Six Sigma Leadership Modes

If you have ever participated in a Six Sigma program implementation you would know that leadership plays a very critical role. There is indeed a big difference between a quick Kaizen or 5S event that is applied to a specific area of the organization and an enterprise, company-wide approach to changing the culture and mentality of employees towards continuous improvement. Leaders have been and will always be an incredible source of motivation, commitment, accountability, and sponsorship in any process excellence initiative. This post is a brief review of a section of the book "The Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook " (reference below). The authors emphasize the four main modes  that leadership goes through in a six sigma management system, as follows:

The Align Mode

As the heading above implies, the align mode aims at an alignment between continuous improvement initiatives and the organization's strategic mandate. More often than not, departments and employees themselves tend to focus on "solving their own problems" rather than looking at the improvement opportunity as a systemic approach. On one hand, leadership in this mode is responsible for refreshing the organization's mission, vision, and values - as well as the main strategic objectives that drive the company towards excellency. On the other hand, operational and enabling functions focus on the Voice of the Customer (VOC) as a way of making the link between what has to be done at the operational / front end processes and the organization's strategies. Lastly, there are two vital points to be considered in this mode: the balance of strategic objectives (such as explored through the BSC - Balanced Scorecard methodology) and the link of strategic metrics to personal individual plans - ensuring that employees of all levels are truly committed to continuous improvement initiatives that drive strategic objectives.

The Mobilize Mode

Change management is a huge part of implementing process excellence in any organizational setting. This mode is about empowering, helping, coaching, and mentoring champions, green belts, and black belts in the work that they do. These individuals are agents of change and as such, they must receive the rightful support they need to accomplish the great task of changing the organizational environment to a continuous improvement mindset. The most known leader, who truly engaged himself into developing other leaders in this field is Jack Welch, former CEO of GE. Through his own personal development and involvement, he not only empowered but also inspired nearly everyone in the organization to always work towards process excellence.

The Accelerate Mode

In a PDCA (plan, do, check, act) context, this mode is about getting the work done. Leadership focuses on actions that will deliver the expected results. Keep in mind that training and support (once again) may be needed on a ongoing basis. Recognition of results is just as important, normally done through the publication of results to the entire organization (e-mail campaigns, bulletin boards, and visual management).

The Govern Mode

Similar to the Align Mode discussed above, leadership ensures that there is a link between strategy and process excellence efforts, and in doing so, governs the entire initiative by a) communicating the impact of the efforts on the organization as a whole, b) regularly leading progress meetings while at the same time providing teams with support and necessary tools, c) monitoring operations through dashboards, and d) publicizing the campaign's efforts and results.

The importance of committed leaders to Six Sigma and smaller-size process improvement initiatives cannot be overstated. At eZsigma Group, we always work closely with organization's leaders to make the entire process a smooth one. Contact us if you'd like to discuss your company's needs for leadership training as we have specific programs tailored to leaders and champions.

Reference: The Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook. (2005, McCarty et al.). McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.