Image by Thorbjörn Ruppel from Pixabay
Who remembers learning the Green Cross Code? Stop, look right, look left, look right again, and if it’s clear – cross. For those of us who grew up with it, the rhythm is still there, somewhere in our muscle memory. Simple, systematic, impossible to forget.
It worked because it gave us just enough process to stay safe without overthinking it. We weren’t supposed to stand at the kerb calculating velocity and trajectory. We were supposed to look, assess quickly, and move.
As we head into planning season – that time of year when leadership teams gather to reset business strategy for the year ahead – I wonder if we’ve lost something of that clarity. We know we need to be thoughtful about our strategic decisions. We know we need to scan our environment, understand threats and opportunities, consider our options carefully. But somewhere between rigorous analysis and decisive action, many businesses get stuck.
They either freeze in endless analysis, waiting for perfect information that never comes, or they charge ahead without really looking at what’s around them.
What if good business strategy review looked more like the Green Cross Code? A memorable, repeatable process that creates awareness without paralysis.
Finding a Safe Place to Cross
Before you even begin the Green Cross Code, there’s a step we often forget: find a safe place to cross. Not all crossings are equal. Some roads have pedestrian crossings, clear sightlines, slower traffic. Others are blind corners on busy streets.
The same is true in business. Not every decision needs the full strategic treatment. Iterating on an existing product, refining a process, making a routine hire – these are relatively safe crossings. You still need awareness, but the stakes are manageable.
Entering a new market, pivoting your business model, making a significant acquisition – these are different crossings entirely. They require more time, more visibility, more care in choosing when to move.
The strategic question isn’t just “what should we do?” but “what type of crossing is this?” Getting that wrong – treating a major strategic shift like a routine decision, or agonizing over every small choice as if it were existential – wastes time and energy in different ways.
The Code Itself
Once you’ve identified your crossing, the code itself is deceptively simple.
Look right – What’s in the immediate environment? What are your current competitors doing? What are your customers telling you right now? What’s happening in your market today? This is your present-tense awareness. It’s not about predicting the future; it’s about seeing clearly what’s actually there.
Look left – What’s coming from the other direction? Emerging technologies, shifting customer behaviors, new entrants, regulatory changes, economic trends. This is where you scan for what might not be obvious yet but is heading your way.
Look right again – Here’s where the Green Cross Code gets interesting. Why look right twice? Because conditions change quickly. What was clear thirty seconds ago might have shifted. In business terms: your competitive landscape isn’t static. That opportunity you spotted two months ago might look different now. That threat you assessed at the start of the quarter might have evolved. That thing that looked ok before you ‘looked right’ might look so good with that new perspective. This isn’t paranoia – it’s acknowledging that strategic decisions happen in dynamic conditions.
Cross when it’s safe – Not when it’s perfect. When it’s safe enough. The Green Cross Code has a built-in bias toward action. You will cross the road. The question is when you have sufficient clarity, not perfect certainty.
The Annual Strategy Trap
Here’s where most businesses get it wrong. They treat business strategy review as an annual exercise.
Imagine if we’d taught children: “Right, you’ve done your road safety for 2025. Use the Green Cross Code this week on your way to school, and then we’ll see you again next January for your 2026 refresher.”
It’s absurd. But it’s exactly what many small and medium-sized businesses do with strategy.
You gather your team, you do your environmental scanning, you set your priorities, you write your plans. And then you file them away and get on with the day-to-day. When an unexpected decision comes up in May or August or October – a new competitor, a supplier issue, a sudden opportunity – you either make it reactively, running across the road without looking, or you treat it as an exception that somehow falls outside your strategic framework. Or you leave it entirely, not sure if it’s ‘safe’ or not. You stay on your side of the road, even when that opportunity is calling from the other, just like a shiny new playpark to a 5 year old!
The businesses that do strategy well don’t do it annually. They do it constantly. They’ve built the muscle memory. And for SMEs especially, where you can’t afford costly mistakes but also can’t afford to move slowly, this habit becomes even more valuable.
Building the Habit
The power of the Green Cross Code wasn’t in the cleverness of the framework. It was in the repetition. You practiced it so many times that it became automatic. Not thoughtless – automatic.
Strategic thinking should work the same way. Every significant decision – and plenty of smaller ones – becomes an opportunity to practice the habit. New hire? Look right, look left, look right again. Do you still need that exact role, or would a different one give you more opportunity? Pricing change? Look right, look left, look right again. Product feature? Partnership opportunity? Market expansion? Same code.
The more you do it, the faster and more fluent you become.
Creating a Common Language
Perhaps the most underrated benefit of the Green Cross Code was that everyone learned the same thing. Parents, teachers, children – we all spoke the same language about road safety. And it was memorable as a result.
When you build a strategic decision-making process that everyone in your organisation understands, you create similar power. Someone in a meeting can say “have we found a safe place to cross?” and everyone knows what that means. “Did we look left?” becomes shorthand for “have we scanned for emerging changes?”
It might make you laugh, but there’s no harm in that. Different sticks better than routine, and humour definitely helps with that.
Strategy Season, Done Differently
So yes, this is the season when many businesses starting thinking about resetting their business strategy. Use it well. Do your environmental scanning. Make your big decisions about direction and priorities.
All we’re saying is, don’t stop there.
Use this moment to build the system, not just set the strategy. Establish the rhythm for how you’ll make strategic decisions throughout the year. Create the common language. Practice the code until it becomes fluent.
Because in six months’ time, you’ll need to cross another business strategy road. And you don’t want to be standing at the kerb trying to remember how it works.
Ready to refresh your strategy for the year ahead? Our Deep Dive Strategy sessions help you build not just a plan, but a decision-making system that works all year round. Get in touch to find out more.
