What is a firefighting trap?

firefighting trap (noun)

A self-perpetuating cycle in which managers spend their time solving immediate crises, hindering the company's ability to grow, thrive, and compete.

When static workflows within an organization fail to adapt to changing circumstances, motivated workers create private workarounds to get jobs done. But these undocumented fixes accumulate over time, especially as additional new projects are launched. Chaos builds, fires break out, and teams bring all hands on deck — often working evenings and weekends — to address crises caused by rigid and poorly mapped out processes.

The situation is what MIT Sloan professor Nelson Repenning calls a firefighting trap. “It's bad for the economy, it leads to unproductive organizations, and it makes you dread coming into the office,” he said.

The antidote is dynamic work design, a process of ongoing, hands-on problem-solving that emphasizes continuous improvement. “There’s Got to Be a Better Way,” Repenning’s 2025 book with senior lecturer Donald Kieffer, is a guide to the concept.

Executed together, the key principles of dynamic work design — solving the right problem, structuring for discovery, connecting the human chain, regulating for flow, and visualizing work — can help organizations shift from crisis management to productive, strategic focus. The key is to start small and engage directly with front-line workers, the authors advise.

Dynamic work design, explained