"60% of Lean Six Sigma programs fail. The consulting industry's business model is the reason."

Lean5Sigma Execution

Your own people can fix the business. Stop paying outside consultants to do it.

Every year organizations spend millions on Lean Six Sigma consultants who deliver a report, present a roadmap, collect their fee — and leave. Six months later the results have evaporated and the same problems are back. Not because the methodology failed. Because nothing stayed inside.

Book a 30-minute session See the €21M result →
Lean5Sigma results – NO Outside Consultants – Capability Stays
€21M
found by their own peoplenot a consultant's recommendation
1 year
achieved in 1 yearwhat 20 consultants couldn't deliver in two
NO
external consultantsyour people learn, execute, and own it permanently
Yours
capability stayswhen we leave, the engine keeps running
Where this comes from

The most bizarre conversation I ever had with consultants — and what it produced

I was asked by two senior consultants to join a culture transformation project at one of the largest asset managers in the Netherlands. Before agreeing, I asked them one question:

Robert

"What do you actually want to achieve with our collaboration?"

Their answer was everything Facing The Challenge stands against:

The consultants

"Take control together, bring in more consultants, and earn on volume."

I asked them to explain how flooding an organization with external people would serve the client. Silence. I asked what would happen managing dozens of consultants — availability, quality, continuity. More silence.

Then they asked the question that started everything:

The consultants

"OK Robert… how would you do it?"

I come from the outdoor world. Experiential learning. People solving real challenges together. My job: watch how people collaborate, give direct feedforward, and through that feedforward create immediate room for something different — which means immediately different results.

"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 feedforward, 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 business cases, and calculated their own results.

After one year, we sat with the CEO. He looked at us and said:

CEO, one of the largest asset managers in the Netherlands
"You achieved in one year what twenty consultants couldn't accomplish in the two years before you."

After the first Lean5Sigma deployment

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. Lean5Sigma succeeds where most Lean Six Sigma programs fail because it addresses the #1 cause of their failure: leadership.
The real reason programs fail

The consulting industry has a financial incentive to keep you dependent. Lean5Sigma was built to do the opposite.

More than 60% of corporate Lean Six Sigma initiatives fail to consistently meet their objectives — that's the Wall Street Journal figure from a five-year study of large companies. Other practitioners put the real number closer to 95% when you account for programs that fade once the consultants leave. The tools aren't the problem. Leadership is. It always is.

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. Teams return to old ways. People report inflated numbers to create the appearance of achievement. The capability walks out with the consultants.

There's also the economics nobody talks about. The industry benchmark for a traditional Black Belt-led project — the gold standard of Lean Six Sigma — is $175,000–$300,000 in annual savings per project. One Lean5Sigma deployment. One organization's own people. €21M identified. That's 70–120x the industry benchmark. Using 20% of the tools.

There's an inconvenient truth nobody in the consulting industry will say out loud: a dependent client is a recurring client. If your people develop the capability themselves, they don't need the consultants back. That's bad for consulting revenues. It's excellent for your organization.
Why programs fail
  • Leadership treats it as a "project" not a mindset
  • External consultants own the knowledge — your people watch
  • Methodology overload — 100% of tools, 20% of application
  • Results evaporate the moment the consultants leave
  • Culture unchanged — people comply, they don't own
  • Dependency created — you need them back for every next wave
What Lean5Sigma does instead
  • Starts with Fit4Tomorrow leadership — not a process map
  • Your own people learn, execute, and own the outcomes
  • 20% of tools that actually move the needle — nothing else
  • Quick wins visible within weeks — not months
  • Capability stays inside permanently — it compounds
  • Independence built from day one — you won't need us forever
The five pillars

Simple in concept. Powerful in combination. Each pillar challenges the standard consulting model.

These aren't features. They're the five reasons Lean5Sigma produces results that outlast the program.

🎯
01

20% of the Tools

The tools that actually move the needle. No framework bloat, no certification theater, no tools your people will never use again.

Most programs fail because people drown in tools. Lean5Sigma cuts to what works.
⚡
02

80% of the Impact

Pareto applied to process improvement itself. Maximum result with minimum methodology. Your people focus on the 20% that produces the business cases worth presenting.

More time executing. Less time learning tools you'll never deploy.
👥
03

Your Own People

Not consultants doing the work while your people watch. Your people solving real problems in their own processes — developing skills that stay inside permanently.

When we leave, the engine keeps running. That's the design.
🔄
04

End-to-End Improvement

No partial fixes. Full process mapping, cross-functional, from customer need to delivered value — including Finance and BI as the nervous system of the operation.

Problems at handoffs get solved at the handoff — not patched in one department.
🎙️
05

Direct Feedforward

Real-time, in-the-moment guidance — not retrospective reports. Feedforward that changes behavior today. Combined with Stakeholder Centered Coaching for leaders growing in real time.

This is what the outdoor world taught me. It works faster than any training program.

Lean5Sigma vs. Traditional Lean Six Sigma

Same goal. Different philosophy. Different economics. Completely different results.

Traditional Lean Six Sigma

  • 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 leaves when the program ends
  • Dependency created — you need them back next time

Lean5Sigma

  • 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 — it compounds
  • Independence built from day one — you won't need us forever

Their own people found it.
Nobody told them to.

After Lean5Sigma was running inside a 1,400-person technical services organization, the leadership team — using the tools and the mindset their own people had developed — identified €21M in annual savings. That's approximately 20% of their total yearly budget. Not a consultant's recommendation. Not an external audit. Their own people, running their own improvement engine.

That's what Lean5Sigma leaves behind. Not a report. A capability.

€21M
annual savings identified
by their own people · ~20% of yearly budget

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.

Leadership Friction Scan
→
Play2Win Mindset
→
Fit4Tomorrow Leadership
→
Lean5Sigma Execution

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.

The investment

Priced on the value it creates.
Not the days we spend creating it.

Lean5Sigma is not a training program or a consulting retainer. The investment scales with the size and complexity of your operation — and every engagement includes a results component, because we're confident enough in the outcomes to tie part of our fee to the savings your own people identify and document.

Base investment
€85Kstarting from · 100–250 people

Scales with the size and complexity of your operation. Larger organizations, more leaders deployed, more improvement cycles — the base investment reflects what it takes to run the full Lean5Sigma engine properly.

  • Full Lean5Sigma deployment — all four phases
  • Direct feedforward throughout — not retrospective reports
  • Stakeholder Centered Coaching for leaders in parallel
  • Capability stays inside permanently when we leave
Results component
3–5%of documented annual savings

Agreed upfront. Triggered only when savings are formally identified and signed off by your own people. Not projections. Not estimates. Documented results.

This aligns our incentive completely with yours. We have every reason to push for the biggest number possible — because your upside is our upside.

  • Only triggered on formally documented savings
  • Percentage agreed before engagement begins
  • You don't pay for projections — only for results
  • Signals exactly the confidence level we bring to every engagement
One client. Base investment plus results component. €21M in annual savings identified by their own people — approximately 20x return in year one.Do the math on your own organization.
Minimum organization size: 100 people.

The investment conversation happens in the 30-minute strategy session — once we understand your situation, your people, and what the right scope looks like for you.

Your people already know where the waste is.
Let's give them the engine to fix it.

One 30-minute conversation. You'll see whether your organization is ready to run its own improvement engine — and what it would take to build it. No consultants will be pushed. That would be ironic.

Book a 30-minute session

Free · No commitment · 30 minutes

Not there yet? Start with Fit4Tomorrow →