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eNewsletter, June 2006 |
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Who should Six Sigma Black Belts report to inside an organization? As much as I'd like to give you a definitive answer to this question, the truth is I'm compelled to tell you that "it depends." It depends on the size of the business, the size of the deployment and in many cases, who is paying for the training and expecting the results. Let's dig a little deeper into what I mean by this. In general, there are two primary choices for who Black Belts can report up to: 1) The business unit leaders - These are the folks who are mainly responsible for driving improvements within a specific business area and who are incented as such. On one hand, it is in their best interest to see the Black Belts achieve results because it affects their bottom line but on the other hand, these people do not always make the best leaders and project mentors as they typically do not understand the methodology as well as a Master Black Belt mentor. 2) A centralized system of Master Black Belts - In this scenario, the Black Belts often feel as if they are a stronger part of a deployment effort, and have the support of a practitioner who can truly provide solid project mentoring and advice. On the downside, the connection to the results and the business leaders is never as strong as it would be if the Belts reported directly to those business units. You can also add another layer of complexity to this scenario - and to whom do MBBs report? Do they report to the business units or up to some centralized deployment team or executive team? The bottom line is that the decision you make depends on where Black Belts and Green Belts reside. It could go either way and again it depends. For example, in strong Six Sigma deployments where there are a large number of Black Belts and where Champions play an aggressive role in continually scoping and putting new projects into action, specific business units often have their own MBB(s) on hand. In this case, the Black Belts would then report up to the MBB(s), who in turn would report to the business unit leaders. This scenario can often provide the best of both worlds for a large, strong deployment. On the flip side, inside smaller companies where there may be only a few Black Belts per business unit, it may make more sense and be more economical to have the MBB as a centralized resource shared by the various business units. While there is no right answer, in general there is probably a right answer for your company that you can determine by considering these additional points. But wait! While the above considerations may offer a seemingly clear solution for you, there is one additional item to consider that could far outweigh the others and often does -- the MONEY trail. There are two types of expenditures you need to consider: 1) Training - who is footing the training bill and? 2) Headcount - who is paying to replace the workers you are taking away for training? The bottom line is that whoever is footing the bill will want to own the trained personnel. End of story. And, conversely, if you expect the business units to foot the bill, you should expect that they will want ownership. To illustrate how this works, I'll share a story from a company I worked with a number of years back. The client was the deployment leader of a large international manufacturing firm with plants across the US. In deploying Six Sigma across multiple business units, he confessed to me that he was struggling to get plant managers to train additional Black Belts, even though managers saw value in what the program offered. I queried him about the money trail-- where was spending going and where was it coming from in relation to the program? As it turned out, he'd told his plant managers that for each Black Belt they trained, he would take $1MM out of their budget for the following year. Talk about a disincentive! When I asked him about the thinking behind this he said, "Dave, didn't you tell me each Black Belt should save me $1MM a year?" "Yes," I admitted, I had said this, and to this day I would say it again. However, as I pointed out to him, the way he was positioning this possibility to his team didn't make them want to train more,it made them want to avoid any training so they could ensure they hold on to that $1MM. My recommendation going forward was to take the $1MM away from each team regardless of who they trained. With this approach, rather than making the deployment leader look like a villain, he would be a hero who agreed to take on training and pay for the Black Belts in the hope that the team would meet the $1MM bogie. So you see, there is no single right answer. But there is a right answer for your organization. I hope I've helped unmuddy the waters just a little bit. For more information or follow-up questions, contact Breakthrough Management Group, Inc., www.BMGi.com. |
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Weekly Webinars: Boost Results with Powerful Technology Products. Topic: Building Infrastructure with the eHandbook Read the article in this issue, "Why Build Infrastructure?" to learn why building Infrastructure for your deployment is key. Then, join BMG for a Free Webinar and insiders look at the eHandbook, a powerful tool for designing and managing your performance excellence initiative. Date: 7/12/2006 or 8/9/2006 Time: 9:00 a.m. MST |
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Topic: eLearning to Drive Culture Change Is eLearning the solution for your company? Find out how eLearning provides both flexibility and cost savings as mentioned in this issue's case study, "eLearning to Drive Culture Change". View BMG's FREE live demos. Date: 6/21/2006, 7/19/2006 or 8/16/2006 Time: 9:00 a.m. MST |
