First Responders, First Preventors

The insight here is the importance of celebrating first preventers alongside first responders. While first responders are typically celebrated for their heroic actions in saving the day, there is a group of invisible upstream heroes who work behind the scenes to prevent disasters from happening. These first preventers often go unnoticed and unthanked despite their essential and life-saving work. The story of Ryan O'Neill at Expedia illustrates the concept of first preventors in a different domain. By identifying and addressing the root cause of a problem that led to millions of customer calls, they were able to implement simple technical fixes to eliminate unnecessary calls. This highlights the vital role of integrating efforts in organizations to prevent issues upstream rather than just responding to them downstream. The example shows how compartmentalizing tasks within organizations can lead to overlooking broader issues and the importance of recognizing and rewarding individuals and teams who focus on prevention rather than reactive responses.