As companies work towards achieving operational excellence, many have begun to combine traditional business methodologies in order to find the perfect approach. Combining Lean Six Sigma with methodologies such as Agile or Design Thinking is still a questionable approach for many but we spoke to business leaders, Mesbah Haque (former J.P Morgan) and Michael Stober (Citizens Bank), who have achieved incredible results through combining business methodologies. They offer us their three vital steps on how to make your solutions successful whilst implementing a new, combined business approach.

1. Understand the Request

Before you begin to even think about the solution, you must understand your customer’s request. Failing to understand what the desired outcome is means you can never offer a solution that will achieve the right results. As well as understanding the request, it’s important to also understand the needs of the customer. How much time can they contribute to the solution? What level of resources are they willing to offer? These are things that must be considered in order to fully understand what is being asked of you. Understanding the request will not constrict your solution, instead it will allow you to recommend the best approach to the problem as you will be able to assess the problem accurately.

2. Assess the Problem

Whilst it is important to initially understand their request, assessing the problem is the key component to success. According to Michael Stober you should look at a problem through methodological lenses and ask as many questions as possible to establish exactly what kind of problem you are looking at. From assessing the problem you can align the request with your solution, ensuring that you can both accommodate for the customer as well as the company being able to provide you with the resources and support that you need.

3. Always be Adaptable

When speaking to Mesbah and Michael, the lack of open-mindedness when combining a variety of business approaches was the main hindrance to successful solutions. When people remain centered on either Lean Six Sigma or Agile, they become less innovative in their approach and the complexity of a problem can be underestimated. Placing all your trust in one approach can lead to gaps in your solution, for example, the define phase in Six Sigma is weak but is a lot stronger within Design Thinking. However, when you are adaptable in your approach and use variants of all the different methodologies you are likely to cover all areas of the request and attain the most successful and desirable results.