CHANGE 101 – USING RED TEAMS

In my experience, nothing ever works perfectly the first time, especially in the business world.  In fact, many things barely work at all the first, second, or even third time. 

It is very frustrating, very expensive, and very time consuming when new ideas, new procedures, or anything “new” doesn’t work.  Some companies don’t handle change very well and neither do many individuals.  Organizational change, whether at a macro or micro level is full of lost opportunities because some people either give up through the frustration or assume the problems either can’t be overcome or aren’t worth the effort. 

A RED TEAM can help prevent this from happening to your organization.  A RED TEAM is one or more people whose job it is to anticipate problems, to see unintended consequences, to basically “tear logic holes” in new things. 

A RED TEAM isn’t a new concept.  Our armed forces have successfully used RED TEAMS for many years for “adversary training”, businesses use it under a variety of names to test their systems and processes and banks use it to make sure their assets are secure by actually have people try to rob them.  As a business person or as a person trying to drive “change” you can use the RED TEAM concept to provide a fresh perspective on issues that you might not have anticipated to make whatever change you are working on succeed.

WHAT ARE THE KEYS:

The goals of a RED TEAM include: to constructively improve procedures, processes, products, services, and organizations through critical evaluation.  Their aim is ultimately to STRENGTHEN, not destroy, whatever it is that is being tested.  By examining new systems and products without bias and through the eyes of the public and the end users, they can “see” things that can be invisible to people who only see things the way things were intended, not the way they actually are.

Your RED TEAM doesn’t have to be made up of the same people all the time, but they should be knowledgeable overall.  The more objective they can be about the evaluation process the more able they will be to avoid the “trap” of any preconceived biases.   On many occasions, “new” associates can be the most helpful.

Your RED TEAM should have access to all of the facts about whatever it is they are evaluating.  They should be able to speak freely, even if it is just in private, because any restrictions that you put in place are going to severely limit their ability to RED TEAM successfully.  Unfortunately, many organizations exist under the fallacy that only their owners and managers have good ideas.

The RED TEAM should be comprised of people who can identify problems, break the problems down, and offer solutions to resolve those problems.

EXAMPLES OF RED TEAMING:

RED TEAMS can be an effective component of whatever your organization’s “CHANGE PROCESS” is.  A danger of not having a clearly defined change process is that “change” is happening in your organization regardless, it is just happening without any checks or balances.  Not recognizing this fact, may explain why change is so difficult for your organization.

You may already be using examples of RED TEAMS and may just be calling them something different; for example: 

• Retail stores use “mystery shoppers”, the feedback from people “shopping” your store and those of your competition in a systematic way can expose “blind spots” and reveal “competitive advantages and disadvantages” that you and your associates may be unaware of.
• Any organization could use a RED TEAM to reveal staff and organizational biases, unintended discrimination towards people with disabilities, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion. 
• In addition, a RED TEAM could review your Health and Safety Policies; conduct Fire Drills, examine customer and associate complaints, and expose weaknesses that should be addressed and remedied.
• Reviewing your onboarding and training of new associates would be another great way to utilize a RED TEAM to ensure that your training maximizes your competitive advantages and teaches associates how to handle certain scenarios.
• This could extend to using a RED TEAM to perform and critique role-playing for sales, service, or any other department to provide in-valuable training for even experienced associates.  Successful organizations usually have role-playing as one of their most fundamental training practices.
• An obvious use of a RED TEAM is to be involved in the process of introducing new products or services into the market place.
• I used a RED TEAM to proof this post, but extending this, RED TEAMS should be tasked with proofreading advertising copy for errors and for proofreading internal and external communications to prevent easily-avoidable embarrassment by correcting basic content, language and grammar errors.

BENEFITS

RED TEAMS are great ways to test new ideas, systems, products, and services; an often-overlooked benefit is the way that they can improve staff morale, because it empowers your associates to be an important part of building your organization.

Having a RED TEAM process, encourages risk taking and innovation in a company by working to strengthen its change process and to help eliminate costly failures.

Using a RED TEAM will not always eliminate the possibility of something failing, but by utilizing this tool, it is possible to reduce the chances of your organization failing.

BALANCE

Everything in business is about balance.  This is why it is so important to remember that critical evaluation must not come at the cost of stifling innovation or creating corporate paralysis.  Rather, it is important to think and consider if what you are doing is worth the time and effort. 

Remember, pausing for consideration and critical thinking is an EFFECTIVE ACTION STEP.  RED TEAMS can dramatically and positively impact any component of your organization that is changing.

Image courtesy of Cloudely.