Improvement Insights Blog
Is a Fear of Math Stopping Your Six Sigma Projects?
I have found that a high number of people have a fear of math. They seem to think that you are either born with math skills or you aren’t.
In the Jan/Feb 2016 Scientific American Mind, author Carol Dweck reviews the most recent research into The Remarkable Reach of Growth Mind-Sets.
One study by Kathy Liu Sun found that middle school math teachers that embraced growth mind-set but did not back it up with growth mind-set teaching methods such as emphasizing underlying concepts, giving feedback and giving students a chance to revise and resubmit their work caused their students to develop a fixed mind-set. A fixed mind-set assumes that you either “got it” or you don’t. A growth mind-set assumes that you can learn anything.
Do you have a fear of math? Do you think people either “have it” or they don’t? What if you decided you could learn anything about math that you wanted to know? You might discover the Khan Academy’s rich resources for math learning.
Six Sigma Roadblocks
I have found that many Six Sigma courses spend a lot of time teaching the math and formulas behind statistical process control and hypothesis testing. I believe this fills up classroom time, but doesn’t meet the basic needs of students–to learn how to solve real world business problems.
With software like the QI Macros, you don’t need to know the formulas or the math. You only need to know how to interpret the resulting charts or statistics. Which is more important, knowing the formulas for a control chart or knowing how to read a control chart? I think it’s the latter (see below).
You don’t need to know mathematical or statistical formulas to do Six Sigma. QI Macros will do that for you. You just need to interpret the results.
XmR Control Chart Formula
Anatomy of a Control Chart
