What are the primary causes of poor Green Belt (GB) performance?

The fundamental issue making Green Belt success so challenging is the part-time nature of the role. GBs are typically expected to lead Lean Six Sigma (LSS) process improvement projects on top of their normal job duties. This arrangement can quickly relegate the LSS project to the back burner whenever anything more pressing comes up – especially if the project isn’t aligned directly to a critical issue within the GB’s work area. While proper project selection and scoping is a critical success factor for all LSS efforts – including those with full-time Black Belts (BBs) – it is even more critical in the world of the part-time GB.

Even when the project is critical and properly linked to the GB’s area of responsibility, success can still be elusive. The first few cycles of applying what was learned in the classroom to a real-world project can be a daunting task. Unfortunately, GBs are often expected to successfully navigate the technical and political challenges of projects in a vacuum – without the needed support infrastructure around them. Master Black Belt-led project coaching support is typically targeted at helping Black Belts, with GB coaching relegated to inexperienced BBs and applied with minimal rigor. Similarly, Sponsor and Deployment Champion support of GBs is also commonly lacking.

These issues often lead to excessive project cycle times and delayed results, which can turn into a vicious cycle. As project activities get delayed – and time moves on – it becomes increasingly difficult to achieve meaningful results. Team members often lose focus, and more importantly, business priorities often change. What was most important six months ago is oftentimes less important today.

With all of these issues, it’s no wonder only a small percentage of projects ever find their way to completion – and an equally small portion of expected benefits are realized.

The next blog entry will discuss a proven solution to help organizations combat these issues and get the most from their LSS resources.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 12:02 pm and is filed under Deployment Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.