Part 2
By Phil Jose
This is the second of three articles that apply Adm. William McRaven’s Theory of Special Operations to fireground operations and fire department culture. McRaven’s theory includes three phases for special operations: planning, preparation, and execution. These three phases encompass six principles that are necessary for mission success, four of which, simplicity, repetition, speed, and purpose, are applicable to fire operations. An explanation of McRaven’s theory, the planning phase, and the principle of simplicity were contained in my first article. This article addresses the preparation phase, which includes the principle of repetition. A third article will address the execution phase, which includes the principles of speed and purpose, and the competing dynamics of the friction of war and the moral factors.
Applying McRaven’s Special Operations Theory to the Fireground: The Preparation Phase
Preparation is the second operational phase McRaven defines in his doctoral thesis published as Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare Theory and Practice (Presidio Press, 1996). The preparation phase encompasses the principle of repetition. First we develop a simple plan, as represented in the standard operating guideline (SOG), then that simple plan must be trained and refined with repetition in the planning phase, for execution with speed and purpose. McRaven posits that “Repetition, by its very nature, improves speed on target.” In the fire service, repetition is achieved through training at three levels: the individual, the company or team, and multi-company operations. This article will outline training at each level and provide examples to illustrate the value of repetition and the feedback relationship between a simple plan and training.
Preparing the Individual—YOU
When you swore an oath to protect the citizens you serve, you accepted a duty to train. Success on the fireground depends on the technical skill of the individual performing the tasks of stretching lines, forcing doors, searching, and ventilating, to name but a few. Each is critical to mission success. Each must be practiced with repetition to achieve mastery. You have a duty to train.
Basic Individual skills are an essential foundation for combat effectiveness and must receive heavy emphasis.
USMC Fleet Marine Force Manual 1, Warfighting (1989, Pg. 47)
Initial training in any fire department is often conducted in a recruit academy atmosphere. The department provides the lesson plans, the instructors, and the facility. Training at the entry level often depends on adherence to prescribed methods for accomplishing basic fireground tasks. This entry level training must provide enough competence that a firefighter graduating the academy can perform the most basic of fireground tasks (e.g., stretching a line) in a limited number of ways.
By contrast, a tenured firefighter, based on training and experience, must pursue mastery in these same basics. Mastery is accomplished through a concerted, consistent effort to improve as a firefighter. Every shift for paid fire departments and every training session for volunteer departments. While you must master all the skills of a firefighter, this is not enough. You must pursue mastery in understanding fire behavior, building construction, the water supply system where you operate, plus a host of other subjects. Focus each training effort on your ability to execute with speed and purpose on the fireground as part of a team. You are responsible to improve at the individual level, independent of your officers’ responsibility to train the company or your chief’s responsibility to provide multi-company training (dress rehearsals). Certainly, the officer and the chief have responsibility, and we will address those next. Independent of their actions, however, you have a duty to train to fulfill your oath.
Constant repetitions, as manifested in training and pre-mission rehearsals, is the link between the principle of simplicity in the planning phase and the principles of surprise and speed in the execution phase.
McRaven, (pg. 10)
Company-Level Skills
The company officer is responsible for the training and performance of the company. Companies must train as a team daily and, when I say train, I mean physically engage in the company-level skills necessary to execute the plan with speed and purpose. If you are an engine company officer, that means stretching hose every day. If you are a truck company officer, that means excellence in searching, forcing doors, placing ladders, and ventilation. It is certain there will be days when training on the basic skills of the company is not feasible. Those days should be few and far between. I can tell you from my experience as a chief officer, it is obvious on the training ground, sometimes joyfully (or painfully) obvious, that a company trains (or does not, as the case may be). Well-trained firefighters perform with a crispness of speed and purpose that is a pleasure to watch on the training ground and a joy to watch on the fireground.
Constant repetitions, as manifested in training and pre-mission rehearsals, is the link between the principle of simplicity in the planning phase and the principles of surprise and speed in the execution phase.
McRaven, (pg. 10)
Company officers also maintain the duty to develop their individual skills. At the company officer level, pursuit of mastery should focus more, though not exclusively, on cognitive rather than physical skills. An example would be thoroughly understanding the SOGs, your company’s role within them, and their greater application across a fireground operation. Another might be learning about each member of the company to understand and maximize their strengths as well as acknowledging and improving their weaknesses. Company officers must embody the mission, vision, and values of the department in every action, and interaction, with both the company and others.
. . . unit skills are extremely important. They are not simply and accumulation of individual skills; adequacy in individual skills does not mean unit skills are satisfactory.
USMS FMFM-1 Warfighting, 1989, (Pg. 47)
Multiple Company Skills: The Dress Rehearsal
Chief officers are responsible for the principle of repetition in the preparation phase of McRaven’s pyramid. Working both within and across battalions, or departments, to plan, prepare, and execute multiple company training exercises allows the team to understand their roles within the plan and the opportunity to identify weaknesses within the plan. Failure to execute on the training ground predicts mission failure on the fireground.
“The need for a full-dress rehearsal is borne out time and again. Invariably when a certain aspect of an operation was not rehearsed, it failed during the actual mission.”
