Selling Lean Six Sigma to Management – The 3 M’s

You want to start a Lean project but you`re in an organization that is new to Lean?
Upper management support is vital, so you`ll need to recruit a Project Champion (to advocate the benefits of your project to others and gain support) and Project Sponsor (to make decisions regarding budget and outputs) to help shepherd your project to completion. In order to gain their support, you need to initiate the discussion and bring the right figures to the table. During this process, it is important to do adequate amount of research to provide realistic expectations in terms of management participation level and what the benefits will be.
Here are the 3 M`s to remember when trying to win support:

Metrics (Money)
It is important to bring some metrics to a pitch meeting because it is hard to justify investment of time and resources without quantifiable change. Be mindful of what the key performance metrics are and how you can improve on them whether it`s cycle time improvement, reduction in inventory storage, or improving yields.  
“Money talks” as they say, so make sure you crunch the numbers that show how business can benefit from your six sigma project. Remember to also be aware of what assumptions you are making when making these estimates and do not inflate your valuations as they will bite you in the rear later.

Motivation
Not every potential stakeholder is motivated by money, therefore it is important to be mindful of what will motivate them to support your cause.  These are the ‘soft’ savings that represent increased compliance levels or minor process improvements that will generally make the lives of those involved easier.

Mediation (Commitment)
The last “M” is not to be understated. This is taking accountability as Project Manager and reiterating your commitment to the project and its objectives.  It will be your duty to mediate conversations between all stakeholders and make sure disagreements or disputes are resolved – and there will be many.

With the 3 M’s prepared, you should have a good foundation to gain interest from management so that they will feel secure to lend their support.