The Power of Yellow

The color yellow can signal a range of meanings. Wikipedia lists some of them — sunshine, happiness, caution, slow, and cowardice. For drivers, yellow typically signals “slow down and be prepared to come to a stop.” In the business world, delays are not ideal. President and CEO of Ford, Alan Mulally, holds weekly meetings with his leadership team for the purpose of reviewing business plans (The Washington Post). He instructed the team to color code their projects by using green, yellow, or red folders. At the start of the process, all folders were green, and all systems were go.

Mulally reminded his team that Ford had lost 14 billion in 2009. He hinted that the color of the folder was a reflection of the plan, not necessarily the leader. Long story short, Mulally got the team to be honest about project glitches or delays, paving the way to problem solving.

Yellow, as Mulally found, can signal caution without spiking unhelpful tension.