A structured approach to managing stakeholders in lean Six Sigma projects: Role Call!

Six Sigma originated in the manufacturing industry, but its popularity has caught fire throughout the service industry unlike any other process improvement movement. The define, measure, analyze, improve and control method is commonly used by organizations as a roadmap for process improvements through Six Sigma project management. Lean is another popular process improvement method. Lean and Six Sigma complement each other and can achieve greater results than those typically achieved by lean or Six Sigma individually. The term lean Six Sigma (LSS) is used to describe the integration of lean and Six Sigma philosophies. The authors conducted a study by interviewing 56 global project managers to understand the challenges and approaches to managing stakeholders during LSS projects at financial institutions. There is no hard-and-fast rule for managing a set of stakeholders, and the interviews with global project managers revealed a structured approach in managing LSS stakeholders could make for smooth project execution.