re: Six Sigma — hope Darth and Mike Carnell reply..

Carnell is currently in the wilds of Africa trying to improve the mating habits of baboons or corporate executives, I forget which.
As for refreshing your memory, I assume you still have the original training materials.  If so, that’s a good place to start.  If there are other BBs or MBBs in your company check with them.  You have to make a distinction between relearning the technical materials like stats and refreshing your memory on how to run a project team using DMAIC.  If there are other BBs you could possibly get them to share the Team Leader role with you until you get back up to speed.  You can post intelligently written and specific questions on this Forum and possibly get some guidance.  If you received your training from an inhouse person possibly they would agree to some personal tutoring.  Depending on where you are located, there might be some local resources where you can get a refresher.  I recently helped a BB offline over the course of a month doing a refresher in preparation for a BB exam and certification.  Others may have some helpful hints.

Darth,
That work has already been done in S. Africa. All it takes is a pot of flourescent blue paint :-)
Andy

Exec’s could always wear blue jeans … as some do in Texas.

Rath & Strong makes a nice one and the George Group has a bigger version with more indepth review of tools.  Both can be looked up on the Web.

One Word….SIMPLIFY.  Scope it tightly, short time frame, small, localized teams, and manage the expectations of your direct reports by fully understanding and quantifying how they are going to define success for you and the projects.  If you have LEAN training and “improve” can be defined as increasing process throughput times or reducing staffing levels by improving productivity, this might be the way to go.  Don’t set yourself up for failure by doing to much….simple, simple, simple…..and even with that, you are going to have a real tough time being successful long term in 6S under those conditions….but who listens to me…good luck.

R,
Sorry for the late response but as Darth said I was enroute to South Africa as for the sudies – probably better left unsaid.
I wouldn’t worry about a refresher course. What you learned is still in your head you just need to find it. Start your projects by the numbers. If you need some help please feel free to email me at [email protected]. We should be able to figure out what you need to do.
Good luck.

Application is the biggest part of learning a new intiative.  Darth I have been there!  Mike you should offer your companies eLearning course for Darth.

TAnderson,
Couple issue with that. Fist Mike Cyger would boot me off the site since the rules specifically don’t allow me to do that.
Second offering Darth elearning would be like throwing gas on a fire – I am sure he will see it soon enough and then I will get blasted.
Good luck

Anderson,
Maybe it’s a fuzzy Sunday but your post makes no sense to me.  I agree that application is where the rubber meets the road in any improvement initiative (not intiative).  I’ve been to Omaha but I’m not sure what that has to do with your post.  Mike has one company not plural companies.  Generally you would use “company’s” to indicate some possessive quality.  With all your nonsense aside, the original poster was questioning about refreshing some of his/her lost learning.  I and others made some recommendations.  Bottom line is that our Poster first needs to know what to do and how before he/she can do anything.  Yes, being able to apply learning is critical.  But, you have to know something before you can apply it.  Once the poster is confident in his/her knowledge of the methodology and tools then the next step is to go from the book to practical application.  You certainly didn’t offer any grand insights on how to do it but merely made yourself look foolish.

McD,
You didn’t sound offended but according to the Predictive Index (PI – BobWilsonConsulting.com – we use it to figure out the Black Belts in training) I am a 4 sigma A type personality. The good part was before I knew it life was simple – now that I know it I have to worry about how I am saying things – well maybe not worry – concerned – well not really concerned – aware – that works.
There is nothing like teaching to find out what is really in your head.
Take care.
Regards

TA,
Remember when your mother used to say “You are going to be in trouble when your dad gets home!” Guess what?
Post 1 was gasoline.
Post 2 was JP5.
Good luck