Selecting candidates to lead your Lean Six Sigma projects is a critical step in ensuring that your projects provide the benefits they are intended to provide. Overlooking the importance of this step can lead to slow progress and incomplete results. Candidate selection is one of the many topics that is included in Acuity Institute’s Lean Six Sigma Champion course.
Establishing a systematic method to evaluate and select candidates is useful when filtering through a list of candidates who express an interest in getting involved in your Lean Six Sigma program. Acuity Institute has developed a Candidate Evaluation Criteria worksheet.
The Candidate Evaluation Criteria worksheet establishes a quantitative ranking for each candidate based on 9 criteria. Each candidate’s skill level is multiplied by the weighting of the criteria. The score should be viewed as indications of success, not as the final answer.
Candidate Evaluation Criteria
There are 9 skills to consider when selecting candidates at any belt level. Your organization should weigh each of these based on the overall importance for each criterion; 1=low, 5=high.
- Leadership
- Analytical & Critical Thinking
- Team Facilitation
- Project Management
- Change Agent
- Strong Communication
- Results Oriented & Proactive
- Process Orientation
- Computer Knowledge
When selecting Black Belts, there may be additional desired criteria such as:
- technical aptitude;
- business acumen;
- ability to train/mentor; and
- functional competencies.
Additional Keys to Your Belts’ Success
Selecting a beneficial project and great Lean Six Sigma project leaders will help put you on the path to success. Continuing on that path will require engagement at the Champion/Sponsor level. Here are a few things to consider:
- Make sure that project leaders’ time for projects is protected and supported by their managers.
- Establish a climate for negotiation of project deadlines, budget, resources, and specifications that include clear goals and realistic but aggressive deadlines.
- Make time available for meetings and tollgates with your project leaders and teams.
- Support innovative and outside-the-box problem solving and solutions.
- Request feedback from the Black Belt and/or Green Belt on how you are performing as a Sponsor.
- Give the project leaders and the team visibility to help communicate the status of the project.
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