Prevention should not be Last
When seasons change, thoughts about prevention change also. In warm weather, we slather on sunscreens and use hats to keep the rays of sunshine at bay. Lifejackets are required when swimming and it is not permissible to bring anything with mayonnaise to the block party. In colder months, there are layers of clothing, boots, shovels and salt to keep our bodies and our sidewalks safe enough to walk on. We are used to prevention. We are on the lookout for what to look for externally. If you want to prevent drownings, find out where people are getting in too deep.
First Prevention
In business, there are methods to prevent possible failures, but everything isn’t predictable. When reviewing a project, the team has the chance to consider the “what ifs” to discover soft spots in the plan. That provides another round of review and the opportunity to catch areas that didn’t get noticed before. When the team can’t decide on whether the plan will actually work or not, a calculated risk is made on whichever side was the most persuasive. It may be much later when the “I told you so” can be murmured if the project fails. There wasn’t enough failure prevention.
Prevent is Active
Parents and bosses need to have classes in prevention. If an action that sounds like prevention is placed before the actual action occurs, different choices can be made to interrupt the natural process. If parents know that the teenage years often become fraught due to a lack of communication, the tide must be changed well before that to ensure that the proper communication experiences aren’t interrupted earlier. If an entire group of colleagues doesn’t want to really help out a member of the team because it won’t result in any good for them, there may be less response to the question of whether anyone sees anything wrong with a project. No answer is safer because then you don’t get the bad guy sticker. If a company constantly talks on social media about how amazing their culture is but never mentions it in companywide meetings, who are they really fooling?
A Pound of Cure
Prevention has a good reputation in some areas but never makes promises. Preventing family squabbles might just mean walking away. Preventing envy might just mean paying more attention to an alternate area. Preventing your mind from being wracked with negative thoughts might just mean repeating what is going right. Preventing love to dissolve might just mean deciding that it is important to you. There are endless ways for humans to become preventors. The good part is that we can choose on our own where we want to put out a fire before it occurs. The even better part is that there is no aftermath to clean up after. No damage or destruction to pick through. That should be enough reason to consider doing some preventive work. It is like being a superhero before one is needed.
What can you prevent from happening right now? Do you have long term plans for not creating destruction in place? Which gets more attention: preventing or destruction?
