Stop Fighting Fires

PSDM
Group 3
Firefighting

• A constant juggling act of deciding where to allocate overworked people

and which impending crisis to ignore for the moment.
Traffic Intensity – Number of problems relative
to the sources devoted to problem solving

(Days to Solve) x (Number of New Problems per Day)

Traffic Intensity = _____________________________________________
Number of Problem Solvers

When there are more problems coming in than going out, or traffic intensity
is high, this leads to a firefighting phenomenon.
How to diagnose if your organization has a
culture of firefighting?

If three or more of the following symptoms are present, a firefighting

culture is present:

• Not enough time to solve all problems

• Incomplete solutions
• Recurring or cascading problems
• Urgency supersedes importance
• Many problems become crises
• Performance drops
Problems caused by firefighting

• Work becomes far less efficient precisely when the most work
needs to get done.
• This approach to problems can become counterproductive,
when patches, quick fixes, or haphazardly introduced changes
create new problems elsewhere in the process.
• Can lead to draining of the best workers due to overload.
• Best problem solvers may become fed up and leave.
The vicious loop of firefighting
Only focus on
urgent projects

Problems are
compounded. Everything has a
Fire fighting tight deadline
continues.

Quickest rather Timescale

than best is reduces range of
selected solution options

All available
resources
thrown at urgent
projects
When can patching / quick fixes be justified?

• The patches should mitigate most of the damage even if they don’t
address the cause.
• Should be durable enough to not break down at a later time.
• Better cost-benefit ratio than other solutions (with the key cost being time)

If these three conditions are not present, applying patches / quick fixes to
problems can cause previously patched problems to recur until most of the
incoming problems are actually just old problems that are returning.
How to prevent firefighting?

There are broadly three categories of ways to eliminate firefighting:

• Tactical: Can be put into effect quickly without making high-level policy
changes.

• Strategic: May take longer to implement but pay off across a range of
projects and over long periods.

• Cultural: Requires shift in the mind-set of the whole organizations and in

behavior of senior managers.
Tactical Methods:

• Add temporary problem solvers

• Shut down operations
• Perform triage
Strategic Methods:

• Change design strategies

• Outsource some parts of design
• Solve classes of problems, not individual problems
• Use learning lines
• Develop more problem solvers
Cultural Methods:

• Don’t tolerate patching

• Don’t push to meet deadlines at all costs
• Don’t rewards firefighting
 Firefighting Approach
vs
Problem Solving Approach
Firefighting Approach:

Firefighting!
Immediate Problem reoccurs
Problem Identified
Containment Action elsewhere!
Implemented

Problem Solving Approach:

Solutions are
Immediate Defined Root
Solutions applied
Problem Containment Cause
validated across
Identified Action Analysis
with data company and
Implemented Process
never return!
 Comparison of Firefighting Culture and
Problem Solving Culture
Firefighting Culture
Respond to any and all problems
Focus on solving problems as it arises
Deadlines drive all priorities
Priority is set by rank of person
Unrealistic deadlines set
Patching is tolerated and rewarded
Dependent on best contributors
Patching is tolerated and rewarded
Firefighting becomes the norm
Problem Solving Culture
Triage all problems early on
Solve patterns of problems
Strategy drives many priorities
Importance sets priorities
Realistic deadlines set and agreed upon by contributors
Problem solving is required and problem solvers rewarded
Train problem solvers / work as a team
Problem solvers are heroes and are rewarded
Problem-solving becomes the norm