10. Creating Six Sigma Executive and Leadership Workshops
With Dan Kutz
Every Six Sigma deployment starts with a series of leadership workshops to create readiness. Because the deployment of Six Sigma and technical nature of Six Sigma are unique in many ways, the company’s leadership must be aligned early. The company must understand Six Sigma, and define the program expectations and the lines of accountability.
These early sessions encompass a significant amount of training but also include the workshop format where real deployment work gets done. These are the specific workshops I will address in this chapter. Each workshop discussion will include the length of the workshop, what the attendee should know, and what the attendee should do:
• Deployment and Project Champion Workshop
• Support Organization Workshops (Finance and Human Resources)
This chapter will also discuss a customization process and being successful and avoiding problems.
Executive Team Six Sigma Workshop
The Executive Team Workshop is the first Six Sigma training and work session delivered in a deployment. Assuming you have selected an external consulting group to support the deployment, before the session is designed, these consultants perform initial interviews of each member of the executive team. The interview team is one or two consultants plus the Six Sigma Deployment Champion within the company.
The purpose of these interviews is to assess the base knowledge of the Executive Team in Six Sigma, the company history of process improvement, and what each member views as the important strategic issues to the company. Some initial bullets addressing the purpose of the interviews from the consultants’ point of view are the following:
• Purpose
• Individual introductions and interviews with staff and line Senior Executives of a new client.
• Develop a basic understanding of the critical goals, issues, and culture of the organization.
• Provide an opportunity for preliminary questions and answers on implementation and technical matters.
Later in this chapter, I will present actual examples of output of the interviews upon which the Executive Workshop was based. This information was the first agenda item for this workshop so the presenters know if they’re on target or off base. Following is a list of failure modes that were reported in the interviews for previously unsuccessful initiatives:
• Lack of individual accountability and consequences
• Staff driven
• Many unconnected initiatives
• Lack of structured methodology
• Lack of management reviews and assessments
• Lack of clear measures, goals, and external benchmarks
• Lack of sharing among units
• Lack of clear expectations
• Lack of verification of benefits
• Difficulty in sustaining the gains
These points were very helpful in designing the Executive Workshop. The comments provided a blueprint for the agenda. And we could use these points as an assessment for the workshop at the end. Did we cover these issues or not?
Executive Team Workshop Length. The length of the Executive Team Workshop has varied from one day to three or four days. Considering the amount of information to be conveyed and the action planning to be done, I recommend at least two days for this workshop. The basis for this recommendation is that many members of the Executive Team are new to Six Sigma.
I have found that during one evening (the evening of the first day), a lot of thinking is done. Great questions and comments show up at the beginning of the second day. A one-day session doesn’t allow the time to consider the effort. Now, let’s look at the key deliverables: what the Executives should know and what they should be able to do.
• Key Deliverables
• What Executives should know:
• Six Sigma introduction
• Deployment case studies
• Lessons learned and failure modes
• Project selection methodology
• Project examples
• HR requirement
• Executive role in the program
• What leading the effort looks like
• Roles and expectations
• What Executives should be able to do:
• Engage in leading the effort
• Provide input to the program
• Provide input to the creation of a deployment plan or feedback on a draft deployment plan
• Set financial targets
• Assignment and responsibility of financial targets
• Order of deployment by business and functional area
• Scope of the Six Sigma effort
• Understand the initial steps involved in implementing Six Sigma in their organizations
The next sections provide you with a generic outline for the Executive Team Workshop and an actual example of a three-day workshop for a very large company. These workshops have had relatively small attendance consisting of the CEO’s direct reports—maybe 12–15 people. They’ve also had a very large attendance, anywhere from 60 to 150 people. The workshop customization process will help the company determine the goals of each workshop and the target attendees. The customization process will be presented later in this chapter.
