by Rand Manasse
In football, when the referee throws a flag, it tells everyone that a penalty has been committed.
Play stops, and everyone pays attention to what has happened.
Penalties are used to keep players within a framework of rules and to ensure fairness. When a penalty is committed, yards are marked off on the field. The team that committed the penalty has to pay the price and the opposing team benefits.
With rules, skill, and execution become the determining factors in success.
Flags can also benefit businesses.
According to Jim Collins, author of Good To Great, great businesses have a flag system to keep everyone in check.
These systems are designed to ensure that everyone in the business remains focused. They are also an early warning system to prevent large mistakes.
In addition to the referee flags, coaches have red challenge flags. This mechanism allows coaches to challenge calls on the field made by the referees. The challenge system will enable coaches to keep the referees within the framework of the rules.
Business works the same way.
In football, referees use penalty flags to keep players within the game’s framework, and coaches use red flags to challenge certain calls on the field.
In business, the system is known as the Red Flag Mechanism. If you use the red flag mechanism, you can build value and grow your business.
The red flags in business are made to keep everyone within the framework of success. When everyone in the business has the opportunity to raise a red flag, others will be more likely to stay on course.
A red flag mechanism allows self-monitoring to occur so you do not have to micromanage people or processes, which opens up opportunities.
There are two main red flag mechanisms in business that you can implement right now. These mechanisms will allow you and your employees to stay within the successful framework on your way to greatness.
Employee Reporting
Once you have the right people on board at your business and in the right roles, it’s time to let them go to work. You allow them to achieve the goals established by the executive team.
However, to give employees freedom, it’s important to have a red flag mechanism for employee reporting. The mechanism allows all employees to report to management when they feel something needs to be said.
Employees can raise issues related to actions taken by other employees that are outside the framework or actions taken by management that are outside the framework.
Jim Collins gave an example from his classroom. For an entire semester, he gave lectures and allowed each student to have a red flag. During the semester, the students would have the opportunity to raise their red flags at any point if they felt the lecture was not beneficial.
The students could use their flags only once, but the mechanism allowed Collins to keep his course on track instead of waiting until the end of the year to receive feedback from the traditional professor surveys.
Customer Feedback
Second, it’s essential to have red flag mechanisms in place to get customer feedback.
Again, Jim Collins gives an example from a great company in his research. The company sends out invoices each month to customers. On the invoices, the company asks the customers to pay the full invoice only if they are completely satisfied with what they have received.
If the customers were not satisfied, they could pay whatever they felt was appropriate. This red flag mechanism allowed the company to realize if there were any issues before the customer decided to simply stop doing business with the company.
It is a classic example of a canary in the coal mine.
Conclusion
Football uses a flag system to keep the game on track. Referees use flags to ensure everyone follows the rules and stays within the game’s framework. Coaches use red challenge flags to ensure all calls on the field are correct and accurate.
Businesses can add value and grow with red flag mechanisms as well.
Implement the employee and customer red flag mechanisms in your business. You’ll empower your employees to succeed within your framework while also providing management with the feedback necessary to succeed. Also, by giving your customers the opportunity to provide feedback, you can learn about any issues before it’s too late.
Some might see flags as a negative aspect of football and business. A red flag mechanism, however, is one of the best tools in business. It lets you, the business leader, know that you can improve on your way to becoming a great company.
As always, please comment and let me know what you think. If you need help building value into your business, please contact me at 914.741.5200 or rmanasse@referencesystems.com.
To your success!
Rand
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