Category Archives: Management

Hiring the Best


Here’s a scenario: You are Project Manager on a new and important project. You have a 6-person team. You’re writing the planning documents, and J Doe, one of the key members of the team, leaves. Abruptly. Why J. quit doesn’t really matter. Maybe he or she inherited some money and decided to split for Tahiti. Maybe J simply decided to follow other dreams – which don’t involve your project.  He or she gave two week’s notice and put in a good 6-hour day for Monday thru Thursday, of the first week…. and checked out. 

But you, an “Alpha Project Manager,” are undaunted. You take a deep breath, call, email, or see the sponsor (physically or virtually) and say, “J Doe quit, effective a week from Friday. This role is critical. We – that is I – need to find a replacement.” 

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Six Sigma & The Law of The Hammer

The Bell Curve showing 3 standard deviations

Bell Curve showing Mean, μ & Standard Deviation, σ.

“The child who receives a hammer for Christmas will discover that everything needs pounding.”

One of my friends asked about “Six Sigma,” famously used by General Electric and Motorola to enhance the quality on their production lines, and famously used by Home Depot and 3M for short term gain and long term failure, (see “Six Sigma, So Yesterday,” on Business Week OnLine, here).

“I understand that Six Sigma means a very high quality system – with only 3.4 errors per million units,” my friend said. “What I don’t understand,” he added, “is the definition in terms of Standard Deviation and Normal Distribution. 99.99966% of the values will fall within 6 Standard Deviations of the Mean, compared to 99.73% of the values falling within 3 Standard Deviations of the Mean. What’s a standard deviation? And what’s a normal distribution?” Continue reading →