their top line. In that one location, the people were comfortable to
use the tools in a new way. That node of deployment started TLG
(top-line growth). It was a change management/early-adapter
model. They had unused capacity to produce products in their
business.
If I had said, “Let’s drop Six Sigma on a cost-savings basis and
jump to TLG,” it wouldn’t have worked. That would have been
transforming, not morphing. You have to motivate, listen, and
coach people into the new space.
The flexibility of how we deploy things place to place to place is
predicated on learning more from others. If you’re morphing
because you’re part of this whole organism, you can launch because
you can succeed without all of the homework. Stealing shamelessly
from each other reduces your workload. We’re trying to put more
value on the collaboration and reuse of learned practices. Transformation
now is all about collaboration with your colleagues to
grow the company and solve our customers’ problems.
DuPont’s move toward using Six Sigma for revenue growth
from its initial focus on cost savings happened over a period of
time and was a process, not an event. Morphing can be the best
way to remain flexible, by starting relatively small and using tools,
methods, or processes that you already have proved work for a different
outcome.
Stop Something
Sometimes tough management requires being tough. This means
being the one who calls a halt to a direction, a project, a process,
or any action in the business that, for whatever reason, seems to be
moving forward for the wrong reasons.
For example, many managers and employees are grossly overloaded
and can’t possibly finish every project or program that’s