When the Fire Drill is the Process
Every organization has that one week (that sometimes tend to recur often than they should) where all hell is breaking loose. Systems glitch, deadlines collide, and a “quick sync” turns into a 50-person crisis call. Then somehow the smoke clears, and everyone congratulates themselves for “pulling it together”.
The problem? The fire drill wasn’t the exception. It was the process.
The Culture of Constant Emergency
Fire drills are meant to test readiness, not define it. But many workplaces have normalized chaos. Urgency becomes identity. Pressure becomes proof of commitment. Teams start measuring their worth by how well they recover, not by how well they plan.
What starts as a one-off sprint, quickly calcifies into an operating rhythm: everyone’s sprinting and always in the state of chaos rather than managing or mitigating.
Why This Happens
Reactive leadership. Some leaders mistake noise for progress. They want to be in the middle of the storm because calm feels like losing control. Calmness may be translated into lack of innovation or strategy. But why reinvent the wheel, mate?
Broken trust in systems. The right processes often exist, but no one uses them because “this way is faster.” Spoiler: it isn’t! Like I mentioned in last week’s blog: Mo’ Platforms, Mo’ Problems. If the systems you have do not speak to each other or work to streamline the process, then it doesn’t make sense!
No real ownership. When everything’s everyone’s problem, accountability evaporates, and each crisis resets the same loop. The cost isn’t just operational; it’s intellectual. When organizations prioritize convenience or cost over capability, they end up paying for it in constant fire drills (rework), turnover, and trust.
The Hidden Cost of Chaos
Running on adrenaline looks heroic, but it drains talent, blurs accountability, and it distorts decision-making. You cannot build a plane while flying. In other words, you can’t innovate while constantly recovering. When fire drills become your operating model, burnout becomes your culture.
This kind of dysfunction hides behind phrases like “fast-paced environment” and “we thrive under pressure.” What it really means is: “We don’t plan, we react better than most.”
What Sustainable Actually Looks Like
Predictability isn’t boring. It’s freedom. Clear processes don’t stifle creativity; they give it structure. When people know how work flows, they can actually focus on doing it. What’s the saying…if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?!
Reward prevention, not heroics. If the same person is praised for putting out the same fire every quarter, that’s not performance; that’s poor design. Recognize teams who stop the spark before it spreads. Afterall, that is the purpose of strategy, risk management, and senior leadership.
Build calm into your cadence. Schedule debriefs. Review breakdowns. Identify pain points. Document lessons. Chaos loses its power when reflection becomes part of the routine.
The Bottom Line
If your organization claps louder for the person who “saved the day” than for the one who built the system that prevented disaster…you’ve mistaken adrenaline for excellence.
The fire drill should test the process, not be the process.
The Dezonie Collective, partners with organizations to build the structure, systems, and clarity needed to stop living in fire-drill mode. Our work ensures teams can focus on solving the right problems, not just the loudest ones. And when real fires do happen, the tools and frameworks we’ve helped design allow you to respond quickly and recover efficiently.
