

Timing is Key - If you wait until it's obvious, it's too late - MPSimmons
http://www.standalone-sysadmin.com/blog/2011/01/timing-is-key/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=click&utm_campaign=timing-is-key

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kleinsch
Anyone can respond to emergencies in front of them. It's the great ones that
can see ahead to upcoming challenges and take care of them proactively.
Unfortunately, it's the emergency-du-jour people that always seem to be saving
the day, while the proactive ones get less attention. Good managers need to
see responding to constant emergencies as a sign of negligence, not heroism.

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orangewarp
Well, despite the best of planning emergencies happen. Sometimes these are the
best moments to talk about and learn what it means to be proactive and
preventative. The question is (and maybe you have an answer to this is) how do
you measure and acknowledge good planning, foresight? Hindsight is easy
because you have an outcome you can analyze. But foresight, what could have
should have or didn't, that's hard to make concrete. I guess if there are
other patterns happening in the world (ex. Emergencies) that you could compare
to that is a good opportunity to explicitly show workers the contrast between
reaction and initiative, and a good example to use in justifying
acknowledgement if good planning and preventative measures happened. I feel
like some management practice, strategy exists here somewhere. Please
enlighten.

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kleinsch
I agree, it's very hard to measure good planning and foresight. I also
definitely agree that emergencies happen, even to people that plan well. My
main point was that there are some people who are constantly responding to
emergencies, more than would happen by chance, and they're easy to recognize.

tjmaxal made a good point in another comment about specifically focusing on
big picture for one month per year. I think it'd be useful to do that on
different levels (one month per year, one week per month, etc). Managers could
definitely measure time spent on big picture projects or automation versus
handling crises. There are people I've worked with that spent 80% of their
time handling crises. That should be a huge warning sign that aren't planning
properly, or they're cleaning up somebody else's mess. Either way, that's a
situation that'd be worth poking into.

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tjmaxal
We actually focus in on the big picture at a department level and look at how
each of our departments are measuring up to our set global goals, mission, and
vision. It can get a bit philosophical at times but it really helps in
unifying our company.

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tjmaxal
At my company we have decided to implement a continuous quality improvement
plan, which basically means every year for at least one month we focus on the
big picture for each operational group we have. It's a bit like painting the
golden gate bridge, by the time you have finished in one direction it's time
to start over again in the other direction.

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allenp
Do you think you could flesh this out a little more or link to some good
examples of what this looks like in practice?

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tjmaxal
Sure, basically c suite gets together with department heads once every two
weeks with a focus on an individual departments current challenges,growth
issues, long term issues, etc. The meeting at the first of the month is to
outline and identify what needs to change. The second meeting of the month is
to discuss how to implement/how implementation is going for the changes we
outlined as necessary in the first meeting. In practice this means every
department gets it's long term issues discussed at least once a quarter. This
is in addition to weekly dept meetings that update c suite on current issues.
We are a medium sized organization just on the cusp of being to big to handle
this kind of structure with only a small group of people. I would imagine a
lot of this kind of structured focus could be handled with a smaller number of
people involved if your company was smaller. Also this seems to occur pretty
naturally at many start ups which are very conscious of their planned growth.

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gohat
As someone who has been trading stocks recently, this statement is quite
accurate. There is the phenomenon that a positive momentum position suddenly
becomes 'hot' and people want it; at that point, it's now obvious, and
generally too late.

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ssylee
The NYC-area snowstorm is a timely reminder of solving problems proactively.
Thanks for sharing MPSimmons.

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alexophile
...unless you're dealing with the government, banks, or car dealerships.

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JoeAltmaier
Its a key factor of mammalian brain power: preparing for the future.

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qaexl
See Boyd's work on OODA or ask a Go/Chess person about tempo.

