#122 - Management by Setting Fires

"Let's have some resilient fun" shows some important topics in a more relaxed and joyful way. After all, humour is quoted as a desirable characteristic of resilient individuals like us!

Do you set fires, fight fires, or prevent them?

Years ago, I had a manager who used to make unusual, very sharp observations. He once told us that the Head of Department was applying a reverse management method - something he called - management by setting fires.

The more common interaction method, called "fighting fires", is represented by those irreplaceable managers, capable of solving problems as they come, and problems never stop coming. There are so many challenges that there is no peacetime, no space to regroup, predict, prepare. Let's call them firefighters. You can recognise them easily. One common sign is the lack of time to do the things, which are not solving immediate problems, e.g. recruiting a new member of the team. The group is dysfunctional, lacks resources and capabilities, but our firefighter has no time, because a new fire has to be fought.

Our Head of Department, let's call him George, was a different specimen. He invented the reversed method - setting fires. On a peaceful day, where everything seemed to be working just fine, his mere presence was often followed by an immediate fire, which the entire department had to fight. He thrived in chaos. Somehow, he always found problems where nobody else could see them. Most were invented rather than real, but they kept everyone busy and uneasy.

It does remind me of the Cynefin Framework, which I described in one of the latest reflections [1].

The Cynefin Framework argues that different situations require different styles of leadership. In genuine chaos, decisive action matters more than perfect analysis. The priority is immediate stabilisation. In chaos, waiting for complete information can be fatal. Leaders need to act decisively, almost in a military fashion, to create order, even if the initial response is imperfect.

Setting fires helped George destabilise the room and take over control. Chaos is the environment in which people turn to leaders, accept hierarchy and are more worried about the firefighting than involvement in the decision-making process.

The reminder of this old story made me think about the recent geopolitical developments, where chaos seems to be the new strategy. What once felt like an odd workplace dynamic now appears on a much larger stage.

Dictators thrive in ambiguity. It is so much easier to control a crowd that does not fully understand what is going on. Changing decisions, lack of transparency and strategic fluffiness keep people reactive rather than reflective.

Understanding and accepting reality is a fundamental feature of resilience. Part of resilience is the ability to differentiate between the management by setting fires and the real, external chaos, which indeed requires decisive, strong leadership.

Preventing fires is far less spectacular, but it is probably the most resilient management style. We don't know much about it, because we don't like boring stories of the fires, which could have happened but they did not. Not much to talk about, right?

Disclaimer: This post is satirical. Any resemblance to actual management techniques or specific individuals is purely coincidental and frankly, a bit concerning.

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References and Notes

1. #120 – Matching Decisions to Reality