A Generic Outline for the Executive Team Workshop
• Purpose
• Provides overview of Six Sigma and the leadership roadmap to institutionalize the program
• Provides leaders understanding of the steps to major culture change
• Potential Audience
• Executive Team, Division Heads, Business Heads, Operations leadership teams, Functional Heads
• Course Content
• Six Sigma and other initiatives
• Six Sigma overview
• Selecting the right projects
• Selecting and training the right people
• Breakthrough roadmap and tools
• Leading for excellence
• Sustaining the gains
• Duration: One to four days
• Deliverables
• High-level awareness of Six Sigma and the leadership roadmap
• Defined expectations and accountabilities
• Targeted financial targets and Critical Ys
• High-level deployment plan
• Identification of Champions
• Initial list of projects and Black Belts
Actual Three-Day Agenda
• Day One
• Introduction (8:00–8:15)
• Six Sigma at Company X (8:15–9:00); Company X CEO
• Break (9:00–9:15)
• Introduction (9:15–10:00)
• Six Sigma overview (10:00–11:00)
• Lunch (11:00–1:00)
• Six Sigma overview continued (1:00–1:30)
• Six Sigma tools (DMAIC)
• Introduction (1:30–2:00)
• Define Phase (2:00–2:15)
• Break (2:15–2:30)
• Measure Phase (2:30–4:00)
• Break (4:00–4:15)
• Measure Phase continued (4:15–5:00)
• Reception (5:00)
• Day Two
• Six Sigma tools continued
• Analyze/Improve Phases (8:00–9:45)
• Break (9:45–10:00)
• Control Phase (10:00–10:30)
• Case studies (10:30–11:00)
• Lunch (11:00–1:00)
• Project identification and selection (1:00–2:30)
• Break (2:30–2:45)
• Project identification continued (2:45–3:15)
• Lessons learned (3:15–3:45)
• Break (3:45–4:00)
• Driving Six Sigma to the bottom line (4:00–4:30)
• Wrap-up/elevator speeches (4:30–5:00)
• Reception (5:00)
• Day Three
• Leading Six Sigma (8:00–8:30)
• OPEN for Q&A
• Break (9:30–9:45)
• Deployment (9:45–10:30)
• Leadership expectations (10:30–11:00); Company X Leader
• Lunch
• Breakouts (1:00–?)
• Operations Committee panel (?–4:30)
• Breakout reports
• Q&A
• Wrap-up (4:30–5:00) CEO
Business Team Six Sigma Workshop
The Business Team Workshop is similar to the Executive Team Workshop. The underlying difference between the two workshops is the focus. The Executive Team Workshop focuses on deploying Six Sigma across the entire company, whereas the Business Team Workshop focuses on deploying Six Sigma within a specific business.
The Business Team Workshop allows each business the decentralism to customize their Six Sigma program to their specific and unique needs. This customization is done within constraints of the deployment plan approved by the Executive Team and the Six Sigma Steering Team, which is lead by the Initiative Champion.
An example of this approach is AlliedSignal when launching Six Sigma in 1995. AlliedSignal had three business sectors: the aerospace sector, the automotive sector, and the engineered materials sector. These sectors had radically different market environments, and it made sense to allow the sectors a little freedom in deploying Six Sigma effectively. The deployment had a great deal of central input to ensure consistency where it made sense and, likewise, customization where it made sense.
For example, all three sectors simultaneously launched two waves of Black Belts each in January 1995. AlliedSignal, as a company, launched a total of six Black Belt waves simultaneously. However, the Black Belt curriculum was slightly different for each sector to reflect the difference in manufacturing methodology. Manufacturing a jet engine (aerospace) is radically different from manufacturing a spark plug (automotive) or manufacturing an advanced polymer chemical (engineered materials).
