This is part of the series The Role of the Six Sigma Black Belt. The concepts and ideas presented also apply to other improvement professionals and leaders implementing improvements in an organization.

The Leader Role

This example illustrates this critical role. In one project I followed closely, the BB worked hard to earn the trust and respect of a team of front line workers who made electrical harnesses for aircraft. These were union employees who typically did not mingle with “management” types like a BB (even though BBs didn’t really didn’t manage people but that was the generic label for anyone not covered by a union contract), but they had managed to learn from one another and now they were developing a new training program as a pilot for a larger training effort within the union-covered workforce. The union employees even got to go on a “benchmarking” trip to a local company as part of the effort. It was unheard of for union employees to be involved in such activities but they loved the work and when faced with the expected criticism from fellow union members for hanging out with “management” people, they effectively defended their position and continued their work. This small band of unlikely friends (that’s what they had become) had bonded in such a way that even years after the BB had moved on to another division, they kept in touch and he would come by their shop whenever he was in town.