Six Sigma SpotLight: Roxanne O'Brasky, President, ISSSP

Six Sigma SpotLight is a regular feature of the e-Zsigma newsletter, and allows us to introduce one of the global six sigma community's superstars.

In this issue, it is our great pleasure to introduce Roxanne O'Brasky, President of International Society of Six Sigma Professionals, www.isssp.com, the only professional membership society dedicated to Six Sigma.  

Founded in 1997, ISSSP grew rapidly during its incubation period and officially launched in October 2001. ISSSP is committed to the advancement of education, research and implementation of the Six Sigma methodology through resources in live, print and electronic media. The company was created to provide the focal point, coordination, and drive needed to promote the integration of Six Sigma among business and improvement practices and to advance its growth and adoption.  ISSSP enhances the knowledge of its diverse community of members while maintaining a high level of ethics, professionalism and standards within the Six Sigma community.

Today, ISSSP boasts a dynamic global community of individual, corporate and affiliate members representing large and small businesses, across a gamut of industry categories. No matter your company’s role or interest in Six Sigma, ISSSP represents a wealth of resources from which your deployment and your professional growth can truly benefit.

Roxanne's 22-year career includes extensive corporate experience with Six Sigma support, deployment, and leadership, and she is widely regarded as a visionary in the leadership and community building of Six Sigma.  In this interview, Roxanne shares some insight into the early days of Six Sigma growth, and her personal journey...

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1. News: "What was your first encounter with Six Sigma, and at the time, did you ever think that it would occupy such a large part of your career in the future? If so, why?"

1. Roxanne: "My first introduction to Six Sigma was in November of 1993… I was invited to work on a project for Allied Signal at the request of Rich Schroeder, whom I had worked with for many years at Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), where he was the head of quality. Rich called it a "project of a lifetime"… and asked if a would support the implementation of Six Sigma at Allied Signal? I had already started a business…called 'PROSupport' and the concept of deploying a program throughout the entire organization… every level of support and infrastructure required in order to get it communicated and adopted across the organization greatly appealed to me.

The first thing I said (to Rich) was, "What is Six Sigma"? And he said, I don't have a whole lot of time to talk about it, but can you be in Dallas (Texas) on such and such a day in November? That event included Rich Schroeder as the key executive responsible for Six Sigma in Allied Signal along with Mikel Harry of the Six Sigma Academy presenting to the Champions from Allied Signal, and training them in a two-day program. I stood in the back of the room and listened to this training and I wondered what I was going to do in order to meet this objective of supporting the deployment.

My first involvement was very logistics oriented, but key to supporting the training environment... producing materials, site selection… event support…participant/trainee communication... summary reports to the Leadership team and to Larry (Bossidy)… I started to learn all of the (Six Sigma) terminology.

After a couple years of supporting Allied in this capacity, seeing their launch of Black and Green Belt training, Champion training, reporting to the senior executive, project reviews - all the things we know are associated with Six Sigma - it started to become a part of my life, and my desire to support it consistently across the organization grew. I began to learn more about Six Sigma and realized that we had a lot of variation in how we were implementing it. We needed to be more consistent… that was the catalyst for me to start learning more about DMAIC and using the tools to take variation out and make sure there were no defects in training, communication, reporting… I wanted to learn how to apply this methodology to what I was delivering.

We were dealing with a huge community… Black Belts, Green Belts, Champions, CEO's, Six Sigma Leaders, the trainers, the consultants… I had all of these people in my network - all with different needs. By now, GE was also launching Six Sigma… Whirlpool, Bombardier,… and they were all contacting Rich Schroeder and asking him to share his experiences from Allied… he would bring me along to all these other companies, and I began to see the difference in their cultures - deploying in a different type of industry - global versus national - different languages - I began to realize that I was experiencing the breadth of a label called Six Sigma.

All of this happened in only 15 months from that date in November, 1993, but I realized that this was what I wanted to do full time. I didn't know what 'it' was, but there was a movement that I felt, a methodology that I had never seen before - it changed my thought processes, and I decided I was going to stop everything else that I was doing and focus on Six Sigma."

2. News: "Where did the concept and decision for launching ISSSP come from? Was there a catalyst or compelling event that you could point to that would be considered the original seed from which the idea blossomed?"

