David Shaked of Almond-Insight discusses his book, Strength-Based Lean Six Sigma: Building Positive and Engaging Business Improvement. in a podcast last fall but it was actually the 2nd time David appeared on the podcast. The first time served as a great introduction to me on his Strength Based Approach to Lean and Six Sigma.
In this podcast I asked David what does Lean & Six Sigma have in common with Appreciative Inquiry, the conversation went like this:
Joe: Well, it seems like Lean and Six Sigma is driven by problem solving and looking for problems, and Appreciative Inquiry is saying, “No, no, no!” “Let’s look at the good things.” What do they have in common?
David: They actually do have a lot in common. In the journey that I went with AI and then, later on with other Strength-Based tools, it took me a while to be able to merge the two things. But what they do have in common is the desire for improvement. Also, if you look at some of the principles of Lean, for example, or the mission that is behind Six Sigma, the principles in Lean would like to see the flow. You would like to see value to customer. You’d like to see pull versus push. You’d like to see continuous improvement, and Six Sigma is all about quality. All of these things that I’ve just said are very positive.
They’re not in complete misalignment with AI. AI is also very positive oriented. What confused me initially and what might confuse others is the language we use, or the ways we use, the approaches we use to get there. In Lean Six Sigma, I would actually analyze the defects or the wastes in order to get to value and quality.
Whereas in AI, I would actually look at where are we already creating value or where do we already have some quality? Then, build on that. If you actually look at the end result of what we are trying to drive, you’ll see that they’re very much aligned. It’s only the road we take to get there, which is different.
Transcription and Podcast: Strength Based Approach to Lean and Six Sigma
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