Benchmarking results consistently identify critical factors that are needed to increase the probability of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them?

Nayism 1: Black Belts and Green Belts are actually doing the work, so why does the senior leadership team need to be “belt” trained?

At first, training senior leaders as belts may seem like overkill. How many projects are they actually going to work? Well, it’s not about how many projects they are going to work after training. It’s about helping senior leaders to think differently and to better understand the true power of Six Sigma for their organizations. So, here’s what I say . . .

Before Six Sigma, senior leaders used to ask the same old questions and get the same old answers. After Black Belts and Green Belts were trained, senior leaders would ask the same old questions and get new answers. After senior leaders get trained, they now ask new questions.