April 27, 2023 | By David M. Wagner

I hate air conditioners.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m a huge fan of AC (if not its carbon footprint). It’s the appliances I don’t trust.

I oversaw an office the summer San Diego experienced unprecedented heat waves. The AC units, especially the ones preventing our very expensive networking equipment from (literally) catching fire, struggled to keep up.

And then one failed. And then another. And another.

Each AC failure seemed to require my immediate attention, including one in the middle of the night.

While they weren’t the only culprits, the AC units represent many pop-up issues that kept my time and attention away from other, more important (if less urgent) tasks.

If you feel like you’re spending all your time “fighting fires,” and not enough time being a strategic leader, there’s a better way.

Master Triage

Yossarian solved the wrong problem in Catch-22 when he dressed the non-fatal wound of a comrade.

Triage would have helped him focus on the right problem. It can also spare you from unnecessary attention to “emergencies.”

Unless life, limb, or property are at risk, ask yourself:

• Does this problem need to be solved? Some fires are OK to let burn because they’ll cause minimal damage. It might even be a learning experience!

• Does this problem need to be solved right now? Not everything that seems urgent, is.

• Does this problem need to be solved by me? See below...

The person who brings you an issue may insist all three answers are “yes.” That doesn’t make them right!

Coach More Firefighters

It can be very gratifying to solve a problem for someone. But when you do, you send the message that it’s OK to continue bringing you their problems.

My own epiphany came the day I finally told a team member, who frequently brought me his challenges, that I was busy, and could we meet in an hour? He reluctantly agreed. I never found out what the issue was, because an hour later, he had figured it out on his own!

Instead of solving others’ problems, look for opportunities to coach them to solve issues without you. They might need some instruction or encouragement at first. Others just need boundaries to know what challenges to bring to your attention, and which to address on their own.

Invest in Fire Prevention

If you’re spending all your time fighting fires, it means you’re not making your organization more resilient to withstand fire. An ounce of prevention, as they say…

So ask: what fires keep rekindling themselves? What could have prevented them (more training, staffing, planning, different infrastructure)?

Address root causes, and there will be fewer fires to fight.

In San Diego, we finally replaced some of the aging infrastructure that contributed to the AC failures. And I delegated authorization to approve repairs under a certain dollar threshold to someone else. What fires could you stop fighting? Schedule a call with me if you need help triaging!