1、TEAMFLYTeam-FlySIX SIGMATEAM DYNAMICSThe Elusive Key to Project SuccessGEORGE ECKESJOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.SIX SIGMATEAM DYNAMICSSIX SIGMATEAM DYNAMICSThe Elusive Key to Project SuccessGEORGE ECKESJOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.Copyright 2003 by George Eckes. All rights reserved.Published by John Wiley & Son
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8、r fax (317) 572-4002.Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Somecontent that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:Eckes, George, 1954Six sigma team dynamics : the elusive key to project success / Geor
9、geEckes.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.Bookz ISBN 0-471-22277-1 (CLOTH : alk. paper)1. Teams in the workplace. 2. Project management. 3. Leadership.I. Title.HD66 .E324 2002658.404dc212002006584Printed in the United States of America.10987654321To my dear Uncle Joseph Della Malva
10、, it has been an honor being a part of your “team.”And to the memory of my sister, Adrienne.You left our “team” too soon.viiForewordAs the Business Leader for Household Retail Services, I have becomekeenly aware of the impact Six Sigma, as a management philosophy,can have in managing a business. Bot
11、h in my current responsibilitiesand in my previous career at General Electric, I have seen the powerof Six Sigma firsthand in helping my organization improve both itseffectiveness and efficiency.We have embraced Six Sigma at Household Retail Services sinceearly 2001. Having worked with George Eckes
12、at General Electric, Iknew he had a results-driven approach. Since Household Retail Ser-vices contracted with Eckes and Associates Inc., we have had impres-sive success.A key ingredient in our success was embracing Six Sigma as a man-agement strategy. Beginning in the spring of 2001 we created our S
13、ixSigma Business Process Management System. My management teamand I aligned our core and subprocesses to our business objectives andbegan to collect data on measures of both effectiveness and efficiency.By the summer of 2001, we had selected nine low-performing, high-impact projects for improvement.
14、 Over the course of the next sixmonths, George Eckes and his staff trained our project improvementteams to apply Six Sigma tactically. By year-end 2001, we were cele-brating our first round of successes. These successes included reduc-ing dispute resolution from an average of 38 days to less than 3,
15、 anddramatically reducing incidences of fraud.Which brings me to the topic of Georges third book on Six Sigma,Six Sigma Team Dynamics: The Elusive Key to Project Success. The toolsviii FOREWORDand techniques of Six Sigma at the tactical level are relatively simpleto use once a team gains some experi
16、ence in their application. Ofmuch greater difficulty is managing the team and its interactions.When managed properly, team dynamics can result in a significantincrease in Six Sigma project success. When ignored, they can resultin the failure of the project team to meet its goals and objectives.As he
17、 did in his first two books on Six Sigma, The Six Sigma Revo-lution: How General Electric and Others Turned Process into Profits andMaking Six Sigma Last: Managing the Balance Between Cultural andTechnical Change, George communicates the key concepts of manag-ing Six Sigma team dynamics in easy to u
18、nderstand language.In Chapter 2, he begins with an explanation of the roles and re-sponsibilities of a Six Sigma team. Included in this discussion are theroles of the business leader, the project sponsor (also known as theProject Champion), the team leader, and team members. In prag-matic fashion, G
19、eorge lays out eleven action items the Project Cham-pion should address even before the project team meets for the firsttime. In subsequent chapters (Chapters 5 and 7), George discusseswhat a good Champion should do during the project and describesthe responsibilities of the Champion after the team
20、disbands.Good Six Sigma team dynamics requires a combination of preven-tions and interventions. As the saying goes, “An ounce of preventionis worth a pound of cure.” In Six Sigma, the modified version of theadage rightfully states, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound ofintervention.” This adage
