If you want to get support and cooperation for your Six Sigma project, you need to know how to communicate about the project and your needs. The key is to talk to the people whose help you need in the way that is most appealing to them, not necessarily what is most comfortable for you. To do this, you need to figure out how they prefer to communicate, then adapt your style to theirs.
Pick people whose help you need, and consider what you know about them, including the way they communicate, how they act, the positions they have in the organization.
Use the checklist in Tool 12-1 to help you figure out how you should communicate with each person selected, based on what you know about each of them.
Tool 12-1.
Use the checklist in Tool 12-2 to ensure that you don’t make the fundamental mistake of using the wrong communication medium.
Tool 12-2.
Figuring out how someone likes to communicate and then adjusting to that person takes you out of your comfort zone and may feel odd at first. But you’ll find that when you learn to do it well, this approach can drastically increase your ability to get cooperation and support.
As you review Tool 12-1 (pages 109-111), note that the audience groups are not mutually exclusive. A person might interrupt people and tell stories and ask a lot of questions. But these behaviors often cluster together. Just try to get a general sense of the person.