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Experience has shown that obtaining organisational support for a Six Sigma project is one of the major success factors, and anyone attempting to undertake a project without the necessary support will find it a very difficult and unpleasant task.

So what we can we do to ensure we get the support we need?

The tool set we use to obtain support in Six Sigma is called ‘Stakeholder Analysis’, and it consists of five simple steps:

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  1. Identify project stakeholders (individuals or groups)
  2. Define the current level of support & influence for each stakeholder or group
  3. Determine the desired level of support needed for the influential stakeholders or groups
  4. Define an influencing strategy to deliver and sustain the necessary stakeholder support
  5. Create action and communications plans

Lets go through these steps in a little detail:

1. Identify project stakeholders (individuals or groups):

Stakeholders are individuals or groups who have some ‘stake’ in your project, usually having some influence over it, or being influenced by it. When uncovering who they are it is useful to consider those in your team (including Champion and Process Owner); those in the process you are working on; general management and the wider environment

2. Define the current level of support & influence for each stakeholder:

It is useful to put these on a stakeholder map like the one below where the position of the blob shows the level of support and the size of the blob represents the level of influence

3. Determine the desired level of support needed for the influential stakeholders:

Now it is neither possible nor necessary to get all stakeholders o a hundred percent support but you may need to move the more influential ones in a positive direction. You can easily show this by means of arrows on the diagram. Be realistic about what you need – and be certain to work to achieve it.

4. Define an influencing strategy to deliver and sustain the necessary stakeholder support

Next you need to decide how you are going to create this positive movement. There are many tools you can use (far too many to cover in such a short article) but one of my favourites is called the ‘3Ds’. The first D stands for ‘Data’. In other words seek to use data to convince the stakeholders of the importance of your project and why they need to support it. The second D stands for ‘Demonstrate’. Here you seek to demonstrate how Six Sigma has led to improvements elsewhere and you use this as an argument to gain support. The last D stands for ‘Demand’. If all else fails then get someone in authority to twist their arm a little.

5. Create action and communications plans:

When creating your communication plan remember that the messenger and medium are just as important as the message, and that it is good to use informal as well as formal methods of communication.

The stakeholder tool set is simple to take in intellectually but difficult to master in reality and it is next to useless if it used as an intellectual exercise only: resulting in little or no concrete action. I can’t tell you how many excellent communication plans I have seen that were never properly actioned. So make sure the Stakeholder Analysis is always followed up with a solid action plan.

And don’t forget that communication must be two way. The tools are designed to create a dialogue. You want to have that difficult discussion, and if you can’t win the argument then perhaps you have the wrong project!

We have seen that obtaining organisational support for a Six Sigma project is one of the major success factors, and we have discussed the tool Six Sigma Black Belts usually use to achieve it – Stakeholder Analysis.

Good luck with your project and make sure you don’t overlook the softer tools in the tool box. They are just as important as the data ones.

Author Biography

Mike Titchen

Mike is a highly experienced MBB and has worked in both manufacturing and financial services industries. Mike joined SigmaPro as a Master Black Belt and lead trainer in 2006. His consulting and training experience has involved the development and delivery of training materials for six sigma programmes for several high profile clients, and Mike has helped clients deliver improvement savings totaling over £5M.

Before he joined SigmaPro, he has implemented and has been responsible for Six Sigma with Norwich Union, Textron and General Electric. Mike has an MBA and a BA (Arts), and away from work he enjoys golf, tennis, snooker and listening to music.