21、 is directly applicable to Six Sigma teamsand their dynamics. In Chapter 3, George lays out detailed, commonsense preventions that can dramatically increase the achievement ofthe Six Sigma teams goals and objectives. They include how to createmeaningful agendas so that teams break down their project
22、 work intobite-sized pieces. Suggestions on which tools to use to address eachagenda item are given as well as suggestions on the importance ofproviding time limits to achieve goals. Another prevention includedis how to set meaningful ground rules for each Six Sigma meeting.Ground rules are one elem
23、ent of facilitation that are intended to helpprevent maladaptive behaviors from interfering with the work ofachieving Six Sigma improvement. They are conventions that assist ateam in establishing a set of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors sothat the work of the team is not detoured by maladaptiv
24、e behaviors.Despite the best efforts of any team to prevent maladaptive behav-iors, they will occur. In Chapters 4, 6, and 7, George provides specificsuggestions as to how to deal with those behaviors, including how ateam member should handle minor disruptions to the more severe sit-uation of how th
25、e team Champion must handle an intransient resistor.TEAMFLYTeam-FlyForeword ixThe ability to utilize project management tools is often a missingingredient in Six Sigma teams. Simple but effective tools like WorkBreakdown charts, Linear Responsibility charts, and Activity Reportscan dramatically impr
26、ove the effectiveness and efficiency of the timea Six Sigma team devotes to their project. These tools address thecommon complaint from teams that they dont have the time for SixSigma. Understandably, this complaint is often voiced by more disor-ganized teams that waste valuable time between trainin
27、g sessions. InChapter 5, George addresses how to use a sample of project manage-ment tools to expedite a Six Sigma teams work.George takes a unique approach in his third book by combiningdetailed information on Six Sigma team dynamics through a fiction-alized financial services organization. This fi
28、ctionalized organiza-tion, Alpha Omega, is easily recognized as a representation of anyorganization that you may encounter.Like his first two books, each chapter ends with a list of KeyLearnings. A new addition to his third work is three appendices thatI found particularly valuable. Appendix A inclu
29、des the templatesused by the fictitious call center team that attempted to improve ef-fectiveness and efficiency at Alpha Omega. Of particular value is Ap-pendix B where George provides 95 questions good Championsshould ask their teams during the Define, Measure, Analyze, Im-prove, and Control stage
30、s of the improvement process. Appendix C isthe list of specific responsibilities of the Project Champion. These in-clude detailed action items to use before the Champion forms theteam, during the teams four- to six-month existence, and after theteam disbands.Six Sigma, as a management philosophy, ca
31、n be a major factorin achieving your business objectives, but only if done right. SixSigma Team Dynamics: The Elusive Key to Project Success can helpyou get there.SANDRA DERICKSONManaging Director and CEO,Household Retail ServicesxiPrefaceJoseph Della Malva was born on July 13, 1917, to Italian immi
32、grants.His father Michael was born in Rodi Garganico on the Adriatic coast ofItaly and settled in Hoboken, New Jersey, when he came to this coun-try in 1906. A widower with a six-year-old son, Michael married As-sunta De Felice, also from Rodi, in 1916. They moved to West Hoboken,where Joseph was bo
33、rn the next year. The Della Malva family, whichby then included two daughters, eventually moved to Jersey City.Joseph Della Malva was a bright, inquisitive young man who ledan amazingly diverse life, that included acting on Broadway in thelate 1930s. As a result of his high school studies, he was fl
34、uent in sev-eral languages, leading to a job as a translator in New York City. How-ever, in spite of remarkable life experiences, nothing could have fullyprepared him for the world events of the early 1940s.At the age of 23, Joseph volunteered for military service. He wasstationed in the Philippines
35、 in December 1940. In February 1941, hewas transferred by secret orders to Military Intelligence in Manila,with the rank of special agent. As a special agent, he conductedinvestigations of Nazis, fascists, and subversive activities in thePhilippines. On November 28, 1941, Joseph transferred to Sea C
