Before the fire drill

four minutes to clarity

Yesterday my boss called me, he sounded worried: “We’ve got a major problem, the IPA department can´t deliver UPS to house 52 at the hospital reconstruction site.”
(UPS here = uninterruptible power supply, not the parcel service.)

It would’ve been easy to spin up a fire drill—panic pings, calendar blocks, escalation. Instead I said: “Let’s meet with the person who shared this and clarify.” We got on a quick call, asked a few clean questions, and—four minutes later—realized it wasn’t an issue at all but a grave misunderstanding. The path was clear; the alarm bells went quiet.

The philosophy piece (calm over drama)

Stoicism teaches us to pause before trusting first impressions. Taoism reminds us to do less forcing—not inaction, but removing friction so things resolve with fewer swings. In practice that looks like this: when a scary message lands, create a small pocket of stillness, then work the facts. Don’t flip the table; turn on the light.

Today’s practice: the 4-minute clarify loop

Use this when a “problem” drops into your inbox/ears. It fits in a short call or huddle.

1. Name the object.
   “Just to confirm: we’re talking about the uninterruptible power supply for house 52?”

2. Three clarifiers (60–120 seconds total).

   • What exactly happened? (event, source, timestamp)

   • What’s the impact window? (now, 24h, next milestone)

   • What’s already tried/decided? (avoid rework)

3. Surface the assumption (one line).
   “It sounds like we’re assuming the UPS needs to kick in during the electrical repair works—is that confirmed or inferred?”

4. Readback the facts + next step (30 seconds).
   “So the department activities in house 52 ends at 17:00, and the electrical repairs are scheduled at 18:00. Next step: operations will confirm these times with the electrician and the manager for house 52 departments. If confirmed we have no problem.”

5. Choose the smallest action that shrinks uncertainty.
   One call; one photo; one calendar check. Don’t boil the ocean.

Script you can copy

“Before we scramble, can I check three things so we fix the right problem?

1. What exactly happened and when?

2. What’s the impact for today vs. the milestone?

3. What’s already been tried?
   Here’s what I’m hearing… [readback]. Smallest next step: [one action].”

Result yesterday: the “blocker” turned out to be a misunderstanding in an email thread that resulted in the assumption of the need for the UPS to kick in during electrical works. Four minutes of calm questions saved four hours of chaos.

Below we take a look at the support for this approach both in philosophy and research. We also give you a “Pocket checklist” to handle your next surfacing problem or drama situation.