Six Sigma, Regression Equations and Polyester Leisure Suits

Good Morning!

I was thinking back to the days of Polyester Leisure Suits, Six Sigma, regression equations and Lean!

Icons of the 20th century...

All once good...but now passe!

The funny thing is that many people refuse to let go of them...despite what the rest of the world is doing...

This is the 21st century! 

Would you seriously walk into a club dressed in a polyester leisure suit?

Would you attempt to walk into a company with Six Sigma or Lean?

They looked good then...but now?

Times have changed...

Tastes have changed (Thank God!)

Challenges have changed...

Organizational demands have changed...

In the 70's and 80's...I seriously think that people wanted to look that way...and dressed in leisure suits!  (even though I still can't imagine why) 

Management wanted answers to "Why things were happening" and "What they could do"...and Six Sigma rose to the occasion...along with regression equations...

Then company vision switched inward on profitability, truly avoiding the customer perspective...and Lean rose...even though many refused to fully reject Six Sigma (so they created an oxymoron called Lean Six Sigma!) 

Why Leisure Suits,

Why Six Sigma?

Why Lean?

People wanted to look good...(and they still do)...

The world at large thought leisure suits made a person look good...or maybe they saw someone who did look good in a leisure suit and they tried to emulate them...

The sad thing was...the wearing of leisure suits worked!

It gave the men who dressed like that...a better chance to achieve their goal...women!

Six Sigma and Lean are no different...

A few people donned the Six Sigma suit and it worked...

Others stood jealously on the sidelines and watched...they quietly began using the vernacular of the real Six Sigma experts and hoped that their emulation would get them the awe and recognition that the others were basking in...

AND it spread...

Online courses...for Six Sigma certification...not much different than those mail order courses that "guarantee" to take you from a 98 pound weakling...to Mr Universe!

Get real!  There are few Mr. Universes...and the same holds true for Six Sigma...

I can count on my hand the number of effective practitioners of Six Sigma...and I need a calculator to even approach the count of those who stand around and claim this practice...

The glimmer of hope that I am given is that just like leisure suits...Six Sigma and Lean has fallen from favor...and devout practitioners will stick out like a "Lounge Lizard" does in a club...

Like Leisure Suits...Six Sigma and Lean should be relegated to short skits on Saturday Night live...

It did what it needed to do...but as we look back on it...it was corny!

It's "wash and wear" and "wrinkle-free" appearance was simply marketing!

It required work to be what made it work...and the adopters were not willing to work like that!

Some may say that my New Brass Ring (DMADD) is no different...and in 15 years they may be right...

Yet it is working...and effective in addressing organizational issues using the tools of the 21st century...

The new club wear is DMADD!

Come on in...we need people in leisure suits...if only for the humor!
   
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Although regression equations are an integral part of Six Sigma...they are not the invention or property of it...

Regression equations are the formulas for existence!

As I thought this week about leadership...I realized that there is an equation (a recipe) for effective leadership!

In a regression equation...there are 3 important parts...the "Y" variable...or output...the explained or understood factors "X" that contribute to the "Y" and the unexplained factor(s).

Depending upon the teaching method...the equation is Y = (mX) + b  (Does that look familiar?)

Leadership (Y) is a combination of known factors and unknown factors that drive effectiveness...

Some of those factors (explained or unexplained) have positive influences and others negative influences...

on a higher level...

Leadership on a whole (as a science)...has an equation...

except this time...the "X's" are people...

so you as a leader are part of the overall leadership equation...

the question that you have to ask yourself is...

"Am I a positive influence on Leadership...a negative influence (do I give it a bad name) or simply an unexplained variable?"

Do you give leadership a good name or a bad name?

Why?

Are you a competent leader...or something that should be controlled or eliminated?

Should you be part of the leadership equation at all?

Is your influence on the slope of the line positive or negative...

Or...a do you have no influence at all?  (Should you be rejected from the equation?)

Or...are you confounding (Another topic...someday!)

