Overview

The very first actions associated with Lean Six Sigma implementation getting CEO engagement and deployment planning are focused at the highest level of the company. That means only a small cadre of people have been involved: the CEO, executives, perhaps a few upper-level P&L managers, the corporate champion, and perhaps an external consultant.

Obviously you can t achieve Lean Six Sigma goals if only a handful of people are involved in the effort! Very soon, your P&L managers will have to come off the sidelines and actively join the initiative by selecting some of their key staff to become full-time Lean Six Sigma resources and by championing the translation of corporate goals into value-creating projects.

Remember that many P&L managers (and others in the organization) will likely approach Lean Six Sigma with some skepticism, especially if they have privately heard negative reviews of Six Sigma: that companies claimed benefits that Six Sigma did not actually produce, that it didn t work somewhere, etc. Yet in essence you re now asking these managers to use Lean Six Sigma as the primary tool to meet their business objectives, not just turn to it as an ad hoc addition to business-as-usual (as might have been the case with past initiatives).

It s impossible to convert skeptics to implementers in a one-hour presentation or with a memo signed by the CEO. You need to create an experience that gives people time to digest and analyze what they ve learned and experience the benefits of Lean Six Sigma firsthand.