Motivation and Communication in Six Sigma Teams

Six Sigma teams must possess specific qualities to succeed throughout the development stages of their life cycles. Leaders who know how to facilitate teams will greatly enhance their chances for project success, which in turn will benefit their organizations. Motivation is one essential component that can optimize a team's focus on accomplishing its assigned goals. By making the teamwork enriching and satisfying to members, leaders can motivate a Six Sigma team with dramatic effects on overall success.

Modern motivational theory informs today's motivational techniques, and this course explores both the theoretical origins and the practical application of research on motivation. Besides motivating individual team members, Black Belts need to proactively promote cohesion through all the challenging stages of a Six Sigma team's tenure. As team leaders, Six Sigma Black Belts need to recognize the stages of team development and choose targeted approaches for optimizing performance at each stage. Throughout all the stages, effective communication is vital for project success. Team communication is often overlooked, and the result can be missed deadlines, confusion, and team frustration if information is not supplied to all intended parties in a timely fashion.

In any Six Sigma deployment, a communication plan will be indispensable, outlining the why, what, who, where, and how of project communication. The communication toolkit is extensive, and team leaders need to know how to use the right tool for the job. This course offers strategies for effective team facilitation and communication, exploring basic skills, strategic plans, and useful tools for communication. This course is aligned with the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification exam and is designed to assist learners as part of their exam preparation. It builds on foundational knowledge that is taught in SkillSoft ASQ-aligned Green Belt curriculum.

• Recognize which motivation theory is guiding a team leader's assumptions in a given scenario.
• Distinguish between modern motivation theories.
• Recognize examples of job characteristics that satisfy and enrich employees.
• Recognize the practical application of Vroom's Expectancy Theory.
• Recognize recommended approaches for empowering through management.
• Sequence the stages of organizational empowerment.
• Match team members' feelings at each stage with stage-appropriate facilitation.