Sebastian Alonso

The Lesson That Started Belt Course

Early in my career, I was a CI manager running kaizen events and A3 problem-solving work. We made changes. We had successes. Then the program started depending on me.

I became the person who led the event, taught the tool, and solved the problem. Other high-potential people could have led teams, but we had not given them the skills or confidence to do it. Without intending to, I became the bottleneck.

That was a Lean-transformation failure. It also became one of my most useful lessons. A company does not build a sustainable improvement culture by creating one improvement hero. It builds one by developing people at the right level, at the right time, and in a way they can use in their actual work.

What Failure Taught Me

I have seen organizations put people through long Lean or Six Sigma classes that gave them lots of theory and little practice. Six months later, retention was poor and the work had not changed much. The problem was not effort. The training did not let people practice, make a mistake safely, get feedback, and use the skill again at work.

I have also seen improvement efforts lose momentum when every new leader brought a different priority. Teams need permission to finish meaningful work. That is why strategy, leadership alignment, and clear problem-solving conversations matter as much as the tools themselves.

The point is not to pick a winner between Lean and Six Sigma, or between one template and another. The point is to help people understand the problem, learn from the work and the data, and sustain a better condition.

What I Bring to a Team

My role is to help people move from knowing about improvement to being able to lead it. That means practical problem solving, leadership and coaching, team facilitation, Lean and Six Sigma methods, and learning that gets used in real work.

• Practical problem solving: A3 thinking, root cause, 5 Whys, current condition, countermeasures, and follow-up.
• Leadership and coaching: helping leaders develop the next layer of problem solvers instead of becoming the sole expert.
• Team facilitation: helping cross-functional groups work through facts, different perspectives, and competing priorities without rushing to a familiar answer.
• Learning that gets used: short instruction, practice exercises, simulations, group discussion, coaching, and immediate application.

Where to start

Start with three questions: What is happening, where, and how often? Which statements are facts, and which are explanations we need to test? What evidence will tell us whether the countermeasure worked and held?