Principle of war #3 – Mass

Mass: Concentrate powers at a decisive time and place

The ability to focus and concentrate is essential for success in any endeavor. We as Lean Six Sigma professionals often lead rapid response teams also known as a “Kaizen Blitz”. This is when we gather key people and resources to focus all efforts on one key objective. We prefer to mass on a goal and see it through completion before moving to next goal. Mass is the opposite of multi-tasking! It is start-fishing, start-finish, – NOT – start, start, start, start, re-start, start.

A common Lean Six Sigma tool to help focus efforts for the biggest bang for your buck is the Pareto chart. Pareto highlights the 20% of causes that are having an 80% impact – essentially separating the vital few from the trivial many. Once Pareto tells us where the 20% is, we “Mass” our Kaizen efforts there.

Another aspect of Mass is to identify the organization’s core competencies, or those things it does so well it’s difficult for a competitor to replicate. Core competencies are embedded in the company’s strengths. Ideally we would “Mass” our strengths to achieve the objective.

Focus!