Black Belts are important in a Six Sigma deployment. So it is important to choose them well, or choose your people to be Black Belts well.
How?
From iSixSigma:
The rigorous criteria can include:
- The expectations from the role.
- The opportunities and benefits from the role and the likely growth that the individual can expect on successful completion of the tenure.
- Superior past performance for several years.
- Prior experience with project activity.
- Minimum years of experience in the business.
The selection process must involve people from senior management, human resources and the Six Sigma deployment. Selection should not be compromised to accommodate the speed of implementation – taking time here, particularly in the initial years of deployment, sends the right message to the organization about the importance of the role. Of course, selecting the right people also ensures that the Six Sigma implementation is successful.
In other words, they must be able to lead the Six Sigma team. And in doing so, they must have the the ability to:
- Lead challenges from the front
- Listen and set the direction
- Manage change and mentor others
All these abilities are put to test during the tenure of a Black Belt. For example:
- Black Belts are assigned to challenging projects that do not have a known solution. Often, several teams have tried to work on such projects with little success.
- They lead cross-functional teams and are required to manage change issues without any real authority.
- During their tenure, they motivate and mentor Green Belts, who in turn juggle between working on projects and meeting the demands of their routine work.
- Black Belts engage with the leadership (Champions and executives) and also with peers and juniors to get their projects to succeed.
