You are a murderer of Love; A Reject of Romance – have you ever been accused of being either of those before? Yeah, me too. Lean and Six Sigma is NOT for Lovers.
Until Now.
That’s right. Maybe you’ve been accused of the following also:
- “You’re too process oriented”
- “You’re too systematic”
- “You’re too focused on problem solving”
- “You’re too concerned about metrics”
Or how about these…
- “You’re just not romantic enough.”
- “You don’t care about my feelings. You only care about processes.”
Or
“If you’re so concerned about improving things, why don’t you improve our marriage!”
If you’ve ever been accused of those things and more, then we feel you’re pain. We have too.
So, For Christmas I Got This
My sister-in-law gave me an awesome gift for Christmas.
In our family we draw names and I was lucky enough to have my sister-in-law draw my name this year. Now, this girl is super thoughtful. I’m the type to pretty much get a give card and sign it and then call that a gift.
No, not her.
She actually thought about me, my interest, what I was up to – she took the time to really know me and she catered my Christmas gift to me – yup, especially for me. It was so cool.
This is What I Got
I received a mystery shoe box covered in Christmas wrapping. There was a curious note on the side that said “Life with Care”.
What’s going on? So, I opened the box.
In it, I found this. It’s Kanban Cody, my online persona – the guy who does the online lean six sigma training.
And then the card was a SIPOC Diagram. Wow! And, the process is Having a Fun Date!
As it turns out, having a fun date isn’t that hard. And, when, put into the the SIPOC framework, even people in process improvement can actually have a fun date:
SIPOC: Have A Fun Date
| Supplier | Input | Process | Output | Customer |
| A Yummy Restaurant | Choose day and time | Eat delicious food | You and your wife feel happy and rejuventated | Pete |
| A Movie Theatre | Line up a babysitter | Laugh | You remember why you love each other so much | Angie |
| Ask your hot wife if she’s available | Stare into each others’ eyes | You have full bellies and happy brains | ||
| Choose a good movie and order tickets with your Fandango card | Hold hands | |||
| Make sure car has gas | Have meaningful conversation | |||
| Put on some cologne | Watch a fun movie |
Wow. This is getting really interesting and helpful. Each step of how to have a fun date is spelled out for me in an easy to follow way, totally setting me up for success.
Also in the box were some candy, a gift card to a restaurant and also a gift card to buy movie tickets.
My sister-in-law is the best. Her gift was thoughtful and totally perfect for me. And, with me sharing this post with many of you, I hope you find the SIPOC for having a fun date helpful and may all your dates be as romantic and awesome as mine will be from now on and forever.
This is terrific, Pete! It even addresses our love of cost-cutting by replacing the movie theater itself as the candy supplier and instead most likely procuring the goods from a more economical vendor.
Brilliant! And it works!