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In a fictitious country called the POeT Island, there existed a leader whose primary responsibility was to secure and serve its citizen. The country was so small that everyone knew each other by name. Then one beautiful sunny morning, a man was driving across the road and realized a huge dead cow was on the middle of the road and deterred him from getting to his destination. He immediately called the leader through his cell phone and told the leader of the situation.

The leader asked him for name of the street which he responded: “Listgomerykaz Street”. The leader was newly elected and was not familiar with the names of all the streets so he asked the troubled man to spell the name. “I don’t know” the troubled man said “but I will find out”. Ten minutes passed before the troubled man got back on line and said “I could not get the correct spelling of Listgomerykaz Street for you so I moved the dead cow to Easy Street. That’s spelled E-A-S-Y”.

I hope that was quite funny but I am sure it will not be funny anymore if I tell you that majority of the world’s population react this way. We major so much on the minor and develop a blind spot for the big picture. We are activity conscious rather than being result oriented. We can do the wrong things with great efficiency rather than ask ourselves what the effective way is. Efficiency is doing things the right way why Effectiveness is doing the right things. In other words, you may be doing things better and faster than anyone else but you need to be doing the right things to be effective.

Doing things in an effective manner is what SIX SIGMA is all about. For all those who did or are doing their undergraduate studies in Nigeria, you can recall the process of passing through the university. The pressure of pending exam or quiz forces you to cram the course work to get an “A” grade; the problem with this type of program is that the products churned out will always be defective. The products go through life with the same band-aid paradigm; in marital relationship, couples tend to be efficient in the way they communicate with one another; in a (wo)man’s chosen career, he/she tends to limited by the confines of his/her job; in business, the ones who did not see the four walls of the university tend to be smarter in achieving results than the graduates.

I recall my first exam in my MBA program in Sweden; I was given three months to study for the exam; I was asked to choose anytime of the day for my exam; I was asked to bring in my text book to the exam hall and I should feel free to consult it; I was told where to major in and I was given 2 hours to do 50 questions with 5 alternatives for each question to choose answers from. This was a joke compared to my Nigerian background but I was shocked when I saw the questions and I was more shocked when I saw the result which was given to me instantly.

I immediately complained to the professor who simply smiled and gave me the answers to the question. On close review, I saw where my mistakes were; they were mistakes that could easily be made from my paradigm; the questions forces you to apply your knowledge not just give back the knowledge. You can never apply a knowledge you do not fully comprehend. I realized that opening the book during the exams was a time waster; the answers were not just there (at least not literary). If I wanted to get a 100% in the exams what I needed to do was to be applying the knowledge over time before the exam. When the natives of Sweden were complaining that the time (3 months) was short for study, I started understanding what they meant.

SIX SIGMA conceptualizes the elements of “cause and effect” or in the agricultural parlance, the elements of “sowing and reaping”. It forces you to focus on the process (x) because the outcome (y) is a function of the process. Whatever you are today, wherever you are today, is a function of your yesterday; the process you went through during your yesterday is what makes you who and what you are today. Therefore, you do not need to be a prophet to know what you will be tomorrow. Just watch your process of today and your future is guaranteed.

On that note, it is important we fully understand the technical implication of SIX SIGMA. What is SIX SIGMA? I will try to make it as simple as possible without the technical buhaha: SIX SIGMA is a quality management strategy that focuses on financial target vis-à-vis the target customers. I hope that did not cause a head-scratch? If it did, I truly apologize; let me try and break it down. Quality Management is making sure that services/products offered is without error so as to reduce customer complaint; strategy is devising the best way to win in a competitive environment; financial targets include market share, bottom line profitability and cost savings and customer target is the demographic you intend to sell your products/service to.

SIX SIGMA is an offshoot of other quality managements like TQM, Zero defect, etc but what makes SIX SIGMA stands out is because it is tied down to the long term profitability of the company. It was discovered by a staff of Motorola in 1986 and has reportedly saved the company a whooping sum of 17 billion USD (this data was published in 2006). It has since then been adopted by Fortune 500 companies. What makes this concept so great? Let me start by telling you that for a product/service to be regarded as following SIX SIGMA strategy, it must conform to the 3.4 Defects Per Million Output. This means for every One million products produced, only 3.4 of those products would be defective.

The Sigma used here is a mathematical symbol for Standard Deviation which is simply a measure of dispersion. This is simply a metric for finding the standard value that has deviated from the original value. Assuming the original value is the perfect product, the SIX SIGMA says that there are Six Standard Deviations between the mean (average of products) and the perfect product. There is some talk of removing 1.5 of standard deviation from the Six to compensate for long term effect but in order not to go too technical, let us understand it as a process of producing zero defect products.

This simply connotes the fact that the product completely satisfies the customer. When a product completely satisfies a customer, the customer becomes an evangelist for that product offering free advertisement for the company through word of mouth service. With a huge momentum of other evangelists, it saves the company advertising cost, increases the market share of the company, increases the bottom line profit and the shareholders would definitely smile to the bank. Good, but how is this achieved? The SIX SIGMA makes sure the process of production is completely adhered to with step by step method to reduce defects.

Steven Covey puts it this way in his book “7 Habit of Highly Effective People”: Sharpen the saw and it will be easier to cut the wood. If you take your time to establish the SIX SIGMA strategy in your life that is making sure that you are baked properly before offering your services, your destiny is a sure bet. It may take time and conscious effort to achieve that near zero defects strategy but when you come out, you will surpass the half baked ones who are offering the same service. This is what the God said about Abraham when God observed his process; “Abraham will surely become a great man.”

Supposing Warren Buffet – Forbe’s richest man in the world – came to you and said: “I have been observing you and I know you will be a very wealthy guy”. I am sure you will take this as a self fulfilling prophesy; you will know there is something about your work ethic that he must have observed for him to make such proclamations. He must surely have undergone various processes before becoming the world’s richest man and he can surely know the process that will lead to wealth. You will definitely know you do not have to change your formula to living if you want to be very wealthy. Warren Buffet has said it, so shall it be.

That is Warren Buffet, a mere mortal whose life can be taken from him anytime compared to the Almighty God – who created the first man – has decreed some processes that if you follow, you will surely become great. All these processes are in the Bible. If you follow these processes, your future will be great; it is as sure as the sun rising and setting. You do not need to be afraid of the future if the process is completely adhered to. The strategies in the bible are better than the SIX SIGMA strategy; we only need to pray to God to open our eyes of understanding to see the riches of His glory and to give you the mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit to interpret correctly these processes so you can implement them effortlessly.