A Guide to Six Sigma and Process Improvement: You Don't Have to Suffer from the Sunday Night Blues!
- What Is the Objective of This Chapter?
- Sarah's Story
- Nine Principles of Process Improvement to Get the Most Out of This Book
- Structure of the Book
- Let's Go!
- References
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
What Is the Objective of This Chapter?
We all know someone who dreads Sunday night because he or she isn’t looking forward to going to work the next day. In fact, many of us know that person very well because that person is us!
Many employees are highly respected and well paid, and you may believe that they are happy with their jobs, but do not be fooled by their smiles. Many of them dislike their jobs. Many people are “burned out” at work. So, if you are an employee just trying to do your job and you think your job is boring, draining, and depressing, just think—you may have to do it for the rest of your work life! How’s that for something to look forward to?
Well, we are here to tell you that you don’t have to suffer from the Sunday night blues!
Before we tell you what you can do to make that happen we need to first tell you a little bit about intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from the sheer joy or pleasure of performing an act, in this case such as improving a process or making your job better. It releases human energy that can be focused into improvement and innovation of a system. As amazing as it may seem, work does not have to be a drain on your energy. If you can release the intrinsic motivation that lies within all of us it can actually fill you with energy so you can enjoy what you do and look forward to doing it, day after day and year after year. Many artists, athletes, musicians, and professors enjoy their work over the course of their lives. You can enjoy your work also, or at least you can enjoy it much more than you currently do. It just requires a redefinition of work and a management team that promotes the redefined view of work to release the intrinsic motivation within each of us.
In today’s world, many of us are asked to self-manage to a great extent, meaning we are given the autonomy and opportunity to direct our work to accomplish important organizational objectives. However, many of us do not take advantage of that opportunity. Why? The reason is that we do not have the tools to release that intrinsic motivation to make our jobs, our organizations, and most importantly our lives better. Now we do!
This book not only explains how it is possible for you to make both your work life and your personal life better using process improvement and Six Sigma, but it gives you the tools and methods to make it happen.