What I am getting at is that your role within the equation has to do with self-honesty...and recognition on your role within the larger equation...

People delude themselves...(these are the ostriches who stick their heads in the sand and refuse to see the dangers)

They see the negative slope of the line and blame that on others rather than take the responsibility for it!

They refuse to change!

These are the people (wearing leisure suits) who vigorously polish the bell of the Titanic (after the interaction with the iceberg) and refuse to see they are on a sinking ship!

They live life as if nothing is wrong...and think that everything is cool!

The 20th century is a memory...much of it makes us cringe in shame...

Get out of those leisure suits...

Stop polishing those bells!

Commit to playing a role that pushes the line of influence in a positive direction...

Enough Said!

Pura Vida!!!!!!

Borrowing from the Future...

Good Morning...

It has been an amazing week...much of the foundational efforts and the seeds that I planted are bearing fruit!

I need not go into details...what is important is the realization of something extremely important for everyone to learn...

I thought about the fact that we operate with a selfish misconception (perhaps we simply have never thought about it) that affects the future...

First of all we believe that our world contains many different unlimited resources...

Things like air, water, land...

The fact of the matter is...everything is limited!

We used to believe that petroleum was unlimited...but we have been hit with the stark reality that "reserves" are dwindling!

The same holds true for fresh water...and land...and guess what?

Air is the same...

There is nothing that is limitless...except for space...and most of that (except for this minute point called the earth) contains absolutely nothing...it is a vacuum...

Our only limitless resource is the epitome of nothing!

Where this takes my thoughts...that we have to be conscious of is...

Everything that we use today takes away from the future...

When you start your car...you use air that your descendants could have breathed!

Everything...EVERYTHING you use today takes from the future and unborn generations who are depending on us to be good stewards...

That was an sobering thought for me!

What about you?

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As I thought about my current successes...I realized that all of the preparatory work is not leading to a culmination...but simply opening a door (giving me a right) for my use of future generations' resources!

So...the question for me is...

When does conservation really begin...

Let me assure you that if we wait until we realize that we are running out...it is too late...

We have to start conserving anything of value NOW!

We have no right to any commonly accepted resource...we are only borrowing it from the future!

We have to stop the unbridled use...and begin minimizing our use and returning anything of value...in greater quantities than our use...

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This is a great concept...simply if we were discussing natural resources...but it goes deeper...

We have many other resources that we unknowingly take advantage of...

Things like...

Forgiveness...

Caring...

Others time...

Favors...

Others efforts...

Others attention...

The list may be long but it not infinite and the fact of the matter is...each of them will run out if not treated like a precious gift...borrowed from the future and returned (when used) in greater portion...

Have you returned more love than you have received?

What about forgiveness?

Or...

Do you give more time to others than you have taken?

What you have done in the past...gives you no right to your use of them with disregard to the future...you are borrowing them from the future...

Even these resources that we unknowingly depend upon are limited...

It is time that we conserve them...NEVER take advantage of them as if there is a bottomless supply...and if we do use any of them...we return them in measure greater than we consumed!

Enough said!

Pura Vida!

Is Seeing Believing?

Good Morning!

I was reflecting on events of the past that changed my life...

...there are many that I can recall...many that I have forgotten...and probably many more that I do not even realize that shaped me into what I am today!

One that recently came to mind was also experienced by more than 100 college students at the same time that it happened to me.  I would guess that a majority (if not everyone else but me) did not see it as anything more than an interesting lecture.  Knowing the professor, this lecture was a part of his Philosophy of Eastern Religions course that he taught every semester.  That being the case...Thousands of students had my same experience...but my question has always been...Did they perceive it the same as me?

The lecture specifically focused on Eastern Mystics and Magicians.  These individuals were renowned and as they traveled from town to town drew huge crowds of people who came to see the miracles they could perform.

One such magician (as his story was told) performed a rope trick, in which his assistant climbed into a cloud and disappeared...

The professor (actually studied mystics for his Phd)...and had heard of this fellow...

