Campfires, wildfires, and pots of gold are analogous to small problems (campfires), big problems (wildfires), and opportunities (pots of gold).
In our daily lives, work and home, we are confronted with tens or even hundreds of campfires daily. Traffic jams, spilt milk, small customer issues, meaningless arguments, etc etc (and so on). Think of your personal campfires for a minute to illuminate this point. Every so often, we are confronted with wildfires. These are the big, major problems that can throw our businesses or even our lives off track. Lastly, there’s a spectrum of opportunities we have a chance to tackle- The ‘pots of gold’.
Here’s the point…. We all have the same exact amount of time in each day. 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds. There’s no arguing that. Therefore, we must be selective of where we spend our time- On campfires, wildfires, or pots of gold. The reality is that it’s going to be some mix of all three categories. The key is choosing the right mix.
In the context of business, there are two very successful managers/leaders I reflect on when I think about this topic- Peter Drucker and Jeff Bezos. Drucker says there are eight practices that effective executives exhibit. The most relevant to this post is that “these [effective] executives are focused on opportunities rather than problems”. In other words, the pots of gold. Bezos, in similar form, says that “as a senior executive, you get paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions”. I translate this to pots of gold and wildfires.
Effective executives are focused on opportunities rather than problems. ~Peter Drucker
As a senior executive, you get paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions. ~Jeff Bezos
Depending on where you sit in your career, the mix of campfires, wildfires, and pots of gold will shift. As you move to more senior roles, the expectation is that you spend more time on pots of gold and wildfires. The trap is allowing yourself to get pulled into campfires. There’s no shortage of them no matter where you are, which company you work for, or the stage of that company.
The trap, or lie we tell ourselves, is that solving lots of small problems (campfires) is important. It also feels good to solve problems and we tend to feel like heroes when we solve problems. In the short term that might work, but in the mid to long term it is detrimental. Of course, you can’t just let [most] campfires burn. You need to have a structure in place to manage and deal with them. However, some should just be let alone to burn out on their own if there’s no risk of them turning into wildfires.
Closing thought: Make sure you have the right people focused on the right mix of campfires, wildfires, and pots of gold. If you don’t, you will creep forward or worse, move backward.
