In the business training and leadership development industry, more and more organizations are transitioning towards the virtual training environment.

It’s a new type of learning process that has found its way into the market due to the recent digital disruption. In this type of training, one can complete it online either in an on-demand or an instructor-led training environment.

Many leading organizations making the digital switch choose virtual training because it is more flexible, affordable, and effective than traditional classroom training.

The same has been the case with the Six Sigma training. It’s no different than any other virtual course. In the market, Six Sigma has been recognized and well known for the “level-up” it provides to an individual. It’s a flexible toolset for improving the quality and capability of any business by eliminating defects and costly errors. And as for individuals, having a Six Sigma belt means they become highly demanded, on top of being able to move on to better managerial prospects and salary grades. These online virtual training programs discuss the history, fundamentals, nuance, techniques, and tools of Six Sigma in a common language for a thorough understanding by those in attendance.

So, now that the Six Sigma highlights are being clear, let’s talk about why you need to be a part of the Six Sigma virtual training. Of course, everyone prefers an offline course, where individuals have the option to interact with the mentors, speakers, and peers. But today, we are going to tell you why Six Sigma virtual training can be more effective for you.

1. Virtual Training is Much More Flexible

   While a traditional classroom requires you to be in-person at all times during the course duration, virtual training on other hand allows you to be at the leisure of your comfort place, allowing you to access the course from literally anywhere. With you having the option to not travel, you are left with ample time to process and get ready with various other segments of Six Sigma, thus allowing you to be a step ahead in the process.Here’s a list of time slots for individuals who can access the course across the time zones:

   • 10 am – 4 pm (Eastern)
   • 9 am – 3 pm (Central)
   • 7 am – 1 pm (Pacific)

2. More Affordable than the Market Rates

   There are multiple reasons why Six Sigma virtual training tends to be more affordable than traditional classroom training. Check out in detail our Six Sigma webinar training programs to get an idea of how much you will be saving if you choose to make a virtual training approach.

   1. You don’t have to fly out the instructor
      Since virtual training can be delivered without an in-person facilitator, your overall training costs won’t have to include travel costs. Of course, there will be an instructor, but they will be in their comfort zone and so will you be!
   2. No requirement to book any hotels
      Where most traditional on-site training programs require travel costs, classroom rentals, and food costs, virtual training does not. All you need is a laptop/desktop, webcam, and handy internet connectivity, and you are good to go.

3. Virtual Training is More Accessible

   Six Sigma virtual training works great for organizations with multiple locations, off-site employees and for instance, the recent pandemic lockdown. Virtual training allows anyone with access to participate in the training, thus often leading to more diverse virtual classrooms.

4. Better Job Skill Application

   Six Sigma virtual training typically integrates easily into regular workday projects and doesn’t require travel. This means participants can apply the newly learned skills almost immediately in their work environment.

The self-paced nature of virtual training is the biggest draw for many professionals when getting their online certifications. It is an unconventional learning style as there are virtually no scheduling conflicts, and an individual can focus better and own the material even more. All this leads to a better learning experience, which brings out more capable Six Sigma professionals.

Flash forward to me working in a corporate environment and I found myself sitting in my office, pulling my hair out and clutching my Excel spreadsheet like a security blanket I had long outgrown but refused to give up. A few key things were very different. One, people no longer did what the boss said simply because the boss said it. Two, people didn’t really care what was on that spreadsheet. And finally, just because people said they were bought in to something didn’t mean they would actually do anything. It was a harsh reality check for me, to say the least.

The harsh lesson for me was that command and control was no longer king when it came to change management. Though very few of my clients had experienced the level of control I saw in the military, they still came from that top-down ideology where what one person at the top might say would be enough to make things happen. What I’ve seen unfold over the past decade is an even greater departure from command and control effectiveness in all areas of business.

Begin creating a new vision for the future. I hold workshops on a regular basis with clients to help build strategic thinking skills. One of the most critical aspects to strategic thinking is the ability to envision a future that doesn’t already exist. In fact, most leaders can really only imagine a future that is just a tad better than the one currently happening in their company. They look at what they have or don’t have and try to improve on that. This is what I call strategic firefighting. Sure, it’s strategic but it’s not really moving towards something new.

