Many Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma initiatives never deliver the benefits – financial and otherwise – that management initially envisioned and counted on. A big contributing factor: the difficulty Belts have in successfully completing their projects.

This difficulty is seldom due to problems in applying the Six Sigma or Lean methodology and tools. Instead, Belts tell us that their biggest challenges are in the “people” areas.

Belts encounter resistance and lack of cooperation as they try to get resources, establish and maintain project team participation, obtain data, gain process owner commitment to improvements, etc. It is in this area of influencing people to get work done that the Belts feel they lack the necessary change management skills and knowledge.

Close the Team and Influence Skills Gap and Increase the Odds of Project Success

Rath & Strong’s Team and Influence Skills for Belts ^SM is designed to close this skill and knowledge gap. Targeted specifically to Belts, the workshop uses examples, skills practices, and team tasks that are typical of the situations Belts encounter in Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma projects. It addresses issues Belts face in working with both their project team members and their broader group of project stakeholders.

Team & Influence Skills Workshop Outcomes

The workshop combines lecture and experiential learning, including the videotaping (and analysis) of classroom “team meetings.” Participants leave the workshop with insights into their own and others’ behavior, a new set of influence skills, and an influence plan for one of their key stakeholders.

After Rath & Strong’s Team & Influence Skills one-week course, Belts are equipped to:

• Identify project stakeholders
• Recognize stages of team development; know how/when to intervene
• Diagnose team problems and make teams more effective
• Deal with disruptive team behaviors
• Recognize and overcome resistance
• Do a stakeholder analysis
• Identify influence styles, including their own
• Apply different influence strategies
• Listen better and be more attuned to spoken and unspoken messages
• Identify stakeholder “listening styles” and how to adapt communication to those styles
• Create a stakeholder influence plan