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What Kind of Person Are We After Anyway?

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With all of the discussion about arsonist firefighters, some of the most extensive coverage has been done by Dave Statter over at the STAT911 blog.  I have been following the information with a great deal of concern because I, like many of you, take my profession very seriously, and when I read stories about the wannabe heroes out there who light fires in the name of drumming up some action, it makes me sick.

There has been other discussion on Firefighter Nation in light of a post by Tim Sendelbach about the type of people that firefighting draws in and essentially suggests that setting the bar low sets us up for nothing but disappointment (because we will reap what we sow) and if we raise our expectations and require a higher standard, and inspire others to achieve, we will likely be more happy with the outcome.

And then there is the whole other discussion that was written by my friend Chief Reason on whether we should be even considering ourselves heroes or not and he gave a very good case for “not”, but I can’t seem to find the link.

Do we really want the adrenaline junkie or do we want to find a mature individual who takes the oath to “prevent and protect” against fire to heart?  Who among us doesn’t have at least one story about a member who was just a little too zealous for his/her own good?  Wouldn’t you rather enter a building with a firefighter whose nickname was “Crusty” rather than the one whose nickname is “Whacker”?

In South Carolina, it is required by law that ALL firefighters, career or volunteer, are registered with the State Fire Marshal, and all are required to undergo a background check.  Now I have done background checks on prospective babysitters that have cleared and the person came across like a lunatic, so I can’t say that I put a LOT of credence in them, but just the act of running a criminal record on some people would hopefully keep some of the wrong people away.

If we are bringing people into our departments that we wouldn’t trust in our own homes, we really need to look hard at what we are settling with and exactly why it is that we are settling for them.  If we seriously take a step back, is it because of a lack of interested people, or is it that what we offer isn’t enough to do the job?  That could be in money, but could also mean in rewarding and challenging volunteer work as well.

What can we do to entice the right people to come work with us?  What can we do to change the culture of a lot of testosterone and excitement and to bring in people who really get it?  Someday, hopefully we will all realize that maybe it’s not so much that the fire service needs to change, so much as the culture of those who serve in it with us.

Posted by truck6alpha on March 25, 2009 • Filed under: "california wildfires", Firefighter Nation, change, fire service, firefighting, professionalism • Tagged: ,

Someone Else's Shoes

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mvc-804040-037-aAs a companion to the post from the other day on Constant Battle, there’s something I also found to be very useful, that is, that understanding your “adversary” is almost as important as the facts of the issue itself.  I’m sure you have heard the adage about “walking a mile in someone else’s shoes”, but I can reassure you, that if you can appreciate the opposing viewpoint to your discussion and you can see the issue from the other person’s perspective, it can really help you to engage that person and possibly even defuse any ticking bombs lying under the surface.

In researching a paper I was writing over five years ago, I found a great article by Montgomery McFate in Joint Forces Quarterly, titled “The Military Utility of Understanding Adversary Culture“.  Looking at some of the “battles” I have fought over my years, I found that after reading this article and putting some of the lessons learned by the military into practice, I have been more successful in winning people over.

A couple of weeks ago, our parish priest, Father Chris, gave a homily on a similar theme.  In talking about missionaries over the last centuries, he pointed out that often success came as a result of appreciation for the differences in culture and embracing those differences, while educating on the issue at hand.  Something else he said, however, stuck with me; he observed that oftentimes, in today’s society, people feel victimized if someone feels differently than they do.

Instead of standing your ground resolutely on every issue and insisting that because others feel differently than you do, that they are absolutely wrong, maybe its time to reflect on what others think in regard to our issues to understand why it is they think the way they do. If we can see the problem from where someone else is standing, it might give us a better approach to solving our problems.

Posted by truck6alpha on March 20, 2009 • Filed under: change, customer service, officership, politics, revolution • Tagged: , , ,

Someone Else's Shoes

1 comment

mvc-804040-037-aAs a companion to the post from the other day on Constant Battle, there’s something I also found to be very useful, that is, that understanding your “adversary” is almost as important as the facts of the issue itself.  I’m sure you have heard the adage about “walking a mile in someone else’s shoes”, but I can reassure you, that if you can appreciate the opposing viewpoint to your discussion and you can see the issue from the other person’s perspective, it can really help you to engage that person and possibly even defuse any ticking bombs lying under the surface.

