24/7 Software Blog

“Something is strange with the economy,” writes Greg Rosalsky in their recent NPR article entitled “Is Our Economy In The Upside Down?”

“Normally, in good times, the government seeks to balance its books a bit, borrowing less, paying off some debt or — gasp — maybe even aiming for a budget surplus. And right now, on some important measures, economic times are good. But the government has been increasing spending and cutting taxes — and the budget deficit is projected to grow to nearly $1 trillion, an increase of over 35% since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed in 2017. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve would normally be raising interest rates to make sure the price of everything doesn't get out of control. But high inflation is nowhere to be seen, and the Fed is now cutting interest rates,” explains Rosalsky.

According to the NPR article, “We're living in the Upside Down. You know, like that shadowy land in Stranger Things, where the laws of physics don't apply and monsters might eat you. It's an alternate dimension where economic textbooks are being thrown out the window. A scary place where despite big deficits and easy money, the economy is slowing down to a rate below historical averages and wage growth remains disappointing. And it's a place where frightening monsters, or demogorgons, continue to scare away investment and productivity. Slaying these monsters is the key to growth and prosperity, but we seem to be stuck in this new world where investment and productivity will not come roaring back.”

“Can we escape?” asks Rosalsky.

“Could you escape?” was our first question following the one above.

We don’t know how your operation is doing.

But we’re always concerned whether you’re running a reactive operation – one that’s in The Upside Down.

Call them what you want.

Your frightening monsters and Demogorgon lurk in unique ways to your properties.

Lack of awareness, poor communication, illegible handwritten documentation, and zero ability to analyze your operation’s effectiveness are good examples of the monsters we’ve seen.

Sound familiar?

Keep reading; we’re going to show you how Proactive Operations can help you move right side up.

Your experience in Proactive Operations got you this job.

You landed a Director position at your new property.

You’re charged with employing Proactive Operations here.

But, you’re not sure what to expect.

Fifty minutes before today’s event starts, calls start coming in through your incident management system and radio.

You notice something unusual.

At first, you wait for a little to diagnose the issue.

But then more calls come in.

This property has many more incidents than your former property, but they use the same resources.

They only use radios.

It’s time to change your approach.

You know you’ve got to deploy incident management mobile apps – and it must be done today.

So, is your incident management affected by the lack of proactive communication?

“Consider, for a moment, the circuitous journey of the insecticide called thiamethoxam, on its way to killing a wild wasp,” writes Dan Charles in their recent NPR article entitled “New Evidence Shows Popular Pesticides Could Cause Unintended Harm To Insects.”

“Alejandro Tena, a researcher at the Valencia Institute of Agricultural Research, in Spain, mixed the chemical into water used to irrigate clementine trees. This is a common practice among citrus farmers. As intended, the tree roots absorbed the insecticide, and it spread throughout the trees' branches and leaves,” Charles explains.

The article continues, “A mealybug landed on the clementine tree, bit through the bark, and began feeding on tree sap underneath. The bug ingested traces of the insecticide. This, in fact, is how thiamethoxam is supposed to work.”

“Unfortunately, though, the pesticide's journey wasn't over. Traces of it showed up in a sticky, sugary, substance called honeydew that the mealybugs excrete. Honeydew is an important food for other insects, such as wasps and hoverflies. In Tena's experiments, wasps and hoverflies that fed on this contaminated honeydew died in large numbers. Wasps and hoverflies are a fruit grower's friends, because they help to fight harmful insects,” Charles writes.

According to the NPR piece, “Tena's study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is just the latest evidence that a family of pesticides called neonicotinoids, sometimes just called ‘neonics,’ can pose risks to the insect world that are not fully understood.”

We read this NPR article and thought, “wow.”

Talk about severe implications from an approach you believe to be working.

But the evidence is clearly proving the opposite.

It’s a contrast we can relate to with property operations.

Your property’s reactive mindset could be causing unintended harm.

But to what?

Everything from your awareness, to your communication to your documentation, and your ability to analyze valuable information is affected.

Not to mention, the long-term effect of this is on your staff and customers.

That’s dangerous.

Let’s change what you can control using the Proactive Operations methodology.

The end of summer is coming up in September.

We figured it would be an excellent time to reflect on how you did so far.

How do you think your season is coming along?

Did you oversee several events?

We’re aware of the summer of festivals, and we know your customers are paying big bucks to have fun.

But, with that brings the potential for threats to your operation.

From issues to incidents, you must be prepared for all things.

How would you measure your efficiency?

If you’re not sure how to measure your ability, here’s a question for you: as an event manager, how stressed are you?

If your stress level is high, there’s a very high probability that your efficiency could be lower than you need.

We get it; knowing this is overwhelming.

But we’re going to help you get through it and understand the areas of your operation you should address to reduce this stress.

We’ve created a principle that helps you understand your current strategy – it’s called the ACDA Principle™ (pronounced act-duh).

It covers the four areas of your operation: Awareness, Communication, Documentation, and Analysis.

We encourage you to refer to the Principle regularly.

It’ll keep your efficiency high, and your stress low.

“Electric cars are all over the roads these days. But what about electric planes?” writes Ari Shapiro in their recent NPR article entitled “With An Eye Toward Lower Emissions, Clean Air Travel Gets Off The Ground.”

According to the article, “Air travel currently accounts for only about 2% of global carbon emissions. But it's expected to grow in the next century, and clean air travel is seen as a key part of slowing global warming.”

"We're expecting to see massive growth. The International Civil Aviation Organization projects upward of 700 percent growth by the middle of the century. So while it is small, it is going to be a larger and larger share," says Umair Irfan in Shapiro’s article, who writes about climate change, energy and the environment for Vox."

Irfan’s data got our attention.

We had an interesting observation – and takeaway – from this article and the information shared about the growth.

Can you see it?

Of course, there’s not a direct correlation, but the growth and the proactive introduction of a solution are aligned with our approach to operations.

Now, do you see it?

Okay, no more hints.

It’s how Proactive Operations got started, and it’s important to know because you’ll quickly understand the need for this methodology off the ground on your property.

Keep reading; we share how it all started below.

That way, you can have context and see how the supercritical framework for operations started.

In 2014, we wrote the original version of this article because of an epiphany.

At the time, it baffled us how often we discussed all the actions that lead to increased or decreased response times, such as awareness and communication, without focusing on response times in general.

And most importantly, why they are so extremely important for your property’s operation.

Thankfully, we experienced clear skies and warm weather down here in Florida that helped us think clearly.

That led us to write this short and sweet gem on response times.

The original version of this article might be an artifact by now.

But the information and insight you pull from everything we have below are as important today as it was in 2014.