2. Roxanne: "The concept of ISSSP became a topic of interest in the PROSupport organization I founded. We were constantly trying to find how to get out of the transactional business we were in. I was starting to consult… I was starting to recognize the need for a project tracking software product - I was presenting and participating in Champion classes - becoming a better resource than just someone supporting it from a transactional perspective.

We brainstormed the concept of the community - the fact that all these people needed a place to go. There are societies and institutions for professionals that have a unique, common interest… should we have a professional society? A business plan was drafted, and so too, the concept for a professional organization. We needed $80,000 to fund its launch, but I wasn't the technical (Six Sigma) expert - I didn't know the methodology - I couldn't train in the methodology. I wanted to ensure that if I launched this proposed society, I would have a technical partner - somebody who really understood the methodology and its impact to business and not just to the professional. And so, I sought to find a funding partner - someone who could be that technical voice. I made a proposal to two of the (best-known) Six Sigma consulting firms at the time, and I got great interest from one… but (they) didn't move on the proposal. The other company also had an interest and was willing to fund it but fell through later in all communications…. there was a lot of stress in those relationships back then… I consistently supported these (two) organizations to work together - I felt there was more power with the talent being together than apart, yet it was breaking up."

News: "Did this have a lot to do with egos?"

Roxanne:  "Absolutely! At this point in my career with Six Sigma, I've seen a lot of that. I can't say that I don't have one myself, but it's different when you are willing to contribute versus you're willing to take, and I've seen a variety of givers and takers… try to get it all versus share the power of this methodology… There is the need to bring this to organizations as quickly as we can instead of the 'It's all mine' kind of thing.

When I made the proposals (for ISSSP) and provided the funding opportunity, I was learning a lot, and I realized that I didn't have all the levels of experience I wanted to have to lead such a society. I continued to support many deployments - I started to learn that there were differences in deployments, different types of leaders,… countries, language needs,… I started supporting the infrastructure required to launch these programs… I wanted to get in at the front end and help prepare them for what was about to happen. From what we had learned earlier, I wanted this to be easier for the next company (implementing Six Sigma). The concept of community became much more prominent in my language. It was my experience with all these companies that resulted in the seed being planted with so much out there and it was growing very rapidly. Something needed to be pulled together to provide the answers to the questions that were being asked."

3. News: "Did you expect the level of success for that you have achieved to date? To what would you attribute this success?"

3. Roxanne: "At the time of ISSSP's conception, I did not expect that it would be where it is today. I think that its success can be attributed to taking the time to learn the industry - to participate in the field of Six Sigma and see it from all of the perspectives.

When I initially didn't get the funding for ISSSP, I actually went to work for Six Sigma Academy as their VP of Customer Service and Support. Shortly after that, I co-founded Breakthrough Management Group (BMG) with Dave Silverstein, Ilona Rosen, and Don Redinius. I don't think that, had I launched ISSSP in 1997, I would have known enough to have brought it to where it is today… it took that level of experience - the pain, the successes, and the challenges. We are able to ask the community to contribute - to become (ISSSP) members or sponsors, because we are meeting the needs of the people who understand Six Sigma… learning from each other… benchmarking, and sharing - that makes sense to professionals. The value-proposition (of ISSSP) is becoming much easier to demonstrate." 

4. News: "With this in mind, and considering the earlier question regarding the decision to launch ISSSP, were there any skeptics that you would like to say, "I told you so!" to? In all seriousness, were there a lot of people who doubted you could pull it off and did you face a lot of adversity in the early planning and launch stages of ISSSP?"

4. Roxanne: "Yes, I did. By the time I tried to launch ISSSP, there had been so many standards companies had already adopted, so many internal systems of networking, that some of the nay-saying or challenge I got was, 'We're already doing that - we've got that figured out inside - we're so experienced now that we tend to be the ones out their teaching and sharing, but we're not learning a lot from others'. That was a major challenge for me… However, there is always a need to externalize yourself - every organization is in a continuous learning mode, and as Six Sigma is such a widespread implementation within an organization, you learn it is a great methodology to apply to every other initiative you have going on and make those better. You start to integrate all of these different programs - building culture is a never-ending thing, which is a part of the Six Sigma definition… There are a lot of externally-focused organizations out there."

