Think out of the Box Is Outdated, Think in High Definition Instead
Whenever I hear someone say “think outside the box”, I
start to wonder why there is a box in the first place. Personally, I don’t
think inside the box, I don’t think outside the box, I don’t even know where
the box is!
We constrain our self when we box ourselves in. When we do this,
we fail to see solutions outside of the status quo. If you have boxed yourself
in… simply get rid of the box. For me, Lean Six Sigma helps to remove the box.
Think of watching a movie in high definition (HD), can you
recall what an image looked like prior to HD television? Similarly, looking at
the world through the lens of a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or Master Black Belt
provides us a high-resolution and clear image of a problem.
Lean Six Sigma is a skill that will not only improve our
metacognitive capacity, but a skill that will improve our earning capacity as
well. Some of the most successful businesses in the world use this as well.
This one skill set will not only transform the way you think, but it will also
make you extremely marketable to top organizations looking for change agents
and problem solvers.
What is
Lean Six Sigma?
Lean
Six Sigma is an unconventional problem-solving approach that forces you to
literally think outside the box. Some of the most successful people to walk
this planet have used it. Jack Welch used it to transform General Electric and
powerful companies such a Toyota and Amazon use it and similar approaches every
day to radically improve their organization.
Lean Six Sigma is a customer focused and data-driven problem-solving
method with the goal of improving quality, cost, and speed. It uses the DMAIC
problem-solving methodology, where you:
- Define
the problem
- Measure
the baseline
- Analyze
the process and find the root-cause of the problem
- Improve
the process and implement best solutions
- Control
the process and sustain the gains
Lean Six Sigma not only allows us the ability to solve a
problem, but it educates us on what a problem is. A problem is essentially a
gap between how we view reality and what reality actually is. It is a framework
for understanding our paradigm and our mental models within the world we live
in.
Now that you have a basic understanding of what it is and why
you should learn it, let’s take a look at my top 4 tools and techniques within
Lean Six Sigma.
Learning
to See by Mapping Out Your Process
The
first thing we must understand is that we must see the process and stop
operating blind. You can learn to see by mapping out your process.
By mapping out the process from point to point, we find it
easier to uncover waste. Furthermore, by mapping out a process we start to see
an accurate picture with a higher resolution.
5-Why
Are you ready for a technique you mastered at the age of five,
yet you forgot how to use? Simply (and annoyingly!) ask “Why?” over and over
again.
The 5-Why technique is an extremely powerful and valuable tool
allowing us the ability to peel away the layers of symptoms to get to the core
of the problem.
Remove
Waste
Waste in a process is whatever the customer defines it as. Once
the customer defines his or her value, we must then prioritize our value-added
activities.
First, immediately eliminate all non-value added activities that
do not serve a purpose. Second, look at reducing the amount of non-value added
required activities. These are things that add no value, yet are required by
law or regulatory guidance.
One simple way to do this is to ask, “Why are we doing this?”
and “Do we still need to do this?” Third, optimize those value-added
activities, which are the things that are already working.
Pareto
Principle
Using the 80/20 rule (based on the Pareto Principle), we can
identify the 20% of actions causing 80% of the problem. Or looking at it from a
different angle, we can identify the 20% of actions bringing in 80% of the
profit. Named after Vilfredo Pareto, the Pareto Principle uses a Pareto chart,
which is simply a visual aid for identifying “pain” or “opportunity” areas.
Seeing
Beyond the Problem
Lastly,
I recommend Blooms Taxonomy of Learning to determine if you are actually seeing
a problem in HD. This is a good tool to use to make sure you are using your
metacognitive skills and not simply regurgitating information.
- Do you comprehend the meaning of the problem?
- Can you apply the information you have?
- Are you able to break down objects into similar parts and analyze those parts?
- Can you rearrange or assemble ideas into a new whole?
- Are you able to evaluate and judge information based on evidence?
- Can you solve the problem, create something new, and describe your thought process to someone with no understanding of the problem.
Dr. Jamie Schwandt
FOR SKETCHES GO TO
http://www.lifehack.org/635083/think-out-of-the-box-is-outdated-think-in-high-definition-instead
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