No-Brainer Management, Part 9: Creating a Positive Organizational Environment

BY ALAN BRUNACINI

In recent months, we have discussed the No-Brainer project I have been struggling to understand and teach. We have covered all the parts of the program except the last chapter, “How to create and maintain a positive organizational environment.” Everything written about in past columns contributes its own important part in answering the simple but critical question: “What kind of place is this to work?” As I travel around and engage firefighters in and out of class, it is always interesting to discuss how they feel about their organization. Most of the material in the No-Brainer program emerged from listening to workers and bosses talking about where they work. Basically, my approach is pretty simple: I just recorded what they said. I followed the direction of the great “scholar” Yogi Berra, who observed: “It’s amazing what you can hear if you listen!”

The discussion of the No-Brainer package contributes a very practical and doable way to improve the quality of work life inside an organization. Functional boss behaviors produce a huge part of that quality. Those behaviors are not complicated or abstract. We use the word “functional” because the behaviors describe what a boss actually does to produce a functional outcome inside and outside the organization. It is challenging to describe the different parts of a leader’s role in clear, simple language and then to put those parts together in an integrated way so that all the parts can effectively support each other. Combining those ways produces an overall job description for being a boss. Doing what an effective boss does can be thought of as a “system” that is made up of separate elements that (for us) go together to produce customer service outcomes. The No-Brainer approach attempts to describe those basic system elements. It is worth the writing/reading effort to describe the effect of a good boss and to understand that many times when workers quit, they don’t quit the organization; they actually quit the (bad) boss.

I was a member of a fire department whose internal environment through the years ranged from pretty negative to very positive. The biggest element in the positive/negative process revolved around the performance of the leaders in the system on every level. Someone described it as “the tone from the top.” As I trudged through my career, I observed (and lived through) that many times with firefighters, there can be confusion/conflict between the work they do and the organization they do it in. Most firefighters love the physical act of firefighting: it is episodical, exciting, challenging, altruistic, helpful, self-actualizing, and many times heroic. The fact that the work is so positive can create an unusual outcome in that no matter how negative the internal environment is, it will not cause the workers to leave. Another part of this contrast (love the work/not love where I do it) is that fire station life can be fairly separated from top management and many times there are enough organizational layers to insulate the troops from goofy senior officers. In highly autocratic systems, the bottom many times is “hiding out” from the top. This creates a major problem in organizational alignment. Shift work; crew camaraderie; good benefits; positive public regard; and being part of a long-standing, respected profession cause us to be permanently attached to our department.

Another related part of this contrast between our love for the work and negative feelings we have for where we do the work is that, particularly in the career service, firefighter jobs are highly sought after and the testing process is very competitive-simply, it is very difficult to get hired to be a firefighter in most places. Once employed as firefighters, these employees will tolerate a full range of negative internal issues and will just keep on going.

Let me pause here. I do not mean to be so negative, only realistic. There are many fire departments large and small that are very well managed by excellent bosses who are effectively aligned with the entire department. We all commend and admire those positive systems. Sadly, there also are departments that are just the opposite. I am aware of very poorly managed systems that attract hundreds (or even thousands) of applicants; those same departments also do not have excessive turnover. The firefighters in those poorly managed systems respond to fires with the spirit and skill of those working in departments with excellent leadership.

I only mention the systems that are out of balance to show how critical it is for bosses (on every level) to continually stay connected to the workers under their care so they can provide support to them based on their needs. This necessitates that those bosses understand and then extend an appropriate level of their personal engagement to maintaining that contact and response. I did not describe how attracted we are to the work of firefighting to give the impression that it is okay to be a jerk-boss because no one will leave. Doing that creates the emotional wreckage that goes with occupational cognitive dissonance and will eventually show up when we deliver service.

Our objective in this installment is to discuss some of the things that create a positive organizational environment. A long time ago in my ongoing note-taking routine, I listed a really simple set of basic things that contribute to making the workplace a positive place to be. I probably wrote the following when I was a young fire captain and was trying to figure out that leading my crew was a lot different than laying a line. I don’t think much has changed for the troops assigned to Engine 1 this morning since that last morning I was on that same engine.

What I listed was the following: “Every boss must use day-to-day management to create a functional human-centered internal environment that is sensible/positive/progressive/humane/inclusive/every day.”

Sensible. We should be able to explain what we do. Sometimes inside any system, there develops a habitual way of operating that never gets questioned or examined in relation not only to how effective it is but also from the perspective of how that practice relates to the current conditions that connect to it. Some of these practices are very cultural and really don’t do any harm. As a young firefighter, I couldn’t understand why we polished shiny brass on Monday, cleaned clean windows on Tuesday, and washed on Wednesday clean walls that we washed six days ago. I asked my moral and spiritual leader (captain), and he explained that God wanted us to do it that way. I never questioned my boss or God, so I kept on polishing and washing. Although it didn’t make much sense to me then, doing it socialized me in a way that more than 50 years later, when I visit a fire station, I instinctively notice how clean the windows are and what shape the brass is in (if the station still has any). Note: I have a 1952 Mack that is fully equipped with (highly polished) brass. Today, we have young firefighters who instinctively ask, “Why?” I’m not sure my captain’s response would work for them.