He was a skeptical! (the professor, that is)...

He and a camera man traveled and found this roaming magician...

The magician announced that he was going to put on a demonstration of his abilities.  These demonstrations generally occured outside the town in an area that resembled a natural stadium.  Small hills surroundeed a depression so that all of the townspeople could sit on the slopes and have a view.  The magician and his band of assistants set up "the show" in the middle.

The professor spent the day interviewing the townspeople...hearing what they had to say about this magician...

The professor found it interesting that the magician took up a collection at the end of his demonstration that most of the townspeople gladly paid...because they were in fear of him...

The rationale was that if he could perform such feats of magic...he could surely destroy the city if they did not pay homage!

The professor set up the camera on a prime spot and began filming...

He and the camera man watched as the magician walked to the center of crowd and began chanting...soon the crowd was chanting along with him...

After a while three assistants joined him...two carrying a large basket...

The magician reached into the basket and removed a large coil of rope...and threw it skyward...the rope stiffened and stood erect!  The crowd gasped in amazement and by his own confession so too did he...the professor and the cameraman...

Then the magician ordered a small boy (the third assistant) to climb the rope...which he did...all the way up to and into a cloud...

The crowd was shaking...

The magician then grabbed the rope gave it a jerk...it went limp...and fell to the ground!  There was no young man in sight!

The two remaining assistants re-coiled the rope, threw it in the basket...and carried it out of the sight of the crowd...

Minutes later a collection was taken up (in presumably the same huge basket) and the magician went on his way!

The professor was absolutely amazed...and during his lecture you could see the conviction as he relived this experience!

He and his cameraman turned off the camera and could not wait to return to the US and have it developed...and show the world this amazing trick!

The return trip went without a hitch!

They developed the film and began watching it...

This is what they saw...

The magician walked to the center of the group...followed by 3 assistants...

After the chanting the magician reached into the basket and took out a coil of rope...he set it next to the basket and "mimed" throwing the rope skyward...

The child asssistant approached the magician and mimed climbing the rope and then stepped into the basket and sat out of sight...

After a few minutes...the magician again mimed jerking the rope...the assistants picked the acutal coil of rope from the ground and placed it back into the basket left (carrying the boy out) and returned to take up the collection...

This would have been an interesting story except for the fact that the lights dimmed in the lecture hall and he started a grainy black and white movie that was the film he described taking!

He ended the lecture by saying what he and the cameraman saw was what he described...and nearly 10,000 people saw the same thing...what the camera saw was entirely different!

He said...can we really say that "Seeing is believing?"

Plato questioned this...in his anology of the cave...

The Matrix...(one of my favorite movies) (now you know why I an intrigued by this concept)

and many other movie and fiction story plots...

Reality is not as it appears...it is pure deception...

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That single lecture shook the very foundation of my belief system!

I was a cynic to begin with and didn't believe anything if I didn't see it with my own eyes...and others saw the same thing...

Now I couldn't even trust what I saw...even if what others saw confirmed it!

I could have allowed this experience drive me absolutely crazy!

But I found significant value in the experience...

As I wrote my final paper for this course...I reflected on what we see doesn't matter...as long as it serves a better purpose...

Is it real or an illusion?

There is no value in the effort of confirming the validity of an event...but value is found in what can be done with the perception!

Our eyes and ears deceive us...

We are doing an injustice to ourselves and our mission...if we focus on ascertaining the truth...separating fact from fiction...

It is all about what we do with what we have!

Can a boy climb a rope into the clouds?

Although most of these people who experienced that demonstration have probably passed on...my guess is that if you asked them...they would say they saw it happen!

Can we say that "seeing is believing?"

I think better stated...if we believe that we can see it...we will!

There has always been two questions looming from this experience...

The first...Did he really see that?

The answer to that question is simple and it leads to the second question...

Answer - It doesn't matter!

The second and more important question is...How do you test for reality?

The Answer is - Reality is substantiated by the good that comes from that which you believe that you see.

