Work Matters

Why IDEO Rocks: The Halloween Party Video

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supermoxie

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Check-out this video at Metacool in Diego’s post My Workplace is a Weird and Wonderful Place.  I confess that I am feeling jealous, although the d.school is a lot more fun than any other part of Stanford, I am not sure we ever did anything this fun — although I note that we have an upcoming party with flamenco dancing lessons. Also, on a content note, I have been having a polite running argument with another professor about about the value of Six Sigma methods for building a creative workplace  — I think that Six Sigma is great for getting the most out of routine operations, but despite claims that there special forms of Six Sigma that spark innovation, I remain skeptical (see this story about 3M, which not only shows their firm’s problems with Six Sigma, but also does a nice job of reviewing related research). 

To return to IDEO, If you can explain to me how this lovely performance is related to Six Sigma methods of any kind, I would be most curious — and I confess — skeptical as hell. This video is about culture and the feeling that one has permission, even an obligation, to do creative things.

Comments

2 responses to “Why IDEO Rocks: The Halloween Party Video”

  1. sean Avatar
    sean

    It all depends how one defines Six Sigma. If it is X defects per million, then it wouldn’t have any bearing on Innovation with a capital I.
    If one defines it as the ultimate business panacea that is not only a great floor wax, but also a tasty dessert topping, then it is reasonable to ask “Why hasn’t Six Sigma improved my innovation?”
    If one defines Six Sigma as a form of the Scientific Method (determining Y=f(X)), then it could certainly help you improve your methods of innovation. For example: do you get more ideas in a brainstorming session with a group of varied participants or similar participants, before lunch or after lunch, with supervisors or without supervisors? And so on. Six Sigma may not be an idea generator, but it can help you improve your idea generation process.
    If Six Sigma is only valid for routine operations, the question that comes to mind is how do you test your prototypes? Rather than just giving it to the VP of Engineering, some scientific thinking may improve the validity of your results. Were the New Coke taste tests truly scientific and predictive of market performance?
    Call it Six Sigma if you like, or the Scientific Method, but the key point is using evidence to choose between alternatives.
    I do not expect superficial executives or business journalists to understand this. They are looking for nice slogans to put on the wall or to use as a headline.
    The headline now is that Six Sigma stifles innovation. The wise understand that it is not the name of the tool, but how it is used.
    Soon some company will put the slogan “evidence-based management” on the wall. They will not change any of their business practices, and when their stock price lags, Business Week will run “insightful” articles about how managing by the evidence does not produce results. Giving the typical consulting cycle, that will occur in the Mar. 15th, 2009 issue.

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  2. Bob Sutton Avatar
    Bob Sutton

    Sean,
    Your post is interesting, but to me, Six Sigma methods as they exist are just one subset of the scientific method — and in fact the best evidence that we have is that they work in situations where you need control and short-term improvememtns, but that they either don’t work or their is no eivdence that they work when it comes to innovation and creativity, so therefore, applying these methods (and I confess, others too, like design thinking) to settings where creativity and innovation are paramount is a faith-based activity!

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