I was struck last week when I picked up “Six Sigma for Dummies” and read the introduction, written by none other than Stephen Covey of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Like me, Covey admires Six Sigma because of “science, the database – and the careful analytic thought processes of problem solving using that data.”
Statements like this never fail to elicit memories of Dr. Deming’s famous quote, “In God we trust, all others bring data.” He also famously said that, “if you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” Six Sigma brings the data, workflow brings the process, but what does Covey bring to the table for business process management?
Covey writing the introduction to a Six Sigma book seemed a bit out of place to me, until I considered one of the most important aspects of business process management: people. People, I’ve found, will be your best allies in trying to improve an organization’s operational efficiency, but, alas, they can also be your own worst enemies. In his introduction Covey states that:
the greatest asset of in any organization is its people—whole people—with their bodies, minds, hearts, and consciences all engaged and contributing, and all receiving benefit in the progress of the organization.
So how does Six Sigma and workflow really provide benefit to all? Here is a quick list of some things I can think of, I’d like to hear from you about other benefits you can see.
- An efficiently run organization whose processes and procedures are not only well understood, but executed in a repeatable manner brings assurance and a more stress-free environment to the employee.
- Employees should be part of the process definition. This engages their minds and gives them ownership of their own destiny (see the excellently written Stumbling on Happiness by Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert for more about this).
- As efficiency rises, and more process data is made available for executives, better business decisions can be made. This leads to a stronger company, hence more job security.
- As six sigma is implemented--with help from workflows--defects in products, customer services, design, manufacturing, etc., are cut dramatically. Like efficiency, workers contribute to this improvement and are (or should be) well compensated for improvement through job security and advancement.
These are just a few of many issues I’ll be exploring in the weeks ahead. I’m fascinated by the interplay between Six Sigma, the Seven Habits, the Capability Maturity Model, and the emerging CobiT (Control Objectives for information and related Technologies) standards. Implemented correctly, these concepts and standards can have very powerfully beneficial impacts on profitability, morale, and sustainability of organizations as a whole, and IT in particular.
