Gianna Clark

People may not always agree with what you say or find value in what you offer, but at the end of the day, if only one person walks away with a different question, thought or idea, then you have made a difference.

Are you searching for the perfect gift for your favorite Black Belt during this holiday season?

Having recently posted my 100th blog, I thought it would be worthwhile to share my list of 100 reasons why companies should embrace Six Sigma.

Save time for your customers by enabling efficient transactions and watch your WOW-O-Meter go off scale.

As families struggle to make ends meet, the value provided for the dollar spent is more important than ever. What should we do? Panic? No – we don’t need to stinkin’ panic. . . we got Six Sigma!

Consistently delighting customers and providing exceptional handling of issues and errors using the R.A.P.I.D. methodology are two ways to create customer W.O.W. (What’s Needed – On Time – With Value).

Maintaining a positive interaction while fixing a problem or concern can sometimes turn a customer OW to WOW.

If your customers rate you a “7” on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best), do your customer ratings range from 6 to 8 or do they range from 4 to 10? What would you do with this information?

“Do you have the courage to lead?”

If you are providing your Customers with a W.O.W. experience, you will know it. If you are not, you will know it as well.

Webster’s defines delight as “extreme satisfaction.” It is what gets your customers to say WOW!

Good enough is just not good enough anymore and has not been for a long time.

It is funny how such a small gesture can make a big difference. Just the fact that I am talking about it four days later lets you know what an impression it made (net promoter score will be high on this one).

Customer complaints, appropriately captured and analyzed, can provide useful insight about process defects.

I have heard people say that once you have experienced the power of Lean Six Sigma that you will never be the same. I can vouch for that. Process thinking and waste elimination will begin to infiltrate every part of your life – including how you do laundry.

Deploy – Integrate – Sustain – Institutionalize. Although each phase has distinct qualities, the lines between them are blurred or almost seamless – as it should be. I’m often asked what I think “institutionalization” looks like. My response: “Unconscious application.” By that, I don’t mean asleep at the wheel. When addressing an audience I typically use the following […]

I recently got a text message from my son.”Mom . . . Pick me up ATEOTD.” Unable to decipher the text message abbreviation I’m forced to do what any mom what do . . text back . . . What?”At The End Of The Day” comes the reply with a big UGH! It’s like a […]

What could be tougher than binary logistic regression? How about facilitating a team? Team inputs vary in type, personality, knowledge level, background, etc., but the choice for team output is pretty discrete – success or not. So what does a good facilitator look like? Here’s what Wikipedia says: “An individual who enables groups and organizations […]

Magic Mirror on the Wall – Why did my deployment stall? When companies deploy Six Sigma, most have a vision of what that will mean to the organization. It might be improved customer satisfaction, or shorter cycle time or better quality products, cost reduction, revenue growth or maybe achieving an overall culture of excellence. Whatever […]

Last week I spent an evening at the local emergency center with my mom. The experience reminded me of the old saying: “You are only as good as your weakest link.” And here’s why. . . When I walked into the emergency center I was immediately accosted by a huge poster focused on customer service […]

What the heck is SigmaLeanZenOut? It is what a lot of people are doing in the world of continuous improvement. No matter where you got started, most companies gradually evolve to SigmaLeanZenOut. Six Sigma deployments add Lean, Kaizen, and then Workout (not necessarily in that order). Lean deployments add Kaizen, Workout then Six Sigma. You […]

Oh no – not a label! Too bad. Whether you like it or not, you are being labeled – or branded – every day. Regardless of whether your company brands themselves and markets this brand or does nothing, your customers have already put a brand on you. Think about it. What comes to mind when […]

I recently spoke at a Lean Six Sigma Conference for Services hosted by the American Strategic Management Institute (ASMI). One of the morning speakers started her presentation by taking a quick survey. She went around the room and asked everyone three questions . . . What industry are you from? How long has your company […]

I just spent three days at IQPC’s 2008 Lean Six Sigma and Process Improvement Summit where more than 600 process improvement professionals came together to learn, share and network. In addition to getting a “booster shot” from Jack Welch, it was great hearing other professionals share their thoughts and experiences about how they have applied […]