Converting Lean and Six Sigma knowledge into skill mastery – and results – is most effective when your people receive hands-on support and advice. While our consultants provide extensive coaching during workshops (often including after-hours working sessions), investment in coaching outside of training has consistently proven to yield valuable returns:
- Projects are completed faster and with more consistent results
- Participants gain important insights into the nuances of effective process improvement efforts – e.g. how to select the most appropriate tools, how to adjust project scope, etc.
- Cross-functional support and participation is enhanced, leading to easier implementation and sustained results (even strong team leaders need help and encouragement to “reach out” to other groups in the organization)
- Opportunities for follow-on projects are more readily identified
- Business leaders and project Champions can receive guidance on their roles in sponsoring change efforts
- Your “improvement leaders” get insights into the progress and challenges of specific projects (a written summary is a standard part of our on-site or remote coaching) as well as alerts to issues affecting your overall initiative.
There are a variety of ways to make Pivotal’s coaching expertise available to you and your organization. We recommend scheduled, on-site work with a coach as the most effective; however, we can also arrange remote coaching sessions (phone or webcast), 24-hour “Ask the expert” e-mail access, or even our innovative on-line reference and coaching resource tool Oaktree™.
The amount and type of coaching you may need will depend on your people’s skills, the projects they’re tackling, the availability of “in-house” expertise, etc. (For Lean or Design projects, for example, we tend to recommend more extensive coaching over the course of a project; for a “Fast-Track” effort, one or two in-person or remote sessions is often plenty).
Coaching can play a critical role in enhancing the learning process for your people and in ensuring that early project experiences are successful – leveraging your investment both short- and long-term.