It is one o’clock after midnight on one of December cold nights…
Streets are empty and silence hangs over the city…
Suddenly !!
Sirens of the police and firefighting department wailed to kill this silence
After strenuous efforts, the firefighters succeeded in extinguishing the fire, but after the flames consumed most of the building, as the fire was massive and the firefighters arrived a little late despite the empty streets. “But thank God, there were no casualties,” said a passerby who stopped to watch the accident.
Then the investigation team arrived to find out the reason, and after hours they concluded that the fire was due to a gas leak that had led to the explosion and that if any fire fighting system were in place , the fire would have been less harmful.
Unfortunately we see this scene every day.. Just not in the streets but in COMPANIES!!
In many companies – sadly- this is the management style
Decisions and actions are always reactions to problems , sometimes you can see certain problems are coming anyway however, no action is taken.
This is due to many reasons, including:
- No clear vision for the company.
- Inability to plan.
- Focusing on short term problems and not allocating any resources for long term problems.
- Sometimes this style gives a fake sense of achievements .. we are good and can overcome any problem !
If you are a fan of this style, I want you to imagine the building that was on fire few lines ago, imagine that you are the manager of this building !
Is it better to do nothing until the building burns down , or take some actions to “PREVENT” the fire.
I.e. is it better to create a maintenance plan for the gas pipes and to install a firefighting system to contain the fire( if there is any) or to wait until the fire breaks out then you run to call the firefighting department to come quickly!
The same for the company…
Is it better to wait until the company loses money, employees or someone gets injured to take action , or to take some preventive actions that prevent its occurrence!!
If you want to change this try the below short list:
- Plan: Planning…Planning …. Make a plan for everything and try to expect problems and take actions to prevent it.
- Listen to your team : you will find that they have ideas and details that didn’t come to your mind.
- Allocate Resources : try to allocate some resources( financial & human ) to work on projects that prevent future problems.
- Learn from the Past : when a problem occurs don’t leave it until you find its root cause and take some preventive actions after the corrective actions you take to solve it . so you stop fighting the same fire every day !
Finally , do you see that it is better to go to work everyday to run around to distinguish some fires here and there , or to run everything smoothly even if … problems happen !!