36、oastartillery on Corregidor, the fortified island opposite the Bataanpeninsula.The Philippines became engaged in hostile actions against Japa-nese forces on December 8, 1941. Ultimately, after fighting againstoverwhelming odds, the American and Filipino defenders on Bataanxii PREFACEsurrendered to t
37、he Japanese on April 9, 1942. Corregidor fell 28 dayslater, on May 6th. Joseph Della Malva became a prisoner of war, andwas held captive for the next three years and four months, until lib-eration in September 1945.Six months after his initial capture, he was transferred by prisonship (which was bar
38、ely missed in a torpedo attack by a U.S. submarine)to Japan, where he did hard labor at locations throughout Japan. Hewas a railroad freight yard worker in Osaka, a construction workerfor a dry-dock in Tanagawa, a graphite factory worker in Naru, and fi-nally, during the last five months of the war,
39、 as a stevedore on thedocks of Tsuruga, a seaport on the west coast of Japan. Unlike POWsin Europe, POWs in Japan were as likely to die on Japanese soil asthey were to return to the United States.There were a host of reasons why Joseph Della Malva survived.He had tremendous emotional strength, which
40、 was instilled in himduring his youth. He learned at his fathers knee the importance ofbeing strong. Being an Italian immigrant in the early twentieth cen-tury meant being ridiculed and harassed. He learned early to with-stand the taunts of those who were less intelligent than he was and toface adve
41、rsity with stoicism and endurance.He faced much adversity while a POW in Japan. Harsh work con-ditions, uncertainty of survival, and physical abuse were high on thelist of adversities. In the barracks where he and his fellow prisonersexisted, evening conversations were centered around memories ofthe
42、ir favorite meals back home. While his friends reminisced aboutthick-cut, medium-rare steaks, Joseph Della Malva mused about asimple treat he had first enjoyed as a small boy.His fellow prisoners were regaled by Josephs vivid description ofhis mothers homegrown tomatoes, resting on a bed of Italian
43、bread,drenched in olive oil, and sprinkled with oregano, topped with athick slice of provolone cheese. The prisoners obsession with foodwas all encompassing and, sadly, nearly a losing battle.It was only through circumstance and guile that malnourish-ment did not take his life. That, and the fact th
44、at Joseph Della Malvawas a thief. As well documented in recent years, the Japanese did notpassively house their prisoners. They forced them to work. One daywhile working in a warehouse that was crammed full of burlap bags,Joseph discovered that one of the bags was damaged. He slit it openand discove
45、red it was filled with soybeans. Driven by his hunger, heshoved handfuls of the beans into his mouth. Deliberately, he chewedthem until they were a milky pulp that could be swallowed. He con-tinued this for months, until his carelessness eventually led to beingcaught by a guard.Preface xiiiThe guard
46、 who caught Joseph stealing, along with another guard,dragged him unceremoniously to the commandants office.The Japanese commandant ordered the guards to beat Joseph. Andthey did, with fists, open palms, and a chair. His head and face werebruised and swollen, and one eye was damaged, along with his
47、hearing.Meanwhile, in the compound, the camps ranking noncommissionedofficer had ordered all of the men on Joseph Della Malvas work detail,50 in all, to assemble and stand at rigid attention. Enraged, the officershouted at the prisoners, claiming that he knew two other men besidesJoseph Della Malva
48、had stolen soybeans, and they were to step forward.At that moment, Joseph was marched in front of the 50 prisoners,barely able to stand. Gasps were heard from the ranks.Again, the guilty prisoners were ordered to step forward. Withoutprompting and in military unison, all 50 men took one step forward
49、.Visibly stunned by this symbol of team strength, the Japanese ser-geant in command ordered each prisoner to be slammed once, withrifle butts, by the guards.This dramatic, subtle but convincing show of team strength was atribute to Joseph Della Malva that day. When the prisoners returnedto their barracks, they did not discuss what had happened. Theydidnt have to. It was a different time and a different generation.Years later, thankfully, Joseph Della Malva did share this story withhis nephew, and it was from this story that his
