Organizations hire you for your qualification and/or past experience, but they will reward, recognize and promote only when you directly contribute to their strategic change priorities and goals.
Every organization, private sector, government and non-profit, is constantly being challenged to evolve and become fit for future. If they don’t, they perish. It’s like Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Two Goals
If we look at any professional’s job description, it involves two kinds of goals – First kind is aimed to ‘run the business’ and the next is to ‘change the business’.
‘Run the business’ means mundane stuff that all of us dread, but we don’t have a choice, we need to take care of them.
‘Change the business’ involves achieving a new level of performance by challenging the status-quo, eliminating the bottlenecks, evolving newer ways of doing things, etc. This involves a set of skills that are much broader than mere domain/core knowledge, such as Financial Management, Manufacturing, Engineering, Software Development, Technology, etc.
All organizations, reward and recognize employees who can ‘change the business’ and make it future fit.
Lean Six Sigma
Lean Six Sigma is a proven tool and philosophy that can help organizations such as GE, Ford, Bank of America, Amazon, Boeing, Dell, Motorola, 3M, US Army, US Marine Corps, Caterpillar, National Kidney Foundation, etc., to become future fit by transforming their processes. As a result, organizations are constantly looking for professionals who understand and know how to apply Lean Six Sigma methods to real life business scenarios.
It is not about learning new tools, but it’s about acquiring change management skills too. Best ideas will never solve a problem, until they are widely accepted by the users. Creating acceptance is a change management skill.
Many organizations reward their best performing employees by equipping them with Lean Six Sigma education and also elevating Lean Six Sigma experts to larger business leadership roles.
Further, Lean Six Sigma is an industry agonistic skill and hence it doubles the opportunity of cross-industry employment. It supplements core strengths that you already have. So, it’s like a ‘booster’.
Thus, organizations hire you for your qualification and/or past experience, but their will reward, recognize and promote only when you directly contribute to their strategic change priorities and goals.
To be an agent of change, you need the rights skills and Lean Six Sigma will definitely supplement your core strengths that you already have.
So if you wish to be future fit, the easiest way is to consider acquiring Lean Six Sigma education. There are various levels of proficiency in it, and associated with those levels are different certifications, chose the guidance of an expert to understand what would suit you better.
Recommended Courses:
Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification
3 Tools for Visual Business Analysis
Failure Mode Effects Analysis Course
Business Process Management System Course
Contributing Author:
Neil Srinivasan helps a range of large enterprises in services and manufacturing, with particular emphasis on execution of business & functional strategies, customer experience & process transformation.
Being a Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Neil has led several change initiatives & projects with approved financial benefits of over $20 million, of which $4 million was executed by him personally. He has demonstrated results in unconventional areas such as sales, HR, technology, risk & compliance, program office, administration & security, procurement, etc.
He is passionate about coaching executives on execution orientation and educating young professionals & students in Lean Six Sigma.
