Webinar: The Important Role of a Champion

Presented by: Gary Cone & Mike Carnell

Date: March 17, 2021 2:00 PM CDT

What is a champion? What is that job supposed to be? It is a fact that every Six Sigma project needs a champion. This important role is the liaison between operations and management, but it all starts with what a company wants to accomplish. These are the goals that really define what projects are needed and how many Black Belts are required.

Black Belts have always been getting your best people to tackle your most challenging problems. This should be a major part of the planning process and either done or approved by Champions.

In this webinar, we’ll discuss:

Defining the role of a Champion in terms of:

• Responsibilities
• Liaison between Belts/Teams and Management
• Project Selection (Alignment)
• Deployment Planning
• Project Planning
• Conflict Resolution
• Change Management

Staffing the Champion’s position:

• Qualifications
• When do they begin the role?
• How many do we need?

Transition

• Integrating a project into the MOS
• Rewards and recognition (for the team)

We hear two issues consistently about a deployment, and we are speaking about any deployment. These are not indigenous to Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma. The first issue is there is no top-level management support? That champion is responsible for gaining and maintaining the support. If you do not have management support, you need to ask the Champion why not? If projects are aligned with company goals, how can support be optional? Alignment and support are the responsibilities of the Champion.

The second issue is that changes are not sustainable. A project team is there to resolve a problem and, in all probability, does not have the formal power nor the influence to effect long-term change. Change should not be some random one-off event with every project. Executing change is a survival skill in a global economy that considers “disruption” a business strategy.

About Mike Carnell

Mike Carnell is an internationally recognized and widely publicized thought leader, serial entrepreneur, author, educator, and consultant in continuous sustainable improvement. He is a partner with Black Swan Response that specializes in helping businesses recover from unplanned disruptive events. He is also the founder and president of three full-service Six Sigma and Lean Enterprise firms CS International, Six Sigma International, and Six Sigma Applications. As an accomplished speaker and published author, Mike is considered a subject matter expert in business excellence and sustainable improvement. His first book, “Leaning into Six Sigma,” written in parable format, covers the subject of integrating Lean Enterprise and Six Sigma.

He began his career in the continuous improvement disciplines in the early 1980's while employed at Motorola. His twelve years of process improvement success at Motorola secured his selection as one of the lead architects of Allied Signal’s and General Electric’s Six Sigma deployments, now considered global benchmarks for continuous improvement initiatives worldwide. His 37 years in deployments makes him one of the most experienced Six Sigma and business improvement practitioners in the industry today.

Mike holds a BS from Arizona State University, Member of the ASU Alumni Association, and a lifetime member of the National Honor Society.

About Gary Cone

Gary Cone is known to friends and colleagues as “the Godfather of Six Sigma.” He drafted the first roadmap of tools at Motorola and was one of the four people who launched the Six Sigma revolution in the business world, beginning at AlliedSignal in 1994, where he was personally responsible for leading the deployment in the $6 billion automotive sector. He is the only one of the original four who is still actively engaged in serving clients, transferring his vast knowledge to anyone willing to learn and providing executive coaching to GPS clients.

Gary has more than 30 years of experience achieving business performance improvement, successfully employing and adapting his knowledge of Business and Quality Systems, Strategy Deployment, Lean Methods, and Six Sigma Tools. In addition to working with a broad range of Fortune 100 companies, originally as one of the founders of Six Sigma International and now GPS, Gary has a rich business heritage, having held executive and senior management positions with Zenith Data Systems, Compaq and NCR.

In co-founding Global Productivity Solutions in 2000, Gary was determined to become the best implementers of productivity improvement to achieve breakthrough performance and sustainable results. He received his MBA from Vanderbilt University and his bachelor’s degree in industrial systems from the University of South Florida.