A Master Black Belt is the highest grade in Lean Six Sigma: an expert who translates strategic goals into improvement programmes, trains and coaches Green Belts and Black Belts, and works with the board to build an improvement culture. Black Belts regularly ask us how to take that step. This article explains what a Master Black Belt does, what we expect and how the programme works.
What does a Master Black Belt do?
Where a Black Belt mainly leads complex projects and coaches Green Belts, a Master Black Belt works at the level of the whole organisation. They translate strategic goals and customer needs into improvement programmes and culture change, work directly with the board, or are part of it, and train the Belts in the organisation. A Master Black Belt supports improvement in every part of the organisation, and sometimes at suppliers and customers too.
What do we expect?
A Master Black Belt has earned their stripes: years of experience in making change work, both in content and in the role of trainer, coach, project leader and facilitator. Certification is the crowning of that growth. As a guideline we use:
- You are a certified Black Belt.
- You have worked as a Lean Six Sigma professional for at least five years.
- You have carried out at least five improvement projects yourself.
- You have been involved as a coach in at least ten improvement projects.
- You have trained groups of Belts, for example Yellow, Orange or Green Belts.
- You have been involved in making Lean Six Sigma work in an organisation, the Policy Deployment.
The route to Master Black Belt
The route to Master Black Belt is not a standard course but a tailored programme. It runs in five steps, as shown in the image at the top of this article.
- Intake. In a conversation with a Master Black Belt from Lean Six Sigma Groep we look at where you are and what is still missing.
- Learning plan. We record your development path in a personal proposal, a combination of training, coaching and an assignment.
- Develop. If knowledge is missing, you take the relevant training days. If you have little training experience, we look for an opportunity, for example as a guest trainer in a Green Belt or Black Belt course. If you have little coaching experience, we coach you as a coach. There is also peer review with other candidates working on a similar assignment: you exchange experiences and build a network.
- Policy Deployment. To earn the title, you show that you work at Master Black Belt level. Usually you do this with a Policy Deployment: rolling out Lean Six Sigma in an organisation, with intensive support from one of our Master Black Belts.
- Complete. You bring your experiences together in a portfolio. The programme ends with a presentation in which you explain your journey.
The duration differs per person. The guideline is about seven days of training, coaching and peer review, alongside your work on a project, programme or deployment.
More about the content is on the Master Black Belt programme page. Want to know whether the step to Master Black Belt suits you? Contact us for an intake conversation.