The Trouble With Yellow

What exactly does it mean?

Walk into almost any factory, hospital, office, or warehouse, and you’ll likely encounter tier boards with a familiar set of colors: green, yellow, and red. Green means good. Red means bad. And yellow? Well, it has… some issues.

I began thinking about this after a discussion with my good friend and lean thought leader Billy Ray Taylor. He’s a crusader against the color yellow in visual management. His position is surprisingly simple: There’s no such thing as “almost standard.” A process is either operating to standard or it isn’t. Green means standard. Red means off-standard. Everything else, he argues, is an invitation to debate.

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Comments

This is just "management by objectives" with extra steps.

We're talking about how to "celebrate the red" within a framework where traffic light colours indicate our closeness to numerical goals. Who even knows that the numerical goals are what the system is capable of and what the system should be doing to satisfy customers and maximise profits? Get rid of the amber lights, and you're still left with this question.

Read Don Wheeler's article "Two Definitions of Trouble"

When you have the clarity to distinguish between product trouble and process trouble, you'll have the understanding to formulate real solutions for the business, and you'll be tired enough at the end of the day not to worry about which traffic light colours have the most compelling effects on line worker psychology.

In the project management context, yellow does have a meaning

When displaying project health for project review purposes, "Green is Good" (no attention needed), Red means I need help with an issue that I can't resolve, and Yellow means I have an issue but I have a plan to get back to Green.