Forget Goal-Setting Journals and Use DMAIC for Achieving Your Goals

Whether you are wanting to achieve a goal, change a habit or improve your existing conditions, let Six Sigma’s very own DMAIC template save you money, time and most of all, make you successful at achieving your goals.

The main reason most goal journals don’t work is because the hard data isn’t part of their equation. The questions are asked in a subjective fashion, and the verbiage doesn’t solicit the correct mindset. 

Let’s take a quick look at Six Sigma’s DMAIC template and how its programmed to get you thinking in facts and accurate data to achieve your goals. Before you start, have a goal in mind, and while you are reading the questions, put the answers down that pertain to that goal.

Define: The problem, goal, reason the issue needs to be resolved. Be very specific with your answer.

Measure: The current state as a baseline and use it as a starting point for improvement. Make sure you are using actual data. For example, let’s say your goal is to quit smoking; get your blood pressure taken, do a treadmill test, and get the data from all those tests. This is going to give you the reasons you need to quit smoking as data and facts, plus it also gives you a baseline measurement.

Analyze: The root cause, identify it with data driven tools and validate as to why said issue is happening. You could use a cause and effect chart (Fishbone Diagram) as to why you started smoking and what happened to your body once you started. 

Improve: Here you need to identify some creative solutions to get rid of the major root causes, so the problem will be fixed and you can prevent future similar issues. If stress is what caused you to start smoking, perhaps find what caused the stress in the first place.

Control: Here you want to maintain the improvements and sustain the success of those new improvements. Let’s determine that you found what causes you so much stress that you had to take up smoking. Now you want to maintain the lower stress lifestyle. Look at the data and see how low your blood pressure became just by removing certain stress points. Control your improvements by looking at the data and monitor it constantly.

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