Making responsible and considerate choices when implementing Six Sigma for business sustainability can be challenging, especially when employees will see the value of sustainability with varying degrees of importance. That is why it is particularly important to establish strong communication channels and to survey employees about which projects they see as most important.
While some conflict may arise from wide-sweeping polling of employee concerns and challenges, it can also ignite a positive chain reaction of great ideas and projects that originate out of employee regard for the company and the environment. Organizing all that communication into a form that can inform team leaders and influence project priorities can take time, but it may be worth the effort.
Consider the following ways that prioritizing employee-driven project ideas may be a great idea.
1. Valuing Insight from Inside Out
Each employee has a unique perspective on a part of the company that other employees and managers may not experience. Setting communication networks in place that will collect data and identify trends in employee comment surveys can shed light on processes and policies that are at the root of challenges. This sort of data may help a manager identify issues and challenges before they become a much larger problem.
2. Clarifying the Scope of a Project
When prioritizing projects, especially in areas such as sustainability, various divisions of an organization will have different perspectives on which changes matter most. Choosing a project that addresses the most feedback at once can help team leaders bolster support for future projects and build momentum from one project to another. There is also a great potential for team building across organizational divisions when employees on separate teams work together to achieve important parts of a larger goal.
3. Impact on Corporate Culture
Sometimes necessary change is directed at changing corporate culture. Taking stock of employee communication regarding perceptions of existing culture and challenges can offer light on a variety of subjects. While the actual feedback is important, there is another value to investing the time into employee communication. Such results can help leaders identify employees that would be great candidates for Six Sigma training. As employees learn the skills needed to be more proficient in the process, they can influence peers. Often someone on a team who gains the training can communicate to their co-workers more effectively than someone outside the team.
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4. Leading by Example
In this age of social media where consumers are plugged into their devices almost constantly, building a project that gets employees excited will often spill over into social media chatter. When a project also has an aspect of connecting with the larger community, everyone can benefit. For instance, donating a part of the proceeds from changes in energy usage or improvements in energy efficiency to a local charity can go a long way toward bringing reluctant team members on board, even when the change means updating familiar routines or learning how to use more efficient equipment.
5. Extending Change Beyond the Workplace Culture
Most sustainability projects save an organization money in the long run. Installing more efficient lighting, adding solar or wind options and updating older inefficient equipment, reducing packaging, etc. can definitely improve the triple bottom line performance for the organization. While freeing up more resources for expansion and innovation or using the resources to leverage a more competitive edge are all great goals to have, there is another farther-reaching outcome a business leader can feel great about day after day.
A well-thought out project strategically implemented, with a high regard toward employee feedback, can foster a positive change in personal choices, habits and behaviors that extend well beyond the workplace culture into the surrounding community.
Regarding employee communication with high priority when considering Six Sigma projects can help leaders align change with goals that matter to the whole organization. Orchestrating projects that can be a unifying force toward sustained momentum and positive change can open up new innovation that has the potential to become long-lasting and game-changing.
