The Traffic Light Concept and Workplace Behaviour Coaching

Working with Sally Jetson & Associates on a series of EEO Awareness raising workshops for a transport business in 2004 - 05, we started using the concept of traffic lights to facilitate thinking, learning and talking about workplace behaviour.

How Do You Define What's OK or Not OK and Make it Easy to Understand WHY It's So?

Because there is a tendency to decide for ourselves, using our personal values and rules, what constitutes red, amber or green behaviour, there can be lots of inconsistencies from manager to manager (especially across generation, occupation and cultural borders) and lots of what managers call 'grey areas' where no one is really clear what's OK and what's not at work. we also foound that often managers struggled to explain clearly and simply, when challenged, just WHY people have to behave differently at work and can't always do what THEY think is acceptable!

So we developed and refined workable definitions to help team leaders, supervisors, managers and staff work out where any particular behaviour was located relative to to workplace values and rules - clearly defining red light, amber and green light behaviours helps people navigate far more effectively and comfortably. Without these definitions

• it's almost impossible to ensure that everyone's working off the same page in regard to what's expected.
• managers and supervisors struggle to set clear expectations because they don't have a solid handle on what's OK, what's not OK, & exactly why (other than what they see as political correctness) it's not OK

So we figured out practical and effective ways to use the traffic light model to:

• help them set clear expectations, to stop people on red;
• give a sound IMpersonal reason for the red light;
• give effective warnings and behaviour coaching to people when they're running an amber light, and to
• coach and reinforce green light behaviour to build a high performance culture.

The definitions, guidelines and techniques are practical and effective and provide a sound framework for intervention.

We also developed a range of laminated posters and wallet cards to help leaders, supervisors and managers remember the definitions and with cues and clues for using the concept on the job.

The model has been exceptionally well received and we can now make it available to companies and organisations as a powerful approach to workplace behaviour management.

Please contact us to find out more.