Instead, I encourage them to tap into the part of their brains they used to use when they were kids. Many call this child-like day dreaming. However, it’s a major capability of our brains that leads to creation and innovation. The next time you are looking to change things for the better, spend some time daydreaming what you would create for your company if you had all the money and support you needed. Then assume what you created worked and imagine what you’d do next. The further out you go, the more in shape your creative thinking muscles become.

To Paul’s point, many leaders make the mistake of thinking collaboration is about playing well with others and keeping them in the loop. It’s actually way more than being polite. It’s a creative process. You need to reach out to people ahead of time, involve them in brainstorming ideas on the proposed change and collectively shape the road towards that new future.

Paul also outlined the impact of not bringing managers into the process early and often. “When managers aren’t completely aligned or involved with the organizational change, employees hear mixed messages and feel ambivalent toward the initiative. While leadership drives desired culture changes, it’s imperative to solicit feedback and input from everyone impacted to make sure that what you’re building is both worthwhile and achievable – which is where managers and staff come into play. When you incorporate their feedback, it will accelerate buy-in and tackle skepticism.”Our desire to have others agree with us is simply a remnant of our old school command and control days. Instead, we have to get really excited about disagreement. People who disagree with you are bringing energy to the table. By genuinely listening to people who disagree with you and considering their viewpoints, you increase the opportunity for them to get on board with the change and help you spot the holes in your thinking that you didn’t previously notice or wouldn’t acknowledge.

Marissa Geist, COO at Cielo, a global recruitment process outsourcing partner, pointed out that, “It’s critical to have a business champion at a high level who understands why and how this change is occurring. It’s key to gain commitment and alignment from your key stakeholders on what this change will bring, and their role in supporting it prior to launch. In real terms, this means being able to negotiate with business leaders to find mutually beneficial solutions, able to effectively distill data to create a story, tackling the challenge when change resistance emerges and to continually drive the message through the organization.”

Make it safe to ask questions and share feedback. Paul Pellman says, “The biggest blindspot when it comes to change management is failing to solicit feedback from employees every step along the way. Without checking in with workers on a regular basis, how do companies know they are successfully implementing the changes? Plus, asking for regular feedback increases transparency and gives employees a voice in the change – allowing them to feel that they’re truly apart of the process.”

Become a change storyteller. To keep people committed for the long haul. They need to know what’s happening what’s meaningful about that. They also need to be able to help create and tell the story. Don’t make the mistake of assuming progress updates need to all come from the executive level. Stories told by a mixed-level panel can do wonders for ensuring the organization, as a whole, feels empowered and part of the change.

Another amazing tool that has come leaps and bounds in the past few years is data. Marissa Geist advises, “Data is key as stories about your change, both good and bad, grow with time. Knowing where your escalations are coming from, being able to track the source and the cause, help drive accountability on all sides during a change.”

Organization development (OD) is the study of successful organizational change and performance. During human relations studies in the 1930’s, psychologists found that organizational structures and processes influence worker behavior and motivation.

The goal of OD is to increase organization effectiveness and health on a company-wide level. Information and statistics are gathered using methods like analytics, assessments, and KPIs. The data is then applied to change the organization’s processes through planning and implementing new procedures.

Similar to how a doctor will check a patient’s heartbeat, OD is the process of diagnosing the “heartbeat” or health of an organization and finding ways to improve overall productivity and success.

Key concepts of OD include:

• Organizational Climate – the mood or unique “personality” of an organization, which includes attitudes and beliefs that influence members’ collective behavior.
• Organizational Culture – the deeply-seated norms, values, and behaviors that members share.
• Organizational Strategies – how an organization identifies problems, plans action, negotiates change and evaluates progress.

