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What Entrepreneur says about Agile and Lean Six Sigma

This post from Entrepreneur.com makes me feel as if I just got featured, even though it wasn’t about me, but rather, because it’s about what I do.

Yes, it’s no secret. I optimize businesses using Agile and Lean Six Sigma as some of the core methodologies that I use, and I teach others who are willing to learn how they can do the same.

In fact, I’ve written the book about it, which I’m giving away for FREE (for a limited time only) – The Business Optimization Blueprint, where I go into detail about how you can use both Agile and Lean Six Sigma together effectively, and help take your business to the next level.

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How to turn Data into Wisdom and ultimately into Success

Have you ever been in an “analysis-paralysis” situation where you have so much data you just don’t know what to do about it?

I have, and it wasn’t easy.

I have been given (more of dumped at me) 3 years worth of data for over 700 different metrics.

To make matters worse, the metric names, data types, and computations changed sometimes on a quarterly basis.

And I was tasked with the burden of solving for decision points such as:

  1. What are the pain points of the business?
  2. Which ones are controllable, which ones are not?
  3. Which ones are leverage points or leading metrics, and which ones are outputs or lagging metrics that we can only monitor? Which ones are business metrics and which ones are operational metrics?
  4. How can we judge the health of the business at one glance?
  5. If something goes red, how do we know if action is required?
  6. If something trends red, how do we know when intervention is required?
  7. If a lot of things go red at the same time, how do we know what to solve for first, in order of priority

If I did not have the knowledge and experience of doing data analysis, it would have felt as if I was left for dead.

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How I went from getting Stuck in the Elevator to showing you How to Become a Celebrity Authority!

I accompanied my wife to the doctor the other day for a routine check up.

The problem was that the hospital parking lot was completely full. Since it was a scheduled appointment, I had to drop her off while I waited for a basement parking slot.

When I was finally able to park at basement 5, I locked the car then went to take the elevator. I was greeted by a uniformed attendant in charge of manning the elevator, who asked me which floor I’m going to.

“Ground floor please” I asked, and the attendant acknowledged.

As we went up, we were later joined by 3 more people as the elevator stopped at basement 4.

Suddenly, the unthinkable happened – IT STOPPED to a COMPLETE HALT between basement 2 and 3.

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How to STOP People from Cherry-Picking the Easy Work Items

This is a story of Mark (not his real name).

Mark is an Operations Supervisor who is managing a team of 12 people processing billing-related work items.

There were 2 working shifts – morning and evening, each with 6 team members respectively.

Their productivity metric was based on average number of work items completed per day. The higher the number of work items each person completes per day, they are perceived to be better performers in terms of productivity.

The problem that Mark faced was that there was a huge disparity in the productivity scores between each shift. The morning shifters are perceived to be able to work faster compared to the evening shifters.

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Six Sigma Case Study: How to reduce the Training Period of New Hires

I got an interesting question yesterday, and by answering it, I believe it would provide value not just to the person who asked, but to everyone else going through the same predicament. So I’m sharing it here, and it goes like this:

“I have 16 FTE process and team divided into three complexities working on claims.

I am into insurance process and would like to do a Six Sigma Green Belt project on learning curve for the process training.

Currently the training period is for 36 weeks. So if I want to reduce the training period to less than what currently it takes, what all things have to be considered?

How to exactly go about this? Please suggest.”

On a high level, my recommendation is as follows:

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True or False: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion

Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time available for it’s completion.

What this means is that normally, if you were to be given 1 hour to finish 3 tasks, you will probably consume the full hour just to complete those 3 tasks at hand.

Had you been given 45 minutes to finish the exact same 3 tasks, within reason, you would most likely be able to complete it as well, though probably in a more rushed manner.

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The 4 Proven Building Blocks for Best-in-Class Customer Satisfaction

Do you work in the contact centre or call center industry? Are you looking for ways and means to improve your CSAT or Customer Experience scores?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, then this article is meant for you, as I will share with you the 4 crucial building blocks on how to improve customer satisfaction.

Hint: It’s not just about Empathy and Rapport. If you do any sort of customer service, then it is assumed that you are already doing proper Empathy and Rapport. The strategies I’m about to share with you extend beyond that.

For over 10 years, I have used these strategies with great success, regardless of whether your service center is in-house, or a BPO.

My objective in sharing this is to help make this world a better place. Imagine a world where everywhere you go or anyone you speak to, you’ll be treated with excellent customer experience.

I hope that this article would bring value to you as a reader, and that you implement some of the best practices indicated below, as applicable to your organization, so that you, your children, and the next generations can experience a world filled with great customer experience.

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