Deployment Processes for Leaders
After you have selected your first group of Champions, Black Belts, and other roles in the launching the initiative phase, they will begin working on their initial projects. We explained in Chapter 4 how to go about initial project and people selection. During the managing the effort phase, however, the number of projects will be growing too quickly to pick Black Belts and others on an ad-hoc basis. You will need to develop a formal process for selecting Black Belts and other roles, and assigning them to projects. This process will become even more important later, as Black Belts begin rotating out of their assignments and have to be replaced. It may be appropriate for some Black Belts to remain in the role for many years. But the world is dynamic, and Black Belts will leave the initiative for a variety of reasons, just like people leave other assignments over time. A few will leave because they are not suited for the work; others because of a transfer or promotion. A few will become MBBs. Some will move on to other companies and other careers.
A formal process is needed, typically lead by HR, that continually looks at the improvement needs of the organization (for example, strategy and project hopper contents), and the career development needs of the top performers in the organization, and selects those who should take Champion, Black Belt, MBB, or other Six Sigma roles.
It will also look to move top Green Belts into Black Belt roles, Black Belts into MBB roles, and so on. After about two years into the initiative, Black Belts and others will begin to rotate out of Six Sigma roles, and will be looking for big jobs. It is important that a placement process is ready to properly place them into important roles.
As noted in our discussion of reward and recognition, people need tangible evidence that making the commitment to Six Sigma will help their career. Seeing others get big and important jobs after their Six Sigma assignment is one way to make this happen. Conversely, if you do not place these resources in important positions, you will be wasting the significant leadership development they have received.
HR may primarily manage the people selection process, or it may be managed by a business Quality Council with support from HR. Most organizations soon see the need for an active, formal, Six Sigma organization to effectively manage many of these systems and processes (see Chapter 6). The people selection process should follow the criteria given in Chapter 4 for selection of Black Belts and others. The process of assigning these resources to projects should be based on the project identification and prioritization system. In other words, you should first select the projects, and then select the appropriate Black Belts to work on them. Such an approach simplifies the process of assigning Black Belts once they have been selected.
The placement process often presents a greater challenge, since big jobs are by definition few in number, and there may not be a suitable job waiting for each Black Belt or MBB that rotates out of Six Sigma. Therefore, many companies will make the timing flexible, allowing Black Belts and others to begin looking for their next job after about 18 months, while still in their Six Sigma position. This enables them to wait until they find a good fit and still complete their current project.
Initially, HR may need to help those leaving Six Sigma roles obtain the job they desire. After a while, managers will be actively seeking Black Belts and MBBs with no prompting from HR because they will see how these assignments have grown and matured the people in them. Recall from Chapter 3 that a key benefit of Six Sigma is that it becomes an excellent leadership development system for our top talent.