A Good Fire Fight Is A Problem Solved

Firefighting is something that I have good first-hand knowledge about. I once had to watch, intently, as the fire department put out the last embers of what used to be my home some years ago. That is another story for another time. However, the means where my home fire story intersects with problem solving in the packaging and production worlds is, “Make sure the fire is completely out before declaring victory and taking your fire equipment back to the shop.”

At my home, the fire crew stayed on the property past the time when the external evidence of the fire was extinguished. They stayed on site to ensure that no hidden embers remained that could reignite the fire, thus preventing a second fire fight from materializing sometime in the future. They even came back later that same day to inspect the property again to make sure no other potential cause still existed.

How often, when a major problem happens on the packaging production line or complaints received from customers, do we react to put out the external flames, then go home patting ourselves on the back. How often did one then take the time to continue the investigation to find the real cause of the flames, to extinguish the real root cause(s) before declaring total victory?

Now, if that same problem, or possibly a different type of symptom caused by that same root cause, came back some time later – say a day, week, month etc. – how much time, money, resources and anguish to all involved were then expended in order to put out that same fire, again? We all can make time to answer the bell, to run out and douse the flames when issues rear their ugly heads. How much time, money and resources would be saved if, like the firemen, we stuck with the problem after the fire was put out to identify what caused the fire in the first place?

I learned this lesson, maybe a little slower than I should have. You see, I am a slow learner – but a learner just the same. Problems happen for a reason. Prior to my lesson learned, I got caught up in the over optimistic delusion that chance happenings occur. The stars, moon and planets just happened to align this day and caused a problem to materialize. These “chance happenings” seemed to happen and happen again. I found myself saying, “If I did not have all these fires to put out, I would have time to do my actual job.”

My father in law, who was a foreman at Chrysler, told me, “If I had a tough job and I needed to find the best way to do it, I would put my laziest guy on the job. If he couldn’t find the easiest way to do that job, no one could.” Well, along with being a slow learner, I am also a bit lazy as well, in a good way. The difference between a good and bad lazy person, the good lazy person does something about his/her situation. To get the job done but do to do it in a manner to conserve the most energy and time.

After about the 1000th time complaining about the inconvenience suffered fighting fires all the time, my laziness kicked in. "If I can make this fire, that keeps coming back, go away, just think of all the work I can save for myself." So, after the next fire's occurrence, I hung around and started asking questions and really took a deep dive into this system and its environment to understand what made the process tick. The discovery: our plant and supplier were not on the same page. Key information was not being shared that would allow both entities to identify and address the sources of these flames. We were then able to put together early warning mechanisms to communicate observations as trends started to build, nipping any future ember before the flames showed up.

I was so excited. This turned out to be an immense win for all parties, especially me. I bought a level of peace to my job. My job became simpler and easier to perform. I had time to unleash my creativity on other, more impactful endeavors for my company.

Do something great! Don’t just fight your fires. Win the battles and win the war. Find those internal embers, the true root cause(s), and get rid of them. If you are too busy now, how much better would your day go if your firefighting could be cut in half? Be a “good lazy” employee. Make your life simpler and easier by truly solving the root problems of your fires.