At the invitation of our friend and colleague, Margaret (Meg) Wheatley, my wife, Carole, and I just returned from a conference called “Resilience: Strength Through Compassion and Connection.” I want to share some thoughts about the conference theme and I want to add strength through celebration because we were in the party town of New Orleans, and because celebration was an unstated, yet important, part of the conference.

We arrived in New Orleans the night before the conference was to start and immediately went out for a seafood dinner and on to a wonderful Cajun restaurant for dessert, Cajun music, and dancing. Our first and lasting memory about this trip to New Orleans is about celebration. Having set the stage, let me move on to what we learned at the conference about using connection, compassion, and celebration to strengthen our Six Sigma efforts.

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