Human Resources

The Human Resources department started out as a way to manage an organization’s development. However, when companies have a hard time making ends meet, the HR department is usually one of the first to be downsized. Due to recent recessions, HR has become a watered-down version of what it was once meant to be.
Many HR departments have been pushed into a mostly administrative role that manages the employment process from recruitment to termination. This process includes:

• Hiring and recruiting employees (includes mitigating bias and improving diversity)
• Ensuring compliance with government regulations (Employee Status/Classifications, I-9’s, W-2’s and other onboarding documents)
• Employee records and personnel policies
• Employee training and growth
• Employee safety in the workplace
• Conflict resolution and discipline
• Performance issues
• Employee payroll, benefits, and compensation

In its current form, the Human Resources department is important to protect the company from compliance and legal problems (and all associated fees and penalties). Now that the economy is improving, HR departments need to expand their focus to organizational development issues such as culture, retention, bias and more. There needs to be more emphasis on improving the organization’s heartbeat.

HR responsibilities should evolve from a compliance mindset to a people-focused mindset. Whereas the laws and regulations were the primary focus before, we should now orient HR to focus on improving the employee experience and retention rates while increasing the quality of work done throughout all departments.

Using OD to Improve an Organization

An important part of OD is instigating changes at the company level to improve the organization’s ability to define and solve their own problems. This is done through implementing systems and processes that give more ability to cope with organizational problems of all kinds.  These systems should result in outcomes such as:

• Improved employee training and development
• Better communication and collaboration
• More effective decision-making
• Availability of resources to help employees complete their jobs
• Increased employee motivation and trust
• Stronger leadership

Returning to the doctor example, after a patient is diagnosed and takes the steps prescribed by the doctor, they become more healthy and are better able to fight off sicknesses in the future.

The hope is that changes prescribed by OD can affect real and long-term improvements using theory and methods from behavioral science, psychology, and sociology. These improvements should be self-sustaining and continually adapted to align with changes in the industry and organization.

Adrienne Cooper, Chief People Officer of FitSmallBusiness.com uses organizational development to make changes within her company. She states,

“I start by listening for patterns in problems every day from multiple departments and people. This helps me diagnose when these problems are really symptoms of something systemic. Next, I use these data points to tell the story to my executive team about the impacts I see now, and what we could expect moving forward based on my experience. Then, I look for agreement on whether or not that impact is 1) negative 2) an organizational priority to deal with. If we agree the issue needs to be addressed, and it’s in my area of expertise, I offer suggestions for changes that we then talk through. If it is not, I shift the conversation for suggestions over to a colleague with the expertise we want to lean on.”

Real-life Example

One company that we worked with put most of its focus on its sales department.  Customer service employees, technicians and others played an important part in the success of the company, but most of the perks, parties, and bonuses were given only to the sales department. This inequality made sales feel like they were the most important while all other employees felt overlooked.

The entire balance and “heartbeat” of the company was very negative and led to office conflict and high turnover. Salespeople that performed poorly were let go while non-sales employees felt there was no point in staying with the company long-term as there were no growth opportunities available to them.

If the HR department had used organizational development to diagnose the company’s heartbeat and divert resources to benefit departments besides sales, the climate, culture, and strategy of the entire company could have improved.

Under-performing sales employees could be moved to more suitable roles in the organization and non-sales departments could have more growth opportunities made available. These changes would allow HR to fill more openings from within rather than constantly hiring externally and dealing with the associated legal, onboarding, and compliance documents.  Such changes can drastically change employee perception of the company, coworkers, and superiors and in turn improve the health of the overall organization.

Conclusions

Human Resources and Organizational Development both have the same goal of improving the company and employees. Whereas Human Resources currently deals with tasks related to employee processes, it should be expanded to cover the Organizational Development of the company processes and culture.

This can be done by implementing a CHRO position to directly communicate with C-level executives and expand the HR department’s responsibilities to include managing organizational development. The creation of a CHRO position will allow a company to:

• Assess what is happening within the organization
• Implement processes to try and create positive change
• Improve effectiveness while enhancing the organization’s culture and promoting its values
• Maximize employees’ potential and place them in the right positions to use their unique talents
• Align employee goals and milestones with the organization’s strategy, structures, processes, and business objectives to contribute to the organization’s success