[orangewarp]

Well, despite the best of planning emergencies happen. Sometimes these are the best moments to talk about and learn what it means to be proactive and preventative. The question is (and maybe you have an answer to this is) how do you measure and acknowledge good planning, foresight? Hindsight is easy because you have an outcome you can analyze. But foresight, what could have should have or didn't, that's hard to make concrete. I guess if there are other patterns happening in the world (ex. Emergencies) that you could compare to that is a good opportunity to explicitly show workers the contrast between reaction and initiative, and a good example to use in justifying acknowledgement if good planning and preventative measures happened. I feel like some management practice, strategy exists here somewhere. Please enlighten.

[kleinsch]

I agree, it's very hard to measure good planning and foresight. I also definitely agree that emergencies happen, even to people that plan well. My main point was that there are some people who are constantly responding to emergencies, more than would happen by chance, and they're easy to recognize.

tjmaxal made a good point in another comment about specifically focusing on big picture for one month per year. I think it'd be useful to do that on different levels (one month per year, one week per month, etc). Managers could definitely measure time spent on big picture projects or automation versus handling crises. There are people I've worked with that spent 80% of their time handling crises. That should be a huge warning sign that aren't planning properly, or they're cleaning up somebody else's mess. Either way, that's a situation that'd be worth poking into.

[tjmaxal]

We actually focus in on the big picture at a department level and look at how each of our departments are measuring up to our set global goals, mission, and vision. It can get a bit philosophical at times but it really helps in unifying our company.