Method

Change management

In French: Conduite du changement

A demonstrated improvement is not an adopted improvement. Change management deals with the gap between the two, which is the most frequent cause of failure of Lean Six Sigma projects.

Why a good solution does not apply itself

Resistance is rarely obstinacy. It is most often rational from the point of view of the person expressing it: the new method removes room for manoeuvre, makes visible what was not, requires learning, or calls into question an expertise built on the old way of doing things.

Hearing it as information rather than as an obstacle completely changes the running of a project. A technical objection reveals a use case the analysis missed; an objection about workload reveals a learning time that was not planned.

The hardest refusal is not expressed: it is surface agreement, followed by a quiet return to the old practices as soon as attention moves elsewhere. It is the symptom of a project where no room was given to objection.

What helps, concretely

Involve early. Someone who took part in building a solution defends it; someone to whom it is presented assesses it. The difference in cost between the two situations far exceeds the time of participation.

Explain the why before the how. An instruction whose reason is unknown is applied to the letter as long as someone is watching, and dropped as soon as a special case arises.

Start small and show. A successful pilot on one station convinces more than any presentation, and above all it provides the adjustments that a wide roll-out would have paid for a hundred times over.

Make going back difficult. An updated standard, an error-proofing device, a modified form hold better than a reminder in a meeting — it is the poka-yoke logic applied to the change itself.

Anchoring, once the project is closed

The Control phase of DMAIC is the one that gets cut short when the schedule tightens, and it is the one that decides whether the gain will last. It assumes three concrete things: the written standard, the indicator that will remain tracked after the team leaves, and the name of the person who will react if it drifts.

A review at three or six months is worth more than a definitive closure. It costs an hour and it is the only way to know whether the organisation has really changed, or whether it simply waited for the project to end.

The common mistakes

Communicating instead of involving. An information meeting, however polished, commits nobody. It is necessary, never sufficient, and confusing it with change management is the most widespread mistake.

Treating resistance as a people problem. Looking for who is blocking shifts the question and makes the information the objection contained disappear — after which nobody objects any more, which is taken for buy-in.

Closing the project at implementation. That is the moment when the risk starts, not when it ends.

On the shop floor — Distribution logistics

A new picking procedure, validated and trained, had fallen back to 20 % application after two months. Interviews with the pickers showed that it did not hold on urgent orders, a third of the volume. Nobody had said so: the procedure had been presented as final.

The other tools illustrated by this trade: logistics and distribution.

Frequently asked questions

Does everyone have to be convinced before deploying?

No, and waiting for unanimity amounts to doing nothing. The achievable objective is to obtain the support of those who weigh on daily practice — not necessarily the most senior — and to let the reluctant see the result on a pilot scope.

How do you know whether the change has held?

By going to see, not by asking. The real application rate of a standard is observed at the station; a progress update in a meeting measures what people think they should answer. It is one of the most useful uses of the gemba walk.

Who should carry change management?

The line manager of the scope concerned, supported by the project leader. The reverse — a project leader carrying the change alone in a department that is not their own — does not survive the end of the project, whatever its quality.

How long before a new practice is acquired?

Several weeks for a simple gesture, several months for an organisational change, and the time grows with the number of people concerned. The point to watch is the dip that follows the end of the project: that is where the practice gets lost, and a review scheduled at that moment costs little.