Six Sigma in 3 Steps

It is not just the Green Belts and Black Belts who need to be trained, but the Master Black Belts and Champions as well. All of them are the foundations for creating the Six Sigma culture.

The training program for these businesses should be designed well to suit the needs of Six Sigma projects. A proper plan that ensures that all training needs are taken care of is vital to the business improvement process that they will be undertaking. Developing an effective training methodology should be the primary objective of any Six Sigma company.

Trainers can follow these three steps to make the training program uncomplicated and effective to develop future Six Sigma leaders.

1. Pre-training

2. Delivery

3. Feedback and analysis

Pre-training Preparation

The first thing to do before starting on the Six Sigma training schedule is to understand the customer’s expectations – in this case, the employees. By carrying out discussions with the people involved such as the deployment leader, trainee and future belts, more information and input can be given that can be used to develop and design Six Sigma training programs.

Training is a team activity and it is better to be prepared in advance with the knowledge about the participants. A plan with targets for each day of the training program can be used to observe the pace of the schedule.

The curriculum has to be a combination of games and exercises to ensure active participation and interest of all involved in training.

Delivery of Six Sigma Training

To be successful, Six Sigma training should have good delivery of the proper contents of the training material. With content, appropriate data will depend on the targeted trainees. Content for Green Belts will differ from content for Black Belts. Six Sigma is implemented serially as per DMAIC steps.

These being the underlying phases, the logical flow and their practical application has to be clearly explained. Carrying out exercises at the end of Six Sigma training sessions is useful to know the level of understanding of the trainees. They can also be given hands-on experience with the tools of the Six Sigma methodology.

For Six Sigma training to be effective, the proper delivery of the content is significant. The trainers should be well versed with the subject matter to make a convincing case for Six Sigma. The trainer’s style should be developed to suit the different types of participants.

Six Sigma trainers should hold the interest of the trainees throughout the program. Maintaining eye contact helps to create an informal and open session with participants. By giving examples related to the current work conditions, the participants will be able to understand the subject matter and the relevance of the training to their new roles.

To determine the understanding level of the employees, trainers should ask questions and encourage them to ask questions as well. The trainers may change the strategy if they find that a delivery style is not suitable for the current trainees.

Feedback and Analysis

At the end of the program, or even during Six Sigma training, feedback from the participants should be taken in order to determine their comfort level with the subject. This helps to improve future content, as well as facilitate changes in the way it is delivered by trainers.

At the end of Six Sigma Training, feedback allows companies to understand if the goals were met.