ADVISORY ARTICLE
By Jeff Oltmann
Oregon, USA
Exhausted by Fires
TheraTech CEO Joshua Winans is no stranger to firefighting. In an industry fraught with fierce competition and stringent regulatory oversight, his team is constantly extinguishing one crisis after another. Take TheraTech’s latest product launch: unexpected technical and supply chain problems nearly derailed the project. Heroic efforts saved it but exhausted TheraTech’s best scientists and put other important projects behind schedule.
Downward Spiral
To break the self-perpetuating firefighting cycle, TheraTech must tackle the root cause: diverting resources to fix unanticipated problems. This usually means sucking resources away from projects that are focused on the future. Losing those resources causes their schedules to slip. Quality problems worsen and important work gets dropped. These project woes will eventually spark even more fires in the future. Chronic firefighting spirals downward over time, ultimately engulfing the organization.
Behavioral Biases
Four behavioral biases push humans into the short-term thinking that feeds fires.
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How to cite this article: Oltmann, J. (2025). Don’t Reward the Arsonist, PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue I, January. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/pmwj148-Jan2025-Oltmann-Dont-Reward-the-Arsonist.pdf
About the Author
Jeff Oltmann
Oregon, USA
Jeff Oltmann is a seasoned leader with over 30 years of experience advising clients, managing successful technology programs, and developing new products. His specialties include strategy deployment, operational and project excellence, and project portfolio management. As principal consultant at Synergy Professional Services, Jeff advises leaders and teams in diverse sectors including healthcare, research, bioscience, and technology product development.
Jeff is the founder of the Portfolio and Project Leaders Forum. He is also on the graduate faculty of the Division of Management at Oregon Health and Science University and was previously on executive staff at IBM. He teaches portfolio, program, and project management and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®).
Jeff welcomes your questions and ideas. You can contact him at jeff@spspro.com or read previous articles at www.spspro.com/article-library.
