Learning Tagged Posts

Improvement Insights Blog

Posts tagged "Learning"

People Have to Know the WHY

People have to know the WHY in order to learn something more effectively.



Download my free ebook Agile Process Innovation.

“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and “Agile Process Innovation” as well as QI Macros [software].

“I was working on [building] a tool called Multinomial Logistic Regression (if that doesn’t choke you up I don’t know what would), but it’s a way of starting to forecast things; people asked for it so I built it. I was telling my wife about this and she said, “Oh, and you tell me you’re not a statistician!”

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Are High School and College Learning Experiences Hindering You?

After high school and college, people seem hesitant to learn anything. That probably isn’t the best choice. Here’s why:



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].

“Have you noticed after high school and college, nobody is really in a big hurry to run out and try and learn something new, right? You’re exhausted from learning something new, right? But if you want to succeed in the world, you have to start to learn stuff. I’m learning stuff all the time from customers: things that I have to research, all of those kinds of things.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Overcoming the Frustration Barrier

Learning any new skill requires the tenacity to break through the frustration barrier. What is it and how do you overcome it? Watch now:



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and the QI Macros [software].

“One of the things I’ve noticed is sometimes people will download the QI Macros software and then they’d get stuck. Well, we have a tutorial that you can use right in the software and we have an online workshop you can use to practice, but most people have a frustration barrier.

“You have to get through the frustration barrier to get comfortable with things no matter how easy they are to use.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros.

Embrace the Automatic Transmission

I learned to drive on a stick shift. Then automatic transmissions came along. What have you learned the hard way that has been simplified and automated? How much time and suffering could you save by embracing the automatic transmissions available in Quality Improvement?



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and the QI Macros [software].

“Now way back in the 60s when I was learning to drive (yes, I’m that old) they had the student [car], but it had a “three on the column” manual shift – an old Chevy Caprice or something like that.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean.

The Cost of Lean Six Sigma Training

Traditional Lean Six Sigma Training takes weeks when it’s possible to train people and get results in one day. Here’s why it costs so much to train people using last century strategies:

“I want to talk to you about the economics of a Six Sigma class.  All right, so as much as I hate pie charts, I’m going to use one to demonstrate this.  Let’s say you have a classroom and let’s say you have 20 odd people or something go in there.  Now, I can tell you in advance every class is filled with three types of people:  Prisoners, Vacationers and Learners. 

Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.

People Can Learn Quickly

People can learn Lean Six Sigma quickly, in a day or less. Here’s why:

“When I was about six years old, I was playing in a neighbor’s yard; we were rolling around in the grass and stuff like that. I came home and I went into my bedroom and I started digging around in my pocket and I felt something kind of fuzzy. I thought maybe there was a lint ball or something. I pulled it out of my pocket, threw it down and it came back and stung me in the neck.

“That bee sacrificed his life, but I learned a phobia of bees.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights.

Agile Process Innovation Case Studies

What do Christus Health, Novartis and Underwriters Laboratories have in common? In the last few years they’ve rediscovered the essence of Agile Lean Six Sigma. Here’s How:

“Every year we go out to these conferences and trade shows and exhibit the QI Macros, and I get a chance to go see some of the presentations that people are doing. About two years ago I started to notice an interesting trend, and so I got some observations out of this whole thing.

“So about two years ago, I was at the Lean Six Sigma conference in Phoenix and Christus Health was presenting about their quality journey.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.

Collapsing the Six Sigma Learning Curve

I believe we are teaching people things they don’t need to know to solve problems they don’t have to impress people they don’t like.

You don’t have to know everything about statistics to do Six Sigma projects. What you need to know adheres to the 4/50 Rule: 4% of the knowledge will deliver over 50% of the results.

And if you automate the formulas and decision trees using QI Macros, you can collapse the learning curve in such a way that “No Belts” can go from zero to hero in a matter of hours. Here’s how:

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros, Six Sigma.