Ep. 12 · Focus On People With Maria Fry
In this episode of Quality Time With MoreSteam, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt Maria Fry joins the podcast to discuss all things Master Black Belt. Maybe you’re curious about what a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt does. Maybe you’re interested in earning your Master Black Belt. Maria talks about all this and more. As both a teacher and consultant, Maria performs at the highest levels of continuous improvement and operational excellence. In her conversation with Dan, Maria shares both her experiences and advice. Topics include communicating with stakeholders, mentoring other continuous improvement professionals, and stealth Sigma. (Yes! Stealth Sigma!) “What problem are we solving? Who's your audience? And then you fit the approach to make it most effective in that organization.” Thanks for the advice, Maria. Our approach was asking MoreSteam’s own Lindsay Van Dyne to also join this episode. Maria believes you must “know your audience.” At Quality Time With MoreSteam, we do!
In this episode, you will hear about:
3:24 - Maria’s start as a Master Black Belt
4:35 - Black Belt versus Master Black Belt
9:09 - How Maria describes her job outside the world of continuous improvement
10:25 - A Master Black Belt’s organizational impact
13:23 - The Master Black Belt as a consultant
15:55 - Communicating with stakeholders within an organization
18:05 - The modern certification requirements
19:53 - The Master Black Belt Curriculum
23:22 - A potential Master Black Belt’s preparations and considerations
26:40 - Conversations leading up to Master Black Belt certification
28:33 - People, process, and culture: know your audience!
33:07 - Advice for potential Master Black Belts
33:58 - Maria organically names the episode
Additional Resources:
MoreSteam's Master Black Belt Certification Program
Should I Become a Master Black Belt? - A Blog Piece
MoreSteam's 2024 Best Practices in Operational Excellence Conference
EngineRoom Data Analysis Software
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Host • MoreSteam
Dan Swartwout is the host of Quality Time with MoreSteam. A lifelong Central Ohio resident, Dan is a double Buckeye. He earned both a BA and a law degree from The Ohio State University. Before joining MoreSteam, Dan had a long career as a host, comedian, and master of ceremonies. For 17 years, Dan was the studio audience host for the Ohio Lottery game show Cash Explosion. Dan was also the host of CBuzz, which was a collaboration between the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, WWCD 92.9, and the Columbus Dispatch. On CBuzz, Dan interviewed some of the most prominent entrepreneurs in Central Ohio. From 2002-2020, Dan toured the country as a standup comedian. Tracks from his comedy CD have been played over 5,000 times on Sirius/XM satellite radio. Now, Dan brings his experience and enthusiasm to Quality Time with MoreSteam -- it's business and fun, together.
MoreSteam Client Services
Maria Fry has assisted organizations across a broad range of industries in developing and deploying Lean Six Sigma as a part of their Operational Excellence strategy for the last 25 years. She is currently a Principal/ Lean Six Sigma Master Blackbelt and Coach.
Vice President of Marketing • MoreSteam.com LLC
Lindsay Van Dyne joined the MoreSteam team at the onset of 2014. She spent her first several years at MoreSteam as the eLearning Product Manager, leading the eLearning team through an entire UI transformation and adding several language offerings to the product over her tenure. Now, Lindsay manages the digital marketing side of the business, keeping the website up-to-date and people informed on the happenings of the company on social media.
Lindsay received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a B.S. in Computational Physics and Mathematics from Bethel College.