Is Fire Fighting an essential business skill? No, we're not talking about getting to ride in a shiny red truck or be on a sexy calendar (though you may feel eligible). Do you feel like you are putting out fires at work or coping with mini-crisis on a daily basis?  We can explain what is really going on, and how you can fix those problems once and for all. There are times when a manager can feel like they are continually fixing problems. This is frustrating and very time-consuming.  Yet when they look at what is going on, they cannot see an overall solution, as each problem seems different from the other……..or is it? What we often see (and manage), is just the tip of the iceberg – we call it the "event".

Some days fire fighting seems like an essential management skill. In addition to putting out the fires managers must be able to identify the root cause of the fire to prevent future fires. This is the only way to break the cycle of fire fighting.

For example, let's say our event is an employee calling in sick.  Usually no big deal, maybe a challenge to reorganise the work, but otherwise manageable. But if we dig a little deeper and gather a collection of events, what we may see underneath is a "pattern".  That is, we can see a relationship or something in common in each event. To continue our example, lets say we find the following events:   an employee calling in sick a couple of times, a few complaints from customers regarding the quality of work, some credits required because the wrong items/prices have been charged, some grumbling from the other, more experienced staff, and some stock write-offs because we have less physical stock on hand than our processing system has recorded These seem like unrelated events, but when we dig a little deeper, we find that a number of these are related to the employee who has had a couple of sick days (yet seemed quite well before and after). Now we're getting closer to the real problem, and therefore, the real solution. In this case it would be easy to say that the employee is the problem, but this is unlikely to be the whole truth.  If we try solving the problem, by attempting to ‘fix’ the employee we are likely to be unsuccessful and feel pretty frustrated.  (We may also be faced with a personal grievance, or a recurrence of the problem with their replacement.)  What we need to do is dig a little deeper. Underneath our events we see a pattern, if we look at the pattern, we see our organisational systems in action.  These "systems" influence the behaviours that cause our events.  This is great news for managers.  Why?  Because who's responsible for designing the organisation’s systems?  You, the manager.  Therefore you are actually the only one that can really fix this problem.  Truly understanding and applying this provides huge leverage in running your business effectively. But wait, there’s more... Underneath our systems are "mental models".  These are your beliefs that influence the systems you put in place in your business.  For example, writing things down is a waste of time, I’m too busy to train people, people should be able to do their job without hand-holding, people don’t like to be told what to do, I’m not good at that, this is more important … etc.  It is essential to identify and review these beliefs to see if they are still true and helpful.  Only then can you start to redesign a better system, which will deliver better results. At the end of this article are three different scenarios that could be underneath our pattern of events.  Each scenario relates to a different system, and each system has arisen from different beliefs.  If we are going to really fix the problem once and for all, we need to keep digging down until we find the related system, and underlying beliefs that support it. Only then can we make real and lasting changes.  (Review these three scenarios to deepen your understanding of how this phenomena works.) But… How do you keep digging to get to the bottom of the iceberg? Answer: The Five Whys.  This is an invaluable tool – just keep asking "Why?" (at least five times) and eventually you’ll end up with an answer that reveals the underlying system and belief! For example: Why is X away?Because he is feeling overwhelmed and stressed about making so many mistakes Why is X making so many mistakes?Because he feels unsure about what he is meant to do. Why doesn’t X know what to do?Because he hasn’t been shown?* * This comment highlights faults in the selection, training & induction systems Why hasn’t he been shown?Because we haven’t got time. Why haven’t you got time?Because I’m busy with all the extra work we have. But won’t X help with that in the long run?Yes, but I need to get this work done now. Why?Because it is more important to keep the customer happy than train someone. Why?Because the customer pays. A telling tale.  It's more important to keep the customer happy, and earn money, than it is to develop our business, despite the fact that our inaction is actually costing our business.  (An unproductive employee is a huge cost.) Does this person see working on their business as a cost or an investment??? OR Does this person have different perceptions around what qualifies as a 'cost' to their business? Some critical insights we have discovered, which now need reviewing are the underlying beliefs around commitment and investment in growing a real business AND/OR what qualifies as a 'cost' to the business. This needs to be addressed first, before any systems can be modified, or events appropriately responded to.  If it isn’t addressed first, what we will see is different events, patterns and systems, but still leading to the same beliefs around lack of commitment and investment in growing the business. It is important to note, that in some cases you may be unable to modify your beliefs as they are too core to who you are.  