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Need To Know, And You Don't ©2022, George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Picture this: I’m with my team presenting a series of findings and recommendations around a rather serious logistics problem. In fact, I’m at the front of the room with an overhead projector. (Look it up, kids.) One of the senior executives in the audience asks, “Are you aware of the ‘New Start Project’? This could have a big impact on your findings and might make them moot.” “No, we were told we weren’t disclosed.” “Who told you that?!?” “You did.” After the resulting ruckus calmed down, it was noted to the senior executive—by someone outside the project team-- that the scope of the project to which were assigned was such that we should have been disclosed on the “New Start Project” which, we found out not long after, was set up to close about half of the physical locations for which we had recommendations. This is actually not the crudest way in which I have found out about efforts that conflict with Lean Six Sigma Projects. Once I was told, “in front” of my manager on a conference call: “It’s need to know. And you don’t.” Brusqueness aside, if the Lean Six Sigma Practicioner suspects that something isn’t being told, or has had a Little Bird tell him or her that there is something going on, there can be a way to find out without career-limiting moves. And that way is: Just ask. But try it this way: Meet with the project sponsor or champion in private and simply question whether there is anything of which the sponsor or champion is aware that might impact the course of the project. Specify that it is not necessary to talk about what exactly that might be, just if there is an area of the project for which caution is necessary, or an element of the scope that might be better saved for later. First, this illustrates the interest you have (or you’d better have!) in ensuring a successful project; second, it shows that you’re understanding that every project takes place in context. Note, though, that it’s possible that even your sponsor or champion aren’t in the loop. I had this happen once. My champion was really looking forward to a series of improvements that the project team had developed… until she was reorganized right out of her job as the manager of the area on which the project was focused. The successor manager wasted no time putting the project recommendations into the “I’ll get around to this, maybe later, possibly” file. They were never implemented, an example of the “Not Invented Here” situation that is worthy of a post all by itself. ... |