TLC’s Top Ten Tips for your Lean Six Sigma Project
At TLC, we have been training, coaching and implementing Lean Six Sigma for over 20 years. Today, we’ll share our top 10 tips for successful projects – and we’d love to hear your feedback and ideas.
Tip 1:
Prioritize and Focus on High-Impact Projects
There are only so many hours in a day. There will always be more improvement opportunities than time and resources to tackle them. Lean Six Sigma efforts should really ‘move the needle’ for your organisation, so take the time to select the best ones – understand the link to strategic imperatives, and use a robust tool like TLC’s project selection methodology to identify optimal projects to tackle.
Tip 2:
Define Clear Goals and Objectives
It’s always tempting to dive into a new project – the potential seems exciting, and everyone understands what we’re trying to do, right? Taking the time up front to be clear on what problem we’re trying to solve, and what ‘good looks like’, for the selected primary metric, will be key to remaining focused. Being clear on scope will limit the risk of misunderstandings – which leads right into our next tip!
Tip 3:
Engage Stakeholders Early and Often
It sounds obvious – but often we underestimate the importance of getting key stakeholders involved at the right times. Finding champions to support the change will take a weight off your shoulders – and identifying potential resistors early will give you time to plan how to manage that resistance before it derails your project. Thinking through your communication strategies at different stages of the project, for different stakeholders, will set you on the path to success.
Tip 4:
Lead with Lean, Optimise with Six Sigma
As an expert LSS practitioner, it can be tempting to delve into complex analytical tools, especially if data is plentiful. But it will pay dividends to start with the basics – streamline processes with tools like value stream mapping and unlock quick wins through eliminating waste, and you’ll speed up the return on investment – not to mention winning over some of your detractors with these gains.
Tip 5:
Use Data to Drive Decision-Making
Long before ‘Big Data’ became a thing, LSS gurus have been using statistical techniques to get data to talk. Finding ways to translate data to actionable insights is part of your super-power as an LSS practitioner – which includes translating it into formats that your stakeholders will understand. If you don’t have the right data, you don’t have the right story – simple as that.
Tip 6:
Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement
Being an LSS specialist can be lonely – it can be an uphill battle to implement and sustain change if others don’t share your knowledge and passion. Invest in creating a culture of continuous improvement – find ways to encourage everyone to play their part in making work better, every day, and your efforts will be multiplied through the shared improvement culture.
Tip 7:
Upskill Stakeholders and Team Members in the basics of LSS
While not everyone needs to be a wizard with the statistical tools, it will make a world of difference if everyone understands the basic principles and concepts behind LSS – at least you’ll have a shared language around improvement processes, and shared values around the importance of continuous improvement. Get people trained on these basics and you’ll see the impact on increased support and easier project implementation.
Tip 8:
Empower Cross-Functional Collaboration
Often the biggest opportunities lie in the spaces between teams and processes – you’ll unlock incredible benefits by working across functions and departments. Getting people from different teams together to work on a shared issue can be like magic – it often solves deep-seated sources of conflict and misunderstanding too. It’s too easy to blame ‘those guys in Accounts’ – but when we work with the individuals, we find common ground in solving problems together.
Tip 9:
Monitor Progress and Adjust Accordingly
The most perfect plan will have to change as we implement and learn – we can’t predict everything, and it’s key to adapt based on the reality as a project unfolds. This means monitoring progress closely – both the project actions, as well as the changes in the key metrics. As we like to say, the only problem we can’t solve is the one we don’t know about – and stakeholders hate surprises, so keep them informed so they can support with any hitches along the way.
Tip 10:
Celebrate Success and Recognize Contributions
Everybody loves a winner, as the saying goes – yet we often forget the importance of celebrating success and recognising the support of those who made it possible. It’s also valuable to ‘tell the story’ of success, so senior leaders are aware of the value created for the organisation through Lean Six Sigma initiatives – that way, they’ll be supportive of further projects and be eager to sponsor and champion your future projects as well.
Which tip was your favourite? Do you have any others to share? Comment on our LinkedIn page:
