Using Lean Six Sigma digitally and physically to make the world a better place
If there’s one thing that history has taught us, it’s that people will not be contained. As Dr. Ian Malcom (Jurassic Park) famously said, “Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh, well, there it is. I’m simply saying that life, uh…finds a way.
We can say the same thing about the business world – especially in the recent years. As business owners and operators, we have continued to expand and grow our consulting business steadily since 2001. Our work was almost exclusively reliant on face-to-face engagements with large customers across the globe. But with the closure of offices and borders across the world, our business – like every other business – was faced with a multitude of crazy changes and new constraints. All of our existing plans quickly became irrelevant, and we had a choice to either restructure or to whither.
And as a part of our restructuring, we embarked on a plan to embrace the digital shift. As consultants, the vast majority of our work was hands-on face-to-face with our customers. And our challenge was to leverage the power of digital technology to humanize the way we do business and to adapt to the digital era in a way that allows us to deliver valuable and innovative content.
Our plan meant that – for two years – we would put our energy and resources into balancing two things: 1. Building a world-class digital platform for professional learning and 2. Use our professional skills to make a positive impact in the physical world.
After two years of dedication, we are incredibly proud that all of the content, which was once exclusively delivered in the physical world, is now accessible digitally, from any device, any time, anywhere on our new e-Learning platform, Lean6Sigma.academy. Our training and certification courses were designed to create competent practitioners (not just to pass a test) and we provide everything needed to be a valuable, high-impact leader or Continuous Improvement practitioner.
While creating our e-Learning platform, it was important for us to stay in touch with the world around us and to use our skills to help others. And in this time, we had identified a handful of unique opportunities that have taken us across a few different countries and continents.
G’day Australia! The 2020 Australian bushfire season was particularly intense and lived up to its reputation as the colloquially known Black Summer. Here in the beautiful Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia, we had the opportunities to use our Project Management skills (and a bit construction knowledge) to help rebuild the community that suffered devastating losses. Amazing what a little dose of reality and perspective will do for your heart and soul!
Bienvenida a Mexico! Small villages who survive through constant hard work and perseverance were greatly impacted by losses in tourism, closures of all sorts of suppliers and with ongoing infrastructure challenges. Here, we had the opportunity to assist small, family businesses in the fishing village of Yelapa to organize their workspaces and to prepare for the unpredictable nature of their future.
The small villages in the mountains of Mexico were also hit with major changes and challenges. In the agave farming village of Mascota, the locals are working as hard as ever to keep their businesses going. Whether it’s the taxi drivers, the restaurant owners or the farmers, we had the opportunity to work with them to best utilize their resources and to collaborate to become stronger through the crisis.
Cape Town, South Africa is best known for its spectacular mountains, beaches, climate and of course, wine country. Amidst all of the beautiful experiences in Cape Town, there is a thriving manufacturing sector as well. At this time, you can’t help but notice the quiet and emptiness at this once hustling port city with still water where thousands of containers should be. For local manufacturers, the unpredictability of the Supply Chain has wreaked havoc on performance and efficiency. We had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the countries top manufacturers to create solutions to confront these significant challenges.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this little peek inside our happenings over the past couple years. Thank you for coming along for the ride. As it turns out, Lean Six Sigma skills can take you way beyond the walls of your workplace! And with all the elements of our lives that have been closed and restricted, it’s great to take action and remember that, “Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh, well, there it is. I’m simply saying that life, uh…finds a way.”
