Problem Preventer

It is well known that "problem avoidance" is an important part of problem solving. Instead of solving the problem you go upstream and alter the system so that the problem does not occur in the first place. ~Edward de Bono

The Hero

I have seen many projects during my 25 years in the business world. I have seen successful projects, projects that failed miserably, and every degree of success between the two extremes. I have seen projects headed for disaster that were rescued by the heroic efforts of the team members or by a hero assigned to rescue the project. This hero riding in on his trusty steed to save the day against seemingly insurmountable odds is deeply ingrained in the American Folklore, it is an underpinning of our cultural identity. We read variants of this story in our books, see it in our movies when the Man With No Name rains justice upon a town that killed a sheriff for discovering their illicit secret. The hero has been played by Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Audi Murphy, Batman, Superman and countless others famed in American mythology and lauded by the masses.

One would like to think that this hero worship exists only in our folklore, that we Americans have outgrown the need for heroes to worship and are able to recognize the hero that is every man. That we have equal respect for those that labor quietly as well as those wearing the cape, that we heap adulation upon those who steadfastly raise their families, that we bestow honor upon the laborer as he picks the ripened fruit from the vine. But, we have not. Hero worship is so deeply ingrained in our culture that athletes and movie stars are put on a pedestal. This hero worship is rampant in American business, an entity that should be pragmatic for riches are on the line.

Hero worship is an aspect of the American business system that troubles me because of its penchant to adulate those that solve problems and ignore those that by careful attention to detail, by effective planning, by calculated risk mitigation, prevent a crisis from manifesting. I don't fault business for rewarding the heroes that rescue a failing project for they tend to have a valuable skill set and there are times when this skill is vital to saving a business or a project. My problem is that the problem preventers go unnoticed, go unrewarded.

Annual Employee Review Process

Because our business leaders were raised watching the Lone Ranger save the day, they tend to equate the best workers with problem fixers and tend not to see the quiet hero, the person that is heroic for ensuring a project stays the steady course to a successful conclusion by avoiding most of the pitfalls that would require heroic action. Come review time, the comment most often heard about these quiet heroes is that they didn't do anything special, that everything on the project went smoothly and anyone could run a project that doesn't have major obstacles. What is missed is that the project went smoothly because the quiet hero prevented problems from escalating to a point that heroic action was necessary. The risks were planned for and mitigated such that the crises were averted. The real travesty is in the review process when the person that did not take adequate measures to prevent the problem from occurring is lauded as a hero for solving the problem when it occurred, a problem their shortsightedness allowed to occur in the first place.

One of our American phrases is, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Heroic action is a cure for a problem and it can be very expensive. It frequently involves overtime for the employees which not only raises costs but also takes its toll on the health of the employees. Sometimes the heroic action requires getting rid of people to ensure the company has enough money to stay afloat. Other times big money is spent to bring in highly compensated temporary workers.

Contrast this with the person that keeps the project on the steady course, who spends in a predictable fashion, where the workers don't have to jump through hoops to correct the course because the project is run so well it typically needs just minor course corrections.

Who is the real hero? Is it the person who spectacularly saved the day because they resolved a problem they should have been prevented or the person who through foresight and tactical planning prevented the crisis from ever manifesting or, if it did manifest, had countermeasure in place to minimize the impact? My vote is for the problem preventer.