It's Better To Be Red Than Green
We have been taught that Red means stop and Green means go. In the context of Process Improvement, Red means that something isn’t performing as expected, and Green means everything is OK. But is it?
Most people don’t want to admit their process is Red, and will typically report things are Green. The problem is that they are missing an opportunity to get help before a small problem becomes a big problem. So, they go along thinking “I got this, it’s going to be OK” and report as Green, until “uh oh, it’s not going to be OK” and they need help to get things back on track. At this point, it is either too late, or extremely costly to get things back on track.
We should encourage people to report Red. We should make it simple and non-threatening to ask for help. I heard one company say, “We rally to the Red”. I believe that this is a great approach. It means that they see Red as a call to action, a call for help. It doesn’t feel like a personal failure if someone reports that their project is Red. It’s everyone’s priority to help get things back to Green. Imagine how much wasted effort and cost could be avoided if people were able to expose issues sooner and get help to resolve those issues.
Before founding Process Improvement Partners LLC, I worked with a testing facility that was required to achieve a number of monthly goals. Working with the leader of the facility, we established owners for each of the approximately 25 distinct operating and storage areas in the facility. The Area Owners were responsible for the monthly goals in their area and were required to report the status of the compliance of their area. Area status was Red until all monthly goals were met. The aim was to achieve Green status before the end of the month. If the goal wasn’t met by the end of the month, the status would stay Red. More importantly, the facility was not fully compliant and it affected the performance and safety of those who worked there.
When we first implemented this new approach, the Area Owners were frustrated. They didn’t want to be Red. So, we incentivized the process. If we got all areas Green by the end of the month, we would buy everyone lunch. Once we did that, they began helping each other with each area, making sure that all requirements were met. They even challenged their peers, who would wait until the end of the month to complete the requirements. They wanted to be compliant earlier in the month. The process became fun, everyone pitched in, and the testing facility was the safest and most productive it had ever been.
The moral of the story? When we encourage our team to be honest about areas needing improvement, ask for help, and create solutions, the sooner we move our productivity and effectiveness to Green.