Six Sigma Culture And Personality

by: tjacowski
Total views: 38 | Word Count: 538

Although Six Sigma concepts and methodologies make use of foolproof statistical tools and techniques, the importance of existing work culture and the support and cooperation of employees cannot be undermined - because ultimately it is the employees and the implementation teams who have to work together in order to make the project implementation a success.

No doubt, it is top management that is held responsible if anything goes wrong, but if you look closely you will realize that the top management does nothing more than allocate resources and provide guidance, all of which do not affect the implementations directly.

Six Sigma And Organizational Culture

Generalizing the work culture needs of businesses is quite a difficult task because all businesses are different from each other in terms of size, specialization, and profitability. However, there are some things that employees of most businesses are required to have; for example, the inclination to work as a team, follow standard rules and regulations and listen to input provided by senior as well as junior team members.

Depending on the organization and the task at hand, efforts should be made to remove communication bottlenecks and barriers so that employees can feel free to seek answers as well as suggestions and recommendations from anyone working in the organization, be it the immediate boss, the departmental manager, or even the CEO.

It is only when employees believe that they are being treated as equals, that they will feel motivated to provide their full cooperation and support in making the Six Sigma implementation project a grand success. Lack of energizing and motivating work culture can have a disastrous affect on employee, which in turn can make it quite difficult for the project manager to complete the project within the stipulated time and costs.

Six Sigma And Employee Personality Types

Businesses that want to ensure the successful implementation of Six Sigma projects need to take proper care when selecting members of the implementation team. This is because different people have different personalities and if there is a mismatch between the personality types, it could lead to interpersonal conflicts, which can easily affect the implementations.

Now, it is not being suggested that all team members should have the same personality types; the team can have any number of different personality types such as troubleshooters, innovators, implementers, investigators, finishers and others. But the main point is that all these members should have at least one thing in common and that is the inclination to work as a team.

Individual members may be experts in their respective areas, but if they do not have the ability to work as a part of the team, then nothing much can be said about the project's successful completion.

It is unlikely that any business will be able to get the right culture and personality combinations the very first time. As such, all organizations need to be open to the idea of trying out newer combinations from time to time until they get optimal team performance and results. Once this has been achieved, businesses will never have to worry about missed deadlines and project redundancies.

About the Author

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.  

More Articles from: Project Management