Your Six Sigma Coach: Marketing through Communication & Leadership Yields Results!

Carol interviews throughput expert Jeff SKI Kinsey

Carol Dickson-Carr — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:59:49 GMT

The DMAIC for Lovers & Poets cast is still on vacation, so rather than do the re-runs, I thought it better to post my interview with throughput expert, Jeff SKI Kinsey. Listen in as we discuss his business growth strategies outlined in his book, The Purple Curve Effect!

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to post them here. Or if you'd rather send your thoughts privately, feel free to email me at cdickson AT power-edsolutionsinc.com

Tom Cagley on Software Process Improvement

Carol Dickson-Carr — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:19:21 GMT

Carol Dickson-Carr interviews Tom Cagley on his experiences and challenges in the information technology industry. He will share why it's important to examine and employ a holistic approach to process improvement in your organization.

Are Your Customers Delighted?

Carol Dickson-Carr — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:25:27 GMT

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

DMAIC for Lovers and Poets-Part 4

Carol Dickson-Carr — Sun, 18 May 2008 08:15:31 GMT

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?

If you're part of the social network party, feel free to connect with me on Facebook and Twitter and let me know that you're listening to the podcast when you do:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/caroldc
Facebook: http://profile.to/caroldickson-carr/

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.

DMAIC for Lovers and Poets-Part 3

Carol Dickson-Carr — Sun, 18 May 2008 07:30:48 GMT

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/

DMAIC for Lovers & Poets-Part 2

Carol Dickson-Carr — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:34:17 GMT

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 ">power-edsolutionsinc.com/
8 minutes and 24 seconds

DMAIC for Lovers and Poets

Carol Dickson-Carr — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:28:03 GMT

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.

Welcome!

Carol Dickson-Carr — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:27:17 GMT

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 (both as a hobby and peripherally in business) & psychology in personal development and business--particularly the MBTI®. But I also have a highly analytical side from which a masters degree in economics almost 15 years ago and a recent Green Belt certificate was born. Also, as of this writing I'm about to take the Define & Measure final that gets me closer to the Black Belt.

Up until this point, I took it as given that the soft skills were easier to learn than the technical aspects required of the Black Belts and Master Black Belts. But according to the article, "Although nearly all respondents agreed that soft skills are at least as important as technical skills, soft skills appear to be the harder ones to learn." A whopping 65% of the respondents believed this to be true!

So bridging the gap between the hard and the soft skills seemed like the natural progression for me. I've used communication and leadership tools with coaching clients formally for five years and informally for as long as I can remember. So it is my desire in the very near future to connect with those in the land of process improvement by providing strategies that can help the leadership, communication, and marketing elements run more smoothly when pitching Six Sigma projects to potential stakeholders and launching these projects once you have the "buy in" you desire. I shall accomplish this through the written word, audio, and the occasional video, so stay tuned!

Subscribe to podcast through iTunes by entering sixsigmacoach4u.com/podcasts-only/rss2.aspx after clicking the Advanced menu and selecting "Subscribe to podcast".