I once worked with someone who had spent time at Bridgewater, and what stuck with me was a habit they carried: the Red Test.

The idea is simple: can your team speak clearly about what's Red, Yellow, or Green?

You can change the words — "On Track," "At Risk," "Off Track" — but colors work better. They're faster. Less debate, more signal. Everyone immediately knows the stakes.

But the real point of the Red Test isn't labeling. It's what happens after something is marked Red.

Two questions tell you how healthy a team really is:

• Does the team surface the Red proactively?
• When something is Red, does someone own it — and do they have permission to pause their regular work to fix it?

Red items shouldn't be hidden or tiptoed around. A healthy team gets them out early, assigns them clearly, and clears the space to solve them.

Everything else is noise.