How to START putting out fires
Marie Gervais, PhD., CTDP (She/Her)
?Career Healing Coach: Feel better at work ?Leadership Anxiety Relief coaching ?Workplace communication training? Bilingue ?EFT ?Somatic ?ICF
Do you spend most of your time at work dealing with emergencies?…
Does your business day revolve around putting out fire after fire, and are you constantly working to respond to client needs (or demands) because you are worried that you will lose your customer to a competitor?
Many companies tell me they can’t plan or schedule because they are constantly bombarded with interruptions that have to be dealt with. I completely understand this dilemma because it’s a dilemma I share: as a business owner I too have to take the opportunities that arise, meet deadlines, deal with clients who need more that what I expected, technology that doesn’t work and employees who get sick.
On the other hand, in order for any business to be profitable, there need to be structures, standard operating procedures, clear communication lines and basic workflows. It’s not that businesses that find themselves always putting out fires don’t have any systems, it’s that they haven’t put the necessary reflection and thought into making sure their people:
- Have the most effective and efficient set of systems and technologies to do their work
- Know how to use the systems that affect them, and are motivated to follow through on all the necessary processes
Imagine for a moment what would happen if actual fire fighters said they couldn’t figure out how to systematize their work to be able to put out fires. It would be ridiculous! To respond to a fire quickly, necessary equipment needs to be ready for immediate use, personnel have to be available for deployment, and the firemen need to know how to access water supplies all over the region. ALL of these need to be in place and it is the fire emergency response team’s job to develop organizational systems so sophisticated it takes my breath away. Because you have to get to fires quickly wherever and whenever they happen, there are many structures, all organized and ready to be used in an instant.
Here’s the kicker: When you are a fire fighter, there isn’t less structure, there is more. But... how do you get there?