If what you see has no impact or no results...it isn't real...if it has detrimental effects...it may be real...but definitely not worth your effort believing...and finally if what you see leads to a greater good...that is real and of value...

Have a great weekend...

Pura Vida!

Darn! He's Awake!

Good Morning...

The first full week of a new year and in reality...when you look at the change in years..the day before...the day of...and the day after...the start of a new year...are just days in a continuum!  Let's open our eyes and wake up to reality...new year's day is of no real significance...it's significance exists because we mentally say it is...and agree to it...

It is the "agreement of the significance" of new year's day that influences the behaviors of many people of this society and many other nations annually...

It is simple agreement...and nothing else...

There is a lesson to be found in the power of agreement...a mental exercise...that all true leaders must fully grasp, appreciate and utilize...

It is not a secret ingredient of success...just simply a subtle and an overlooked characteristic of success...because we take this for granted...we often miss this critical component!

We can not afford to do that any longer!

Don't simply accept things at their face value...strive to understand them!

And have to resolve to bring this into our conscious efforts...

Change does not occur unless there is agreement to change!

Time to wake up!

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Resolutions...

I know you already realized this...but...

I also noticed that most of the new year's resolutions that people make are driven by remorse...

They focus on stopping doing stuff...or starting doing things because of the associated regrets...

The negative feelings are a powerful motivator...and we tend to fixate on them rather than those which are more directive towards beneficial behaviors...

As I thought through my resolutions, on my list...I included things that I wanted to "do more of"...because they were the right things to do...

More importantly...

I realized that...

...if I filled my life with positive activities...this simple change would leave no room for the negative things that I normally focus my resolve on eliminating from my life...

Which leads to...How can one be successful with resolutions...

As I reviewed all of the great resolutions that I made (but failed to accomplish) in the past...I realized that I a major reason for the failures was that I simply resolved to stop...

and I stopped...but I left a void...which needed to be filled by something else...

Lacking that "filler"

...the old behavior simply came back to fill the void that it left...

I woke up to that reality and asked myself what did I do when I was successful?

The answer was simple!

A great resolution should include 2 parts...

1 - I want to stop "X"
2 - I will replace "X" with "Y"

I will focus on "Y" as its replacement...

My failures have generally resulted from eliminating "X" resulting in a void...that in turn is filled by "X+++"...

Which actually subconsciously made me realize that the act of making resolutions are counter-productive...

Why?

Because I came out worse for having attempted!

This awakening has lead me to make the two-part resolutions and now I am highly successful!

The message is that your resolutions have to fit your personality...

Some people can simply quit...

Some people can simply replace them...

Some people have to quit and replace...

DO WHAT WORKS!

It is time to wake up!

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Life and the Bell-Curve...

Did you know that 97% of the species that have ever existed on this planet are extinct?

Did you know that these life forms were wiped out across 6 natural catastrophes?

What further boggles my mind is that each catastrophe set the sage for an entirely new species...

Most agree that the latest caztestrophe was 65 million years ago...however I believe that there was one more recent one...approximately 40 thousand years ago...that event caused the ice age...which nearly eliminated the human species!

That in and of itself boggles my mind...

Then I began thinking about the fact that life exists from the depths of the oceans, to the highest points on the earth....in different forms...in the coldest and hottest regions...the earth is not devoid of life...

If you plot the count of "types" of life (simply based on altitude above and below sea level)...you find a bell curve...

The human species lives within a narrow and tenuous portion of this bell curve...

Any minor change of conditions could spell disaster for our species...

Our species is following the normal course of most living species...

It scares me to think that we may be at our peak...and as condition slowly change our numbers will start declining...and finally...we will disappear...

We generally think of extinctions as occurring as a result of a single catastrophic event that happens quickly...

But the fact of the matter is...the concept of time is something created by man...it (like new year's eve) is by an agreement and not something real!

A catastrophic event could be something that "quickly" happens over the course of 100 million years!  A slow and lingering change...death by long-term torture!