• Key Deliverables for Business Team Workshop
• Workshop length:
• About the same as the Executive Team Workshop
• One to four days
• What Business Team should know:
• Deployment plan for the company (presented by Business Team leader)
• Goals for the business team ($ results, # of Belts and projects, linkage to existing targets)
• Six Sigma intro, project selection methodology, example projects, and HR requirements
• Understand their role in the program
• What Business Team should be able to do:
• Provide financial targets, Critical Ys, and project clusters
• Effectively select projects
• Identify Belt candidates
• Provide input to the business’ deployment plan
• Clarify accountability for results
A Generic Outline for the Business Team Workshop
• Purpose
• Chartered by the Executive Team
• Provides overview of Six Sigma and the leadership roadmap to institutionalize the program
• Provides understanding of the steps to major culture change
• Provides ability to effectively review and drive the program and breakthrough projects
• Audience
• Division, Business, Operations leadership teams
• Six Sigma overview
• Selecting the right projects
• Selecting and training the right people
• Breakthrough roadmap and tools
• Managing for excellence
• Sustaining the gains
• Duration: Four days
• Deliverables
• High-level deployment plan
• Financial targets and Six Sigma expectations
• Clear roles and responsibilities for Six Sigma Leaders, Champions, Black Belts, and Master Black Belts
• Clarified deployment plan with a firm schedule of actions to be taken
• Guidance on project selection and prioritization
• Six Sigma reporting structure
One-Day Purpose and Agenda—Sample of an Actual Workshop
• Purpose of the Workshop
• To gain an understanding of the kinds of business problems Six Sigma can solve
• Clearly establish the important 2004 project clusters for the business
• To identify and select 15 to 30 projects aligned with key business goals for 2004
• Clarify and understand the roles of business leaders
• Next steps
• Agenda
• 08:20 Group expectations/survey results (8:20–8:45)
• 09:00 Agenda, introductions, and expectations
• 09:30 Introduction to Six Sigma—leadership perspective
• What is Six Sigma?
• Why should we deploy Six Sigma?
• Results expectations
• 10:15 Deployment case examples
• Example deployment #1 and lessons learned
• Example deployment #2 and lessons learned
• 10:00 key measures and project clusters
• 11:15 Project selection methodology and project charters
• 12:00 Lunch
• 1:00 Process improvement methodology for operations
• Manufacturing application
• Manufacturing project example
• Transactional application
• Transactional project example
• 3:00 Design for Six Sigma introduction
• Design project example
• 4:00 Deployment strawman for company
• 4:30 Summary and feedback
• 5:00 Adjourn
Actual Four-Day Business Team Agenda
• Day One
• Process Excellence overview
• Six Sigma overview
• Balanced scorecard and metrics
• Project selection and scoping
• Day Two
• Balanced scorecard and metrics
• Project selection and chartering
• Process mapping
• Cause and effects matrix
• Black Belt case study
• Measurement systems study
• Questions to ask
• Day Three
• Capability study
• Shape, center, and spread of data
• Questions to ask
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis
• Overview/background
• Questions to ask
• Black Belt case study
• Multi-vari study
• Philosophy
• Inputs versus outputs
• Questions to ask
• Experimental design
• Factorials and screening studies
• Questions to ask
• Control plans
• Components and systems
• Questions to ask
• Black Belt case study
• Deployment planning
• Lessons learned
• Role of the Champion and Master Black Belt
• Exercise continues
• Day Four
• Deployment planning continued
• Review goals and metrics
• Process for program review
• Training deployment
• Communications plan
• Reward and recognition
• Elevator speeches
• Wrap-up, and pluses and deltas
The Business Team Six Sigma Workshop holds importance because this is the venue for the businesses to take ownership and accountability of Six Sigma. After a series of Business Team Workshops, the Six Sigma program is no longer strictly a corporate-level program but a business-level program.
These workshops allow business leadership to experience the Six Sigma tools, terminology, and methodology. This is also the opportunity to commit to disciplined project identification and prioritization. The businesses will develop a potential project list for their businesses with the following:
• Business impact
• Resource requirements
Most importantly, the businesses will define the deployment plan for Six Sigma in their businesses. Each business will follow Kotter’s eight stages to culture change, and there will be a subtle competition among businesses for the best Six Sigma results.
