Working with a Government client on a communications project, I’ve been observing an improvement project in another department employing six sigma and lean processes. Its reassuring to see such a commitment to efficiency within Government but a troubling thought continues to bother me – can processes like six sigma work in Government departments or non-profits?
My concern stems from a few key implicit assumptions that underpin processes like six sigma.
- That there are adequate feedback mechanisms to highlight effectiveness (or lack there of).
- That there are adequate feedback mechanisms to effectively encourage innovation.
Six sigma was designed for profit driven organisations. A pre-existing element of such firms are relatively strong feedback systems for information (financial metrics) and reward (promotion and pay based on P&L performance). That organisations and their staff want to innovate, and that they have the metrics to measure financial improvement, is a strong presupposition within quality/improvement frameworks.
Most Government departments I’ve encountered either lack these feedback systems or they are insufficient. Many may have financial metrics in place, but rarely are these metrics embedded in the organisational culture and used to the same degree as in profit driven firms. Importantly, assuming these organisations both want to improve or have the financial metrics available to improve is not a valid presupposition. There are certainly many dedicated staff in Government but to claim they have the same vested interest in the financial performance of their department that private sector managers do is simply wrong.
So what can Government or non-profit organisations do? Firstly, they need to acknowledge the assumptions in improvement frameworks and make them explicit. Secondly, they need to develop a process of simulating these feedback mechanisms. Financial and other performance metrics are relatively easy to produce. Instilling a culture of financial and operational efficiency is another matter however.
For my part, while six sigma should be applicable to any industry or environment, I don’t see it being successful until the implicit assumptions that underpin it are made explicit. I’d be very interested in seeing some empirical evidence on the success of profit vs non-profit implementations of six sigma.
Tags: Assumptions, Government, Six Sigma