The role of Master Black Belt

Understanding the Role of the Master Black Belt
What do Master Black Belts actually do?Master Black Belts usually work with senior managers to lead and drive major change in the capability of the organisation's core and support processes. Where they can help traditional change agents, who may already exist in a company, is in the breadth of their skill set, which is geared towards designing, implementing and controlling effective and sustainable change.Typically Master Black Belts train and mentor Green Belts and Black Belts and their teams to achieve success in their projects. Different Master Black Belts can be assigned to different regions, divisions, common language groupings or within allocated functions within a business. They help business leaders challenge conventional thinking. They help management to establish appropriate enabler metrics which drive sustained improvement. They help accelerate the development of a workforce that applies Six Sigma tools and techniques in driving out variation and waste. Master Black Belts advise business leaders on opportunities to reduce Cost of Poor Quality, and how to reduce the risk of dissatisfied internal and external customers. They help organisations to increase market share and profitability.
Developing a career as a Master Black BeltThere is a degree of mystique about what Master Black Belts actually do. Curious individuals might be thinking "Is it worth starting down the route to becoming a Master Black Belt when we haven't got any MBBs in our company? What if it all goes wrong?" The MBB role can now safely be described as a natural progression for certified Black Belts who wish to develop their careers in change management, either within an organisation or as an external trainer and consultant.Increasingly Master Black Belts are being recognised across an ever growing range of private and public sector industries as change agents who are armed with an enhanced skill set to help organisations achieve project based strategic change. If Master Black Belts decide to leave an organisation they often end up as Six Sigma Deployment Leaders in companies and public organisations that have not yet started their process variation reduction journey. In these situations being a disciple is no longer enough. They have to create the vision that others will follow. Do you have that vision? Do you have the tenacity?
How do Master Black Belts carry out their role?Master Black Belts develop and / or review proposals for Black and Green Belt projects, prioritising resource and projects against business objectives. They have more experience in recognising the pitfalls of poorly scoped projects than line managers, who may be under pressure to deliver results quickly without due regard for the process, and who typically over scope and under resource projects in their desire to deliver big benefits. Master Black Belts advise management on project replication opportunities so that business leaders in other sites, divisions and countries can leverage the knowledge gained in a one project about likely common root causes.In some organisations Master Black Belts personally lead high impact change programmes and projects, across multiple sites, requiring coordination of multiple projects carried out by Black Belts and Green Belts in support of strategic business objectives.The Master Black Belt, as well as being a strategic thinker, can be expected to provide expert knowledge in Six Sigma tools and techniques. They may replace external Six Sigma providers in teaching new waves of Black Belts and Green Belts. In these situations they can tailor examples to the company's business, and will understand the strengths and weaknesses of the internal business support environment. They give peer advice to other Master Black Belts and executives across the organisation. They facilitate teams to achieve business improvement objectives and create the deployment tracking processes to ensure that the Six Sigma and Lean methodologies become a way of life in an organisation.
Master Black Belts Manage Corporate Wide Six Sigma Project Replication ProcessesManagement of Six Sigma project replication opportunities is usually a poorly managed process, if a formal process exists at all. Master Black Belts, when allowed to operate strategically, attending senior management strategy meetings, will understand enough about the business in different sites, divisions and countries, as well as about the Six Sigma methodology to be in a unique position to propose and gain decisions and resource allocation for well thought out project replication proposals. Whilst every company will have project replication opportunities that are specific to its own business circumstances, a typical example of a suitable project involves understanding frequent traveller behaviour and designing robust travel processes which cut cost without causing dissatisfaction in a single business unit. Many elements can often be replicated quickly as Green Belt projects in other parts of an organisation (in case any local key process input variables exist that did not exist in the pilot project) without either reinventing the wheel or incurring excessive project cycle times before the monetary benefits are realised.
