Get to Lean5Sigma With Your Own People — Before You Even Think About Lean Six Sigma
20% of the tools. 80% of the impact. Zero external consultants. Lean5Sigma turns your own people into the improvement engine — with direct feedforward, real processes, and results measured in euros. Not theory. Not a toolset. A mindset born from the most bizarre conversation I ever had with consultants.
How Lean5Sigma Was Born
Not from a book. Not from theory. From one conversation that changed everything.
I was asked by two senior consultants to join a culture transformation project at one of the largest asset managers in the Netherlands. Big operation, lots of moving parts. So I asked them a simple question:
"What do you actually want to achieve with our collaboration?"
Their answer was everything Fit4Tomorrow stands against:
"Take control together, bring in more consultants, and earn on volume."
So I asked them to explain how flooding an organization with consultants would serve the client. Silence. Then I asked what would happen when they had to manage dozens of external people — availability, quality, continuity. More silence.
Then they asked the question that started everything:
"OK Robert… how would you do it?"
And right there, Lean5Sigma was born.
I told them: "I come from the outdoor world. Experiential learning. People solving challenges together. My job is simple — I watch how people collaborate, I give direct feedforward, and through that feedforward there's immediately room to do something different, which means immediately different results."
Then the core idea:
"What if we take only the 20% of tools from your consulting toolkit that produce 80% of the results… and instead of giving them to consultants, we give them to the client's own people? And we coach them like in outdoor: direct feedback, real challenges, their own processes end-to-end."
They agreed. And it became an unprecedented success.
From day one, the organization's own people went all in. Real problems, real bottlenecks, real processes, real ownership. In short cycles they mapped As-Is and To-Be states, built concrete improvement actions and businesscases, and calculated their own results.
After one year, we sat with the CEO. He looked at us and said:
"You achieved in one year what twenty consultants couldn't accomplish in the two years before you."
That is Lean5Sigma. Not a toolset. Not a blueprint. A mindset — and a deliberately provocative name. Because you should get to Lean5Sigma with your own people before you even think about bringing in Lean Six Sigma.
And Lean5Sigma succeeds where most Lean Six Sigma programs fail, because it addresses the #1 cause of their failure: leadership.
The Five Pillars of Lean5Sigma
Simple in concept. Powerful in combination. Each one challenges the standard consulting model.
20% of the Tools
Only the tools that actually move the needle. No framework bloat, no certification theater.
80% Impact
Pareto applied to process improvement itself. Maximum result with minimum methodology.
Your Own People
Not consultants doing the work. Your people developing the skills, owning the outcomes.
End-to-End Improvement
No partial fixes. Full process mapping, cross-functional, from customer need to delivered value.
Direct Feedforward
Real-time, in-the-moment guidance. Not retrospective reports — feedforward that changes behavior today.
Why Most Lean Six Sigma Programs Fail — and Why Lean5Sigma Doesn't
The consulting industry has a well-documented problem: the majority of Lean Six Sigma implementations fail to deliver sustained results. The tools aren't the issue. The methodology isn't the issue. The issue is almost always the same.
Leadership.
When leaders aren't aligned, when the culture doesn't support change, when "improvement" is something consultants do while leaders watch — the program dies the moment the consultants leave. The tools work. The people can learn them. But without leadership that drives it, owns it, and models it, nothing sticks.
Lean5Sigma was designed from the ground up to fix this. It doesn't start with process maps. It starts with Fit4Tomorrow leadership — and then uses the 20% of tools that matter most, operated by your own people, with direct feedforward that changes behavior in real time.
Why programs fail
What Lean5Sigma does instead
Starts with leadership alignment through Fit4Tomorrow. Then gives your own people the 20% of tools that matter — and coaches them in real time as they apply those tools to their own processes. Knowledge stays inside. Capability grows. Results compound.
Lean5Sigma in Practice
Embedded in Phase 2 of Fit4Tomorrow. Four steps, each producing visible, measurable results.
Map the Spaghetti
Cross-functional teams map real processes end-to-end — dependencies, handoffs, bottlenecks, waste. The full "spaghetti" of how work actually flows, including Finance and BI as the nervous system of the operation.
ZUMO Quick Wins
Short-cycle improvement projects targeting visible pain points. Your own people identify problems, design solutions, and implement them — with direct feedforward from experienced facilitators. Results visible within weeks, not months.
As-Is → To-Be Businesscases
Full process improvement projects with proper businesscases. Failure costs, throughput impact, savings — calculated by your people, in your numbers. MT members carry overall responsibility for value creation across the organization, not just their own function.
Agile Execution & Feedforward
Short sprints of apply → measure → adjust. Direct feedforward on both the process work and the leadership behavior driving it. Stakeholder Centered Coaching runs in parallel, so leaders grow visibly while driving improvements.
You achieved in one year what twenty consultants couldn't accomplish in the two years before you.
— CEO, one of the largest asset managers in the Netherlands, after the first Lean5Sigma deployment
Lean5Sigma vs. Traditional Lean Six Sigma
Same goal — different philosophy, different economics, different results.
- Full methodology — all tools, all belts, all certification
- External black belts and consultants drive improvements
- Leadership "sponsors" but doesn't lead
- Results take 6–18 months to materialize
- High cost — consulting fees compound over time
- Capability often leaves when the program ends
- 20% of tools that produce 80% of results
- Your own people learn, execute, and own outcomes
- Leadership is the starting point — not a checkbox
- Quick wins visible within weeks
- Fraction of the cost — no army of external consultants
- Capability stays inside — permanently
Where Lean5Sigma Fits
Lean5Sigma is the execution engine embedded within Phase 2 of the Fit4Tomorrow Operating System. It's how leadership transformation translates into measurable operational results.
You don't "buy" Lean5Sigma separately. It's the natural culmination of the Fit4Tomorrow journey — where activated leaders, with a shared language and clear priorities, deploy their own people to drive concrete improvements with real businesscases and measurable outcomes.
Ready to Unlock Your Organization's Own Improvement Engine?
A 30-minute conversation to understand your situation and explore whether the Fit4Tomorrow journey — with Lean5Sigma as the execution engine — is the right fit. No consultants will be pushed. That would be ironic.
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