To do Six Sigma the right way is to focus on training and not on improving processes.
According to Ronald D. Snee, “Six Sigma training is designed to create the skills and knowledge that managers, Champions and Black Belts and others need to implement the project-by-project approach to improvement utilized by Six Sigma. Six Sigma training pays for itself very quickly.”
When you give in-depth initial trainings to Champions (2-5 days), Black Belts (4 weeks), and Green Belts (2 weeks), they will understand their job in the deployment of Six Sigma a lot better. This gives rise to a developing infrastructure (managers, Champions, Black Belts and others) that can use the Six Sigma approach to improve processes and thereby produce bottom line results.
Putting training as priority makes training professionals identify the needed skills and assess the skills of the organization. This brings about a deep understanding of the business and its strengths, limitations, strategies, and goals.
It is therefore important that you assess every training program. Evaluation of training should include assessment of results as well as whether the participants liked and learned the material. D.L. Kirkpatrick suggested the following four levels of assessment:
Did they like it?
Did they learn it?
Did they use it?
Did they get results?
Here ?they? refers to those who participated in the training and ?it? refers to the content and use of the training.
Focus on Improvement not Training: How Six Sigma Can Do It Right
