Lean Six Sigma and Human Capital Management
Dr. Peter Carlivati presents at American Strategic Management Institute’s 2007 Lean Six Sigma Excellence Summit
By Stephanie Donaldson
Peter Carlivati, Ph.D, Director of Educational Relations and Quality Standards, American Bankers Association (ABA), brought his expertise to American Strategic Management Institute’s 2007 Lean Six Sigma Excellence Summit to deliver an address on Lean Six Sigma and Human Capital – “The Impact of Human Capital Management on Lean Six Sigma Deployment: Some Considerations.” Dr. Carlivati begins his presentation with a quote by Subri Chowdhury from Design for Six Sigma, “The power of Six Sigma is the combination of People Power with Process Power.” With this statement, Dr. Carlivati captured the audience’s attention and importance of human capital management in a Six Sigma work environment.
Dr. Carlivati’s opening remarks discussed the importance of human capital management and how human capital embedded in a Lean Six Sigma culture stimulates commitment, employee engagement as well as improves processes and performance results.
Dr. Carlivati pinpointed Watson Wyatt Worldwide’s findings to support and emphasize his thoughts. Those included:
- Companies with superior human capital practices can create more than double the shareholder value than companies with average human capital practices
- Great human capital practices prevail regardless of economic conditions
- Great HR is a true source of competitive advantage
Moving quickly through his presentation, Dr. Carlivati concentrated on the six most important drivers:
- Clear rewards and accountability
- Excellence in recruitment and retention
- A collegial, flexible workplace
- Communications integrity
- Focused HR technology
- Prudent use of resources
In conclusion, Dr. Carlivati emphasizes that:
- Human capital management drivers, especially sound leadership practices, hold promise as indicators of Lean Six Sigma readiness as well as predictors of successful deployment
- Linking statistically significant differences in human capital management scores to variations in performance may hold the key to identifying those practices that are most closely associated with successful performance within an organization
- Measure and monitor those practices that will have the greatest impact on success and to listen carefully to the Voice of the Employee
- Mine data that reflects human capital practices within the organization.
