We're preempting our DMAIC for Lovers & Poets series to bring you a customer-centric tip, using Noritki Kano's model as an example. As you listen, take a look at the following graph and do your mindful best to be in the correct quadrant after listening! --Carol Dickson-Carr

Played: 187 | Download | Duration: 00:09:13

        

Wow. Time really flies! It’s now the middle of May! Even though I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from the podcast I’ve been thinking about this podcast almost every other day.  And I haven’t been MIA because of a self-imposed writers’ strike. I’ve just had a lot of project deadlines coming to fruition during the past few weeks.  Glad to be back though!

If you’ll recall, we’ve been taking a peak at how our truly fictional company, ABT hosting, is trying to approach remedying their backlog of tickets submitted to the help desk as a result of a recent transition to a new hosting format. Still no solutions yet, but the lines of communication are beginning to open, albeit a bit tense in the beginning and with good reason. It’s not always a smooth ride, but you appreciate the highs that much more once you come out of the lows, right?

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Twitter: http://twitter.com/caroldc
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Listen in and see how Rebecca’s team of programmers try to come up with ideas in a meeting without their fearless leader there to facilitate it.  

Played: 200 | Download | Duration: 00:09:44

        

So here we are again, taking a peak at how our fictional company ABT hosting is trying to approach remedying their backlog of tickets submitted to the help desk as a result of a recent transition to a new hosting format. In a perfect world, we’d have a solution on hand without all the drama, but alas this is a real world example of differing personalities and philosophies between executives. The “meeting” theme abounds! So far we’ve had threats of a meeting by Bob on the one hand, and demands of a tech meeting by Rebecca on the other... and who knows what clandestine meetings are to take place or have taken place. And no real solution… Yet! Don’t lose faith though! It’s still early in the game and we all know that change can be painful. Tune in and see how Mike handles an unexpected change in plans. http://power-edsolutionsinc.com/<< MORE >>

The saga continues, as ABT hosting is no closer to solving the backlog of tickets submitted to the help desk as a result of a recent transition to a new hosting format. Tune in and see if Bob or Mike creates any buy-in with Rebecca for undertaking a six sigma project to improve the tech support process. Will Bob even get a chance to talk about the virtues of process improvement to the stakeholders? What communication style prevails in this scene? Listen in and find out!

Visit me at power-edsolutionsinc.com/
...<< MORE >>

Maybe you know the feeling when someone asks you, “So what exactly is Six Sigma?!” You might give a 30-second to one-minute explanation, and you are met with a blank stare. So you launch into a longer explanation and he or she is nodding along, appearing interested. You finish your spiel, and that someone says, “Okay, so what is Six Sigma?”

Or maybe you’re that someone who needs the Six Sigma explanation and have looked at the person explaining it to you like she had three heads when she was done.

Either way, I’ve noticed a disconnect between those “in the know” and those who aren’t. How can advocates of process improvement bridge that gap in an organization when a good number of people—brilliant, capable, competent people—are deathly afraid of change?

Listen in for a little under 10 minutes as I start a tale to help illustrate a point in communication styles by observing how ABT Hosting, a fictional web hosting company might (or might not!) handle a situation when DMAIC is introduced as a possible solution to a customer service/tech support problem.

Played: 174 | Download | Duration: 00:09:50

        

Welcome! The inspiration for the birth of sixsigmacoach4u.com is the fact that I recently read survey results published in the January/February 2008 issue of
iSixSigma Magazine which indicated that soft skills
are apparently weighted as more important than the hard skills for Black Belts and Master Black Belts. The article that highlighted these results was
entitled The Hard Truth About Soft Skills by Michael Marx. The participants of this survey were Green Belts, Black Belts, and Master Black Belts.


Many people describe me (Carol Dickson-Carr, that is) as having a highly creative, right-brained side which draws me to music ...<< MORE >>