Tag: Coaching/Personnel Development

Beyond technical know-how and project execution, outstanding Six Sigma Black Belts know how to get in the “flow” – that level of performance that comes when competence and challenge are aligned.

Green Belt and Black Belt coaching has for many organizations become an integral part of Lean Six Sigma implementation and critical to the success of improvement projects. However, standards and best practices of effective coaching are only rarely established. Some may ask, “Why coaching for someone who has gone through training?” While training is essential […]

Most organizations have DMAIC and DFSS roadmaps to guide Black Belt and Green Belt projects. But what guides their Champions? Most Champions are busy people, often managers or executives with multiple and diverse responsibilities. In many cases, although not the optimum situation, Champions receive a meager one- or two-day overview in the Lean Six Sigma […]

So your Lean Six Sigma initiative is looking good. Training is moving along, project results are coming in, momentum is building. Ah, the sweet smell of success. But before you get too comfortable, here is something for deployment leaders, and others in positions of leadership, to reflect on: Are you doing all you can to […]

Should companies hire ready-to-go Black Belts, develop them internally or use a Black Belt from a consulting company? It is a question that many companies wrestle with during the early stages of deploying Six Sigma. The obvious trade-off is between the time it takes to develop one’s own talent and the time it takes to […]

Often, new team members are introduced to Lean Six Sigma using the following model: One week of training One month of project work led by a Black Belt or Green Belt Individual coaching scheduled at regular intervals during project work A priority courier express company experimented with this model in order to increase the likelihood […]

Failed Six Sigma efforts often are attributed to ineffective training of Black Belts and Master Black Belts. But there is a more fundamental issue at hand: the training and experience requested of Black Belts. It may be time to reconsider the typical certification process in order to produce expert Belts and lower the odds of […]

A company’s leadership has decided to fully deploy Six Sigma and is committed to reach its destination to change the culture. Currently, headcount includes a number of Black Belts and Green Belts. The organization has settled on a five-year plan to achieve Six Sigma, with an additional number of future Black Belts and future Green […]

The Six Sigma coach must be able to provide feedback on every Green Belt to that employee’s daily job supervisor in order to help bridge the gap of business-as-usual job performance, and that of the Green Belt’s performance on their project.

Somewhere within the Six Sigma brother/sisterhood are the unwritten rules of hierarchy: Grandmaster Black Belts mentor Master Black Belts, Master Black Belts mentor Black Belts and Black Belts mentor Green Belts. It is a great example of a traditional pyramidal reporting structure. However, within this hierarchy lies a hidden factory of defects. Six Sigma deployments […]