So what are the 10 benefits of Lean Six Sigma training?

When it comes to professional development, the world is changing so fast that it’s difficult to identify where you should be spending your valuable time. Should you be investing your time and money into learning excel or in a communication course? How about joining the 151,000 people who signed up to the Complete Digital Marketing Course on Udemy or the 234,000 who are interested in Ethical Hacking. Or join the 86 people (yes, just eight six) who signed up for the Complete PowerPoint 2016 Masterclass?

What makes things worse is that we do not want to invest in a skill or skillset that may disappear through automation, machine learning or AI as many of today’s roles will do. So having an idea of what firms will be looking for is smart. But like most changes, underneath the surface noise, there are fundamental skills which are not changing. For example, the ability to learn and to be good at learning is going to become more important as we are all going to have to be continually learning and developing throughout our careers.in 2016, the World Economic Forum surveyed over 350 executives across 9 industries globally to begin to predict how technological advancement will transform the labour market.

Last month, September 2018, they updated the initial report The Future of Jobs with a focus on the next 5 year period between 2018-2022. You can download the PDF here.

Over the next 5 years, they looked at the top 10 skills in demand. Firstly they focused on what it looks like today, and then what will be trending and declining in 2020.

So let’s understand what are the benefits of Lean Six Sigma training and how these relate to today, but also to the changes we are going to see over the next 5 years. Staying relevant in the job market is going to require a new set of skills.

1. Analytical Thinking and Innovation

As part of the Lean & Innovation training course, there is a key focus on two key elements. From an analytical thinking point of view traditional lean and six sigma approaches provide a toolbox to help break down complex problems into manageable components and root causes to focus improvements. To support with innovation, we also cover the Lean Startup approach and the Lean Canvas to quickly test new ideas through Minimum Viable Products.

2. Active learning and learning strategies

The course, whether you choose one of our online courses or one of the classroom-based courses, are designed around active learning and active participation. Our goal throughout the course is not to fill you with information that you will forget afterwards, but to build and drive your curiosity which will stimulate your own learning. We make examples applicable to your sectors and backgrounds.

3. Creative, originality and initiative

Within the Six Sigma project structure which we call DMAIC (Design, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control), creative comes through during the improve phase. Once we have really understood the root cause, we then have to find ways to solve the root cause. Often this is through a range of actions that can require creative and/or original solutions. Combined with the Lean Startup and Lean Canvas training, we give you a structure to be creative.

4. Technology design and programming

While we will not cover programming, the lean approach has become a very popular approach to programming and development. Many apply the lean startup approach to validated learning and design/development of minimum viable products and then there is agile which moves tech design and programming towards a single piece flow – a key concept introduced by lean. While not directly related, an awareness of lean six sigma and lean innovation will help in understanding the new approaches within this area.

5. Critical thinking and analysis

The DMAIC project management structure is a proven problem-solving approach and methodology. The methodology focuses on the keen analysis and evaluation of data to identify the root cause(s) before any solution is identified. In the real world environment, we often jump to solutions before the critical thinking is complete and we plaster the issue rather than fixing the root cause.

As part of the training, we look at not only how to identify root causes, but how to validate root causes before moving forward into solving them. You will receive mentoring and support during the workshops and mentoring sessions to help you develop the capability and apply it in real-world scenarios.

6. Complex problem-solving

At the heart of Lean Six Sigma is to continually find better ways to create more customer value through continuous improvement. The only way to do this is through continuous problem-solving. Lean Six Sigma provides various levels of certification from a Yellow belt which provides basic problem-solving skills through Green Belt which lends towards complex problem-solving through to Black Belt where not only will the problem be complex, but it will involve multiple stakeholders leading towards complex change management skills.

7. Leadership and Social Influence

As you work through your project, leading your team and managing your stakeholders will be critical to your project success. You can not do the project on your own and the only way to make the project successful is to lead the change through your team. Change is difficult and building your understanding of change management and team dynamics will help build your leadership capability and the influence you have on your team and the wider business.

8. Emotional Intelligence

This is a difficult one to pinpoint exactly and we do not touch this directly. However, as mentioned we do focus on change management and in particular understanding how and why some people accept change but others may be much more obstructive to the change. Understanding how to engage your team and manage your stakeholders will all help develop the EI required longterm.

9. Reasoning, problem-solving and ideation

Combining Lean & Innovation is unique to LeanScape as we believe that the customer value creation is going to be the key future differentiators across the business in the near future. Combining these two provide our candidates to use ideation through the MVP concept to drive customer-focused solutions to identified problems

10.Systems analysis and evaluation

A key skill developed through the Lean Six Sigma training is to be able to understand, visualise and identify ways to improve processes. We will learn how to evaluate processes and identify smarter ways of working. This skill set is transferrable into system analysis and evaluating understanding core activities which go together to make up entire systems. The ability to think in terms of systems will help to evaluate entire systems.

Lean Six Sigma is a meta-skill. It’s not a single tool or skill set that can be applied to one particular situation. It provides a range of tools that support any kind of business improvement activity. It’s the ability to solve a single or multiple pain points across entire businesses. The benefits to businesses of training and developing Lean Six Sigma capabilities is quite easy to justify through Quality, Cost and Delivery measures. But as an individual, the overall benefits are quite diverse and range from concrete skills to more soft skills like project management and people management.

So what are the overall benefits of Lean Six Sigma Training

1.An ability to drive process thinking to identify opportunities

2.Capability to identify Key Performance Indicators

3.Learn how to measure and improve core business KPI’s

4.Develop strong team management skills to drive high performing teams

5.Ability to manage and engage senior Stakeholders

6.Learn and become familiar with core change management skills

7.Deepen over business understanding and acumen

8.Improve your career transition and gain an edge over other candidates

9.Making data-driven decisions in your everyday activities

If you would like to know more about what we offer you can take the first step and have a browse through our Lean Six Sigma Courses. We know that professional development is a commitment so we have designed both a 6-week Online Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Course which gives greater flexibility and we have created 5-day classroom-based courses.

To help, we have also created a simple monthly subscription which gives you access to learnings, webinars and our lean six sigma community so you can join in and make sure the training is right for you. You can find out more here.

Our goal via our Lean Six Sigma Training is to make you into better problem-solvers, to help you drive forward your career and arm you with the tools you need to lead change the way things are done today. The benefits of our Lean Six Sigma courses are that they help you to be comfortable dealing with complex problems, able to drive analytical thinking to identify the right solutions and drive that solution through strong change management skills. Combined with an overview of Lean Innovation, you will be well positioned for strong career growth and more importantly to make an actual difference in what you do. Get in touch if you have any questions at reagan@leanscape.io.