McRaven, (p16)
An honest dress rehearsal will reveal weaknesses in the plan. Dealing with those weaknesses requires open and honest dialogue about every aspect of the plan. Often those responsible for creating a plan take ownership too early and consider the plan a finished product and final decision. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to convince them that the plan has weaknesses. Every plan has weaknesses. Weaknesses should be identified and addressed in the preparation phase.
Relations among all leaders–from corporal to general–should be based on honesty and frankness, regardless of the disparity between grades. Until a commander has reached and stated a decision, each subordinate should consider it their duty to provide honest, professional opinion–even though it may be in disagreement with their senior’s. However, once the decision has been reached, the junior then must support it as if it were their own. Seniors must encourage candor among subordinates and must not hide behind their rank insignia. Ready compliance for the purpose of personal advancement–the behavior of ‘yes men’–will not be tolerated.
FMFM1 Warfighting, USMC, (1989, Pg. 46)
Every dress rehearsal should include a formal debrief or after-action review. Fire department culture must reflect the belief that every member of the team is committed to the mission. Every member of the team wants a simple plan, that is well rehearsed, and that can be implemented with speed and purpose. Accurate, professional, collegial feedback becomes a duty of every member when the culture of the organization, and the personalities involved, accept that the mission comes first. However, not every weakness can be removed from a plan. No plan is perfect. Once the plan is finalized, every member of the team must take personal ownership of the plan and prepare themselves and the team to execute the plan with speed and purpose.
When a plan fails in training, it will likely fail in execution. An example from my time in Seattle comes from some Mayday training provided when I promoted to battalion chief. The training involved the full complement of units that would respond to a structure fire making it a full dress-rehearsal exercise. This is a big commitment to Mayday training involving five engines, two ladder companies, two battalion chiefs, and a deputy chief. The training was well organized and certainly well-intentioned, aiming to provide as realistic a training opportunity as possible to exercise a Mayday SOG as written.
“Repetition hones individual and unit skills, while full-dress rehearsals unmask weaknesses in the plan. Both are essential on the battlefield.”
McRaven, (pg. 16)
Unfortunately, before the training even began, trainers recognized that the Mayday SOG, as written, was so complicated (not simple) that the exercise had to be “adjusted” to achieve “success” in multiple ways. During the briefing, everyone at the event was advised of the type of Mayday, and what floor the Mayday would occur, during the drill. This gave everyone, and especially the chief officers, a head start on mentally planning their response, whereas an actual Mayday is a surprise. The rapid intervention companies were given a 10-minute head start on the rest of the response, even though in the real world they weren’t part of the initial alarm assignment and were added after the first unit arrived and confirmed a “working fire.” There are more examples from this training exercise, but these are sufficient to demonstrate that during the preparation phase it was obvious to the trainers that the plan was too complex. Rather than addressing the weaknesses in the plan, the SOG, trainers created false success on the training ground. False success in training is often a product of the desire to feel that the training was valuable and productive. No doubt we want training exercises to be successful. We cannot let the desire to appear successful in the preparation phase result in a failure during the execution phase. Failure in the preparation phase is an opportunity. Failure in the execution phase is a tragedy.
While maintaining the responsibility for the full-dress rehearsal, chief officers continue to have the duty of enhancing their individual skills. Although some physical skills are still required, chief officers’ responsibilities on the fireground are largely cognitive skills. Chief officers are the command and control assets on the fireground. They have a duty to ensure that the response is following the SOG where it is effective while adjusting the plan, in the moment, to achieve success. Friction is present at every fire. No plan, no matter how simple or well prepared the team is, will be perfectly implemented nor perfectly apply to a given fireground. Uncertainty is a constant adjunct to every decision. Chance will provide both challenge and opportunity. The chief officer must develop their skillset to effectively command the incident regardless of the adherence to, or performance of, the companies on the fireground at the time. Many, if not most, departments have little to no training to prepare chief officers for their fireground duty. While departments should understand the responsibility to train their chief officers and should invest in such training, this does not relieve the individual chief officer of their duty to invest in their own preparation.
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In this article, we explored the preparation phase of McRaven’s theory of special operations, which includes the principle of repetition in training. Every firefighter, company officer, and chief officer has a duty to prepare themselves for their fireground responsibilities. Company officers also have a duty to pursue excellence at the company level. Chief officers maintain the duty of self-preparation, the responsibility to oversee company officers in pursuit of company-level excellence, and the duty to prepare at the multi-company level through the use of full-dress rehearsals. At each level preparation must include a simple plan, as contained in an SOG which is exercised with repetition during the preparation phase. The mission requires a simple plan, repeatedly exercised, and implemented with speed and purpose. Simple. Fast. Effective.
PHIL JOSE retired as a deputy chief from the Seattle (WA) Fire Department after 30 years of service. He chaired the Standard Operating Guidelines and Post-Incident Analysis committees. Jose has been an FDIC International instructor since 2004. He was named Chief of the Year in 2014 and was a co-recipient of the FDIC International 2008 Tom Brennan Training Achievement Award. He is the co-author of Fire Engineering’s Air Management for the Fire Service (2008), its Train the Trainer (2015) video; the “Bread and Butter” SCBA video (2012); and the new book, Instructor 1 for Fire and Emergency Services (Fire Engineering).
