The Blue Line Imperative: What Managing for Value Really Means

Chapter Six

Shifting to Blue

Once a red line culture is embedded, it is indeed resilient, but hardly permanent. To break away from red line thinking and move the organization toward blue, two actions are necessary. The first is to recognize the red line behaviors in the first place. The second is to change the organizational culture to start “blueshifting” – managing toward the blue instead. You've probably heard the old bromide, “What gets measured gets managed.” Perhaps you've said it a few times yourself. Can this expression apply in the context of a blue line that you cannot see but which must drive everything you do? We've said that the blue line represents value and that we therefore define performance by its effect on the blue line. If ...