Deployment and Project Champion Workshops
The objectives of Champion Workshops are to ensure that the Champions understand their company’s Six Sigma program and their role in that program. Specifically, as the result of this training, Champions will understand what Six Sigma is, and how it differs from other quality/cost reduction/customer satisfaction programs. They will know how to deploy a successful Six Sigma program. In addition, they will know how to identify, scope, prioritize, and charter Six Sigma projects. They will also know how to select Black Belts and Green Belts.
Along with all that, the Champions will understand how to review projects and provide coaching for their Black Belts and Green Belts. Finally, in learning the guts of Six Sigma, the Champions will gain enough knowledge of the Six Sigma tools so they know what questions to ask during project reviews. Going from identifying and chartering high-impact projects to the successful completion of these projects by their Black Belts and Green Belts is the ultimate intent of the Workshop.
• Key Deliverables for Deployment and Project Champion Workshops
• Workshop length:
• Two to five days in length
• What Champions should know:
• Deployment plan for the company (presented by Initiative Champion)
• Six Sigma concepts
• Six Sigma tools and roadmap basics
• Identify, scope, prioritize, and charter Six Sigma projects
• Nontechnical project review
• Lessons learned and failure modes
• HR requirement
• Black Belt and Green Belt selection
• Understand their role in the program
• What Champions should be able to do:
• Deploy a successful Six Sigma program
• Project selection methodology and project chartering
• Identify Black Belt and Green Belt candidates
• Provide nontechnical project mentorship
• Remove barriers to project success
A Generic Outline for the Deployment and Project Champion Workshops
• Purpose
• Provides overview of Six Sigma and the leadership roadmap to institutionalize the program
• Define project selection techniques
• Review/refine project charters for Black Belt projects
• Determine communications methods for Champion networking
• Develop reporting methods/requirements for Black Belts and breakthrough projects
• Six Sigma Deployment Champions, Six Sigma Project Champions
• Workshop Content
• Six Sigma overview
• Project selection and definition
• Breakthrough roadmap and tools
• Planning for communication, reporting formats, project reviews, and Champion networking
• Duration: Two to three days
• Deliverables
• Detailed deployment plan
• Clear roles and responsibilities for Champions, Black Belts, and Master Black Belts
• Commitment to select high-impact projects
Actual Example of the Deployment and Project Champion Workshops
• Day One
• Introduction (8:00–8:30)
• Executive interview results (8:30–8:45)
• Six Sigma overview (8:45–9:30)
• Break (9:30–9:45)
• Six Sigma overview (9:45–12:00)
• Six Sigma card drop (exercise that demonstrates Six Sigma)
• Lunch (12:00–1:00)
• Project reviews (1:00–1:30)
• Team discussion
• Six Sigma tools (1:30–3:00)
• Define Phase
• Measure Phase
• Break (3:00–3:15)
• Six Sigma tools continued (3:15–5:00)
• Analyze Phase
• Improve Phase
• Day Two
• Six Sigma tools continued (8:00–8:45)
• Control Phase
• Lean Design
• Six Sigma tools continued (8:45–9:45)
• Lean Sigma
• Transactional Six Sigma
• Break (9:45–10:00)
• Project reviews (10:00–10:30)
• Team discussion
• Project selection and prioritization (10:30–12:00)
• Lunch (12:00–1:00)
• Project selection and prioritization (1:00–3:00)
• Break (3:00–3:15)
• Project selection and prioritization (3:15–4:00)
• Project chartering (4:00–5:00)
• Day Three
• Six Sigma roles and responsibilities (8:00–8:45)
• Managing Six Sigma and sustaining the gains (8:45–9:30)
• Break (9:30–9:45)
• Deployment planning (9:45–10:45)
• Deployment cases (10:45–11:15)
• Lessons learned (11:15–11:45)
• Elevator speeches (11:45–12:00)
Training the Six Sigma Champions is a special challenge because of their complex role within Six Sigma. These resources have to learn the technology of Six Sigma so they can be effective project reviewers. In my sector of AlliedSignal, the Champions (and my boss) attended the entire Black Belt training during the first Black Belt training. I recommend your Champions doing this, but I have seen few companies follow that path.
