It happens in every walk of life. Whether it’s business, sports, teaching or parenting we need to be proactive in recognizing liabilities and heading-off disaster.
Great sportspersons sense an emerging momentum-switch in a game and take action. Parents notice subtle interest and behavior changes. Spouses are aware of unease in their partners. So too, the best Business Leaders pick up on warning signs in their organization and market.
Certainly, those who are great firefighters in the workplace are highly valued. Being able to reliably attend to a crisis when it breaks out is much revered. But isn’t it better if the fire never occurs?
Spotting a liability is the trick. Yes, the defensive mental posture where “only the paranoid survive” also provides great in-depth protection as problems/situations/issues arise. But specifically, how do we first notice and highlight a risk? How do we actively seek out and then attack liabilities?
A great way to get leads on such risks is by talking to:
- Customers
Sound, open relationships, frequently nurtured and broad-based within the organization brings great insights to changes and needs for the future.
- Employees and Stakeholders
Who better to see the risks and liabilities than those most closely immersed in, or overseeing the details?
And to get the most from these discussions we just ask questions. So, solicit responses and invoke thoughts that open minds and enable peripheral vision. This is the time to listen and hear, not unnecessarily pontificate and espouse.
Complementing these human insights must be systematic investigation; mechanisms must be in-place that actually draw-out future liabilities, highlighting opportunities and change. This is achieved through a robust measurement system.
Everyone counts widgets, throughputs, revenue and bookings. However, a more complete measurement system that carefully probes current activities and also explores leading indicators is critical. If there’s anything that can be a significant future liability, measure it.
Everything can be measured, even if it must be done by indirect means. The trick is to get a cost-effective, insightful and valuable measure.
If you want to see where revenues are headed, check your backlog and bookings. Want to see where bookings are going, check customer inquiries, website hits or whatever metric best suits your situation and market. Insights are always available; you must just seek them out.
If something gets away from you and a problem occurs, then fix it. Next repair the means for recurrence, create any appropriate procedure and a new measurement (as/if required) to keep an eye on the root cause of the liability in the future.
It’s a lot easier and less detrimental to create, maintain and regularly review a measurement than deal with the damage of a surprise event. Being known for recurring flare-ups is hardly a career enhancing proposition, either.
Measurements themselves have a cost. So, discard them when they truly become irrelevant or of little value; but only do so with certain insight into what issues may arise unforeseen as a consequence.
Well-run enterprises ultimately deliver better and more sustainable results. Developing and rewarding an atmosphere of constant firefighting is not the way to grow large, scalable, financially predictable businesses.
So, here’s to you quickly dousing your next fire and more importantly, to you establishing the means for avoiding its and other such occurrences in the future!
Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh