My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in Business and Leadership Six Sigma Black Belt Jonathon Andell Gloated About Solving a Quality Problem
Episode page - video, transcript, and more
My guest for Episode #174 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Jonathon Andell. He has been a quality professional since 1987, was one of the world’s first certified Six Sigma Black Belts in 1992, and has been a consultant since 1998, and a Fellow of the American Society for Quality since 2008.
Among Jonathon’s global clients are leading firms in such diverse industries as: aerospace, automotive, construction, design, electronics, food, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, service, software, and telecommunications. He has published and presented extensively.
Jonathon has a BS in Metallurgical Engineering from Purdue and MS in Metallurgy from Penn State. He is an avid amateur musician and a passionate community service volunteer.
In this episode, Jonathon tells his favorite mistake story about “gloating a bit” when his younger self (a “hot shot”) solved a difficult quality problem at work. Why did that damage some relationships and how did he get helpful feedback about that?
We also talk about questions and topics including:
- Solving problems – sometimes people don’t want to admit problems
- Data driven… people and emotions and empathy, not just data
- Six Sigma mistakes?? Expert driven – “elitist”
- 30 Rock mocking Six Sigma?
- Mistake to “rank and yank” ala Jack Welch?
- “Huge opponent of rank and yank” — at Amazon?
- Brian Joiner “Fourth Generation Management” book
- Creating a culture where it’s safe to talk about mistakes — what’s necessary for this?
- Training people but then not letting them use Six Sigma afterward
- Working on a book with John Thacker