Firefighting

Firefighting
By
Bill Cottringer

Are you part of an organization where everyone is in a perpetual firefighting mode, spending most of their day scurrying around putting band-aides on ruptures? As the direct Dr. Phil would ask, “How is that working for you?” Not very well I would imagine. I have had both the displeasure of being part of a firefighting, reactionary organization going to the no-where zone and the pleasure in working inside a proactive company headed towards the Prosperity Zone.

The choice is obviously a no-brainer, but that’s not the problem here. If you are now part of a firefighting organization that is draining your energy and increasing your frustration, what can you do about it? Like dealing with any predicament, there are three useful strategies:

1. Understand what is going on and why.

Firefighting organizations are usually led by a high energy person (often ADHD) who likes the adrenalin rush involved in responding to emergencies and has the ability to aggressively attack ornery problems to get quick results for others to see. This activity gives great meaning and purpose to the person’s work day and makes him or her feel very useful. They have large minds but may be disorganized with an overload of details.

Although putting out a certain amount of urgent fires during the day is required everywhere, it can easily get out of control and become the norm of the day’s routine. Usually what happens when the chief firefighter is the boss, is that he or she has an intrinsic tendency to hire other good firefighters for companionship and then reward and perpetuate this mode of operating. Then, the better alternative, proactively planned actions to strengthen the infrastructure of the organization and align all the goals and activities with the mission, never see the light of day through the fires.

2. Take time to laugh about it.

The best medicine to lessen the pain and frustration of the firefighting predicament is humor. When you stop and think about it, very few things in life are serious enough to have a nervous breakdown over. The bottom line to all the realizations we can ever have about work or life in general, is that we are all knowingly and willfully acting in a way we think we want to in order to get where we want to be—even putting up with the utter stupidity and insanity of firefighting. We are much more responsible for our situations than we want to openly admit.

Taking the time to laugh at a situation that is causing you discomfort and angst, lessens its iron grip on you and frees you to think about some little things you can do as an individual to make a slight move from all-the-time reacting to some-of-the-time acting. Sometimes that has to start with frank, difficult up close and personal conversations between firefighting proponents and those who know there is a better way.

3. Do little things that lead to improvement.

You simply can’t undo a firefighting organization overnight anymore than you can find a legitimate shortcut to cure a dysfunctional family member in one therapy session. But starting by understanding how this firefighting came about, how it is being perpetuated, and what a more balanced approach between reacting and acting would do for people’s productivity, job satisfaction and the company’s bottom line, is a door opener. Often, all that is needed is for the “conflict” to be openly and assertively discussed, which unfortunately too often gets put on the back burner as a non-priority no matter how bad things are. Finally come the applications of the little “P” points, or psychological power points, that when well-placed and well-timed get the big results you want without the negative side effects you don’t want.

Here are a few of these “P” points to consider if you seriously want to re-arrange the landscape of a firefighting organization you are part of:

• Don’t assume you are all alone in the frustration station; courageously challenge your assumptions by talking with another trusted person or two to see how widespread the discontent with the firefighting is.
• Organize your own physical work environment so it shows you are not the dog being wagged by its tail. Plus you will be able to save valuable time, not wasting it looking for things you need to act and can’t find in the disorganization.
• Have some input in hiring the next person to not be a good firefighter, but a well-organized planner and steady plodder.
• Be resourceful and schedule a non-firefighting, spontaneous, planning day to brainstorm ways to get out of the fire-fighting mode and start simplifying the overload.
• Refuse to let other toxic negaholics overflow their emergencies onto your organized and productive day.
• Now, if you are the boss firefighter, look yourself in the mirror and answer Dr. Phil’s poignant question—“How is it working for you?” Find out what your positive payoff is and find another more productive approach you can model to get a comparable reward or adrenalin fix. Focus on what your real purpose is and how you can get what you really want from your organization.