Against Heroism

Does your organization regularly find itself celebrating its heroes—the folks that go above and beyond in light of a surprising Bad Thing happening, and can regularly be relied on to pick up other folks’ dropped balls?

Seems great, I suppose. Everyone loves a hero, right? How lucky you and your org are to have such people on staff!

The (relatively) superficial risk: losing one of these heroes hurts. If someone churns, burns out, or otherwise isn’t working with you anymore, that’s a tough hole to fill.

The real risk here: your system requires heroism to stay alive. Holy shit! This is an emergency! And no, throwing your heroes a pizza party won’t fix the system.

Next time someone in your org commits to the heroic path & saves the day, consider it to be diagnostic. What could have prevented the need for heroism—and at a deeper level than “don’t let that one thing break”? Is it better knowledge sharing among your staff, or an architectural or communication shift, or a new approach in how you talk to customers, or adjusting the promises you make?

If you’re relying on Superman, when Superman’s dead, so are you.