For the past 20 years, Six Sigma has been deployed throughout organizations in every market. The methodology was originally developed for deployment in manufacturing environments, but it spread to other sectors as an increasing number of businesses in non-manufacturing spaces realized its value. However, one industry continues to not only resist its appeal, but resolutely claim that it has no place. Wall Street - and indeed, all financial services companies - remain largely closed to the adoption of the discipline. Unfortunately, the barrier to entry has been erected because of several misconceptions about the methodology.

Below, I'll explain some of the mistaken beliefs that banks, brokerage houses, and similar firms have about Six Sigma. In doing so, I hope to clarify the discipline's value as well as make the case for its implementation in the financial services community.

Allocating The Right Resources

One of the reason why this methodology is built upon a structure of black belts and green belts is because of the rigorous training involved. Often, managers (and certainly those in banks and brokerage houses) will read about Six Sigma and believe that initiatives can be implemented in-house. Then, when the deployment fails, the methodology is blamed as being inadequate or faulty.

In order for a project to be successful, the proper resources must be allocated. This process-management discipline requires a deep familiarity with statistics and process-related problem resolution. That is the reason why a team of black belts and green belts is assigned to every initiative.

Why A Systematic Deployment Is Critical

Another common misconception is that Six Sigma projects can be implemented haphazardly. That is, every initiative is compromised of a series of distinct phases, but it doesn't matter how - or when - those phases are addressed. This is inconsistent with the basic design of the methodology. Each phase has been carefully developed in order to build upon the completion of the phases that precede them. If this structure is not followed, the objective of the project may easily fail.

It's worth noting that Wall Street managers have claimed that Six Sigma doesn't work for their industry. In truth, the discipline has "worked" successfully in every industry. But, much depends upon how the process is deployed and the order in which the phases are followed.

Getting Top-Level Managers To Buy In

Wall Street and other financial services firms tend to suffer from a lack of corporate-wide communication. It's understandable why this happens. The industry moves at a frenetic pace. There is often little time to spend on non-productive work tasks. The unfortunate result is that communication about a Six Sigma project is often filtered throughout the organization poorly. This has a damaging effect on the implementation of the project. And if it is implemented poorly, the results will likely suffer.

In order for a Six Sigma initiative to yield true benefits, managers at the senior level must buy into the project. But, they must go even further. They need to make it clear that the project has their full support. Anything less is insufficient; if there is any reason to believe that top-level management does not completely support the assignment, the employees will be less likely to support it themselves.

Giving It A Chance On Wall Street

Wall Street is not unique in their need to manage process-related inefficiencies and defects. Nor are they unique in needing to control process outputs in order to reduce costs, improve customer service, and streamline the organization. These are the tasks for which Six Sigma is designed. But, in order for the methodology to "work," it must be deployed in the right way with the right resources with 100% commitment from senior management. If Wall Street were to truly give the methodology a chance, they might be surprised by the benefits they would enjoy.