The Stoplight Problem
And the case for using your best judgment.
Let’s Begin With A Thought Experiment
Imagine yourself in a group of ten people. You ask them, on the count of three, to say what you’re supposed to do at a red light. You count to three and, pretty much in unison, everyone says “Stop”. You do the same thing again, now for a green light. Once again, it’s unanimous: “Go”. One last time, you try the same experiment for the yellow light. This time, on the count of three, ten different people simultaneously respond with ten different answers. You can imagine that it would sound like chaos, but you’re able to make out some of the statements like “Proceed slowly” or “It depends on how long it’s been yellow” or “Slow to a stop” or “It depends on what the cars in front of me and behind me are doing” or “Speed up and make it through before the light turns red.”
It’s only a thought experiment, but it’s not difficult to imagine that it’s a pretty realistic scenario, isn’t it? If you’re skeptical, try it out the next time you’re at lunch with a small group.
Binary & Non-Binary Rules
The red and green lights are binary indicators. We all know exactly what the rules are for those two colors because the rules are so simple they can each be stated in a single word: stop or go. But the yellow light isn’t quite as simple. In fact, the yellow light is anything but binary. Reasonable drivers could have good long debates about what the rule, or rules, are for a yellow light.
And yet, we can all function with yellow lights. They’ve been around forever, and most of us have learned how to behave in a reliable, safe way when the light turns yellow. This is because the implicit rule for the yellow light is “Use your best judgment.” And for the vast majority of drivers this approach works. It turns out that most of us treat operating big, heavy, unforgiving vehicles with the level of attention and responsibility that they deserve. We don’t have massive traffic problems at every yellow light because we tend to make sound decisions in those moments despite the inherent ambiguity surrounding what a yellow light actually means.
A Lesson For Leaders
There is a lesson in this for people who lead teams and companies.
When we’re responsible for a team of people, whether very large or very small, rules can feel comforting — the more binary the better. Prescribe a set of rules or practices or policies for people to follow, and clearly things will get better because it will be obvious when the rules have been broken and when they have been followed.
The great paradox for leaders, however, is that they require control but succeed most spectacularly when they relinquish it.
In practice, this looks more like cultivating a yellow light culture and less like enforcing a red and green light culture. It means that the yellow light rule (“use your best judgment”) is inseparably woven into the organization. These are teams and organizations that are able to embrace ambiguity and adjust quickly. These people know that their leadership trusts them because of their judgment and decisiveness.
If it feels absurd or unreasonable to imagine your organization operating more effectively with fewer rules and greater autonomy, it’s worth exploring why. Is it possible that you have enforced binary-style rules in an effort to achieve outcomes and results but instead have largely stifled the decision-making ability of your people?
If you’re still not convinced that your organization could survive, and possibly even thrive in an environment where the governing rule was “Use your best judgment,” consider the yellow light experiment the United States has been conducting at traffic signals on a massive scale since 1920. On the whole, it has worked out pretty well so far.
Real Kinetic helps companies develop confident, effective product development organizations. Learn more about working with us.