The Champions are also accountable for results and must be trained in leading and managing Six Sigma. As old Champions move on to other positions and new Champions come on board, the annual training plan should include training and certifying the new Champions.
A Process for Rapidly Customizing Executive/Champion Workshops
Due to the difficulty of arranging time for the Executive Team, Business Teams, and Champion training sessions, the importance of knowing the audience, knowing the business environment, and being on target with the workshop should not be underestimated. Some good front-end work will ensure success here, especially if an external consulting group is supporting the deployment effort.
Executive Interviews. Executive interviews are an excellent way to start a deployment. This is a simple process whereby a large proportion of the Executive Team participates in a 30 to 45 minute face-to-face interview with the Six Sigma Initiative Champion and an external consultant.
An interview guide provides the foundation of the interviews to ensure some level of consistency and prevent the omission of important questions. The following is an example of an interview guide. This example consists of 12 questions that are developed based on the company and the interview participants. There are some additional recommended questions toward the end of this example.
Executive Session Interview Guide
1. On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your personal experience in deploying Six Sigma?
1—I have very little knowledge; I’ve heard of it.
3—I’ve read about it and had some training in it.
5—I’ve participated in a deployment once or twice.
7—I’ve lead a deployment.
10—I am very comfortable with all aspects of leading a deployment.
2. On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your personal knowledge of Six Sigma methodology and tools?
1—I have very little knowledge; I’ve heard of it.
3—I’ve read about it and had some training in it.
5—I have received Black Belt or Green Belt training.
7—I successfully completed my certification project.
10—I successfully completed several Six Sigma projects.
3. As you know, we will be holding a ____-day Six Sigma Executive/Champion training session on ______ date. The focus of this session is to provide a general understanding of the Six Sigma process and to identify potential projects for our improvement effort. Do you have any additional areas of interest that you would like to see addressed in this session?
4. Please review the topics listed below. Which of these do you consider to be a “must” to review in the Champions Workshop? Are there any topics listed below that do not need to be reviewed in the Workshop?
• An overview of the Six Sigma processes:
i. DMAIC (Operations Six Sigma)
ii. DFSS (Six Sigma for R&D)
iii. Transactional Six Sigma
iv. Lean Sigma
• An overview of Six Sigma methods and tools
• An overview of the process for deploying Six Sigma
• An overview in how to conduct a good project review
• Some cases describing other deployments
5. What would you consider to be the three highest-priority issues facing your business today? What issues would you like us to address as we help you deploy Six Sigma training throughout your organization?
6. What are your key performance metrics (big Ys)? How frequently are these metrics reported and used by your organization?
7. What areas of your business would you say could benefit most from improved execution?
8. What would be a rough estimate for the cost of inefficient execution (cost of poor quality) in the following areas?
Operations
Marketing
Transactional processes
New product commercialization
9. How well connected are current operations, marketing, and technology programs to your overall business strategy and goals?
10. What role do you see for new product commercialization in meeting your business objectives?
11. Are benchmark and customer satisfaction studies performed to determine best in class for your key products, services, and administrative functions?
12. Where are current improvement areas for reducing waste and improving process efficiency?
As companies prepare to deploy Six Sigma, a key aspect is project selection. Consider the following when selecting projects:
• Where are the areas that contribute to excessive costs?
• Where are the areas that cause excessive time delays?
• What processes are contributing to poor process efficiency? Think about all work processes, not just manufacturing.
• What are your customer’s major complaints relative to your products and services?
• What are your key business metrics and which of these exhibit the largest performance gap?
• What are the 3–5 key top-down business issues?
• What are the key issues from a bottom-up view (how many times result in quick hits or early successes)?
Executive Interview Report. Once the interviews are completed, the results become part of the leadership workshop. The effectiveness of this stems from the fact that the company’s current situation and strategy were considered when designing the workshop.
