BusinessWeek Online has an interesting article about 3M, particularly about Six Sigma’s stifling effect on the company’s creativity or innovative nature.
It is one insightful article as it narrates the time when 3M realized probably its highest potential with James McNerney, the author of Six Sigma at 3M to today when 3M, which used to be the most innovative company fell to number 7.
Among the arguments raised were: the work of creativity cannot be scheduled, noone can come up with the right idea the first time, and creative work involves many missteps, or in Six Sigma parlance, wastes, before a feasible idea surfaces.
So now the new CEO of 3M, George Buckley, is said to be giving more space to creative work and thus loosening Six Sigma processes in this area.
I think this is a classic example of not seeing the forest for the trees. When people are so concerned about procedures or processes, and failing to understand the whole concept of Six Sigma and what it is for, then this is what happens.
My understanding is that companies who get rid of wastes see the light of day and become more innovative and so they continuously improve their processes. Six Sigma eliminates wasteful processes to give way to some breakthrough innovation.
It’s true that innovation is “a numbers game. You have to go through 5,000 to 6,000 raw ideas to find one successful business,” said Art Fry, the inventor of Post-it notes. But I believe that in this case, those 5,000 raw ideas are not waste at all if it will result in a sound business idea.
In any case, this again validates the claim that Six Sigma is not a silver bullet, that cuts through all barriers.
Source: Six Sigma Zone News Links
*Photo from StockXchng
Well put! I agree 110%.
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