I don’t do fire-fighting and you shouldn’t either.

Fire-fighting is purely stakeholder management, but generally it comes across as an ACE - Arse-Covering Exercise.

If you have gotten to the point that you are constantly fire-fighting issues, then chances are you will never get out of the cycle of endless fire-fighting.

Let me share the conversation I had with a former exec-level boss when I first joined the organisation.  In fact, I think this was in the 2nd round job interview.

Me: “I don’t do fire-fighting.”

Boss: “Well that’s a pity.  Your predecessor was really good at doing fire-fighting.”

Me: “Fire-fighting comes across as things getting missed, which loses confidence and trust.  I’m going to spend the time and energy transforming your business instead.”

Boss: “Okay then …”

There was a sense of non-belief that it was going to work.  The other thing I said in the same conversation was “I’m only going to be around for 2-3 years.  By then I should have achieved everything I plan to do.”

He doubted that as well.

Roll forwards 3 years and he was trying to convince me to stick around.  But he could see that I was ready to move on.

Fire-fighting means you are constantly retroactively responding to problems, and it puts teams on the back-foot and causes delays and stakeholder confidence issues.  If every potential problem converts into an issue, then suddenly you are surrounded by issues, and stakeholders wonder how you got there and why you were hired.

Here’s the thing -

Fire-fighting should not be necessary if you proactively identify and address problems well ahead of time.  Most problems are foreseeable, even if you’re not the one who can foresee them.  You have any number of people who can help you spot a problem before it becomes an issue.  Leverage that power and vision.

This was my one take-away message from The Phoenix Project - total chaos and fire-fighting can be avoided by putting in place the right tools, systems, and methods to prevent these issues from arising in the first place.

What can you do to avoid fire-fighting?

✅  Do planning sessions with your teams for the BIG things that matter.
✅  Once you have the plan, ask your teams - “What will go wrong with this plan?”
✅  Keep iterating on the plan.  Accept that it will never be 100% bulletproof.
✅  Create a risk management process that identifies potential problems and addresses them before they become an issue.
✅  Build the focus and capability of your teams to constantly have a focus on “What might go wrong, and how do we avoid it?”
✅  Create accountable teams that deeply care about preventing things from going wrong.