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Treat DFSS lessons learned as a corporate source of returns and savings through
replicating solutions and processes to other relevant entities.
Promote the use of DFSS principles, tools, and concepts where possible at both
project and day-to-day operations and promote the data-driven decision culture,
the crest of the Six-Sigma culture.
9.4
BLACK BELT AND DFSS TEAM: CULTURAL CHANGE
We are adopting the Team Software Process (TSP) and Personal Software Process
(PSP) as a technical framework for team operations. This is discussed in Chapter 10.
In here, the soft aspects of cultural changes are discussed.
The first step is to create an environment of teamwork. One thing the Black Belt
eventually will learn is that team members have very different abilities, motivations,
and personalities. For example, there will be some team members that are pioneers
and others who will want to vanish. If Black Belts allow the latter behavior, they
become dead weight and a source of frustration. The Black Belt must not let this
happen. When team members vanish, it is not entirely their fault. Take someone
who is introverted. They find it stressful to talk in a group. They like to think things
through before they start talking. They consider others' feelings and do not find
a way to participate. It is the extroverts' responsibility to consciously include the
introvert, to not talk over them, to not take the floor away from them. If the Black
Belt wants the team to succeed, he or she has to accept that you must actively manage
others. One of the first things the Black Belt should do as a team is make sure every
member knows every other member beyond name introduction. It is important to get
an idea about what each person is good at and about what resources they can bring
to the project.
One thing to realize is that when teams are new, each individual is wondering about
their identity within the team. Identity is a combination of personality, competencies,
behavior, and position in an organization chart. The Black Belt needs to push for
another dimension of identity, that is, the belonging to the same team with the DFSS
project as task on hand. Vision is of course a key. Besides the explicit DFSS project
phased activities, what are the real project goals? A useful exercise, a deliverable,
is to create a project charter, with a vision statement, among themselves and with
the project stakeholders. The charter is basically a contract that says what the team
is about, what their objectives are, what they are ultimately trying to accomplish,
where to get resources, and what kind of benefits will be gained as a return on their
investment on closing the project. The best charters usually are those that synthesize
from each member's input. A vision statement also may be useful. Each member
should separately figure out what they think the team should accomplish, and then
together see whether there are any common elements out of which they can build a
single, coherent vision to which each person can commit. The reason why it is helpful
to use common elements of members' input is to capitalize on the common direction
and to motivate the team going forward.
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