5. News: "Almost at any given time, we can find conferences taking place around the world, that feature Six Sigma as their main theme. What would you consider to be the key differentiators for the ISSSP symposiums and conferences?"

5. Roxanne: "We have to work extra hard to make sure that (ISSSP events) are different. Some of the differentiators I can identify are the way the program is designed. The program elements, the interaction opportunities, as well as the presentations - the credibility of the speakers and the process we go through to enable a speaker to actually present at our conferences. There is a very strategic approach to our sponsorship in that, if you're committed to Six Sigma, and if you're committed to sharing and building the community, and if you're committed to ensuring there is a good understanding of what Six Sigma is so other companies can adopt it, then you will probably be very interested in sponsoring ISSSP because we will give you that forum. All of our presenters come from our sponsors, so because you have made that commitment - because you are investing in the community - because sharing and learning are important elements for you, you are entitled to speak at this event… an event we want to be seen as the place where people can come and learn about Six Sigma and leave with real substance. Our differentiator is in the design of our event - the design of the whole society. This year's theme is integration - you've got to learn enough from all of these experiences that you can decide which elements of learning you are going to go back and integrate into your organization"

Scroll up to right-hand side of page to continue interview...

Roxanne O'Brasky, President, ISSSP 
Images courtesy of ISSSP. Unauthorized use not permitted.

Click on image to go to ISSSP's website

Continued from left panel...

6. News: "What would you consider to be the three to four biggest expectations your membership has for ISSSP going forward?"

6. Roxanne: "First, I would say that it's professional growth. We all, as professionals, want to know where we are going and that ISSSP will help keep the profession of Six Sigma available to us for our growth. If Six Sigma is not well understood around the world and in all businesses, then the professionals may lose the opportunity to continue to grow as individuals. We don't want to encourage people to leave one organization and go to another, but there are a lot of people out there who aren't supported by their companies in the field of Six Sigma, yet they want to become one of these professionals, and we have to make sure that is well-understood and supported within ISSSP.

Second, a forum for information that is credible, easy to get to, and eliminates the amount of time required for reading and getting the information that will expand your knowledge and help you to perform… Where do you go for information? Our members expect us to figure that out and provide data that has meaning for them.  Thus, we have focused on the development of the ISSSP Knowledge Network, 'iKNOW', a program we are launching at this year's Leadership Conference.

Third, I think they expect a safe environment. In a sharing community, Black Belts as well as their organizations want to learn from each other, and there has to be an understanding that there is a safe environment - what should be shared… what is confidential. There's still an unknown… 'Why would I want all my Black Belts to join ISSSP for headhunters (employment agencies) to come get them?' That's an absolutely valid concern. An expectation you should have of (ISSSP) is that we will create that safe environment, we will give them the information they need to learn, and we will create the environment for their sharing and personal growth.

That's the expectation and until we get there… our consistency, ethics, professionalism, and our programs - our value stream has to demonstrate that every day… we are prepared for this challenge."

7. News: "We have seen a shift from the "Six Sigma Revolution" of the late 1990's to what we might now characterize as the "Six Sigma Evolution". Furthermore, the "my way or the highway" approach, where an extremely small number of professional service organizations were providing Six Sigma consulting and training to Fortune 500 companies, we now see a diverse community of practitioners and professionals who are adopting and adapting Six Sigma tools and methodology to augment or enhance their own business management systems - many even preferring to avoid placing the "Six Sigma" label on their strategy. What is your view on this, and how do you think it will shape the evolution of ISSSP in the future?"

7. Roxanne: "ISSSP… We've got this Six Sigma label - we have it in the organization name. What happens when the Six Sigma label doesn't have any relevance? I reference back to the world of TQM (Total Quality Management), and what that label means today… Not being an expert, but certainly having been an employee that was TQM'd, I personally feel that the label of Six Sigma, when it is understood, is different than anything else any of us as leaders have implemented before to get results. I think that is because Six Sigma has a broad definition. I use six words to define Six Sigma… the six perspectives… measurement, methodology, profession, project results, management system, and culture. On any particular day, depending on whom you are talking to and the context of the discussion, you'll get a different definition.

