It's probably not that easy, but it is documented. Dr. Glenn Gomes has published a set of presentation slides on strategic management on his website. The slides provide a light overview of the strategic management process. While light, they will get you thinking about strategic issues. That's never a bad thing.
Admittedly, I have very little direct experience with 6-Sigma. It reeks to me as a management fad, much like other "Quality" initiatives. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with the fundamental tenants of 6 Sigma, but sometimes it seems as if getting a couple of "6 Sigma Black Belts in the room should solve our problems!" (actual quote).
I had an interesting experience with a 6 Sigma-trained project manager once. We were getting ready to "go-live" -- that is to process data in our system. We did not have any of the connectivity ready, nor any of the automation. However, she found a loophole for calling the task done: Apparently the concept of "go live" was narrowly defined to be the ability to process data (which was complete). Therefore, the task of "going live" was done, even though at a practical level we were nowhere near that milestone.
It seems funny to me how stamping a label on these quality fads (which really seem to amount to writing down and agreeing to a project plan) immediately impresses business people.
Then again, maybe I've had a tainted experience or two.
For a final laugh, check out this screen shot. It's from a Six-sigma how-to page at the Six Sigma Guide website.
I don't want this site to just be a link farm -- I really don't. I hope to come up with some of my own useful analysis and become a thinker on my own terms. But damn it if there aren't some posts out there really worth reading. I guess I haven't cornered the market on brains just yet.
Michael Wade at Execupundit.com has written a short list of the reasons why most projects fail. He posits that many projects fail due to individual errors of omission. There's two things to like about this:
We all know what Entrepreneurship is: creating new businesses from whole cloth, feeding a need in the marketplace and figuring out how to make a buck in the process.
What if you are an employee within a large company with an idea to revolutionize a portion of your business by creating a new product or service that is outside your company's portfolio of products and services? Furthermore, this idea might be outside the typical kind of business you do. Could you convince your superiors to see the value in your ideas? Could you get them to support the development of your ideas? Could you get funding, resources and time? Could you add real value to the bottom line of your company?
This is what I call Intrapreneurship -- Entrepreneurship within an existing company. Intrapreneurship is at least as hard as it's counterpart, and fails at least as often. However, it is essential to the success of the organization. Talented executives understand and foster environments that balance the necessary tasks of getting traditional work done with innovation and new business development.
Regrettably it is too common for the brass at the helm of the office to be up to their knees in tactical issues and keeping customer satisfaction high to focus on ideas that are evolutionary or revolutionary. Due to these constraints it is not possible to affect real change just by coming up with an idea and dropping it in the "suggestion box" or whatever the equivalent of that is for you.
It is therefore left to the individual contributor to develop as much of the project as can be done as a grass-roots effort before sending the project up the chain and actively selling the project to parties that might be positively effected by your idea. Find partners and advocates at any level within any group of the organization to help you develop your ideas. Two people from different functional areas making the argument for the resources to run the same project carries a lot of weight. Three is even better.
You must actively sell your idea. Develop training material, presentations and business cases, and be prepared to stop in the hallway and deliver a pitch to anyone willing to listen. Eventually (and this is, in my experience, a multi-year process) either the project will be explicitly adopted or rejected. Either way, you did your best.
Whenever I complete this process one way or the other I feel fulfilled. It is satisfying that your idea, thought up, developed, worked on and perhaps even built by you was considered carefully. Even if the idea is rejected, you know that important stakeholders and decision makers have thought about what you have to say (sometimes because you bugged them until they did). If you have done your research and pulled together a consortium of individuals to work on your project, frequently when it is not part of their regular job, you will be remembered as an effective innovator. Subsequent projects will become easier to propose, both because of the new relationships and because of the additional experience.
And eventually you'll hit a real winner. And that is when the real work begins.
I think that one of the fundamental issues at my company is the lack of adequate documentation. Although we were acquired about 2 years ago by a large multinational corporation we still run our projects "fast and loose". To help tighten up this process we should begin developing project documentation. This site has a number of project templates which I plan to use to try to build our processes.
This really isn't specifically about providing B2B services, but it highlights a number of communication issues that make working in an office environment a better place. Working in a better place leads to higher performance all around, and thus is topical to B2B services.
Read this piece on titled "Note From Boss To Employees". I think you'll find that this kind of attitude is necessary to produce a high performing team.
