6 Sigma, Development, Measurement and Training…">6 Sigma, Development, Measurement and Training…

February 19 7 Comments Category: E-Learning

Are you schooled on 6 Sigma?

I’m about halfway through reading a fascinating (and somewhat jarring) book by Kalym A. Islam called “Developing and Measuring Training the 6 Sigma Way.” Once you get past the point that the author obviously doesn’t like Instructional Design pillars like Bloom, Kirkpatrick and others — the author makes a stunning case for developing training by performing 6 Sigma practices in Define and Measure phases before the more familiar Analyze, Design, Develop and Implement phases of a training project, with “tollgates” along the way to make sure the project is actually on track to deliver on the business needs driving the training.

If anyone’s familiar with 6 Sigma and you’re in the training milieu, please comment here. I want to find out as much as I can about 6 Sigma and how it’s actually being practiced in learning/training organizations.

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  1. This sounds really interesting. afaiaa Kirkpatrick is the man but I have come across 6 sigma & other lean concepts.

    Do you have link with any further info ?

    jonathan 25 February 2007 at 2:54 pm Permalink

  2. I know that several people at ADL have looked at LEAN, and it’s been mentioned in my organization, too. But, knowing very little about LEAN, it seems to be more applicable to product development. Arguably, training is a product, but I fear it would over-simplify the human factors involved in the nature of training itself.

    So far, in as much as I’ve read, Six Sigma offers an interesting set of tools and questions to be answered, which helps narrow the scope of training development from a project management perspective. LEAN may offer something in that regard, as well.

    This book is the first I’ve read or heard of that addresses a framework for ISD (a la ADDIE) and Six Sigma to play in the same sandbox. I’m not convinced yet that the best answer for aligning ISD to business practice is in between the pages of this book, but my gut tells me this book points in the right direction.

    Aaron 25 February 2007 at 4:27 pm Permalink

  3. I have ordered the book but it hasn’t arrived yet. :-(

    The over arching principle of lean is the elimination of waste and this is applicable to product development as to training.

    Will read the book and post a review

    jonathan 28 February 2007 at 3:05 pm Permalink

  4. Hope you don’t mind posting my review here..

    http://sharp-end-training.co.uk/blog/2007/04/10/developing-and-measuring-training-the-six-sigma-way/

    Jonathan 10 April 2007 at 8:23 am Permalink

  5. Done and done, Jonathan :)

    Aaron 10 April 2007 at 8:26 am Permalink

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. The sharp end training blog » training evaluation & 6 sigma - 25. Feb, 2007

    [...] We have dabbled with lean principles in some work we have done but this link http://flashforlearning.com/2007/02/19/6-sigma-development-measurement-and-training/ [...]
  2. » Developing and measuring training the six sigma way - 10. Apr, 2007

    [...] on a post in the flashforlearning.com blog, we decided to give this book a try. We have looked at some lean techniques in the past and thought [...]