Using Master Black Belts as a Strategic WeaponMaster Black Belts help managers think about process cycle time reduction and process capability improvement. They help managers understand the differences between DMAIC and DMADV approaches by asking questions such as: Does a process exist? Is incremental improvement sufficient? Is the improvement a new or redesigned product or process? At the outset of Six Sigma deployments many leaders think in terms of improving a process, but do not have data to define the defects which cause dissatisfaction. Consequently, with ill-defined defects, improvement efforts are not focussed and results are disappointing. Master Black Belts have experience of this kind of issue. They can help management assess whether customer dissatisfaction is the result of a process with defects, a process with missing individual process steps, or a product or service that does not meet the needs of the customer. Although these issues individually may not be recognised at all, or may appear insignificant, they can have catastrophic effects on customer satisfaction, repurchase intent, and market share.Whereas Black Belts may not have sufficient experience of the different types of projects which arise in different industries in to recognise subtle distinctions, Master Black Belts can think strategically about core processes and support processes and recognise which outputs from which processes are critical inputs for other processes.
Choices for obtaining Master Black BeltsDevelop your own MBBsOrganisations seeking Master Back Belts have various options. There can be great value in companies deciding to train Master Black Belts from within the organisation. Companies draw on the ranks of certified Black Belts, some of whom may have originally been Green Belt candidates who have progressed to effective certified Black Belt. Those Black Belts who consistently deliver results, with sustained improved process capability in short project cycle times, often become the best Master Black Belts who can deliver sustained accelerated change. Project and deployment champions will, over time, have developed a clear idea of the qualities of their Black Belts and the precise requirements for their internal Master Black Belts which can help them in selecting Master Black Belt candidates.A few words of warning may help avoid problems later. In situations like this selection criteria are essential. There are lots of political animals about who can get on the first wave of Master Black Belt training, secure their "Badge" and then leave, having delivered little to the organisations that sponsored them. This can cause disillusionment in MBB candidates who were not selected, and provide ammunition for those managers who are looking for reasons for any "initiative" to fail. Selection criteria for Master Black Belt candidate are almost always company specific, but can include phrases such as - must already be an active certified Black Belt; must have mentored several Green Belt or Black Belt projects to completion, (ideally in service, transactional and manufacturing arenas). They should desire to take on the role; have shadowed or trained at least one wave of Black Belt candidates or trained at least one wave of Green Belt candidates. The candidates should also have achieved significant savings for their own and mentored projects and be sponsored by management. Insisting upon criteria such as these stops senior managers in improvement related disciplines, who do not actually know how to apply the Six Sigma methodology or many of the tools, but who would like the badge, circumventing what they see as the tedium of having to be trained as a Black Belt or personally having to complete a few projects; in other words securing the MBB badge without actually doing much.
Buy them inOther companies recruit Master Black Belts from outside the organisation. If the organisation does not have much existing internal Six Sigma expertise it can seem attractive and beneficial to accelerate learning by asking a recruitment agency to find a Master Black Belt. Sometimes that approach can work. However, nowadays many recruitment agencies do a roaring trade in finding disillusioned Master Black Belts from organisations which did not have the process rigour to sustain their Six Sigma deployment over several years. These individuals then replicate the problem in their new organisation since they do not recognise all the key process input variables of a well developed deployment methodology and practice. Unfortunately, the ranks of applicants for MBB roles are also swelled by Black Belts who, mysteriously, have acquired the prefix "Master" in between attending Black Belt training and submitting their resume to the recruitment agency. If the client, recruitment agent and "Master" Black Belt all share limited practical Six Sigma experience no-one may even know until it is too late. If clients asked a few more questions about the candidates actually demonstrating evidence of their personal experience, and how, where and by whom they were certified, there might be less spilt milk.