In researching a paper I was writing over five years ago, I found a great article by Montgomery McFate in Joint Forces Quarterly, titled “The Military Utility of Understanding Adversary Culture“.  Looking at some of the “battles” I have fought over my years, I found that after reading this article and putting some of the lessons learned by the military into practice, I have been more successful in winning people over.

A couple of weeks ago, our parish priest, Father Chris, gave a homily on a similar theme.  In talking about missionaries over the last centuries, he pointed out that often success came as a result of appreciation for the differences in culture and embracing those differences, while educating on the issue at hand.  Something else he said, however, stuck with me; he observed that oftentimes, in today’s society, people feel victimized if someone feels differently than they do.

Instead of standing your ground resolutely on every issue and insisting that because others feel differently than you do, that they are absolutely wrong, maybe its time to reflect on what others think in regard to our issues to understand why it is they think the way they do. If we can see the problem from where someone else is standing, it might give us a better approach to solving our problems.

Posted by truck6alpha on March 20, 2009 • Filed under: change, customer service, officership, politics, revolution • Tagged: , , ,

Constant Battle

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2005-427I am never surprised by the willingness of firefighters to fight for what is right.  I have officers that work with me as well as friends throughout emergency services who seem like they are perpetually locked in battle with someone over something, and having been one of those people myself for a number of years, I know how exhausting and frustrating that mode of operation can be.

I was reminded of this recently in two cases; one in which an officer was trying to right a wrong for someone who wasn’t even assigned to him, and to another who was constantly frustrated by others who wouldn’t jump in and take up a perfectly valid cause.  In both cases, these people had every right to be upset- their points were perfectly logical and they were angry because of the injustice that was being perpetuated.  However, my advice to them was to do something that seems like it is counter-intuitive to most of you out there (given the number of angry responses I see to some e-mails, blogs, posts, etc.)  Again, Master Sun, in The Art of War, from Terrain:

Sizing up opponents to determine victory, assessing dangers and distances, is the proper course of action for military leaders.

My advice: First, you never want to engage in a siege mentality with someone who has already made up their mind what they believe.  I don’t care how right you are and how wrong they are, when someone is locked in on an idea, attacking them head-on is just another version of the irresistible force vs. the immovable object.  You are destined for a long, protracted battle with no clear end in sight and in the case of trying to sway opinion, nothing is going to come from this but hurt feelings and a lot of anger.

A quick solution: Find out where they stand and which way the wind is blowing BEFORE engaging them in a heated discussion.  Develop your points and reinforce them with irrefutable logic.  Enlist allies and discuss your strategies for making this change.  And then, when the timing is right, introduce your well-thought-out argument without being emotional or threatening.  Allow the other party to come to their own conclusions and they will often come willingly.

Two quick observations though; when you are developing your case, you may find that maybe YOU were wrong and THEY were right.  Or you may find that you both are wrong or you both are right (it happens more often than you would believe).  In which case, presenting to these other people your findings (and if you are wrong, admitting it), is bound to give the other party the opportunity to save face and will buy you some chips you can cash later. 

Then the other issue- some people, no matter what, can not be swayed by logic.  They are so emotionally tied to a belief that no matter what you present, they are entirely convinced you are wrong and they are right.  You see this often in political and religious discussions in which one or both parties are absolutely unwilling to see another’s point of view.  If you find this to be the case, even Sun Tzu advises, “besieging a walled city is to be the tactic of last resort”.

In the earlier discussion we had on opportunity, we covered some issues of timing. No matter how right your belief, if the timing isn’t right, you won’t be able to convince anyone of its merit.  What it really comes down to is that if you want to be successful, you need to enlist some help, make sure you have ALL of the facts, and make sure you now when to move forward.  No leader in their right mind would attack an opponent without the right number of resources, the right reconnaissance, and the right timing, and neither should you.