Presenting the interview results provides an opportunity to get the participants on the same page with respect to the company’s business issues. The interview results provide insights into what the opportunities are and where Six Sigma can help. An actual example of how the information gained from the interviews was put together as a workshop opening.
There are two classes of information gleaning from the interviews and for the workshop. The first class of information has to do with the company’s business issues and improvement opportunities. The second class of information has to do with the base knowledge each interviewee has of Six Sigma. This information, shared textually or graphically as seen next, is a great way to start a workshop.
Q1. What are the three highest-priority issues facing your business today?
• Responses
• Respondent #1:
• Proper integration of recently acquired businesses.
• Communicating the 2–5 year vision for our company to the broader Executive management team.
• Sarbanes-Oxley compliance with more than 20 different A/R systems.
• Huge opportunity in working capital (inventory).
• Respondent #2:
• Identifying the project Champions and managers.
• Our company has more than 100 IT people working in more than 10 sites. Need to retool resources from infrastructure to applications side.
• Data availability and data quality for internal management of the business.
Q2. What is your personal experience in deploying Lean Six Sigma?
Figure 10.1 A graph depicting how the interviewees responded to their experience in deploying Six Sigma on a one-to-ten scale. This shows that over half the potential respondents have no experience in deployment.
Q3. What is your personal knowledge of Six Sigma methodology and tools?
Figure 10.2 A graph depicting how the interviewees responded to their knowledge of Six Sigma methodology and tools. This shows that over half the potential respondents have little to no knowledge of Six Sigma tools.
Q4. What would you personally like to get out of this session?
• Responses
• Respondent #1
• What are the next steps?
• Understanding that this is a journey; a deployment process.
• A focused list of projects and the associated returns.
• The project Champion; the project leader.
• Agreement that we will drive the projects.
• Determine the realistic opportunity of what we can get done.
• A clear understanding and agreement as to what we all expect to get out of this.
• With our CEO’s input and priorities, what are we going to work on?
• Avoid trying to tackle 30 items.
• Respondent #2
• A deeper understanding of the Six Sigma process.
• What the Lean animal is, and how it is defined (versus my Continuous Quality Improvement experience).
• A clear definition of what Lean and Six Sigma means for our company.
• The structure and understanding of the resources to be devoted to these projects to be successful.
• I would like the group to have the realization that this is something we really need to do.
By completing a straightforward interview process, we now have a great start on designing the leadership workshops. We know what the business issues are and what the concerns about Six Sigma are.
Now it’s time to develop the agenda and supporting materials and exercises. For example, we can use the interviews to assess how much time to spend on the Six Sigma tools. This is a technical module, and as much as six hours can easily be spent on the tools. Next are the conclusions that were arrived at concerning the Six Sigma tool module in the various leadership workshops:
• Example: Tools Training
• Goals for Executives and Business Teams—What are the tools, how do they fit together, how do they drive business benefit? (2 hours)
• Goals for Champions—Overview (so they can understand enough to select projects): What are the tools, how do they fit together, how do they drive business benefit, and what are some questions I can ask to spark discussion with Belts? (4 hours)
• Goals for Champions—In Depth (so they can be better project reviewers): What are the tools, how do they fit together, and how do they drive business benefit? How do I use the tool (classroom application experience), and what are some questions I can ask to spark discussion with Belts? (6 hours)
Materials Review with Key Stakeholders
Again, for the leadership workshop to be on target, the Six Sigma stakeholders and the consultants review the materials used for the workshop. As with everything else in Six Sigma, the material review is a process. The steps to the process are listed next. The rapid materials review process for fast launch is detailed next:
1. Assemble key representatives (Initiative Champion, subject matter experts, keepers of company values and culture) for four- to eight-hour materials reviews (Exec/Business Team/Champ and/or GB/BB material sets, etc.).
