Making Lean Six Sigma Stick

Lean Six Sigma is a powerful set of process improvement tools that bring people together to solve problems. Yet it doesn’t mean much if it is not supported by leadership and your employees. Here are the five powerful steps that you can apply to get people at every level engaged and excited about Lean Six Sigma.

1. Create a Team of Change Agents

One of the very things you should do when you set up a Lean Six Sigma project is to create a team of change agents. This is a critical component in any change model. The team is composed of 6-8 people representing all parts of the process that are well liked and respected and are considered influencers within the organization. Select a cross-section of employees at various management levels who are proactive with great communication skills.
The Change Agent team is tasked with developing and implementing all communication and change management plans, processes and activities. The change agent team is educated in the area of Lean Six sigma and are educating and updating their peers on the initiative throughout the project.

2. Get Senior Leadership Engaged, Not Merely Supportive

This is the key.  Get the buy-in and support of management (especially corporate level executives) to successfully implement a Lean Six Sigma initiative.  Management not only has to support the initiative, but they also have to believe wholeheartedly in the initiative.
As part of educating senior-level managers on Lean Six Sigma, ask their peers from other organizations who have implemented Lean Six Sigma to speak to the management team about their successes and lessons learned.
In addition, management will need to be armed with a powerful and convincing communication message that not only inspires employees, but also creates the sense of urgency for the project.

3. Get Employees Engaged At All Levels

One of the best and easiest ways to create engagement across the organization is to get employees from all levels involved in the initiative. Throughout the life cycle of a Lean Six Sigma initiative, there will be ample opportunities to hold working sessions in which it will be beneficial to have the participation of both management and frontline employees.
In addition to the valuable information that is obtained from the working sessions, employees and management will be able to gain a better perspective of the enterprise value stream.


4. Everybody has two jobs; their primary job and continuous process improvement

Many critics of Lean Six Sigma argue that Lean Six Sigma will not be self-sustaining, particularly when the leaders who support the initiative leave. In order to make Lean Six Sigma sustainable within the organization, the tools and techniques used must become ingrained in the process and integrated in everyone’s day-to-day work.  They must become the Standard Work.
To accomplish this, the easiest way is to establish, at the post-project phase, formal continuous improvement processes that integrate directly into senior management scorecards. In addition, frontline employees should also have the authority and responsibility to improve processes, develop standard work and be provided feedback on their contribution towards organizational performance. The feedback should not only be qualitative, but mainly quantitative.

5. Reward positive performance.  Make sure careers do not suffer because of involvement in continuous process improvement.  On the contrary, openly accelerate careers because of involvement in continuous process improvement.

Money and promotions are factors that motivate people to excel. Non-monetary benefits, such as recognition, opportunities for advancement, opportunities to lead a major project and one-on-one coaching sessions with a senior leader, are also great incentives. In order to succeed a Lean Six Sigma project, a combination of monetary and non-monetary incentives should be in place for employees who contribute the most. Employees at all levels should be rewarded for their contributions and given the opportunity to contribute.