Color Code Your Results

Can you see your business performance at a glance?

• Do you know how the different parts of your business are doing right now?
• Can you find the answers in less than five minutes?
• Can you immediately identify areas of concern and areas of strength?
• Do have to go on a three-day retreat to really understand what is happening in your business?

In his terrific new book, Obstacles Welcome, Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, provides a variety of practical management gems. He clearly is a person who's "been there and done that."

One of my favorite ideas from the book is his practice of color coding results. He uses a simple green-yellow-red coding system for all of his organization's results. If a result is meeting or exceeding the expected results, then it's marked in green. If a result is slightly below the expected result, it is marked in yellow. If it is well below the expected result, it is marked in red.

He, and everyone else in the organization because the results are posted out in the open, can see what is happening at any given moment. This helps him and everyone else to determine what to do immediately.

Start this idea on a few key areas: financial results (expected revenues, expected cost of doing business, and expected profits), operational results from the customers' perspective (expected value received and expected quality of the delivery of that value), and marketing results (expected responses from targeted audiences).

Regularly color code the actual results versus the expected results. Visually scan the colors on your Results Sheet and see if you can immediately identify any areas for short-term concern or any areas that can be leveraged for long-term great results.