Obviously, the answer depends on who you are and what you do.   

Velaction's Continuous Improvement Skills Pyramid

Get the Most Out of Your Training Budget

The Velaction Skills Pyramid eliminates the guesswork and quickly helps you decide where to spend your limited time and money—so you get the most effective results. 

The Right Training Material, for the Right People, at the Right Time

If you look to the right of the Pyramid, for each group of users there is a solid line, representing the most relevant skills, and a dashed line, corresponding to additional Lean Six Sigma skills that might also be useful. Easily search for training material by user group or by skill level to find the information that you need.

The 5 Levels of the Velaction Skills Pyramid

1.   Level 1 Skills: Understanding Tools

Success starts here. These skills are the fundamental building blocks of continuous improvement. At this level, the goal is to help you lay the groundwork so you can become familiar with continuous improvement concepts. We help you understand the ‘what’ and the ‘why’, without getting overwhelmed by the details of the ‘how’.

2.   Level 2 Skills: Using Tools and Understanding Systems

These skills strengthen your continuous improvement foundation. At this level, the goals are to help you (1) put tools into the context of the systems they support and (2) learn how to use the tools.  We teach you how to move from understanding to action. This is where you make your job easier by putting your knowledge to practical use.

3.   Level 3 Skills: Using Advanced Tools and Lean Leadership

These skills increase your proficiency in several areas. At this level, we aim to help you become more effective at your job by using more sophisticated tools. If Level 2 Skills can be likened to using a hand held saw to trim a branch from a tree; Level 3 Skills can be equated to using a chainsaw to cut down the whole tree.  In addition, we also we also teach you how to navigate the challenges of leading teams in a continuous improvement environment.  

4.   Level 4 Skills: Developing Systems

Once you master Advanced Tools and Lean Leadership, we teach you how to put your hard won talent to good use-so you can have  maximum impact on your department or organization. Perhaps you want to implement a daily management program or create a kanban system. This is where your abilities can have widespread impact on your company-and where you become the center of the ripple in the pond.

5.   Level 5 Skills:  Mentoring

If expertise is not shared, it is wasted.  But, all experts are not necessarily good teachers. At this level, leaders and trainers learn how to transfer their knowledge in a way that others can not only understand it, but actually put it to good use.

Business Operations

On the right side of the pyramid you will notice the Business Operations block. General business concepts and continuous improvement are tightly linked. Having strong knowledge of both will make you far more effective at your job. Because the concepts vary in complexity, Business Operations span Levels 2 through 4.