Fire Fighting vs. Fire Prevention
- rick1889
- Feb 13
- 2 min read
We all have businesses to run, and not everything goes as planned. But, when the fires arise, and you are putting a team of people on the effort to put out the fire, ask yourself how long it is taking, and the costs associated with it.
How many people are not doing their normal jobs and allowing your company to continue progressing as you had planned? More importantly, how are you rewarding your fire fighters? Recognition? Promotion? Adoration? Others in your company are watching this.
I'm not arguing that the people that put out the fires shouldn't be recognized for their efforts, to the contrary, I'm indicating that everyone else is watching and they may start thinking... "That's how I get promoted!". Thus, everyone works very hard at being a fire fighter, and get the recognition, adoration and a promotion.
Now you have an ecosystem of fire fighters just waiting for the next fire to occur. When it happens, your ecosystem surrounds the fire and works to put it out. Then it happens next week, the same result... Repeat, repeat, repeat.
How much money is being used to fight fires? What are the costs?
I'm not saying that you shouldn't have any fire fighters, instead, I'm suggesting that you have a team 10 times the size, focused on fire prevention. If you have someone that understands fire prevention is more important than firefighting, you will succeed and be more profitable. The fires won't happen every week, but rather once in a while. You'll be prepared when it happens, and you'll also have a plan to implement to extinguish the fire.
There's a method in Lean Six Sigma called Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). All too often we get away from this method in business, or simply someone important wasn't involved in the PDCA cycle to ensure fire prevention. If you did have someone that does know how to do this, it is highly likely that you won't have any fires at all, or a plan in place that can be enacted in minutes to ensure that a spark doesn't turn into a fire.
We are all so busy. Often times the PDCA goes out the proverbial window, and we fall into the Act-Do-Check-Plan (ADCP). This is a sure-fire starter. It is the equivalent to walking up to a small fire and throwing a 5-gallon bucket of high-octane gasoline directly on it.
If you do this, you should Plan (to hire many more people to firefight), Do (Hire Them), Check (Your Finances), and Act (Pour all your resources into fighting the fires).
What costs more for you and your company? Fighting Fires or Fire Prevention?
As you move forward with the PDCA, please ensure that you have someone that fully understands it before you implement it. It may just save you a significant amount of money that could be used to make you more profit both in the short-term and the long-term.