I'd like to believe that the Six Sigma evolution is real, and I'd like to lead the movement that ensures that the (Six Sigma) label is understood to mean many different things, but that the power of it is solid… We can allow the label to go away, or be misunderstood, but ISSSP has an opportunity to lead the movement to a clearer branding of the label (of Six Sigma), we understand what it means and the entitlement we as professionals and organizations can reach or go beyond from its deployment."

8. News: "What would you consider to be ISSSP's "crowning achievement" to-date out of all of the things you have accomplished?"

8. Roxanne: "I would have to say it was the very accomplishment of launching ISSSP, and in doing so, creating what I refer to as 'ISSSP Inc.' - the team of 15 people that continue to make it happen. We strive to apply all of the principles of Six Sigma in our endeavors, and ensure that all of our processes have been aligned to our strategy… the back office processes that often go unseen by the (membership and) public, but is most certainly felt."

News:  "I am somewhat surprised by the answer… I was expecting you to say that having Jack Welch as a keynote speaker at the last Annual Conference was a crowning achievement."

Roxanne: "It was, most certainly, an honor and a privilege, but Jack is only one piece of the message… we have also seen leaders like Larry Bossidy, and Dan Burnham… What do you do for an encore?… well, we're working on it! While this is exciting, and certainly an achievement, it is the underlying processes that (ISSSP) has in place that enable us to achieve this level of performance… and strive to do more with each year. It really is ISSSP Inc… the team, and the processes that are our crowning achievement to date.  This team has enabled the building of the Six Sigma Community and I believe that is where it all starts"

9. News: "With previous ISSSP Annual Six Sigma Leadership Conferences featuring Six Sigma giants like Larry Bossidy and Jack Welch, what are some of the key events attendees can look forward to this year's Annual Conference, which is being held in Scottsdale on June 11-13, 2003? Are you planning any surprises for us?"

9. Roxanne: "As our theme promotes 'Share the Experience... Integrate the Knowledge…', we will host and facilitate a great experience for our attendees… an exciting, greatly interactive and fun event will be delivered. As always, our speakers are selected from ISSSP sponsors and members and will continue to enable ISSSP to be branded and recognized for this most credible, powerful opportunity offered to the Six Sigma Community.  We strive to maintain our designation of this event as 'Signature'.

We must foster an environment for continued learning of the professionals in experienced deployments as well as ensure a credible learning environment is available for the leaders who need to engage Six Sigma as a business solution. Our program design is critical to meeting these objectives. Each formal presentation will also feature a 'Roundtable' facilitated around the topic. Senior Level presenters from companies including Raytheon, Bank of America, Honeywell, GlaxoSmithKline, Lockheed Martin, Seagate Technologies, and Mount Carmel Health Systems will be addressing such topics as Lean, Succession Planning, Voice of the Customer, Supply Chain Management, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Hoshin Planning, Change Management, and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). 

A 'Six Sigma Integration Lounge' will feature the most powerful reference of information on Six Sigma and its integration with other business management practices. All ISSSP Sponsors and members are featured speakers and will have participated in our Knowledge Network and Benchmarking Programs which will be announced and launched at this event and showcased in the Integration Lounge. 

As an exciting addition this year, ISSSP has incorporated an element of the Program to enable Guest Participation. Attendees are encouraged to bring a guest and introduce them to Six Sigma at a special breakfast that I will be making a presentation entitled, 'Enhancing Your Life. Through the Mindset of Six Sigma'. 

An ISSSP concierge will be available each day to assist in planning and booking local activities that will ensure no matter what you and your guest's interests are, this trip will be one you'll never forget. 

As in years past, selected book authors will be available for book signings throughout the program.

ISSSP will also sponsor a 'Dine Around' and an evening of entertainment for conference attendees. A variety of restaurants from the very popular Scottsdale Kierland area will be available to choose from, followed by more entertainment, dessert and coffee at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa. And, as always, we like to bring in an inspirational and motivational speaker to end the program: 'Closing the Communication Gap with The Leader's Voice', presented by Boyd Clarke, CEO, and Ron Crossland, Vice Chair, of the Tom Peters Company."

Rod Morgan, e-Zsigma, Inc.

To get more information on ISSSP's 4th Annual Six Sigma Leadership Conference, or to register, please click below;

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