Master Black Belt TrainingTypically, at the outset of Master Black Belt training, organisations do not know what their expectations of their Master Black Belts are. They tend to think they will send away a mortal and receive a statistical wizard when Master Black Belt class is finished. They expect to put them to work as certified Master Black Belts as though some magical transformation has taken place. In reality neither the company nor the Master Black Belt candidates have much idea of what the future holds. This is where experienced Master Black Belts must train and mentor the Master Black Belt candidates.Master Black Belt training itself has several key elements. In new deployments MBB candidates are taught to identify and understand the elements of their new role via creation of a Master Black Belt vision, mission and critical success factors. The candidates then develop the key Master Black Belt processes, which typically may not have existed previously in the organisation. The more obvious elements to be covered include teaching and facilitation skills, project review skills and expertise in applying advanced Six Sigma tools and techniques. Other processes to be considered include designing processes for project selection which link with company objectives, coaching development of project problem and objective statements, project tracking, job descriptions, Black Belt development plans and reporting lines, year one MBB objectives. In more mature deployments the Master Black Belt candidates review the above topics and identify gaps and areas for process improvement for which they take on assignments. Master Black Belt courses tend to be highly interactive with the MBB candidates delivering selected training modules and new process designs to each other in a "safe" environment, critiquing each others' project review skills, all with detailed feedback. A strong bond of mutual support is created, and the candidates grow as individuals to become the next senior managers. The role of the instructor is more facilitative than in Black Belt classes. Extensive reference is made to past projects, drawing out best practice where relevant.A typical requirement in advance of the first week of Master Black Belt training is that each participant presents the outline of a project that is tied directly to the organisation's strategy deployment process. The project should have a minimum of €100,000 savings and must be approved by the head of the relevant business unit.Master Black Belt training is usually tailored to needs. Typically it involves 2 weeks of facilitated training split with a break between the training weeks. During this break the Master Black Belt candidates work on skills gaps identified at the outset of week 1 of MBB training and on the projects selected.
Criteria for Certifying Master Black BeltsMaster Black Belt certification criteria include satisfactory completion of MBB training, together with a matrix of requirements to be met post-training. These typically depend upon each organisation's expectations of their Master Black Belts. Some organisations expect their MBBs to have a strong training and mentoring bias. Others expect the role of their Master Black Belts to have a greater emphasis on leading large strategic projects. Master Black Belts are normally expected to deliver a further 2 completed projects with targeted savings, both projects formally written in a report to demonstrate tools and methodology knowledge, in addition to their Black Belt projects. They must also demonstrate evidence of training and mentoring an agreed number of Black Belts and their projects to completion. More importantly, they should deliver evidence of leading a structured programme of Six Sigma project activity for an area of the business, including project identification, links to business objectives, key metrics, training and development of Green / Black Belts.
Master Black Belts are vital for long term successThe role of the Master Black Belt is essentially to be a real driver of process improvement. They must ensure the organisation continues using the proven Six Sigma methodology of combining process knowledge with rigorous data analysis. As experienced Master Black Belts develop and take on more senior roles within or outside an organisation the process of regeneration must be in place or the gains may not be sustained. Master Black Belts should be identifying their successors so that those who follow are properly prepared to take on the mantle of reducing the risk of dissatisfied internal and external customers and helping their organisations to increase market share and profitability. They must create the vision that others will follow.
Perhaps you may recognise some of the above scenarios. You may see others we have encountered too but excluded from this article. If you'd like to tell us your own experiences or would like to discuss any of the above content further we would like to hear from you.Please contact the author, Colm Doran, Six Sigma Master Black Belt, at Paloma Consulting Limited.Tel: + 44 1932 867032E-mail: SixSigma@PalomaConsulting.comwww.PalomaConsulting.com © Paloma Consulting Limited 2004
About the author:Colm Doran is a certified Master Black Belt and a chartered accountant who has over 30 years experience working with senior management on process improvement. He has helped over 900 managers on Six Sigma deployment issues and has also trained, coached and certified several waves of Master Black Belts and over 700 Black Belts. He was responsible, on behalf of a leading national quality organisation, for judging the 2004 Best in Europe Six Sigma projects.
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