Within organizations, “firefighters” are often the ones that get all the glory.

They step in when a situation has gone awry, and they find a way to fix it.

Take Iacocca as an example. His work at Chrysler is shared in business school classrooms around the world as he is credited with reviving a company on the brink of bankruptcy.

But in all of the fanfare celebrating firefighters, we often miss a key point.

The fires shouldn’t start in the first place.

The best cars are designed so they don’t start on fire. The ideal company doesn’t flirt with bankruptcy. The best customer service reps fix problems before they occur.

But the challenge is that this type of proactive impact is nearly impossible to quantify.

It’s much easier to measure the size of the hole you dug out of than it is to measure the potential problem that was presented. Furthermore, robust systems are much less interesting than heroic revival stories.

There isn’t an easy solution to this problem.

But looking for ways to recognize proactive behavior is a good place to start.

-Brandon