{"id":24229,"date":"2015-04-09T13:55:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T13:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T14:38:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T14:38:44","slug":"fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire Fighting or Leadership: How do you spend your days?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Albert Einstein<\/p>\n

When an earthquake cut power to the Fukushima nuclear plant, diesel generators quickly kicked in, averting disaster\u2014until the tsunami flooded out the generators. The tragic vulnerability of the plant can be traced to a few poor decisions around locations and waterproofing. While sloppy thinking and poor decision-making rarely has such disastrous consequences, it is disturbingly evident in many organizations.<\/p>\n

At Kepner-Tregoe, we hear the claim, \u201cWe don\u2019t have time to tackle issues in a proper, structured manner.\u201d For those facing a backlog of overdue work, ambitious deadlines, and the desire to keep everything up and running, speed is key. Yet, when issues are addressed only partially or superficially, problems recur and new problems arise, creating a downward spiral that increasingly absorbs capacity and strangles the organization.<\/p>\n

Fire-fighting behavior is typically the result of the perceived pressure from management to deal with problems quickly. With more problems than problem-solvers can address, a state of urgency prevails and problem solving degenerates to no more than treating symptoms. Before the first problem has been solved, the next is clamoring for attention, with executives increasingly embroiled in helping to fight the fires.<\/p>\n

Do you spend too much time firefighting and too little planning, managing and leading? In order to break out of the downward spiral of firefighting, you need some clear thinking. To achieve this, there are three preconditions: time, attention and structure.<\/p>\n

TIME<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe first priority is to allocate sufficient time to those things that do get done, so they get done right. As they say, the devil is in the details.<\/p>\n

ATTENTION<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe second precondition is to pay more conscious attention to what we do. Our conscious mind has the important task of curbing our intuitive impulses and correcting them when necessary. Only our conscious mind is capable of dealing with ambiguity, uncertainty and doubt, and of critically evaluating the quality of available information. The challenge is to avoid landing on the \u2018OK plateau’, where people get that \u2018good-enough\u2019 feeling and \u2018go through the motions\u2019.<\/p>\n

STRUCTURE<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe third precondition is to add structure to the thinking. The strategy that we see people follow is often ad hoc and intuition-driven. Real structure and coherence are missing in the way things are tackled (the how), and most attention is given to the content (the what). However, it\u2019s not about what you know, but what you do with what you know.<\/p>\n

With time, attention and structure, a culture of firefighting can be transformed and a clear thinking organization created. It calls for strong leadership and a willingness to swim against the tide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.\u201d \u2014Albert Einstein When an earthquake cut power to the Fukushima nuclear plant, diesel generators quickly kicked in, averting disaster\u2014until the tsunami flooded out the generators. The tragic vulnerability of the plant can be traced to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[],"class_list":["post-24229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFire Fighting or Leadership: How do you spend your days? - Kepner-Tregoe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When issues are only partially or superficially addressed, problems recur and new problems arise. A way to avoid this is by focusing on three preconditions: time, attention and structure.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fire Fighting or Leadership: How do you spend your days?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When issues are only partially or superficially addressed, problems recur and new problems arise. A way to avoid this is by focusing on three preconditions: time, attention and structure.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kepner-Tregoe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-09T13:55:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-10T14:38:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Magnus S\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Magnus S\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/blogs\\\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/blogs\\\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Magnus S\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1a1186f578c65c1684853105d071ac06\"},\"headline\":\"Fire Fighting or Leadership: How do you spend your days?\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-09T13:55:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-10T14:38:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/blogs\\\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":461,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"zh-hans\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/blogs\\\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/blogs\\\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\\\/\",\"name\":\"Fire Fighting or Leadership: How do you spend your days? - Kepner-Tregoe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-09T13:55:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-10T14:38:44+00:00\",\"description\":\"When issues are only partially or superficially addressed, problems recur and new problems arise. A way to avoid this is by focusing on three preconditions: time, attention and structure.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/blogs\\\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"zh-hans\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/blogs\\\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/blogs\\\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fire Fighting or Leadership: How do you spend your days?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/\",\"name\":\"Kepner-Tregoe\",\"description\":\"Leaders in problem solving\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"zh-hans\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Kepner-Tregoe\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"zh-hans\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/kepner-tregoe-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/kepner-tregoe-logo.png\",\"width\":264,\"height\":38,\"caption\":\"Kepner-Tregoe\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/14495\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1a1186f578c65c1684853105d071ac06\",\"name\":\"Magnus S\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"zh-hans\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ab477db67ee043e579d7f9f38f54d9457f6706e50d002af47b80531e0727897d?s=96&d=mm&r=ge02393305d89ae7d107a0f08b8285a40\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ab477db67ee043e579d7f9f38f54d9457f6706e50d002af47b80531e0727897d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ab477db67ee043e579d7f9f38f54d9457f6706e50d002af47b80531e0727897d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Magnus S\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/blogs\\\/author\\\/magnus_s\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fire Fighting or Leadership: How do you spend your days? - Kepner-Tregoe","description":"When issues are only partially or superficially addressed, problems recur and new problems arise. A way to avoid this is by focusing on three preconditions: time, attention and structure.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fire Fighting or Leadership: How do you spend your days?","og_description":"When issues are only partially or superficially addressed, problems recur and new problems arise. A way to avoid this is by focusing on three preconditions: time, attention and structure.","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/","og_site_name":"Kepner-Tregoe","article_published_time":"2015-04-09T13:55:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-10T14:38:44+00:00","author":"Magnus S","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Magnus S","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/"},"author":{"name":"Magnus S","@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/#\/schema\/person\/1a1186f578c65c1684853105d071ac06"},"headline":"Fire Fighting or Leadership: How do you spend your days?","datePublished":"2015-04-09T13:55:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-10T14:38:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/"},"wordCount":461,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"zh-hans"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/","name":"Fire Fighting or Leadership: How do you spend your days? - Kepner-Tregoe","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-04-09T13:55:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-10T14:38:44+00:00","description":"When issues are only partially or superficially addressed, problems recur and new problems arise. A way to avoid this is by focusing on three preconditions: time, attention and structure.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"zh-hans","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/fire-fighting-or-leadership-how-do-you-spend-your-days\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fire Fighting or Leadership: How do you spend your days?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/","name":"Kepner-Tregoe","description":"Leaders in problem solving","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"zh-hans"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/#organization","name":"Kepner-Tregoe","url":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"zh-hans","@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kepner-tregoe-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kepner-tregoe-logo.png","width":264,"height":38,"caption":"Kepner-Tregoe"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/14495"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/#\/schema\/person\/1a1186f578c65c1684853105d071ac06","name":"Magnus S","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"zh-hans","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab477db67ee043e579d7f9f38f54d9457f6706e50d002af47b80531e0727897d?s=96&d=mm&r=ge02393305d89ae7d107a0f08b8285a40","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab477db67ee043e579d7f9f38f54d9457f6706e50d002af47b80531e0727897d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab477db67ee043e579d7f9f38f54d9457f6706e50d002af47b80531e0727897d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Magnus S"},"url":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/author\/magnus_s\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":62,"user_id":17,"is_guest":0,"slug":"magnus_s","display_name":"Magnus S","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab477db67ee043e579d7f9f38f54d9457f6706e50d002af47b80531e0727897d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26917,"href":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24229\/revisions\/26917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24229"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.kepner-tregoe.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=24229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}