A stakeholder of a Six Sigma project is anyone associated with the project either directly or indirectly. Examples of stakeholders are supervisors providing resources, team members, department heads and employees involved in the process.
An up-front stakeholder analysis of who the stakeholders are and how and when to involve them in the project can prevent potential problems. Stakeholder management:
- Prevents teams from ignoring people that are key to the project’s success
- Ensures all stakeholders understand the process and the benefits of the project
- Helps gain commitment for the project by identifying the correct influencing and communication strategy
- Helps build into the plan the actions that will win people’s support by anticipating their reaction to the projec
The Stakeholder Analysis is a chart which gauges the positioning of stakeholders relative to change and commitment to the goals of the team. Projects involve change and this often stirs emotions and encounters resistance. The higher the impact of the projected change the more important this tool becomes. The output of the Stakeholder Analysis is a representation of where the impacted people both inside and outside the system stand relative to change.
A sample template is shown below:
It is important that the team starts its journey with team members and stakeholders that minimize resistance to change. This tool is commonly used in DFSS or DMAIC projects throughout the duration especially if it is a longer term project. It’s objective is to detect and “out of control” position by a key team member and get it corrected by continually monitoring this behavioral pattern. Those that are not at the level of commitment or willingness to accept change need to be converted.
Stakeholder analysis steps as
- List all stakeholder names on the team. Other stakeholders are the community, customers, stockholders, but are not included in this exercise.
- Provide a number of 1-5 to indicate their CURRENT and DESIRED willingness to embrace change and make cultural commitment to advocate the change. Note that not all members may need to be a 4 or 5, but since a major breakthrough, technical, or cultural change requires a team effort it is important to have the core team neutral or better before starting or proceeding to the next step.
1 = Strong Resistance
2 = Resistance
3 = Neutral
4 = Willing To Change
5 = Strong willingness to accept and embrace change
- Document the roles and the relationships members that impact one another, boss, co-worker, material handler, and operators.
- Develop a plan to get individuals to desired rating quickly. If the plan is not working the person may need to be replaced before proceeding. The Stakeholder Analysis tool (similar to the Pareto Diagram) may be used at any time during any phase to gauge the member’s positioning. Overuse might indicate a trust issue within the team.