It is funny how something like the concept of time can mess with perception and behaviors!

I was reflecting on a world devoid of mans' creative consciousness...a world devoid of humans...

This is kind of a mind blowing thought...

When we (as a species) become extinct...what will the world be like?

It almost feels like the "if a tree falls in the woods...?" question!

For me...the realization of the fact that we live on such a narrow piece of the bell-curve changes my behaviors related to the "impact" that I have on the narrow band...

Most people are living an arrogant or clueless existence...with no thought for our future generations...or the survival of our species...

We have been given the gift of creative consciousness...and we are misusing it...at worse...rejecting it...and this behavior is causing our own slow...lingering catastrophic event...leading to our extinction!

We are going to suffocate!

We need to focus on our air!

We are burning up our oxygen at rates that can no longer be replaced!

Where?

...in car engines...and highly efficient jet engines...you get the picture...

We need to be thinking about requiring everyone who either makes or uses combustion liable for replacing the oxygen that they use...

Then we need to focus on fresh water...

We take air and water for granted...and have not protected these "rights" as much as we should...

They are precious to life...

If people...or companies...or countries are going to use the world's resources to their advantage...let it be that they borrow the resources...and replace them with interest...

If someone pumps ground water and sells it for a profit...the society from which they take it from should be equal partner in the proposition...

The same holds true for air...

Burn our oxygen...you need to planting trees or plants that replace the air that you are burning at a rate equal to or greater than the use and a portion of the profits should be shared with the people from which you have taken the air from!

Just some thoughts...we are allowing people to use our resources because we perceive them to be plentiful and limitless...when the fact of the matter is...they are finite!

We need to do something about it!

This is about global responsibility and stewardship...

What are you going to resolve to do before it becomes a detrimental event?

I would not want to wake up to that day!

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The BIG Picture...

This week a good friend sent a message to me...(it is at the end of this section in its entirety...slightly modified to make it applicable to everyone)

Those who have been following these blogs or personally know me...know that I promote "envisioning" your image and success...it is an essential characteristic of leadership success!

I love creating my mental image...and then putting substance to it...

One such image that I now envision, I found in his message...

...Be the kind of person that when your feet hit the floor each morning the

devil says "Oh Crap, He's up!"

For those who have a different perspective...allow me to edit it a bit...

Be the kind of person...that when your feet hit the floor each morning...anything that stands in the way of your life's mission says, "Darn!  He/she is awake.  Now what are we going to do?"

Envision yourself as a threat to failure...

Ask yourself...

"When I wake up...what does the part of the world that opposes me say?"

Does it say...

"OH BOY!  They are up...Today is going to be fun!"

or...

"Darn...here comes trouble again!"

or...

"Who did you say was up?"

...And They don't even care!

That "lead-in" to my friend's message creates an awesome mental image of the reputation that we should aspire to have!

The important word is REPUTATION...it can not simply be talk...or dreams...it has to be what others believe you to be because of your actions...YOUR ACTIONS...

We make a difference and everything that stands against us either follows our lead and survives...or it is trampled...it rues every moment that we are awake...because it means that we are making a meaningful, significant, positive difference and it is powerless to stop us!!

That is what I am going to strive for this year!

"DARN...He is awake!"

...and I hope that you do too!

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Your Reputation...

Let me share the message that my good friend sent!

Read it and make it your resolution and the reputation that you will live up to from this day forward...

Be the kind of person that when your feet hit the floor each morning the

devil says "Oh Crap, He's up!"

Life is too short to wake up with regrets.

- So love the people who treat you right.
- Forgive the ones who don't...just because you can.
- Believe everything happens for a reason.
- If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands.
- If it changes your life, let it....
- Take a few minutes to think before you act when you're mad.
- Forgive quickly...do not second guess this gift...
- God never said life would be easy, He just promised it
would be worth it...That is...if you try!

To everyone who has touched my life.

Here's to you!!

Remember...A real friend walks WITH you when the rest of the world walks on you.


Pura Vida!!!!!!