Leadership Development Consulting

Lean Six Sigma Leadership Requires Symbolic as well as Concrete Actions

The aspects of leadership unique to Lean and Lean Six Sigma include symbolic actions like personally going through Green Belt training and doing a project, or devoting four hours per week to involvement in Lean and Lean Six Sigma projects with the responsible Black Belt present, or being the Champion of a major project or cluster of projects, or putting Lean Six Sigma as the first item on every meeting’s agenda.

VSATC coaching can help each executive determine what symbolic actions are congruent with his or her style and will be seen as credible signals. Symbolic actions often become part of the organization’s myths and stories and can have a powerful effect.

In a broader context, VSATC offers coaching to the Executive Team to support leadership communication and decisions that will lead to significantly better results for Lean Six Sigma and other improvement initiatives. We help leaders to:

• Assess organizational readiness.
• Establish the deployment focus.
• Lay the groundwork.
• Develop a rollout strategy.
• Manage risks.
• Adjust the standards of performance and behavior.
• Lead ongoing or continuous improvement.

Virtually every leader will find that the organization tests his or her commitment to a major initiative. Whether it is the pressure to reduce the number of Black Belts that need to be trained or the bad quarter that suggests holding off on Lean Six Sigma for now, senior members of their team will come back and say: “I like Lean Six Sigma. It is great. But…we need to adjust the plan for this reason.” Therefore, it’s critical that the leader carefully choose what is really non-negotiable, and stick to these principles no matter what. VSATC’s coaching helps leaders to prepare for these inevitable tests and to determine what is non-negotiable.