Stop firefighting. Start deciding.

Firefighting is not a tempo problem. It is a constraint problem. When the binding issue stays unnamed, every symptom becomes urgent and nothing becomes resolved.

The programme that is always in crisis mode is not unlucky. It has a decision that has not been made sitting somewhere at the top of the causal chain. Every fire below it is a consequence of that undecided thing.

The leader who firefights well is valued. The one who stops the fires from starting is rare. The difference is not energy or experience. It is whether they can see the constraint clearly enough to name it. And to name it in a room where naming it costs something.

Firefighting feels productive. There is movement, resolution, visible effort. Deciding feels slow. There is uncertainty, exposure, the possibility of being wrong in front of people who are watching.

But firefighting compounds. Every fire you put out without addressing the source makes the next one more likely. The team learns that urgency is the operating mode. They stop asking why and start asking what next.

The move is not to stop firefighting. You cannot stop while the fires are burning. The move is to keep one part of your attention on the question underneath: what decision, if made, would stop this from recurring?

Find that decision. Make it. Then fight the last fire.