Convincing Doubting Thomas

In 2006 the Department of Army decided to implement a very stringent LEAN SIX SIGMA program world-wide and they decided to launch by training 16 individuals chosen throughout Joint Munitions Command as LEAN SIX SIGMA Blackbelts. The concept was that those 16 individuals would return to their respective commands and be change agents throughout the enterprise by convincing others to embrace the methodologies of LEAN and SIX SIGMA. Because the Army’s mission was increasing exponentially, it was vital for everyone within the enterprise to recognize they were all working toward the same goal – warfighter readiness – and to be excited about where the enterprise was going.

After months of traveling and intense formal training, Joint Munitions Command finally certified their first LEAN SIX SIGMA Blackbelt. Within weeks, several of the other 16 were certified and the Joint Munitions Command began an aggressive blitz for Continuous Improvement. There were a lot of leaders following the progress of those 16 and tracking mechanisms were created to monitor the projects that were being facilitated by the Blackbelts.

It didn’t take long for leadership and the Blackbelts to realize that not everyone was seeing the overall big picture and goals of the enterprise. Although top and mid-level leadership had embraced LEAN SIX SIGMA methodologies, the employees who were actually working production did not seem to recognize the need to change the way they did things and were not eager to do so. The real battle was brewing. It was soon discovered that the real issue wasn’t that people didn’t really want to change; they just wanted to be part of the change process. It was important for everyone to feel ownership and that what they thought was just as important as anybody else, no matter what title they held or salary they received. To have long lasting success, the Blackbelts would always find the "biggest doubting Thomas" and ask him or her, what it would take to get their buy-in. Then the Blackbelt built an action plan around their response. The key seemed to be that if you could turn the biggest doubter into a believer, you could likely turn others.

So by now you are asking yourself “so what?” Well, I have learned over the years that a principle in the secular world can also be a principle in the Christian world. After all, both are inhabited by human beings. As much as we would like to believe that as Christians we may have better control of our feelings and emotions, many of us don’t. I definitely don’t claim to be a giant in this area as I frequently battle to maintain control of my negative emotions. If you ask Karen, I have gotten better and I have tried to be more submissive to God’s and the Holy Spirit’s leading. I guess I will use a paraphrased version of John 8:7 to say, “He that is without sin among us, let him first cast a stone at me.”

I wrote a while back about unity within the body of Christ. One of the statements was that the church needs to become a living body of unified human relationships graced by the Spirit of God. Becoming a unified body of believers requires us to work together to create relationships that become the fertile soil for growth, revival and a tremendous work of the Holy Spirit. Did you see the important phrase in the last sentence? It is “work together.” Sometimes I wonder if one of the biggest challenges in the Church is that its change agents have big goals for the Church but there is not a complete buy-in from the rest of the body. As in the secular arena, I believe the real issue isn’t that people don’t really want to change; they just wanted to be part of and have a voice in the change process. It’s important for everyone to feel ownership and that what they think is just as important as anybody else, no matter what title/position they hold. The bible says in Hebrews 13:8 that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” As followers of Christ, we are to take the gospel message outside the walls of our church. As members of the Assemblies of God we need to commit to fulfilling the four-fold mission: evangelize the lost, worship God, disciple believers and show compassion. Unfortunately, the “how to” portion of that is left open for discussion and interpretation.

As I close, I want to reiterate that I don’t have all the answers. I am simply sharing an opinion and asking some difficult questions: Are we unified? If not, why? Keep asking “why” until you get to the basal cause. It may be very enlightening.

And just in case you didn’t know and were curious, yes I am one of the 16.