Posted by truck6alpha on March 13, 2009 • Filed under: change, fire service, leadership, officership, politics • Tagged: , , , ,

Persistence

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img_0544Jacob Riis said, “When nothing seems to help, I go and watch a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it – it was the hundred that had gone before.”

With the economic situation being what it is right now, it seems like any effort to improve our organizations (that required a decent amount of resources) is going to be put on hold for a while.  This, however, is the moment when you need to be resolute, put down your head, and weather the storm.  In some of the projects I have been working on, some of them for decades, I have found it downright depressing to get so close only to have new setbacks.  The key to success, however,  is to remain strong, focus on what needs to be done to sustain interest in these projects, and push ahead when the time is right again.

The easy thing to do is to give up.  But leadership has never been about what is easy.  If it were, everyone would be a leader.  Now is the time to have vision and if your vision can carry you, you can go anywhere.

Now is the time to look to people who have mentored you, people who have been through tough times themsleves, and feed off of their successes.  Going back and learning from these leaders can help sustain us and may even provide insight you didn’t pick up on before.

Your own people will be looking to you right now as well.  Be positive, but don’t try to snow them.  Being honest and forthright with them will help everyone and may encourage them to pitch in together to reinforce the team.  After all, if they are good people (and I hope you make the choice to surround yourself with good people), they will see that you have seen fit to trust in them and that they should trust in you.

Now more than ever, “doing the right thing” is important, because not for a long time has doing the right thing meant so much toward keeping everything in balance.

Posted by truck6alpha on March 8, 2009 • Filed under: change, funding, leadership, motivation • Tagged: , , , ,

Great Truckie Tip

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Good stuff as usual from the folks over at Vententersearch.com; a truckie tip on carrying your hooks while carrying your ladders. Go check it out!

Posted by truck6alpha on March 7, 2009 • Filed under: firefighting • Tagged: , , , ,

Life Changes In A Split Second

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The other day I think we all were thinking about the death of the child struck by a Kansas City engine as reported by Firehouse.com.  As you have probably heard thousands of times before, it doesn’t take too many incidents like this one to remind you that we have a huge responsibility while driving our apparatus, and even when all things are going right and being done well, all it takes is someone not paying attention or distracted to get in our way and change everything. 

 

Having a child at that age, I have preached to her about going into the street ad nauseum, but you know, kids sometimes just don’t remember that kind of stuff when they are excited or paying attention to that ball, or whatever the circumstances happen to be.

 

We need to be hypervigilant when it comes to operating these trucks; anticipating what is going to happen is much preferable to having to react to it unexpectedly if it does.  When you see children playing nearby, don’t just drive by and wave- think about what you would do in the event one darted out into the street.  Let off the accelerator and cover your brake, or at least look for evasive action options in case.  It seems ridiculous that we have to be so defensive, but on the other hand, these guys in KC will probably be second guessing their actions forever, even if they had nothing to do with the way things worked out.

 

Be alert to your surroundings, buckle up, and let’s all go home in the morning.

Posted by truck6alpha on March 7, 2009 • Filed under: "accident prevention", fire service, safety • Tagged: , ,

Fugate Nominated to Head FEMA

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I’m always happy to see a fellow firefighter and paramedic do well for themselves, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that Florida Emergency Management Chief Craig Fugate was nominated to head up FEMA.  I don’t know him personally, but I think that among the preparedness aspects that he has championed for his state that keeps them ahead of the others, the US&R model he advocated (and with the help of his great team, implemented) is exactly along the lines of the South Carolina plan which I blogged about earlier.

I think he is probably someone I have on my list of people I’d like to meet and talk with however, based on this quote from the AP article:

In a 2006 letter to a high-ranking homeland official, Fugate slammed the department’s review of hurricane preparedness exercises for Florida’s region. “The products are wonderful in terms of color enhancement, texture, physical craftmanship, etc.,” Fugate wrote, sarcastically. But, he said, the reviews did not reflect the work Florida had done to respond to Hurricane Katrina.

Posted by truck6alpha on March 5, 2009 • Filed under: DHS, FEMA, US&R, change, fire service, government, leadership, politics • Tagged: , , ,