This is just as important and useful as situations where you can modify your beliefs.  Now you know some of your boundaries and requirements, and the organisational systems, structure and strategies can be built from this, rather than attempting to do things that are inconsistent with your fundamental beliefs.  (No amount of pushing, prodding and dragging will make that work!) As we have said, it is essential to get to the bottom of the iceberg, otherwise the real problem will never be resolved, and your opportunity to grow, both financially and professionally, will be lost. If you have a few icebergs in your workplace that you’d like to get to the bottom of, you can try the Five Why's, or if you would like some help please contact us - we are expert iceberg excavators. Expand your Understanding of EPSMM To explain the "event, pattern, system, mental models" phenomena further, we continue our example of the employee related problems.  Let's consider three different scenarios that could be unfolding in our business: Scenario 1 Systems - what we see is a lack of system, in particular an induction and ongoing training system to help our employee learn what is required of them.  When we investigate further we see them struggling with their work.  They feel uncomfortable asking questions as they feel surrounded by people who seem to know what they are doing.  We see how the lack of documented procedures and hands-on support have left our employee unable to help themself, and we see them starting to feel stressed, and avoid work as a result.  If this continues they are likely to leave. (In many cases we would probably be glad when they did, citing them as hopeless, but where they really?). Under Mental Models we can see that our familiarity with our business, has led us to oversimplify what is required, and underestimate how easily someone else can learn it.  We may also have a belief that people make mistakes because they are lazy or stupid, as opposed to being uninformed or untrained.  The first belief is very damaging to our business, because we are not capturing, protecting and growing the true expertise of the business.  The second is just expensive, as we waste time and money on people that we aren’t committed to helping become a valuable member of our team. Scenario 2 Systems - An alternative situation we may find, is we realise that our recruitment system has let us down – we really have got the wrong person.  Despite our well-documented procedures, training and support they are still unable to perform.  We realise that they lack the motivation and ability to do the job, and we didn’t pick it up before we hired them. Mental Models - Our belief may be that the job is fairly straightforward and anyone can do it.  Again our beliefs have limited our understanding of our business. We have glossed over what is required in terms of skill, motivation and organisational fit.  Perhaps we believe that someone is better than no-one?  Maybe we believe we don’t have time to waste on careful screening or it is too expensive to utilise the expertise of a recruitment agency.  These beliefs need to be carefully examined to ensure we get a better fit next time, through understanding our business needs better, investing enough resources and screening better for a clearer picture of our candidate. Scenario 3 Systems - Yet another alternative we may find is our organisational systems are failing us.  Our business is expanding, and we have had to take on new staff. Our existing staff, are experienced and mature.  They know what is required and how things work.  Our new staff member is inexperienced and relatively unskilled, but that is all we could get in the current market.  Our organisational systems are letting us down, because actually we don’t have many.  Most of how the work is done, is managed by each staff member in the way they have always done it.  As long as things are done without a problem this has worked well.  It is only now we have a new member who doesn’t have their own systems, that we realise how our own organisational systems are missing. Mental Models - The belief could be that if someone is hired to do the job, they should be able to do it.  The flipside of this belief is that the organisation is not required to ‘hand-hold’ anyone or provide any real information on how to do things.  You may have the belief that managing people, and paperwork don’t make you any money.  It could easily be that as manager you don’t fully understand how much of your business actually exists inside your employees.  That if they left, so would a considerable part of your business knowledge.  If this is the case it is essential that you review this belief, and start collecting, documenting and protecting this knowledge to share with other (appropriate) employees. Want To Know More? The "event, pattern, systems, mental models" phenomena is part of a body of thought called "systems thinking".  If you'd like to know more about this, try reading the following books: "Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation", by Peter Senge "Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organisation", by Peter Senge, Richard Ross, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts & Bryan Smith "Systems Thinking and Modelling", by Kambiz E Maani & Robert Y Cavana Contact us today if you would like help breaking the cycle of fire fighting in your business Management and Leadership Links The role of Manager Managing vs. Leading: is there a difference? Why Inspirational Leadership is not Enough Are middle managers just puppets on a string? How should you spend your time? Mini test - Are you doing the right things? What do you stand for? Got a Tough Decision to Make? 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