2. Review terminology (session naming, role names, acronyms, etc.).
3. Review look and feel of materials (branding, logos).
4. Review course-level deliverables and roles (week by week if course spans several sessions).
5. Review agenda level with agenda that shows topics, durations, and order.
6. Review module-level learning objectives and key outputs or decisions in each module.
7. Assign subject matter experts to review detailed module content if needed. Fast launch will dictate that detailed module-by-module review is impractical, so limit detail review to crucial content only.
8. Use Kaizen/do-it-right-now work rules when editing materials. To avoid white spaces in time, use two- or three-person teams, co-located to assemble materials, and have materials reviewed in parallel (avoid batching).
I followed this process when working with a large company. We even reviewed some of the materials with the new CEO. A large group of subject matter experts met with the consulting experts to finalize the training material. This activity resulted in a three-day workshop that ended with a standing ovation. Every event has the potential of being this successful with the right planning.
Being Successful, Avoiding Problems
Because the leadership workshops occur at the beginning of a Six Sigma deployment, their success is crucial when launching the deployment of the new initiative. The workshops provide the opportunity to build rapport among the leaders of the company and to know in advance the team to be involved and their issues. With the right customization, many of the issues will be surfaced safely and addressed assertively. The final deployment plan will be well known with a high level of enthusiasm.
Order of the Workshops. By developing the content of the leadership workshops after the interviews, the order of the workshops may also be established. Although the general order is (1) Executive Team Workshop, (2) Business Team Workshops, and (3) Champion Workshops, this does not have to be your order. You can order the workshops in a way that works best for your company and your Six Sigma deployment.
Workshop Leaders. For companies using external consulting support, the presenters are usually a combination of consultants and company employees. Who the company selects to lead the workshop gives the participants a sense of the importance of the program. Companies sometimes allow their newly hired Master Black Belt to do the session.
Unless this person comes across as a business leader, he or she will be viewed as a technical resource that doesn’t know much about running a business. Assigning the workshop leader slot to a senior, highly respected leader is the way to go. This person should be a leading contender for the Initiative Champion position.
Timing of the Deployment. The successful leadership workshop will positively affect the timing for the deployment. The deployment speed, rather than being conservatively slow to avoid risk, will be done at light speed because leadership will understand the benefits of a fast start. For example, at 3M, Jim McNerney launched the first wave of Black Belts only three weeks after the Executive Team Workshop. The launch was highly successful.
Financial Targets for Six Sigma. Most importantly, the leadership workshops have the advantage of deploying the expected financial targets for the program well in advance of the first Black Belt and Green Belt training even beginning. These clear targets will directly affect each business’s, function’s, or site’s sense of urgency for selecting the right projects. The financial targets also send the message that Six Sigma is not just a quality program—Six Sigma is a business improvement program that belongs to the businesses.
Nerves of the Staff: Expect it. Even before the first leadership workshop, a group of staff members will be involved in putting the leadership workshops together. This group will be very nervous because of their lack of expertise in Six Sigma. They have to work hard to learn the guts of the program and also allow a set of consultants to help make some of the important decisions. They will sometimes be in direct conflict with the consultants because they were involved with similar initiatives previously.
One way to get around that conflict is the way one CEO did it. He told his staff that the company would use methodology that they were licensing from the consultants rather than try to create the program from scratch. This saved the company a lot of time, and the staff members still influenced the program positively.
Other workshops may include a one-day financial workshop and a one-day HR workshop. The agendas for each are shown next.
Example Agenda of a Financial Workshop
Example Agenda for Human Resources Workshop
• Training Session
• Provide introduction to Six Sigma and Lean methodologies.
• Overview of improvement methods.
• Show potential improvement opportunities in Human Resource areas.
• Working Session
• Work through HR aspects of deployment plan.
• Improvement program organization structure.
• Recognition and rewards.
• Appraisal and performance.
• Retention and career-path planning.
• Change management considerations.
• Communication plan.
• Team effectiveness.
The quality of the leadership workshops at the beginning of the deployment will drive the spirit in which the program progresses. Doing the right upfront work and getting the right people involved early will ensure that your workshops are successful.