Fire service students well-versed in management and leadership theories may have difficulty applying them in the real world, a particularly daunting task for those who are hard-wired as fire protection engineers. A labor-management issue cannot be easily solved referring to the legend on a set of sprinkler plans or using the correct formula to calculate the answer.
WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW
Missing from even the most experienced officer’s skills set is a deep understanding and appreciation of each member’s contributions (good and bad) to the organization. This ability to discern and dispense either grace or judgment at the appropriate time comes only when the officer is fully apprised of and motivated by what is best for the organization regardless of the consequences or political fallout. Surviving a storm is essential, but not just surviving but thriving in this chaotic environment is much more desirable and takes the officer to an entire new level.
How do we allow these challenges to propel us in the storm instead of drowning us? For example, what is the correct response when you get subpoenaed on your first day as chief? How do you respond when a member shouts obscenities during a training session? What do you do when the union president openly criticizes you in front of the city council? What’s the first step to take when you find out one of your members has been arrested? How do you determine if a problem employee is salvageable? How are you able to discern and determine the moment when the employee will no longer allow you to help him? How do you conduct an interview to get to the root of a problem? When does an interview require a Garrity warning, and when is it simply a fact-finding process? How do you know when to be Alan Alda and when to be John Wayne? These issues are not typically addressed in graduate school.
DRAW FROM EXPERIENCES
Many of you may be confident and able to give a well-informed ready response to each of these questions, especially if you have dealt with these issues before. In the pre-PowerPoint days, we used slides that were arranged in a carousel. Similarly, our brains (the “carousel”) draw from a set of experiences (the “slides”). These experiences serve as a reference when we are faced with a particular challenge.
I often refer to my National Fire Academy experiences because they had such an impact on my own professional development. In a Command and Control class taught by Burt Phelps, he used the “slide in the carousel” analogy. The class viewed a picture of a two-story wood frame structure with smoke showing from a front upstairs window. It was daytime, and cars were in the driveway. All of us officers in the class knew intuitively what needed to be done to bring the incident under control. We had developed slides in our carousels and thus had a frame of reference and experience to make sound decisions based on these internal slides we had developed. We didn’t have to methodically reason and ponder what would happen if we placed our fans and hoselines in a particular arrangement; we knew what to do using a “rapid fire” process.
Next, Phelps showed us a short video clip of a child at the zoo falling into the pen with a silver-back gorilla. Not one of these seasoned officers had a clue of what to do. The reason: “You have no slide.” We had no experience or frame of reference on how to deal with such an event.
RESOLUTION
The resolution of the “theory vs. real-world application” conflict depends on our ability to simulate these circumstances in controlled environments, in the same way the fireground simulators teach us how to become efficient fireground incident commanders. We do not have to burn down a city block to obtain experience; we can develop our people through simulations. How do we train pilots? Through flight simulators.
We can replicate the tough issues, questions, and circumstances that confront company officers and even chiefs through designed directed discussions, role playing, and case studies. Of course, the opinions, answers, and discussions will be varied. There will be no hard-and-fast answers to any of these problems posed to the students. Experiences can give the students a greater understanding and appreciation of the intricacies of the decision-making process and the ability to anticipate unintended consequences by giving them a frame of reference or a “slide in their carousel” to help them achieve a successful outcome and not just survive but thrive in this chaotic environment. ■
