7 June 2010 - One Size Does NOT Fit All! Not even with socks....

Are you a lemming? Would you obediently follow the rest of your colleagues over the cliff to your demise? Of course not. Except ...

Somehow in our workplaces we fall prey to a form of hero worship – the big successful corporation. With vastly different resources, infrastructure and culture, these front-running organizations are able to invest in new ideas to an extent that "mere mortal" companies cannot. Folk wisdom states that General Electric spent $1 billion dollars in its initial rollout of Six Sigma.

My company – heck my state – doesn't have $1 billion to invest in process improvement (or anything else, for that matter). What on the planet makes us think that we can adopt what these organizations do, exactly the way they do it, and expect the results that their well-oiled PR machines tout in the popular and business press? Certainly there are underlying principles we should adapt; customize to our own individual circumstances – and that is the difference that makes a difference.