(First in a series of weekly perspectives on Building a Culture based on CPI principles)
Where have you heard about this before? Does Tony Hsieh, CEO of the billion dollar company Zappos that was recently acquired by Amazon.com, sound familiar? When I heard Tony Hsieh utter the phrase “Your Culture is Your Brand” in his audiobook, “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose,” all other thoughts ceased. This was so deep and I knew right away that the interpretation was so clear-cut and unambiguous in nature, but the awareness (self and organizational) and execution are so distorted that people believe they know what culture is and believe they are working on culture when indeed, they may not.
Why is this important? If you create a strong culture at all levels (more on that in the picture below), you build lasting success in your organization. Some people talk about fixing it, some just think it is so tough they give it some effort, and there are those that let it go because “culture” it is too soft. Successful people and organizations work on culture and then work on it some more and never take it for granted.
Why is this important for you as a Lean Six Sigma Practitioner Professionals? Because building a culture of Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) creates a powerful environment for success to breed. Two distinct and critical concepts here: 1) Building a culture and 2) Creating a CPI Environment. You need to understand the first to create the second.
Understanding what culture is and analyzing at what level it manifests itself, is the subject of Part II of this series. But as a teaser, here is a visual to get you thinking:
About the Author: Ernie Shishido is a Master Black Belt with the US Air Force’s Business Transformation Office with 29+ years of uniformed military service. Ernie can be found on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/in/ernieshishido or by email at er.shishido@gmail.com / ernest.shishido@pentagon.af.mil (until 10 Dec 2010).
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