Six Sigma skills is becoming more and more relevant in this hyper-competitive world. We are currently living in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, an age popularly known as the Industry 4.0.
Recently, the World Economic Forum released a report, “The Future of Jobs,” that identified the top 10 workplace skills by 2020. These are:
1. Complex problem-solving skills
2. Critical thinking
3. Creativity
4. People management
5. Coordinating with others
6. Emotional intelligence
7. Judgement and decision-making
8. Service orientation
9. Negotiation
10. Cognitive flexibility
The new and emerging technologies of Industry 4.0 will change the way we work in the near future. Some jobs will become obsolete, and new jobs will be created. The only thing we need to keep up with the rapid pace of technological development is to learn these important workplace skills. Incidentally, most, if not all, of these 10 skills can be learned and practiced in a Six Sigma environment.
Gain Competitive Skills
In whatever industry or function you’re working at, Six Sigma skills will be very relevant in your workplace. Improving your workplace process and solving business issues are something that your organization expects from you. Some of the skills you will learn from Six Sigma are:
Problem-solving skills. Six Sigma is primarily a continuous improvement system that requires continuous problem solving in the workplace and in the organization. Over the years, Six Sigma has added to its war chest an arsenal of various tools and techniques borrowed from total quality management, statistics, and lean which you can implement in improving and solving workplace issues. Six Sigma also developed distinct problem solving steps in what is popularly known as the D-M-A-I-C methodology.
Managerial and leadership skills. Six Sigma improvement projects require proper allocation of resources and coordination of people across different functions and levels of the organization. Six Sigma practitioners will develop the required resource management and organizational skills in performing their project tasks.
Teamwork and team leadership. Six Sigma process improvement is deployed using team-based projects. Working in such structured projects, Six Sigma practitioners can sharpen their skills in teamwork dynamics as well as in leading cross-functional teams from start to finish.
People skills. As a Six Sigma practitioner has to work with various people inside and outside both the team and the organization, he/she must display mature people skills such as communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, among others.
Customer focus. Six Sigma puts emphasis on customer needs and satisfaction. One of the first things that a Six Sigma project team tries to discover is the voice of the customer (VoC). Business growth hinges on the ability of the organization to provide value to its customers.
Prioritized efforts on big impact action and result. One of the hallmarks of Six Sigma is its measurement not just of the process performance but also of bottom-line profitability. Six Sigma success relies on rightly prioritizing projects than can create major impacts on drivers of business success such as customer satisfaction, quality, efficiency, and cost.
Learn the skills of Six Sigma in soon to be released Six Sigma Playbook,
