After 20 years doing Lean Six Sigma work in non-manufacturing environments, here’s what I’ve learned about why process improvement efforts fail before they start.
🌟 The problem statement is almost always wrong. Teams jump to solutions before they’ve defined what’s actually broken. “We need a new system” is not a problem statement. It’s a guess wearing one.
🌟 Data exists. The right data rarely does. Most organizations track outputs, not process behavior. You can’t fix a workflow with outcome data alone. You need to see where the work actually slows, breaks, or gets reworked.
🌟 The people closest to the problem are rarely asked. Front-line staff know exactly where the friction is. They’ve been working around it for years. Skipping them in the diagnostic phase means you’ll design a solution they already know won’t work.
⚠️ If you launch an improvement initiative without a clear operational baseline, you will spend real money solving the wrong problem.
❌ Don’t confuse activity with progress. A busy improvement team isn’t evidence that anything is getting better.
❌ Don’t skip the measurement phase because it feels slow. The time you save skipping it is the time you’ll spend redoing the work.
❌ Don’t let the org chart define the problem. Process failures live in the white space between boxes, not inside them.
The organizations that get real results from LSS work tend to do one thing differently: they slow down at the front end so they can move fast at the back end.
What’s the most common mistake you’ve seen derail an improvement effort?