And perhaps this is why materials written about Leadership do not delve deep into the requirement details of Continuous Improvement and Lean Six-Sigma – and the materials written about Continuous Improvement and Lean Six-Sigma do not address the importance of effective Leadership and the required skillsets – they are written by people in different roles for people in the same roles as the writer.
– The Indoctrinated; this person’s role in the organization is more Logistical, with an orientation on deployment. They are young in the doctrines of Continuous Improvement and Lean Six-Sigma, may have some of the skillsets, and will also have knowledge of the vision for the organization as set-forth by those in the role of Leader (but probably to a considerably lesser extent than the Practitioner). Their responsibility is to be the person who is the resource that will actually do the bulk of the labor that effects the change.
– The Unindoctrinated; these are the people who are on the “outside”. They don’t really know the vision from the leaders (who are not working to drive the message down so deep in the organization) and they don’t possess the skillsets of the indoctrinated (either because they are very young in the organization or the decision (passive or active) has been made to not convey the skillsets to them (either permanently, or “not yet”).
The lack of cohesion which is the natural result of all participants focused on executing their own responsibilities in the chain and not performing in a collaborative team environment results in a program whose efforts come in fits and spurts, whose results are predictably inconsistent, and with future outcomes that are difficult – if not impossible – to predict. Since the funding and support follows success, and the success varies so widely; the results that are realized are destined to fail at achieving those that are planned – and this leads to assessments forming that the program was unsuccessful.
In my opinion, herein lies the “root cause” of why Continuous Improvement and Lean Six-Sigma initiatives fail to realize their full potential. In a word, “Stewardship”. Or in this case, the lack thereof.
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