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Intro: Welcome to the E6S-Methods podcast with Jacob and Aaron, your weekly dose of tips and tricks to achieve excellent performance in your business and career. Join us as we explore deeper into the practical worlds of Lean, Six Sigma, Project Management and Design Thinking. In this episode number 165, we continue our "Sweet 16" debate over the 2009 iSixSigma article, 16 Smart Tips for Successful Black Belts. If you're just tuning in for the first time, find all our back episodes on our podcast table of contents at e6s-methods.com. If you like this episode, be sure to click the "like" link in the show notes. It's easy. Just tap our logo, click and you're done. Tap-click-done! Here we go. http://bit.ly/E6S-165 Leave a Review! http://bit.ly/E6S-iTunes

iSixSigma Magazine Article, July/Aug 2009: 16 Smart Tips for Successful Black Belts by Nilakanta Srinivasan

I Ensuring Successful Team Meetings

a. Tips#8 Extend the Formal Invite

i. For GBs, the GB should do the inviting... For BBs, the Champion should do the inviting

1. why? Is this based on an assumption that the BBs have no credibility in these areas? I can see the Champion and BB together kicking off the first couple meetings, but by week 3-4, the BB should be able to carry on without formal interference by the Champion.

b. Tipe#9 Forgo the Confirmation

c. Tip#10 Publish the Attendee List

1. I'm a big fan of this. I do not protect the guilty. It's not a judgement. I'll put together 2 lists, invitees and attendees side-by-side. Those offended can either show up, or defend why they should not be on the invitee list.

II Building Relationships

a. Tip#11 Make it Personal

i. Writer recommends balancing emails with face-to-face and phone calls.

1. I agree, don't rely on email. Too passive. When dealing with Stakeholders, reach them in the way they want to be reached, but with the Champion, need to keep it personal.

III Keeping Projects on Track

a. Tip#12 Draw Attention to Delays

i. Writer insists this with cause management to perk up and take action

1. I agree with being transparent and up front about delays, but it's my experience that it still ends up falling on the belt. Management doesn't spring into action unless the belt sends an escalation request.

b. Tip#13 Show the Money

1. I have mixed opinions on showing financial benefits

a. Yes it's nice to gain program credibility and support

b. But it brings along with it quite a bit of evil and becomes program defeating

c. Tip#14 Know When to Say "No"

i. writer says to create a cumbersome project timeline change process to make changing it painful

1. Not sure I agree. Following the Manager-Tool approach to project updates, if a project is late, it's only late once. Being more late doesn't necessarily create the sense of urgency. It's already late. But the more often you have to show you've missed a deadline, after deadline after deadline, the more each one hurts and you avoid the next. And this is not where I would add the extra bureaucracy.

IV Filling the Pipeline

a. Tip#15 Search for Many Problems

1. Why is the BB on the search? Matches my experience, but it's not supposed to be how it works. AND, most often, problems found by BBs are not embraced by leadership.

b. Tip#16 Know the Timeline

i. writer suggests using historical durations and WIP to estimate completion rate (capacity)

1. If anything, this should be flipped. Balance the WIP based off of capacity and past performance. Not the opposite. And should be at the MBB level.

ii. also suggest that knowing this as a metric would somehow motivate belts to perform better

1. Where are all these crappy belts coming from? Is this the best way to manage them? No. Be a manager. This insinuates the BB is the reason for a low completion rate.

Outro: Thanks for listening to episode 165 of the E6S-Methods podcast. Don't forget to click "like" or "dislike" for this episode in the show notes. Tap-click-done! If you have a question, comment or advice, leave a note in the comments section or contact us directly. Feel free to email me "Aaron", aaron@e6s-methods.com, or on our website. We reply to all messages. If you heard something you like, then Clammr and share it. Don't forget you can find notes and graphics for all shows and more at www.E6S-Methods.com. "Journey Through Success. If you're not climbing up, you're falling down." Leave a Review! http://bit.ly/E6S-iTunes

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