This article gives 10 things that six sigma green belts forget within 10 days of training.

1. All rights reserved. Copyright 2011@ Canopus Business Management Group
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10 Things that Six Sigma Green Belts forget
within 10 days of Training!!
Here are my observations based on not just training a few hundred Six Sigma Green
Belts across different demographics of geography, industry & age group, but also
having mentored them for few months after the training:
 Retention of a subject like six sigma is much less than soft-skills or technical
training like software languages
 Ability of Green Belts to relate the application of six sigma concepts to their line
of business is quite less than soft-skills like team work, time management,
negotiation skills
Here are those 10 things according to me that Six Sigma GBs forget within just 10 -days
of attending training program, implying nearly zero retention:

2. All rights reserved. Copyright 2011@ Canopus Business Management Group
www.collaborat.com | +91 4442851080
1. Project Charter: How to a write a business case that convinces the
management? And also differentiate it from Problem Statement
2. Fish-Bone: What to do after completing a Fish-Bone diagram? Of course, collect
data but on what all factors
3. Gage R&R: Conduct an live Gage R&R study (at least Discrete data)
4. Sampling: Choosing a sampling scheme and deciding the sample size for data
collection
5. Descriptive Statistics: Meaningful and practical interpretation of ‘Standard
Deviation’. If there is a process with Std Dev of 5 mins, what does this number
mean in real sense?
6. P-value: What does it mean to the business to accept or reject a hypothesis
based on P value?
7. Variation: Identify the major sources of variation that impact the project metric?
8. Regression: How to use the regression equation to operate the business
efficiently
9. Control Chart: Explain to a layman(probably their Manager) what a out-of-control
data point means in practical sense
10.Sustenance: How to make sure the project exists after an year. I don’t mean the
project deck! Many times, it is considered that sustenance is not in our hands,
but actually it is a skill that can be acquired and need to be taught to all Green
Belts
One of the primary reasons why Green Belts can’t retain these is because most of all
this is taught in less than a week with little time for things to settle in and for the
participants to relate.
One of the solutions that works well for me as a coach is to limit the class size to 2 or 3
and spread the program over 60 days. I actually found best results when this is
imparted one-on-one!
Return-on-Investment of such executive development programs are at most important
and so the business & career benefits recoups the investments.

3. All rights reserved. Copyright 2011@ Canopus Business Management Group
www.collaborat.com | +91 4442851080
My note will be incomplete if I don’t mention about few things that Green Belts retain
very well after the training, even for several years:
· How to do Fish-Bone Diagram?
· How to play the Gage R&R game?
· Remember and recite the phase “P is low, Null must go”
· How to map the process
· What is Value Added and Non-Value?
· Conduct a ‘FMEA’ with little help
About the Author:
Neil started Canopus Business Management Group in 2009.
He helps a range of large enterprises in services and manufacturing, with particular emphasis on
execution of business & functional strategies, customer experience & process transformation. He
has worked with banking, outsourcing, IT, discrete manufacturing & telecom business processes.
He draws on extensive experience (15 years) in Hoshin Kanri, Blue Ocean Strategy, Lean, Six
Sigma, Outsourcing, Change Management and Touch point Management to deliver composite solutions that put
client’s business in an Advantageous & Profitable position.
Client engagements aim at eliminating the barriers for seamless execution of strategies, carpet bombing customer
touch points, diagnostic interventions on customer churn & retention and implementation of transformational
projects.
He can be reached at neil@collaborat.com or +91 9176616766.