In situations where disputes arise, for the Six Sigma project to be successful, a facilitators or mediator can help the Black Belt and their team. The need for a facilitator is not necessarily for dispute resolution, but may be for the purpose of support from a third party who is neutral and not involved in any way with a specific team member - or anyone from the organization.
Facilitators, arbitrators and mediators have different roles but may have to undertake any or all of the roles according to the situation.
Mediators are neutral members who work towards reconciliation in any arbitration or litigation. Arbitrators act as neutral parties to hear the evidence and decide on a given case; their decision may or may not be binding. A skilled facilitator can be of immense help to a Six Sigma project leader.
Both mediation and arbitration can have legal significance, and the assistance of the facilitator is better to sort out such matters. A simple facilitation of conversation between the two disputing members may prove to be helpful in arbitration.
Facilitators can help drive the Six Sigma project towards progress.
Common Factors
Facilitators, mediators or arbitrators all have some responsibilities in common. All of them have to be unbiased and specific about their role. They should not have a hidden agenda or notions about the project at hand. They should have some formal training in conflict management.
Additionally, they should be sensitive to the concerns of the parties. As an intermediary, they should listen and make careful conversation with everyone involved. They should ensure that the two parties are clear and sincere in their point of view. They should also be able to prove that the conversations they have are not disclosed to anyone and avoid making derogatory remarks.
These professionals should have an in-depth understanding of the point of view of everyone before coming to a conclusion.
The Differences
There are a few differences in the roles of these three professionals. The facilitator's role is to make the parties involved collaborate. It is important to stay calm in tough situations and neutral as well. They should be able to encourage the parties to voice their opinions freely. They have to avoid statements that may be seen as judgments.
At the end of their role, they should leave the team well-informed and energized for further projects.
Mediators have to be good negotiators as well as facilitators. They need to have good analytical skills, and should be able to maintain poise when the parties are disagreeing and bring them on track to sort out the issue.
When mediation is required, it generally so happens that the two parties are aware of the problem areas, whereas a facilitator makes discoveries for the two parties.
Arbitration is different from mediation in certain ways. It resembles a court proceeding, where the two parties present their arguments. Prior to arbitration, the parties may have to sign a document that states that the decision will be accepted. It is less expensive than going to a court and is becoming more popular as a result.
The role of each person is valuable - and depending upon the dispute, the parties can get help from the appropriate person so as to take their project to its logical, successful conclusion.
A system to develop a project pipeline is in line with the efforts for continuous improvement. A six-step process to keep the project pipeline full will enable the Master Black Belts and the Champions to find the right projects and select the appropriate one necessary at the given moment.
The steps in the process are as given below.
1.Understanding the Issue: The Champions and Master Black Belts should meet with senior managers to discover the problems they face concerning their departments.
Also important is to understand the performance achieved in comparison to yearly targets, possible reasons for the gaps in performance and lower revenues and profits. They should find out what areas managers feel could do better with some sort of assistance and customer feedback.
The finance department, operations, maintenance department and Human Resources are some areas for investigation.
2.Consolidation of issues and confirmation: Once the ideas and areas of concern are known from the senior managers categorize them using the affinity diagrams and if needed just-do-it project may be undertaken.
After consolidation of the issues, confirmation of the categories should be taken from management. By involving senior managers in analyzing using the affinity diagram, team leaders ensure that they do not miss any issues or areas of concern.
3.Review meeting with senior management: In this stage, a meeting of the senior managers should be done on a common platform and the concerns presented to them. By asking root cause and 'cause and effect' type questions, the objective is to determine the specific issues that need to be sorted out.
One advantage of getting all the managers together is to build a base for undertaking change projects. The relevance of continuous improvement efforts is important for the success of the Six Sigma initiative.
4.Develop a Picture of the projects: Using the list of issues derived from the earlier step, it is them necessary to meet with the staff reporting to these senior managers.
They will be able to provide more specific ideas of the issues, and team leaders will find the right level of expertise required for each project.
5.Prioritize projects: The most important step is to prioritize projects using the pay-off matrix, FMEA or criteria rating.
All previous feedback of senior management and other members, the VOC and the voice of business and the time and ease in completion of the project should be taken into consideration, and projects prioritized accordingly.
6.Make project assignments: Depending upon the expertise required for the project, the right people should be assigned to the projects.
Their skills, training, strengths, experience and the authority level are some of things that need to be given consideration.
Master Black Belts and Champions should constantly identify improvement projects. They should undertake these steps over a period of 3-6 months and find projects to keep the pipeline full.
Tony Jacowski has sinced written about articles on various topics from University, Six Sigma and Information Technology. Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online offers online and certification classes for six sigma pro. Tony Jacowski's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.