subject: Six Sigma and Change Management for Long Term Organizational Benefits [print this page] Six Sigma and Change Management for Long Term Organizational Benefits
One of the most crucial aspects of Six Sigma and Change Management is involvement. Involvement plays a vital role while implementing any change in your organization. For instance, if you make changes to a piece of software used by multiple departments in your organization, all the employees of the particular teams are involved and impacted directly or indirectly.
An organization is made of teams from various departments working in different ways to achieve the same goal. This is the simple reason why change management affects everyone in an enterprise. If the designing team needs an application that they find is easy to use, the IT department who would support it might have to undergo a training session if they are not aware of the working of this app. Hence Six Sigma and Change Management are essential for any enterprise.
Six Sigma Black Belts have to be careful while handling the resistance to a change that might hamper smooth execution of projects. It is not possible to eliminate resistances completely, but Six Sigma and Change Management can help assuage the resistance to a considerable extent.
Details of Six Sigma and Change Management
In most of the cases, employees and managers do not readily accept changes. This non-acceptance is usually shown by ignoring new rules and not conforming to certain improvement steps brought in through system automation or the use of new software.
It is the responsibility of the Six Sigma leaders to alleviate the resistance in a professional manner by communicating openly with the employees and understanding the cause of their dissatisfaction. This involves an effective Six Sigma and Change Management Process.
Six Sigma and Change Management Communication Plan
An effective change management plan involves a great communication strategy. This comprises arranging meetings and discussions to talk about the associated issues of the process change that has been planned. Good communication also involves sending emails, notifications, and news related to the project. This helps in creating awareness and interest among the employees regarding the project and also helps generate a cooperative sensibility among them. In this way, the employees feel that their opinion is counted in the change management process and they begin to respond in a more positive way by showing less resistance, fostering an atmosphere of acceptance in the enterprise.
Six Sigma and Change Management Training Sessions
The employees in an organization must be trained on Six Sigma concepts. This eases out their apprehension of the forthcoming changes and also brings down the intensity of the pervasive resistance. Employees must be trained to understand their scope of improvement with Six Sigma and Change Management practiced in the organization.
Development Planning in Change Management
This is one of the vital processes involved in a Change Management Program. A definite set of feasible goals should be kept in mind while planning the entire process of Change Management. Six Sigma and Change Management work as a strong couple only when a clear development plan, along with timelines is set during the initiation phase. It is important for the Six Sigma leaders to know exactly what they desire to achieve by implementing the changes. Only then will the entire process bring out conspicuous results within the enterprise and reap long term organizational benefits.
