Count Your Fires
“We can’t get the assignment done because we’re always fighting fires.” How often have we heard that one? My client was telling me he couldn’t get ready for our coaching session because too many things were going wrong in his business. “We’re always in crisis mode,” he said.
Many organizations run on the edge of being out of control, responding to customer complaints, mistakes in production, unruly employees, conflict among the management team. The result is often crisis after crisis, fire after fire.
I suggested my client start counting fires, actually keeping a log of the fires and making a graph we could discuss each week. Fires per day became a key business measurement. As part of the fire log, I suggested he ask for each fire: What happened? Who was involved? What was the solution? What can we do to prevent such a fire from happening again?
Each week, we discussed the graph and the results. Upon sorting the information, we began to set priorities about training, process improvement and management practices.
And, yes…we watched the fires/week line move down on the graph.
Count your fires. You’ll learn something.
