Identifying the Problem Before It Becomes an Emergency

The more skilled people are at noticing what others might miss or routinely don’t see, the better they will be at leading, risk management and protecting the mission and other people.

“When we focus too much on one task or one thing, we become blind to other things and people,” says Brett Powell, a leadership professional has written. “And those other things and those people might be more important than the task at hand. This is called unintentional blindness.”

You can see how this might be highly problematic.

“One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency,” is the quote that was the inspiration for this article.

Robert Brill

“That’s why we interrogate small issues with an in-depth lens, so we can prevent them from becoming big problems,” reasons Robert Brill, the CEO at Brill Media, a media-buying agency. “A mistake like a miscommunication or a missed deadline won’t sink the business but these are symptoms of internal issues that have the possibility of becoming big problems.

“We have a debriefing process where we interview the parties involved and understand why they made the decisions they made. In a relatively low-pressure situation, it’s easier to discover sources of problems. This debriefing process has led to ongoing improvements to our standard operating procedure (SOP),” Brill says.

Sherryanne Meyer

“Recognizing a problem before it becomes an emergency is only the result of careful listening, pausing, thinking things through and collaboration with others,” says Sherryanne Meyer, head of corporate communications at Rizing, an IT service management company.

“We are so busy today, however, that I find many of us are not stopping to really listen and hence our ability to sense trouble ahead is deficient.”

She uses history to make a point.

“Did the Titanic think at all about contingency plans in the event their ‘unsinkable’ design failed?” she rhetorically asks. “No,” she replies. “Could they have done that? Yes.”

She points to Covid hitting the world as well.

“We discuss the pandemic and its technological impact as something no one could have foreseen. I would say our over-reliance on a technologically savvy world made us too complacent, perhaps even over-confident, to see the potential problem,” Meyer asserts.

“In my experience in managing IT systems, a key step we took was to imagine and then recreate worst-case scenarios routinely and do a fire drill to walk through contingency plans,” she says. “This process of forcing ourselves to stop and think was critical, but so was the real-world experience we had in building and maintaining systems.”

“Perhaps not every single emergency can be predicted, but if we don’t pause to use one of our most critical communication skills — listening — we will miss the possibilities every single time.”

Greg Davis

“This quote, ‘One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency,’ underscores the importance of foresight and proactive management in leadership,” says Greg Davis, the CEO of Bigleaf Networks, a cloud-based internet redundancy and optimization service.

“In my experience, nurturing a business culture that emphasizes intellectual, financial and physical safety is crucial for empowering our team.

“When team members feel secure and valued, they’re more likely to contribute their insights and observations, helping leadership to identify and address potential issues early on,” Davis has learned and advises.

“This collaborative environment not only prevents problems from escalating but also fosters a sense of shared responsibility and trust, which are essential for the sustainable growth and success of any organization.”