Hiring managers are looking for people who can transition quickly from the university to the working environment. Lean Six Sigma Project management bridges from textbook to workforce.
Young engineers and technical leaders who can hit the ground running with knowledge of project management, problem-solving and facilitation skills will rapidly distinguish themselves from their peers. Lean Six Sigma teaches a disciplined approach to problem solving which when mastered, enables leaders to quickly assess the right problems to tackle and assemble teams to accelerate their resolution.
Because Lean Six Sigma is focused on understanding the customer(s) first and describing their requirements, practioners will rapidly identify and document the most critical opportunities to address. By leveraging the influence of champions and sponsors, disciplined project management and scheduled progress reviews during each of the 5 phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control, Lean Six Sigma practioners become credible and recognized within their organization “as value-adders”. They will learn how to rigorously assess problems, communicate clearly and execute quick hit improvements using the Kaizen approach within 30 days.
Longer term, bigger impact solutions are implemented within 30-150 days. The key to this timeframe is using influence through champion and sponsor investment and properly scoping the opportunity into chunk-sized pieces. These on the job learnings come quickly to recent college graduates. In fact, college graduates are some of the most enthusiastic and effective students. Once they learn this approach, young professionals will use the data-based analysis and decision-making approach throughout the rest of their careers with the confidence to tackle bigger problems.
Recognized globally, certification is a door opener which will distinguish the practioners as someone who can quickly identify, document and solve organizational problems again and again. In my experience teaching thousands of Lean Six Sigma Green and Black Belts, I find that newly graduated engineers, lawyers, business and other technical graduates appreciate learning a practical methodology that works as they grasp and apply the concepts to their new assignments. They are some of our best students. A soon to retire engineering who was a recent student of mine said it best: “I wish I had learned this training in the beginning of my career. It is the best and most effective way to approach problems and its practical application, if I learned it earlier, could have helped me save countless hours, weeks and months leading project teams. All college graduates should learn this as they start their first job!”
