13.4 Leading a Lean Six Sigma Implementation

So, you’ve looked at your processes. They’re erratic. Neither productivity nor quality are as good as you’d like. You’ve also done your homework, learning about lean six sigma. You know many companies have used it to tame, improve, and start to perfect their processes (see Figure 13.2). The bottom line: You want to give lean six sigma a try. But you have two questions:

1. Where should you start?

2. How can you increase your probability of success?

The good news: The right place to start is with leadership. Moreover, the right leadership team will improve the odds of success. To make lean work, you need to engage three types of leaders: Executive sponsors, program managers, and project champions. Let’s take a closer look.

The Executive Sponsor

Implementing lean six sigma requires changes in attitude and behavior. Such endeavors are always hard. Now imagine the CEO stepped up and announced, “Lean six sigma is the most important initiative we will undertake this year—or maybe for years to come.” Would this make your life easier? At General Electric, that’s what happened. Although Jack Welch needed a little nudging, once on board he became lean six sigma’s most vocal advocate. The result: Lean six sigma became GE’s common language, spoken by everyone from the front line to the C-suite. GE’s implementation success made lean six sigma the go-to tool for process improvement.

That’s the power of executive sponsorship: You get someone with clout to help cheerlead your lean six sigma implementation. The C-suite is the ideal location to seek your sponsor. Such a senior person doesn’t just help set and sell the vision but also helps quell turf wars, remove barriers, and provide resources so you and your team can focus on getting lean six sigma right. If you don’t have a C-suite sponsor up front, run a great pilot project to give you the story—and the numbers—to sell lean six sigma. Don’t forget, lean six sigma has won executive support over the years because it delivers tangible, game-changing results.

One more thought: A C-suite sponsor can also give people permission to get out of their comfort zone and try new things—even though they might fail. Consider this statement from the C-suite of a Fortune 500 company: Encourage failure, but demand excellence. What does this mean? This executive expects people to try new things, knowing that when people do things that have never been done before, they might fail. Failure is OK! That said, people need to learn from their failures. Making the same mistake twice is not acceptable. This is the lean six sigma mindset.

Aside from clout, what should you look for in an executive sponsor? The short answer: Look for someone with passion, someone who will get involved and stay involved, promoting lean six sigma consistently over time. Here is a longer list of things you want a sponsor to do.

• Provide strategic vision and energy for the program.

• Define what success might look like—and how it will be measured.

• Remove obstacles and provide resources.

• Create high-visibility mechanisms to share success stories.

• Take part in recognition events (e.g., award ceremonies and certification events) both in-house and with customers and suppliers.

• Appoint an implementation program manager.

The bottom line: Nothing increases your odds of successfully implementing lean six sigma more than obtaining executive sponsorship. So, let’s double down and highlight three things that are hard, if not impossible, to do without executive sponsorship.

Reward the Right Behaviors

Traditional measurement does not promote the proactive creativity and collaboration you need to implement lean six sigma. You likely can’t change the measurement system, but the C-suite can.

Emphasize Evidence-Based Decision Making

When challenged by complex problems and the need to change, you may feel the need to act—to get something done quickly. The lean six sigma mindset is, “Forget what you think you know and let the data show you the way.” When this message comes from the top, it sticks! You have confidence to be disciplined and patient; that is, to do the right thing instead of jumping to solutions.

Keep Lean Six Sigma in the Spotlight

The lean six sigma journey is long and often difficult—a marathon and not a sprint. Indeed, done well, lean six sigma is a never-ending quest. After all, your goal is to first improve and then perfect processes. Complacency can easily set in. An executive sponsor can help keep lean six sigma in the spotlight at the level needed to catch and keep people’s attention.

Lean Six Sigma Program Manager

Senior leadership certainly is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Remember the leadership-management matrix. As it highlights, you need talent where the rubber meets the road (see Figure 13.3). This is the role of the lean six sigma program manager—that is, to energize and guide the implementation effort across the organization.

What are you looking for in a program manager? Your program manager needs to be well respected and should be passionate about the lean six sigma program. Enthusiasm is contagious! But your program manager does not need to be an expert in lean six sigma—at least not at the beginning of the implementation. That said, the program manager must be willing, and able, to learn quickly. Not surprisingly, you want someone with good technical capabilities and strong people skills (remember the equation E = Q × A). A sense of humor and humility also help.

What does a program manager do? Here is the short list of activities a program manager needs to launch and sustain a lean six sigma implementation.

• Engage the team in a series of “kick-off” events.

• Select the right projects to build early success and momentum.

• Invite other team members to participate—and to bring their own project ideas.

• Organize and conduct training, up front and over time.

• Monitor progress at the project and program level.

• Work with the executive sponsor to provide resources and share success stories.

• Recognize and reward team members for their contributions to project successes.

• Document and share best practices.

As you can see, good project management skills are important.

Now, a little good news: The task list may look formidable, but great program managers don’t do it all by themselves. They build a team, relying on colleagues to get the job done. Simply put, program management isn’t micromanagement. It is a mix of direction, example, follow-through, and inspiration. The team learns and delivers results together. This is part of the power of lean six sigma!

Project Champion

Early in the implementation, the program manager needs to find a like-minded project champion. The goal: Get an early win by applying lean six sigma tools to a specific process or project. Over time, the program manager will grow the team, inviting everyone who wants to improve a process to propose a lean six sigma project. Here is the short list of a project champion’s responsibilities.

• Define and describe a project idea.

• Recruit the right people to turn the idea into action.

• Work with the team to develop and reasonably scope the improvement charter.

• Track performance and hit project milestones.

• Document the tangible benefits of the project.

• Identify the intangible benefits of the project.

• Develop and tell a sticky story about the project’s success.

• Keep team members engaged and on track with the right mix of praise and direction.

One final thought: Most well-thought-out lean six sigma projects deliver benefits, especially when scoped correctly. Sometimes, the project goes off track and cannot be salvaged. Good project champions and program managers possess the emotional fortitude to “kill” these projects before they become an emotional and financial drain on the team. They make sure an after-action report (AAR) is performed to help everyone learn from what went wrong. No one wants to repeat the same mistakes. The best leaders make sure this AAR process is performed as a blameless autopsy. Staying focused on the problem and not blaming the people is critical to cultivating a continuous improvement culture. It keeps everyone in the game!