When Jim Henson and this little girl went on set, it was to create a product—an item of value. The task, as originally written, was to create a short video where Kermit the Frog and the little girl sang the English alphabet. A simple progression of 26 letters. So simple that variation was inconceivable and no other product was possible.

But little girls do not have Six Sigma Black Belts or PMI certification (thank heavens!).

So the cameras roll, and the little girl suddenly becomes a point source in variation, undermining the original scope of work and putting the project in danger. She keeps injecting “Cookie Monster” in the alphabet, as if he were a letter in the English alphabet.

Cookie Monster is not a letter in the English alphabet.

The little girl thinks this is very funny. Kermit does not, because Kermit is a project manager locked into one irreversible type of value.

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