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Are You a Corporate Firefighter?
Some organizations pride themselves on being exceptional at crisis management, aka firefighting. If you work for a fire department or some other kind of first-responder team, it certainly behooves you to be good at managing crises and putting out fires. Otherwise, that should not be the most important part of your job.
An IT manager for an investment bank told me recently that her department is forever being hit with calls from internal customers about matters requiring immediate response. Each call is the equivalent of someone’s pulling the fire alarm and becomes an immediate call to action. The IT employees have become so good at responding to cries for help that two things are taking place, neither of which is good for the long run: they are getting more and more calls for help, and they are spending less and less time fixing the underlying causes. They enjoy the feeling of making a difference and actually look forward to those fire calls. They have assumed the role of firefighters.
Most good corporate firefighters complain in a somewhat prideful way about how much time they spend putting out those fires. Now, when was the last time you heard a real firefighter complain about putting out fires? Probably never, right? And why not? Well, it’s the firefighter’s job, isn’t it?
Since many corporate fires are preventable, perhaps what is really needed is a good fire-prevention policy more than a good fire-response team.
WHEN IT SHOWS UP AND WHEN IT BLOWS UP
You probably know well the difference between important and urgent. Few corporate fires are both important and urgent, notwithstanding that once they have burst into flames, they take on the aura of both important and urgent. If you were to assume the role of arson investigator, you would probably discover that all kinds of fires had their origins back when the issue was confined—perhaps important, but with plenty of time to be addressed.
It’s kind of like your passport or driver’s license coming up for renewal. We all know the deadline is coming, and we also know it can be irritating to deal with the bureaucratic process, and so we put it off until later. Both renewals are important, yet neither starts out as urgent. Then “later” suddenly catches up with us. Maybe it’s just before the trip for which you need the passport, or a day or two before your birthday and you notice that the driver’s license is about to expire. Instead of spending a little bit of time filling out forms and submitting them for processing, you have to go into crisis mode, wasting a big chunk of time standing in lines and perhaps paying late fees.
If you have noticed that little things sometimes have a way of turning into big hooplas, then it may be worth examining how those little things were ignited. It’s actually not so hard to discover: the answer lies somewhere between benign neglect and out of sight, out of mind.
Let’s sift through a few common sources of the oily-rag-in-the-closet syndrome that produce more than their fair share of fires and crises. These examples can apply to corporate executives as well as support staff, to the small business owner, and right over to the single parent running the household.
WHERE FIRES AWAIT US
Many of our fires and crises erupt because we either keep putting them off, not unlike the driver’s license renewal, or just don’t see them. The ones we don’t see are often buried someplace. Here are the three most common burial grounds:
• Your desk’s in-box
• Your e-mail in-box
• Your head
You know you are snowed under when you have an in-box overflowing with stuff you have already seen once. Or twice. Or goodness knows how many times. True confessions, now: have you ever looked at something from your in-box, decided that you weren’t sure what to do with it just now, and so put it back in the in-box? I know I have. I’ll warrant most of us have. Unfortunately, that one little seemingly innocent act is a potential source of future fires and crises. By putting the piece of paper back in the in-box, we transform the in-box from a place for new information and communication to a combination in-box, storage device, and reminder system. Once the item is back in there, it’s anybody’s guess as to when it will reemerge. I suppose that depends on how often you go back and look at anything below the top couple of inches.
Take a stroll around your workplace and see how many inboxes you can count that are empty. I’ll bet there aren’t many. Each full in-box could be an inadvertent hiding place for future fires. If you have put something back in the tray without deciding what action to take, you may not get around to it again before it’s too late. Similarly, what if you have reviewed something and forwarded it on to Pat for some action he should be taking? And what if he reads it, returns it to his in-box, and assumes he’ll get back to it “later”? And what if later winds up being too late?
These are the kinds of simple, innocent behaviors that can impel something small to turn into something requiring a fire drill. Even more frightening may be what we have stored in our heads! Have you ever seen something that needed response or action on your part and “made a mental note”? Where do you put that mental note, and when is it likely to surface again for action? If you’re like me, you know that you will remember at some point; you just never know when. Perhaps it will be in the shower, just before falling asleep, or while driving the car.
Thanks, brain! The brain did its job—it remembered, just not so conveniently. Indeed, the brain will keep track—it’s just that you never know when the mental note will show up again. How many times have you slapped your forehead and said something like, “Dang it! I knew this needed to be done. I forgot.” Well, hey, “I forgot” is a pretty good excuse for another fire drill, don’t you think? Probably not. So, what fire-prevention options do you have available to you? What are the fire-prevention options for avoiding starting your own fires, and what can you do to lower the likelihood that some other arsonist will start something for you to put out?
