Sick Sigma

 

[*Image courtesy of Grantland Cartoons]

Who wouldn't want to be efficient and produce high-quality products and services?  It’s one of those idealistic goals, like exercising five days a week at dawn, cleaning the house before you leave each morning, or religiously staying within your personal budget, that’s hard to argue with. Of course, efficiency and quality control are much more professional and serious than these other ideals, but I lump them together because I wonder if any of them are possible, and if so, at what price?

No doubt your customers or clients deserve efficient, quality service and goods. But to discuss workforce management in terms of “streamlining operations” as if you were referring to pieces of machinery that only need better alignment to deliver greater output, is out of touch. I can imagine it’s comforting to some CEOs and executive boards to think of their workers as a series of levers and knobs that need only be turned a little more to the right or left to refine performance. Naturally, we assume these accomplished men and women are too sophisticated to actually believe their workforces are a system of mechanical devices. But the corporate culture that emphasizes “efficiency and productivity” sometimes sends the message to employees that, indeed, that’s exactly as they’re perceived by management---as a well-oiled or (in these times especially) a rusty engine in need of updating.

So, how do you implement Six Sigma, Lean Management, or some other efficiency/quality measure without forgetting the needs of your workforce?  What effect will the new operations structure have on your employees’ quality of life at the office or manufacturing plant?  More selfishly, you also might want to ask yourself if the new operational structure or process is bearable enough to be carried out long-term?   If you forge ahead the same as if you were refurbishing a printing press or your ’63 Corvette convertible, you’re probably going to experience some “people issues.”  Your more efficient process and operations will be undermined by employee engagement and retention problems. You’ve created a great new system for getting work done. The trouble is many of your workers find it intolerable.

To ensure this Catch-22 style of Six Sigma overhaul doesn’t happen at your company, couple operational and process “improvements” with employee forums that gauge the effect of the new system on the people who will carry it out. Before it’s implemented, ask them what they think of it, and if it’s inevitable because your management gurus have told you it’s the only way to meet your financial and customer service goals, at least ask concerned employees how you can help them transition to the new system.  The (hopefully meaningful) gesture that you care enough to try to ease the blow just might win you some points.  Once the new process and operations are in progress, check back with affected employees once a quarter to see how it’s playing out. Are there new concerns (i.e. new ways my life is miserable now) that have come up?  And are there ways the workers implementing the new system already see to make it even more efficient?  That they’re not automobile engine components is inconvenient in many respects—you have to listen to them complain and experience the repercussions for disregarding their whining—but the upshot of their humanity is they also have potentially beneficial insights to offer.  Along with the “poor me, I have to work so much harder now” conversations, quarterly Six Sigma/Lean Management employee forums may yield innovative ways to boost the new regimen.

In addition, make use of internal Web 2.0 platforms to double-check the livability of your updated processes and operations. How about a Six Sigma or Lean Management blog for affected employees?  Those who contribute blog entries could then be entered into a quarterly raffle for an additional vacation day or $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com, or a local restaurant or store most of them like.  It also would be helpful to provide Generation Y-style access to the executive responsible for overseeing the Six Sigma or Lean initiative. This individual should be prepared not only to receive daily e-mail feedback about the new system; he or she also should be open to receiving and sending on-the-job text messages and photos taken and sent by cell phones from the Six Sigma/Lean frontlines.  You might have to give older workers a tutorial on how to maximize the use of their cell phone so they are able to send the Six Sigma/Lean guru in-the-moment distress messages with pictures to illustrate.

Last, be prepared to swallow your pride about all this Six Sigma/Lean business. It may be one of those management theories that work much better in the abstract than in your office or manufacturing plant. If it’s making employees so unhappy their workplace performance plummets, or an increasing number of them are looking for less efficient, fatter operations elsewhere, there’s a chance Six Sigma is too sick to stay on-the-job another day without further contaminating your workforce.

True, Six Sigma, Lean Management, and other process and operation improvement initiatives are much more serious and sophisticated, than, say, the ideal of eating healthier and exercising to live a longer life.  But there’s a common catch to both of these goals:  You’re more efficient/healthier and you’re producing more high quality output/living longer with fewer diseases, but your workforce/you are miserable.  When employee engagement plummets and resignations soar, your company’s old, less-svelte physique may start looking more glamorous and modelesque.

Have you implemented livable Six Sigma, Lean Management, or some other efficiency and quality initiative at your company?  How did you do it?  Care to share your wisdom for streamlining without misery?