Color me skeptical, I'm sorry. Dammit, I'm hearing too many buzz-phrases from you Tim. This stinks of trying to appear empathetic with the business community. It is made to appear more so by the fact that you are spouting an efficiency model for which you admittedly have no personal knowledge of the implementation, and which under the best of circumstances could hardly be applied to the federal government by the best of CEOs.
My wife was certified as a Six Sigma Black-belt a few years back, and I can tell you that until you can get the federal government moving in the direction of functioning with the error rate of an ATM machine, you're spouting a load of sh*t, Mr. T-Paw.
Tim Pawlenty brings 'Six Sigman' business philosophy to 2012Tim Pawlenty's got a secret weapon for reforming the federal government: It's called "Six Sigma."
The former Minnesota governor and 2012 GOP hopeful is a true believer in an arcane — and controversial — business management strategy that's popular with Fortune 500 companies, but not many politicians.
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Even its supporters take pains to note that it's not a "secret society" or meaningless slogan.
Just hours after launching his presidential exploratory committee, Pawlenty was on a conference call with supporters ticking off the ways he'd reform the federal government — "Six Sigma principles," he said.
"I couldn't be more excited about it," Pawlenty told listeners.Six Sigma dates back to 1986, when a Motorola engineer created the methodology to boost productivity and quality with as few errors in production as possible — fewer than 3.4 defects for every 1 million attempts, to be exact. The result was data-driven program that systematically measures, defines and analyzes all aspects of a business. Its name derives from a statistical term that calculates how far a process deviates from perfection.
GE's legendary CEO Jack Welch embraced it with missionary zeal. Other big companies like Honeywell International, Ford Motor Company, Target, Capital One and Pfizer followed.
Employing one top Six Sigma consultant — or a "Black Belt" in the principles' martial arts-adopted lingo — saves a company $1 million a year on average, said Mikel Harry, a Six Sigma guru.
Six Sigma principles have been adopted to aid the Defense Department's fight against terrorism, streamline local police departments, and even help couples fix unhappy marriages, he said.
Pawlenty was first introduced to Six Sigma during his tenure as governor. In 2003, the new commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency brought in Six Sigma to train her staff. At the time, agency was only issuing about 9 percent of its permits every six months. But with Black Belts and Green Belts from Six Sigma on board, the agency greatly accelerated its work and began issuing 70 percent of the permits within that time frame — all without layoffs or relaxing environmental standards.
"Now that's the kind of accountable, innovative government we can live with," declared a Saint Paul Pioneer Press editorial in 2005.
Speaking to supporters, Pawlenty admitted he hasn't taken the Six Sigma training classes himself, but had witnessed "measurable dramatic results" while governor. He mused that the same principles could be applied to cutting the budget and getting America's fiscal house in order.
"I've seen the power of it," he said. "I've witnessed it firsthand."
For Pawlenty, touting Six Sigma signals to business-minded voters that Pawlenty has the managerial skills to run the country, especially when he's facing a front-runner like Mitt Romney, who often cites his private-sector experience.
But Six Sigma is not without controversy.
Minnesota-based 3M recently offered to pay $12 million to settle an age discrimination lawsuit, in which older employees claim Six Sigma practices illegally resulted in lower pay, demotions and firings.
Though GE reportedly saved $12 billion in five years because of Six Sigma, the company is defensive about the cult-like following of its management philosophy. "It is not a secret society, a slogan or a cliché," explains GE's website.
And critics also say the rigorous obsession on measuring results can dampen the creative process that lead to new products and technologies.
Could Six Sigma really work to reform the federal government?
Harry, who is often called the architect of Six Sigma, isn't so sure.
"I haven't found anyone serious enough to want and go do it," Harry told POLITICO.
"I'm not sure in politics if it's ready for that level of accountability that Six Sigma brings. A lot of politicians don't like to be tied down to hard numbers, specific targets. It doesn't give them a lot of plausible deniability."
Harry said a Texas mayor once used Six Sigma to clean up government, but there hasn't been any "strong leaders" to take it to the state or national level.
Harry admitted he had no idea who Pawlenty was, but offered the presidential hopeful a little advice about Six Sigma.
"It'll strip you buck naked in the middle of the street and leave you pretty exposed so you got to be prepared for that," he said. "It's a no BS tool used to bring about achievement in direct way."