There is also a sensible and contrasting category that is highly functional. Department bosses should be able to explain in sensible, understandable terms how we deliver service to the customer and how we protect our members while they deliver that service. Both of these components are critical and must be based on explainable, operational logic. The external service should match the physical and emotional needs of Mrs. Smith and should be delivered in a kind, considerate, patient, and respectful way. Leaders must prepare, support, and commend workers who deliver effective core service and positive added value. Those same bosses must also create and directly manage an effective risk management program that protects hazard zone workers. Operational leaders must continually evaluate the effectiveness of those protective systems along with input from the troops to keep those systems current. Officers who serve as incident commanders must be able to explain where they send the troops and what they order them to do in a sensible way that is based on sound tactical logic-those operational bosses must always be able to explain why we are operating where we are and what we are saving.

Positive. Bosses create the atmosphere that exists inside the organization in a way based mostly on the approach that emerges from their personality. We covered a really basic approach to describing personal effectiveness in the first installment of this series. How we use our personal resources (body parts) as a boss will determine how we relate to everybody and everything. When we hear workers describe their boss, basically what they say relates to that person’s personality. The punch line of all this is that we are the custodian of how we use those human pieces. It’s pretty simple: We have the very personal choice over what we say, how we look at things, where we go, how we hear, the profile of our feelings, how we relate to and manage humor, and on and on through the whole body part inventory.

As bosses, we must realize that how we manage ourselves will produce the +/- dynamic inside the system that answers the question, “What kind of place is this to work?” I was a fire department boss for a long time. I continually received feedback from department members who remembered (as if it were yesterday) things I did that were completely nutty and some that were pretty nice. About halfway through the boss adventure, I realized how durable my behavior was. With a lot of coaching from really smart people, I attempted to connect what I did to the basic “what kind of place” question. The focus on creating a positive effect/outcome became mostly what my coaches drilled in my (thick) head. If I had to do something negative, I learned to take my time and get all the information. If someone was trapped in a corner, it was my job to build that person a door. Life got a lot easier for me and a lot more positive for everyone else as I learned this routine.

Progressive. There is a huge encouraging feeling inside an organization when there is a belief that things will get better. This feeling is a major area/activity where effective bosses can exert leadership that creates organizational hope. Hope is a major part of resilience. Sadly, the opposite is also true: When we develop the gloomy outlook that, regardless of our efforts, things will not progress, internal hopelessness develops. When this negative feeling creeps in, it is very difficult to reverse. Effective boss behaviors can create positive organizational hygiene (very hopeful), and this element is a major part of the wellness of the system. This welfare issue is a major leadership (not management) role that is the result of bosses’ continuously engaging their troops in authentic communication (not a pep rally) about real organizational issues and solutions. We can manage a lot of occupational stress and create confidence in our members by conducting well-managed incidents inside a well-managed organization. “Things getting better” doesn’t mean buying more stuff (which is nice). It is more about the personal value we have in our professional role inside the organization.

Humane. The longer I have been around firefighters, the more I realize they need/want three very basic things from the organization: (1) They want to know what’s going on, (2) they want a piece of the action, and (3) they want someone to care for them. Pretty much everyone in the organization has a need to be informed about particularly the current events that affect their job. Today (like most times), there is never-ending change rushing by us. Although there is a ton of electronic communication available, which is very useful, there is no substitute for a boss who directly engages the troops by conducting a discussion about what is going on and what is planned to go on. A cell phone/computer/television is no substitute for a real live boss whose physical presence is sending a very authentic message that you are a significant part of the system.

Inclusive. Everyone also wants to know how they fit (their place) in the whole system and wants authentic opportunities to have control over their career. The department must create systems that create personal orientation to everyone on every level so they understand how they personally contribute to the overall scheme of things. It took me a long time to develop a realization of how important this is. The longer I was boss, the more time I spent relating to everyone the organizational contribution of their position. I was more effective when we talked about their challenges and less about mine. Many of these discussions involved creating in department members the energy so they could take control of their role and progress based on that control; the more I helped them do that, the better we all did.

Everyone wants someone to care for them. It is the number one concern that workers give in any survey about what is critical to them.

I joined my fire department in the late ’50s. Then, we were staffed by pretty much all white males. After I became a command officer, our service developed an initiative to recruit and hire members who reflected the profile of the community (race/gender). We started to urge mostly minority men to join. When they did, we discovered they were a lot like all of us, and it was a great success. Then we began to attract women (to hire). They were a bit different, not because of them but because of us (men) who had mostly outdated and very traditional attitudes about the work we did. We developed material that supported the program as we progressed. In that written material, we used the word “tolerance” to describe the behavior that would support the program.

One day, a very capable (and very well-educated) woman firefighter made an appointment to see me. She explained that she realized that we used the word “”tolerance” with a well-intentioned, happy heart, but it was not appropriate for what we were trying to do. I asked her to explain. She told me (actually taught me) that human relationships existed on the following timeless scale: repulsion/avoidance/tolerance/acceptance/appreciation. She stated that she wanted to be appreciated and not tolerated. We changed the word and then the behaviors connected to the word. It was a big day in my training.

Every day. There are many conditions in our lives in areas where we are in it for the long haul, like our job. A major part of our happiness, health, sanity, and stability is what kind of place we work in every day. That environment creates a positive or a negative drop of water bouncing off our forehead every 15 seconds, which is a very powerful reality in our life. The negative bounce can create a major headache. Although every person creates a lot of the positive/negative process themselves, there is a major part of the environment created by the bosses who manage the system: Everyday positive is best.

Retired Chief ALAN BRUNACINI is a fire service author and speaker. He and his sons own the fire service Web site bshifter.com.

 

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