Six Sigma

Strive Six Sigma

Strive's mission is for every child in the urban core of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky to succeed from birth through college or career training. This mission may seem overwhelming, but Strive has a process in place to find solutions to the complex problems we face. One important element is helping service providers to shift focus from delivering isolated social service programs to implementing proven strategies that reach as many children and families as possible.

Strive has worked closely with General Electric to adapt the successful Six Sigma continuous improvement tool into a model that can be applied to the social sector. The resulting tool, Strive Six Sigma, will guide Student Success Networks (service providers offering similar or related services) to make decisions and plan actions that have been proven effective based on research and data collection. This collaboration will help avoid duplicating services and make better use of resources.

Strive Six Sigma has five phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Continue (DMAIC).

  • Define exactly what we want to do. Deliverables include a list of all team members and a team charter containing the problem definition, project scope, goals and objectives.
  • Measure what improvements need to occur to achieve our goal. Deliverables include a process map for improved student supports and a data plan.
  • Analyze factors that determine outcomes. Deliverables include identifying sources of variation, analyzing the data and establishing local evidence.
  • Improve current strategy and/or fill gaps with new or existing resources. Deliverables include an improved process map and action plan.
  • Continue to improve on the action plans. Deliverables include a continuous improvement plan.

Strive's role in this process is to help guide Student Success Networks through each step in the DMAIC process. For a Student Success Network to receive the Strive Endorsement they must agree to collect common data indicators, make necessary changes to their action plan based on the data and report their progress to the Strive partners on a regular basis. The Strive partners will support the endorsed action plan and upon mutual agreement the partners will actively seek funding or resources and pursue necessary policy changes.