Category: Change Management
Basic Strategies for Avoiding and Overcoming Resistance
Published:The pattern is so predictable as to be universal. A leadership team announces to a company that they are going to launch Lean Six Sigma. The next few months are a blur of activity with executives and their direct reports scrambling to conduct an assessment, plan the deployment and determine how to recruit and allocate […]
Read more ยปEnabling Culture Change in Healthcare with Six Sigma
Published:After embarking on a Six Sigma journey, many organizations soon realize that one of the most significant benefits is also one of the most difficult to quantify. It cannot be measured in terms of “Z” scores or analyzed using a box plot. This benefit is the “people value” (no relation to p-value). It is the […]
Read more ยปSuccess of Improvement Initiative Depends on People
Published:Whether it is Lean, DMAIC or DFSS, Six Sigma boils down to improving business processes. And irrespective of the methodology employed or the scientific rigor behind it, every process improvement initiativeย โ if it is to be successfulย โ has to be approved, understood and implemented by people. Given the body of work published about human inertia […]
Read more ยปHealthcare Quality Initiatives: The Role of Leadership
Published:A distinguished panel of healthcare executives recently shared their thoughts on the importance of leaders taking an active and visible role in their organization’s quality initiatives. They also agreed on the need for organizations to develop the right management systems and structures to adequately support their quality efforts, measure outcomes and encourage accountability. Speaking on […]
Read more ยปPeople Complexity Can Require a Special Roadmap
Published:The DMAIC toolkit is excellent for solving technical complexity problems. However, you may have noticed that Lean Six Sigma is not as adept at helping solve people problems. The solution is an integrated DMIAC/change management roadmap.
Read more ยปProcess Ownership: A Vital Role in Six Sigma Success
Published:Process owners are a vital part of successful DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) and DFSS (Design for Six Sigma)ย projects. Process owners are responsible for the management of processes within the organization. In some cases process owners are current leaders/managers, and in other cases process owners may be taken from non-leadership positions. They are the […]
Read more ยปIntegrating Lean Six Sigma into Culture Is Like a Merger
Published:While it is essential for a company to create familiarity with Lean and Six Sigma disciplines by training employees, it is even more important to integrate Lean Six Sigma into the company change culture. Lean Six Sigma should be a key component of the organization’s change infrastructure supporting all projects and change initiatives from the […]
Read more ยปWhy a Quality Management System in Service Industries?
Published:In every organization, both management and the general workforce tend to resist change, whether it be in systems, culture or environment. That is naturalย โ people are usually happy to continue with what they have always done. The change brought about by the introduction of a quality management system (QMS)ย โ particularly in service industriesย โ is no […]
Read more ยปAsk the Expert: The Topic – Six Sigma and Employees
Published:Barbara Wheat, executive director of Six Sigma for Tenneco-Automotive, offers her views on Six Sigma and employees. She discusses a variety of ideas on communications, but her best advice about what to tell employees is: The truth.
Read more ยปAsk the Expert: The Topic – Six Sigma Adoption and Cultural Issues
Published:Jack Finney, president and CEO of Six Sigma Academy, offers his perspective on Six Sigma adoption and cultural issues ย from strategies to convince resistant employees to maintaining a positive culture as the initiative matures and employees turn over.
Read more ยปAsk the Expert: Six Sigma โ The Way We Work
Published:Mike Carnell, Six Sigma Program Manager for BHP Billiton Base Metals, offers his views on Six Sigma as the way we work. He discusses the possibilities and problems of completely institutionalizing Six Sigma in an organizationยs processes.
Read more ยปMaking Good Change Agents: Attitude, Knowledge, Skills
Published:When a business leader realizes that his organization is in need of significant change, one of the first and most critical actions is to appoint a team to spearhead a change initiative. Typically, a Six Sigma team’s leadership consists of project sponsor, with overall responsibility, seconded by project managers who focus on specific aspects. These […]
Read more ยปPace of Six Sigma Teams Differs Dramatically by Culture
Published:Imagine that an organization has chartered four Six Sigma improvement teams โ one eachย in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each has been given the charter to reduce manufacturing cycle times. The four facilities are virtually identical, producing comparable products and packaging, with the same technology. However, even with an equal degree […]
Read more ยปNot Just Statistics: Implementing the Cultural Change
Published:When contemplating a Six Sigma initiative, it is easy to visualize a group of technically skilled individuals running around with pocket-protectors and laptops, statistical software running 24/7 and operational problems and defects disappearing at a rapid pace. In reality, Black Belts learn not only statistical tools and Lean techniques, but also how to apply them […]
Read more ยปManaging the Executives for Lean Six Sigma Success
Published:Being at the focal point in the cultural migration of executing change using Lean Six Sigma, deployment leaders/deployment Champions have many obstacles and opportunities to deal with. Strange as it might seem, the people who may be pushing the hardest for the results inherent in Lean Six Sigma deployments are the same ones who can […]
Read more ยปIt’s Not Common Sense – It’s a Sixth (Sigma) Sense
Published:Many times when Lean and Six Sigma are introduced to an executive management team, there will be an individual who makes the statement: “This is just common sense. Why do we need to go through all this methodology, training and the statistics stuff to execute a simple project?” A large segment of thought leaders in […]
Read more ยปBuilding the Foundation for Successful Change
Published:As the filter coffee and leftover chocolate cookies are being gathered from across the vast boardroom table, the CEO leans back in his leather chair, stretches, lets out a sigh and purrs to his colleagues, “Excellent presentation, this will make a real difference. . . cutting edge you know and it’s bound to work โ […]
Read more ยปThe Employee Perspective of the Six Sigma Methodology
Published:Those who lead Six Sigma improvement projects often are in a teaching position, instructing employees who participate on project teams but have no experience with the methodology. Obviously, the inexperienced employees learn as they work on a project. But what is not as obvious is that the leaders also learnย โ no matter how much Six […]
Read more ยปTurning Management Reluctance into Six Sigma Support
Published:It would be great if every organization had senior management fully on board from the start of a Six Sigma program. Think Larry Bossidy at AlliedSignal and Jack Welch at GE. But not every organization is so lucky; many improvement efforts start at middle or lower levels. A middle manager gets a vision about how […]
Read more ยปElements of Successful Change with Lean Six Sigma
Published:The most difficult problems in any Lean Six Sigma project or initiative relate to changing mind-sets. However, the right combination of vision, resources, incentives, skills and planning significantly increase the probably of success.
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