Before Yellow Flags Turn Red
Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous Period. You get your first look at this "six foot turkey" as you enter a clearing. He moves like a bird, lightly, bobbing his head. And you keep still because you think that maybe his visual acuity is based on movement like T-Rex, he'll lose you if you don't move. But no, not Velociraptor. You stare at him, and he just stares right back. And that's when the attack comes. Not from the front, but from the side, from the other two 'raptors you didn't even know were there. Because Velociraptor's a pack hunter, you see, he uses coordinated attack patterns and he is out in force today.
This classic scene from the Jurassic Park in 1993 may not be fully supported by current studies, but a lot of leaders I know would be wise to heed the idea.
There are problems in your organization that you don’t know about, so you’re not able to do anything to address them. (This is different from the problems you do know about but ignore or avoid).
Whether it’s the level of fatigue and frustration experienced by front line staff, a manager who’s poor interpersonal skills are overlooked because of their history of getting good results, a steady drip of values violations hidden by more urgent matters, or accumulated departures of good people that seem understandable in isolation but add up to significant concern; things are quietly undermining your best efforts and you haven’t noticed it yet.
We talk about red flags fairly often: Serious issues or disqualifying behaviours that demand immediate intervention. Few of us enjoy dealing with these, but they are very hard to ignore.
Some also talk about yellow flags; cautions that suggest something needs some attention to prevent it getting worse or to catch it while it can be addressed at relatively low cost of time/energy/resources. Smart leaders have built expectations and systems for these yellow flags being identified and dealt with. Sometimes they work.
But we need to start thinking about orange flags. When something is moving from a caution towards a crisis but hasn’t gotten there quite yet. We missed (or ignored) the yellow flag, but there’s still some opportunity to recover if we take wise and timely action.
Here are some practical things you can do to catch these orange flags:
Develop progress dashboards and reporting rhythms that include culture and values as well as the usual measurable metrics. Performance numbers might not show issues until it’s too late. You need to intentionally look for points of friction.
Honour those who raise concerns. Even the most compassionate leaders are often perceived as too busy, too important, or too distant to be safely approached with problems. Ensure that everyone knows the official lines of communication and also that there is some way to work outside them when necessary.
Walk around. Find ways to be visible and available to staff beyond your direct reports. Reduce the perceived distance between senior leadership and everyone else and humanize your interactions.
Address issues openly. Whenever possible acknowledge concerns that are raised and show your responses. Taking action publicly, with appropriate confidentiality, builds trust. People already know there are problems; let them see what you’re doing to make it better.
Expect more. There are some long simmering annoyance in every organization (yes, yours too). Don’t be surprised if addressing a few problems leads to several more being unearthed. It may be discouraging but it’s a sign of a culture getting a little bit healthier as more people really believe you will do something when issues are raised.
These things aren’t fun. They can be draining and frustrating. So I should be clear: You don’t have to do any of them.
Some leaders would rather only deal with the raptor right in front of them and hope that’s the only one that needs attention.
You can take that risk, and maybe get away with it. Or, you can start looking for and dealing with orange flags and see what it could be like to lead a healthier organization.
If you want to catch orange flags a simple place to start is with The REACTION Dashboard book or workshop. Or contact me to talk about other ways I can help.