What Keeps Six Sigma Practitioners Up At Night.docVIP

What Keeps Six Sigma Practitioners Up At Night? By Bill Kowalski Recent Survey Shows Need for an Expanded Toolkit It may be the most widely acclaimed performance improvement system across the business world, yet Six Sigma is not immune to a paradox common to most large-scale change efforts: You cant expect to sustain top executive support without producing consistent bottom-line results... yet consistent results arent likely without sustained top executive support. This conundrum is a key finding from a recent survey of more than 240 Six Sigma practitioners across industries and around the globe. Sponsored by Leap Technologies, the survey was conducted anonymously over the web through iSixS, the leading Six Sigma information portal. The survey used a combination of multiple choice and open-ended questions to gauge perceptions of Six Sigma practitioners on two primary issues: What causes Six Sigma projects to fail to produce desired results? What would most help to improve Six Sigma project results? We know these are issues keeping practitioners up at night because these same people are under increasingly heavy pressure to produce and sustain bottom-line results from their projects. ?Executive Summary The CATCH 22 For Six Sigma PractitionersNot surprisingly, the most often cited reason for Six Sigma project failure was lack of sustained executive sponsorship and commitment. It is clearly evident that there is no substitute for top leadership support to achieve sustained Six Sigma success. In close second ranking was lack of buy-in, cooperation and ownership by frontline managers and employees for implementing and sustaining results on Six Sigma project solutions. These top two barriers to success create a classic Catch 22 for Six Sigma practitioners. On the one hand, executive commitment is critical to the funding and mandate Six Sigma practitioners need to challenge the status quo. ?Key Factors Causing Six Sigma Projects to Fall Short of Expectations* On