Fire Drills, Shit Shows, Smoke & Mirrors: Problems in Company Culture and Leadership

I recently caught up with a Scaling Up Coach, and he told me that in his annual planning with a company they made the statement that “they are firefighters.” His response was “You fight fires for business?” And they said “No, we’re just really good at putting out fires.”

This opens up a larger conversation about what we often see in organizations, which is this: identifying with and thriving in stressful and chaotic situations as if it’s a good thing. Tight deadlines, all-nighters and project crises are becoming a norm when they shouldn’t be.

Hearing your team members use phrases such as “band-aid solutions” and “shit show” are huge red flags. It means they are in a constant state of reacting and prone to doing fire drills in the workplace. “Fire drills” is a term for situations where everyone is expected to stop what they’re working on and respond with speed to a seemingly urgent matter.

There may be rare instances where urgent issues come up that require fire drills, but if this becomes a consistent occurrence in your company, it’s a sign of dysfunction in culture and leadership. When fire drills become your modus operandi, it can lead to burnout and disengaged or disgruntled employees. Moreover, doing fire drills to solve a problem can actually be…