 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Leadership Conference: Jean O'Connell, 3M]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isssp_leadership_conference_jean_oconnell_3m.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[On Wednesday, June 29th, Jean O’Connell of 3M shared a presentation titled “Six Sigma for Growth: The Customer Project Approach”.  3M is currently focused on engaging their customers in Six Sigma projects.  To date they have jointly worked 400 plus projects with customers such as Estee Lauder, Grainger, The Home Depot, Toyota, Wal-Mart, Motorola, Procter &amp; Gamble and DuPont.  
Jean defined Six Sigma in two ways. First, as an initiative that is linked to business goals and customer needs with leadership development at its core.  Second, as a set of methods and tools that drive data based decision making.
She emphasized Six Sigma at the customer is about "owning the customer pain point" and offered two reasons to do projects with customers.  

To improve the relationship with the customer
There is a specific issue with the customer that needs to be addressed  
She reiterated William Swanson’s remarks on Tuesday regarding the impact Six Sigma at the customer can have on shareholder value and even quoted his words, “customer focus created customer success, customer success drives growth and growth creates shareholder value”.
Finally, Jean shared with us what 3M has learned from jointly working Six Sigma projects with their customers: 

Data determines the price/value solution
Building in executive level contacts is key!
Customer projects enhance customer intimacy
Customer projects allow for leveraging all of 3M’s technologies
Co-location solidifies the partnership
There is an advantage in speaking a common language with customers.  
Raytheon, 3M, and Chevron each shared success stories and lessons learned when taking Six Sigma beyond the company walls and reaching out to customers and suppliers.  This concept was a theme throughout the conference and is something I think we’ll start seeing a lot more of in the future.  ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;Consumer Products&nbsp;,&nbsp;Fortune 500]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Fri, 01 Jul 2005 17:56:43 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Leadership Conference: William H. Swanson, Chairman and CEO, Raytheon]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isssp_leadership_conference_william_h_swanson_chairman_and_ceo_raytheon.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[William Swanson delivered a high energy keynote address packed with insight into Raytheon Six Sigma.  Aside from the details of the tremendous progress they have made since 1999, his advice on leadership was the highlight of his remarks.  Bill said there are four qualities of leadership:  

Confidence: Confidence is knowing your strengths and weaknesses and making your weaknesses strong.
Dedication: Do the best you can on every assignment no matter how small you think they are.
Integrity: Doing what’s right including and especially when no one is watching.
Love: Willingness to sacrifice because you care.  Good leaders demonstrate this quality.
Raytheon is using Six Sigma to enable customer focus.  He said, “Customer focus creates customer success, customer success drives growth, and growth creates shareholder value”.  
Each attendee also received a copy of Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of Management his newest pocket size book featured in the current issue of Business 2.0.]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Aerospace and Defense&nbsp;,&nbsp;Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;Fortune 500]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Wed, 29 Jun 2005 01:34:00 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Leadership Conference: SBTI Workshop]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isssp_leadership_conference_sbti_workshop.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[This is my first post from the ISSSP 6th Annual Six Sigma Leadership Conference.  I’ll be attending the four-day event in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA mingling with the Six Sigma community and, of course, blogging.   
Today, Steve Zinkgraf and Debby Sollenberger of Sigma Breakthrough Technologies (SBTI) delivered a workshop called "Program Revitalization – The Next Evolution of your Six Sigma and Lean Program".  Steve called heavily upon the legacy of Larry Bossidy at AlliedSignal and quoted quite a bit from his latest books.  Bossidy said that initiatives are the change mechanisms of companies and to effectively lead an initiative you must:

Learn the guts of it
Invest time and energy
Pick the right people to initiate it
Be courageous
This advice applies to all initiatives, not just Six Sigma. 
Debby talked about some of the signals that tell you the program could use a rejuvenating boost. Some of the participant comments included a dry project pipeline, Six Sigma resources not being made available and funds for training drying up. She also advised a way to reinvigorate the deployment by extending its reach to include:

Functional processes (such as HR, Marketing, Sales and Legal)
More employees (process owners, awareness training)
Adding additional methodologies such as DFSS and LEAN
Supply Chain
Customers
These suggestions are the building blocks of a mature program.  Countless companies have followed these steps and have built successful and lasting initiatives.   
Steve closed with the "Band of Brothers" speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V.  Recited boldly just as if he were leading an army (he exchanged a few words to give it a humorous Six Sigma twist) he offered it as a speech to reinvigorate the Six Sigma soldiers who may have been defeated by the enemy of a complacent initiative.
It was a very informative and entertaining session.  What made the session valuable was the interaction of the participants.  The sharing of success stories and lessons learned was a highlight for me.  I enjoy learning all I can about how companies are using Six Sigma to improve their business.  
So stick with me over the next few days as I blog the happenings in Scottsdale.  If you can’t attend the conference, this will be the next best thing.      ]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 27 Jun 2005 18:22:36 -0800</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Six Sigma Blogs: ISSSP Hosts Sixth Annual Six Sigma Leadership Conference]]></title>
			<link>http://www.sixsigmacompanies.com/archive/isssp_hosts_sixth_annual_six_sigma_leadership_conference.html</link>
			<description><![CDATA[The International Society of Six Sigma Professionals (ISSSP) will host the Sixth Annual Six Sigma Leadership Conference, June 27-30 in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.  I will be attending this conference and hope to have the opportunity to do some real-time blogging of the events. 
Conference Highlights

Keynote Address: William H. Swanson, Chairman and CEO, Raytheon Company.
Guest Speaker: Joseph Grenny, author of Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations.
ISSSP Leadership Circle: Join Ram Charan, author of Execution and Confronting Reality.
Presentations by successful Six Sigma companies including Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Bank of America, 3M, DuPont, Rockwell Automation, and ChevronTexaco.
Blog entries from this event:
SBTI Workshop
William H. Swanson, Chairman and CEO, Raytheon
Jean O'Connell, 3M
Michael Slocum, BMG
Stephen Turnipseed, Chevron Corporation]]></description>
			
			<author><![CDATA[Michael Marx]]></author>
			
			<category>
			<![CDATA[Conferences&nbsp;,&nbsp;Six Sigma Articles &amp; News]]>
			</category>
			<pubDate>Mon, 13 Jun 2005 06:35:00 -0800</pubDate>
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