THE WEEKLY REVIEW: THE ULTIMATE IN FIRE PREVENTION
There’s an uncomplicated workaround for this kind of situation, and it can work both for you and for the people with whom you interact. It’s called the weekly review. As with many other situations, the workaround may require starting with yourself. In brief, the weekly review goes like this: once a week, review your calendar for the week that has just gone by and the one that is coming, to see if (a) anything fell through the cracks last week and (b) if anything critical is coming that warrants action today. You can review calendar entries, to-do lists, goals, projects, and commitments that you have made or that someone else made to you.
Action today could be anything from getting started on a project or goal of yours to reminding someone else that an important milestone, due date, or deliverable of some kind will be coming due. If anything got lost in the shuffle, you still have the chance to catch it while it may only be smoldering instead of waiting for it to erupt in a full-fledged fire. And if someone else let something slip, you can likewise catch it in the smoldering stage. By looking forward a week, you can position yourself to catch anything you spot or remind a team member, another department, or (heaven forbid) your boss that something important is coming.
This routine act of fire prevention is a great workaround and can go a long way to reducing the number of fires and crises that appear at your doorway. (If you have read Getting Things Done, you will already be familiar with this process.) Here’s a no-sweat weekly review process that should help you extinguish any smoldering embers before a fire threatens to engulf the premises.
1. Get the number of items in your in-box to zero. (Using your in-box as a storage device is the equivalent of stashing oily rags in the closet. Pretty soon the heat will rise, and flames will roar!)
a. Gather loose papers, notepads, and sticky notes containing information you need and place them in your in-box.
b. Search through your in-box for anything in there that requires action of some kind.
• Enter any actions that you discover on your Next Actions list. (You can think of this list as a more sophisticated to-do list: these are actions you need to take, more than results you need to produce. All results will have “next actions.”)
• Meeting notes can be hiding places for future fires. Did you take on responsibility for any actions at meetings this week that have not been entered on calendar pages or Next Actions lists?
2. Review the past week on your calendar for any items planned but not yet done. Did anything slip through the cracks? If so, do you need to do it now before it erupts into flames? If not, can you plan to do it next week?
3. Review the next week or two on your calendar for anything coming that you need to prepare for or even start now.
a. If you need to prepare, do you have time scheduled for the preparation? If not, can you schedule that time now, even if it’s for later today?
b. Do you have anything due next week that you had better get started or you will run out of time? If so, when can you get it started? Do you need to calendar it?
4. Empty your head. Is there anything niggling in the back of your mind that you need to do, check on, or plan for? If so, does it belong on a Next Actions list, on a calendar page, or somewhere else besides your head?
5. Review project lists. If you don’t have a list of projects you are responsible for, start one! Review each project on the list and confirm that you have an appropriate next action step and that it is being tracked in your system.
6. Review Next Actions lists. If you don’t have a list of actions you need to take, start one! Assess each entry to see if either of the following conditions applies:
a. You have already done it but did not check if off the list.
b. It is getting close to urgent. If so, can you move it to your calendar and schedule it for action?
7. Review your Waiting For list. If you don’t have a Waiting For list, start one!
a. “Waiting for” items are kindling for major fires. Anything that you need to receive from someone else before you can continue with your part of the project or action is, by definition, a “waiting for” item.
b. Is there anything you need to ping someone else about to make certain the person has it moving? It’s always best to look at least a week out so that any reminders you send along still have a chance of being acted on.
8. Review any checklists you have.
a. Do you have any items that you know you need to do each week? If so, can you take care of them now? For example:
• Pay bills.
• Back up your computer.
• Prepare any weekly reports.
9. Be creative and courageous. Is there anything you need to discuss with your boss? If so, can you schedule a meeting now?
Fires and crises are bound to occur from time to time; however, many fires break out because something simple but important was put off when it was still easy to address, just not urgent. Be careful that you do not start your own fires by casually putting off until later what you could handle now. Similarly, don’t allow others to pour kerosene on your desk by their lack of attention to something that is important, just not urgent.
WORKAROUND QUESTIONS
The weekly review clearly will help your fire-prevention efforts on two major fronts: you will catch anything of your own that requires action as well as be able to identify threats that reside elsewhere. A hidden value of the weekly review is that if a fire does erupt, you will be better positioned to respond with a clear mind and full attention because you are already current on what’s on your plate. Rather than responding to the fire with a nagging sense of “What am I forgetting?” you can take appropriate action and get back on track with less effort and less risk of having other fires erupt around you. Here’s a recap of pertinent questions:
1. What projects and commitments do you have on your plate?
2. When was the last time you reviewed these projects with your boss to ensure that you are still on track with critical goals and objectives?
3. Are you tracking your projects and commitments separate from collecting them in your in-box or in your head?
4. Do you have separate lists or folders for projects, next actions, and anything you are waiting for that you can easily reference for reminders as well as for a quick scan if a fire does break out?