In the complex landscape of process improvement methodologies, the Define phase represents the critical foundation upon which successful projects are built. Within this crucial stage, the champion or sponsor plays an instrumental role that often determines whether initiatives will flourish or flounder. Understanding this pivotal responsibility is essential for organizations seeking to maximize their investment in continuous improvement efforts.
Understanding the Champion’s Strategic Position
The champion, typically a senior leader or executive sponsor, serves as the bridge between organizational strategy and tactical execution. In lean six sigma initiatives, this individual carries the weight of ensuring that projects align with business objectives while providing the necessary resources and political capital to drive meaningful change. Their involvement during the Define phase sets the trajectory for the entire improvement journey. You might also enjoy reading about How Long Should the Define Phase Take? A Complete Timeline and Planning Guide.
Unlike project team members who focus on daily execution, champions operate at a strategic altitude. They must balance competing priorities, navigate organizational politics, and maintain visibility into multiple improvement initiatives simultaneously. This unique vantage point enables them to identify opportunities, remove obstacles, and ensure that selected projects deliver maximum value to the organization. You might also enjoy reading about Project Charter Checklist: 12 Essential Elements Every Six Sigma Project Needs for Success.
The Recognize Phase: Identifying the Right Opportunities
Before the Define phase formally begins, champions must excel during what many practitioners call the recognize phase. This preliminary stage involves identifying potential improvement opportunities that warrant formal project designation. The recognize phase demands a keen understanding of organizational pain points, strategic priorities, and resource availability. You might also enjoy reading about Define Phase in Healthcare: Applying Six Sigma to Patient Care Improvement Projects.
During the recognize phase, effective champions employ several key strategies. They maintain close connections with operational leaders who encounter process inefficiencies daily. They analyze performance metrics to identify gaps between current state and desired outcomes. They also consider market pressures, competitive dynamics, and customer feedback to ensure selected projects address meaningful business challenges.
The transition from recognize phase to Define phase should feel natural and well-justified. Champions who rush this transition or select projects based on personal preferences rather than data-driven analysis often set their teams up for failure. The best champions take time to validate that identified opportunities truly warrant the significant investment of time, talent, and resources that lean six sigma projects require.
Setting Clear Expectations During the Define Phase
Once a project enters the Define phase, the champion’s role becomes even more critical. This stage requires establishing clear boundaries, expectations, and success criteria that will guide the team throughout the improvement journey. Ambiguity at this point creates confusion, scope creep, and wasted effort down the line.
Champions must articulate the business case with precision. Why does this project matter? What financial impact is expected? How does it support broader organizational objectives? These questions demand clear, compelling answers that resonate with both project teams and executive stakeholders. The champion serves as the primary communicator of this strategic context.
Additionally, champions must define what success looks like in measurable terms. Vague aspirations like “improve customer satisfaction” or “reduce costs” lack the specificity needed to guide effective problem-solving. Instead, champions should establish concrete targets such as “reduce customer complaint resolution time from 72 hours to 24 hours” or “decrease process waste by 30 percent while maintaining quality standards.”
Resource Allocation and Team Selection
One of the most consequential decisions champions make during the Define phase involves resource allocation. Selecting the right project leader, typically a trained lean six sigma Black Belt or Green Belt, significantly influences project outcomes. The champion must consider technical expertise, organizational credibility, and availability when making this critical choice.
Beyond the project leader, champions must ensure the team includes representatives from all affected areas. Cross-functional participation brings diverse perspectives, reduces implementation resistance, and improves solution quality. However, assembling such teams requires the champion to negotiate with other leaders and secure commitments for team member participation.
Resource allocation extends beyond human capital. Champions must also ensure access to necessary data, technology, and subject matter expertise. They should anticipate resource needs and proactively address potential constraints before they become project roadblocks. This forward-thinking approach demonstrates commitment and increases team confidence in leadership support.
Creating Political Air Cover
Process improvement projects inevitably challenge existing practices, which can create resistance from stakeholders invested in current state operations. Champions provide essential political air cover that protects teams from organizational headwinds that might otherwise derail progress.
This protective function manifests in several ways. Champions communicate the project’s strategic importance to peer executives, building coalition support across the leadership team. They address concerns from resistant stakeholders, helping them understand how proposed changes will ultimately benefit the organization. When conflicts arise between project needs and operational demands, champions make decisive calls that keep initiatives moving forward.
The credibility and organizational influence that champions bring cannot be replicated by project teams alone. A well-positioned champion can resolve in one conversation what might take a project team weeks to address through formal channels. This acceleration capability is particularly valuable during the Define phase when establishing project legitimacy and securing stakeholder buy-in.
Establishing Governance and Communication Protocols
Effective champions establish clear governance structures during the Define phase that provide appropriate oversight without micromanagement. This balance requires defining decision rights, escalation paths, and review cadences that keep projects on track while empowering teams to execute with autonomy.
Regular checkpoint meetings between champions and project leaders serve multiple purposes. They provide forums for removing obstacles, validating approach, and maintaining strategic alignment. These touchpoints also demonstrate ongoing executive interest, which motivates teams and signals to the broader organization that the project carries real importance.
Communication protocols established during the Define phase should specify how progress will be measured, reported, and celebrated. Champions should insist on fact-based reporting that highlights both successes and challenges. This transparency enables course corrections when needed and builds trust between leadership and project teams.
Connecting Projects to Organizational Learning
Forward-thinking champions view individual projects as opportunities for organizational capability building, not just problem-solving exercises. During the Define phase, they should articulate how the project will contribute to broader lean six sigma maturity and knowledge development.
This perspective influences several Define phase decisions. It may affect team composition, with champions deliberately including less experienced practitioners who can develop skills through participation. It shapes documentation expectations, ensuring that lessons learned are captured for future reference. It also informs celebration and recognition planning, highlighting not just results but also the methodology application that achieved them.
Common Champion Mistakes to Avoid
Even well-intentioned champions can undermine project success through common missteps during the Define phase. One frequent error involves selecting pet projects that interest the champion personally but lack strategic significance or data-supported justification. These vanity projects waste resources and damage continuous improvement credibility.
Another mistake involves excessive delegation where champions treat project sponsorship as purely ceremonial. They assign the role without investing time to understand project details, provide guidance, or remove obstacles. This hands-off approach leaves teams without the strategic support they need to succeed.
Conversely, some champions micromanage, inserting themselves into tactical details better left to trained practitioners. This overinvolvement slows progress, demoralizes teams, and prevents champions from focusing on their unique strategic responsibilities.
Measuring Champion Effectiveness
Organizations should evaluate champion performance based on several key indicators. Project completion rates, financial results delivered, and team member development all reflect champion effectiveness. Additionally, the quality of project charters, stakeholder engagement levels, and resource adequacy provide insight into how well champions fulfill their Define phase responsibilities.
The most successful champions create environments where lean six sigma projects consistently deliver promised results while building organizational capability for sustained improvement. They balance strategic thinking with tactical support, providing just enough guidance and resources to enable team success without creating dependency.
Conclusion
The champion role during the Define phase represents far more than ceremonial sponsorship. It demands strategic thinking, political skill, resource management, and unwavering commitment to both project success and team development. Organizations that invest in developing strong champions create competitive advantages through superior execution of improvement initiatives.
By excelling during the recognize phase and Define phase, champions set projects on trajectories toward meaningful impact. They provide the strategic context, resources, and protection that enable talented practitioners to apply lean six sigma methodologies effectively. In doing so, they transform process improvement from academic exercise into tangible business value that drives organizational success.
