WE’VE BEEN WRITING for years about the value of providing extra education for your employees. Well, this month, for the first time in years, I got some fresh education myself.
The course is called Six Sigma — and while originally developed by Motorola as a system to reduce defects in a manufacturing environment, it has been adapted over time to apply to many other types of businesses.
The core thought behind Six Sigma is that almost every manufacturing and business process can be measured, analyzed, improved and controlled. And that continuously working to improve your systems is the key to business success. And that, to achieve this, you need full ?buy-in? from every single person in your organization.
Not much to argue with here. Big quibble: It can be hard to imagine the techniques working in a creative environment like ours. (But it’s been fun trying.) Small quibble: The methodology uses so many acronyms that I fear my brain has turned into alphabet soup.
Anyway, since I’ve completed only the first hours of a course that will entail nearly 100 hours, further analysis could be humiliating — especially if any Six Sigma “Master Black Belts” happen to be reading this.
But what I most want to relate here is how getting into a classroom again made me feel. Excited. Empowered. And Eager to get started using my brand-new tools. Let’s create our own acronym — “he EEE Effect”.
Want to add a little “EEE” to your store? Get more education … now!
Wishing you the very best business …
David Squires