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International Influence

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Understanding other cultures sometimes involves local customs. I like any local custom that involves drinking. Me with the Australia GSE 2002.

Understanding other cultures sometimes involves local customs. I like any local custom that involves drinking. Me with the Australia GSE 2002.

We’re getting ready to leave the Sunshine State and return to the sunshine Island, but I’m reflecting on some moments from our psuedo-vacation. While Orlando has always impressed me as a fun place to go, I continue to be impressed with the number of opportunities I have while I am here to engage with people from all around the world.

I know that to many of us, the nightmares of traveling through “It’s A Small World” end up with our humming the tune for weeks, unable to get it out of our head, but this time around, I actually took the cotton out of my ears and tried to get some inspiration from the surroundings. I probably should have done that a long time ago, because it seems that with the political fight going on over immigration law right now, along with some of the less-than-cooperative international feelings toward one another, we seem to have lost sight of the fact that we are all human, we all endure many of the same hardships, and we also enjoy many of the same things. We really should try to spend a little more time thinking about our similarities rather than dwelling on what divides us.

I have said this many times about our interaction with each other in the emergency service community, but it seems that our little problems are just a small slice of a bigger societal issue, and that is, the reluctance of so many to observe some tolerance and willingness to appreciate other cultures, as well as concern for the things we hold valuable to us: our language and our own culture, our religious beliefs, our security as a nation, and our jobs, to name a few.

Over the years, I have learned that to know someone better is to understand their point of view better, and subsequently, for them to know us better also lends toward improved relations.  I have quoted this article before, but I continue to encourage it so you see what I am talking about; I really recommend that you read the article The Military Utility of Understanding Adversary Culture, by Montgomery McFate, as published in Joint Forces Quarterly.  Being open minded doesn’t mean you have to have a big campfire and sing Kumbaya (I’m not a Kumbaya, group-hug kind of guy).  It means that you maintain an open mind to how others think so that you can avoid misunderstandings and yes, this leads to improved relations, but also yes, it leads to improved ability to achieve your vision.

Lt. Tom over at the 12-Lead Prehospital EKG Blogspot and I were having a conversation the other day about Myers-Briggs personality profiles.  If you only know me from reading certain excerpts from Firehouse Zen, you might think I’m a crunchy granola kind of guy.  I’m not.  I test routinely as a Extroverted Intuitive Thinking Judger, an “ENTJ“.  I was joking about the “group hug” thing one time with someone and I think I said, “I’ll do one, but it’s only me sizing you up to see what I’ll have to do to kill you later”.  Okay, so that’s a little overboard, but the truth of the matter is, I have to resist my urge to tell people how and what to do all the time and allow people to find themselves.

My point is that not only do we have cultural differences that we can’t count on stereotypically, we can’t count on personality differences based on our perception either.  We have to seek to understand deeper before we can determine and judge.  In the process, we might also gain more information on subject matter that we didn’t have the answers to before.  As leaders, we need to listen more and talk less.  We need to use tools like the qualitative interview to get better understanding, to find out what motivates others to do or to act, and employ those motivators toward furthering our vision and the organizational goals.

Everyone brings something to the table, regardless of their ethnicity, their religion, their sex, or any other characteristic that makes them different from us.  Once you can peel back the differences and get to the heart of the issues, you can better find out how to solve our challenges and to employ the gifts others have toward making those challenges into opportunities.  If we can see what others see, it is one more set of eyes on the problem and will lend toward resolving conflict by showing people that if they win, we win.  Let’s all do a better job of working together to lighten our universal load.  As someone famous once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world” (that would be Gandhi, if you didn’t know).  Have a safe day.

Posted by on April 28, 2010 • Filed under: change, customer service, fire service, Firefighter Nation, government, leadership, motivation, officership, politics, professionalism • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Karma

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Caroline and Honora by the pool in Orlando. Emma, of course, is in the pool.

Caroline and Honora by the pool in Orlando. Emma, of course, is in the pool.

I happen to be posting this from poolside in sunny Orlando, Florida and simultaneously drinking a fruited beer, Corona Light to be exact.  My daughters are enjoying their lunch and my wife (the Owner, CEO, and Lead Visionary of KPM Flooring) is attending a very chi-chi meet-and-greet event with the gang from Artistic Tile, a very innovative bunch who has some really fashion-forward and innovative flooring designs.

This leads me to talk a little but about karma.  I believe in karma, or at least in the concept that what you reap is what you sow.  The other day, for example, there was a bee on the floor of my garage. To be specific, it was a carpenter bee, those pests who dig into any exposed woodwoork and destroy it by burrowing and laying larvae, which then add to the destruction by burrowing out. I was carrying a bag of trash to the service yard and threw the bag on top of the bee. End of story?  Perhaps, but not quite. Three days later, mind you, I went to put the bag of trash into the service yard and barefoot, stepped on the bee. While the bee had gone on the the great hive in the sky, it’s stinger was still poised and ready for action. Thus a painful stick in the foot and yes, karma. I cursed in pain for only a moment until looking down and seeing what had caused this, and suddenly laughed; I had it coming to me, I guess.

So while being humble, I certainly don’t believe I actually deserve anything good that has happened to me, I can say that I try to lead a good life and do right by others and when good things happen to me, I like to think that being good to others had a little to do with it.  However, I hate to get too convinced that things will always be good; that might border on hubris.

But while we can’t always expect things will go right if we do well by others, I can suggest to you that as a leader, if you fail to do right by your subordinates or colleagues, if things don’t go badly now, once others realize your vulnerabilities, they will.

People will gladly work for and with someone they like and respect.  People will also tolerate a certain amount of dislike and disrespect before someone has enough and that person becomes the leader’s foil.  In some cases even, that individual will do whatever they can to undermine the leader.

While Machiavelli suggests that fear is stronger than love and others find that a cowed nation will serve a tyrant willingly, history has shown that ultimately tyrants often are overthrown and die horrible deaths. I think that while it is okay to be a strong leader, one must lead with good judgment and compassion.

Leaders must consider the impact of their decisions and know that failing to be fair, prudent, and stalwart will only bear bad fruit.  People will follow good leaders and do what they can to remove bad ones.  If you take the time to be understanding and enlightened, you too can have your day in the sun.  Be open to others and demonstrate excellence in leadership.  If you can be like this, you can lead multitudes; if not, you won’t be leading long.  Thanks for reading.

Posted by on April 26, 2010 • Filed under: leadership • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Finding Art in Unexpected Places

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The phalanx was an example of artform, of excellent teamwork.

The phalanx was an example of artform, of excellent teamwork.

Firegeezer posted a very recent article that reminds us art, as in beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.  I found this interesting, especially since I just finished writing this post as well and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect (and the image he posted I’m sure attracted a lot of curiosity as well).

While there are individuals out there who think that art is only art if it speaks equally to everyone who views it, there are those of us who see things differently and can see beauty and form in things ranging from a symphony to that of graffiti. It’s a matter of being open to what constitutes art.

Now before you think I’m one of those people who think throwing a bucket of paint on a canvas is art (I don’t),  I think there’s a quote that defines it very nicely, from my own perspective, of course: “Art should not have to be explained”.  There are individuals who think that anything is art, and yet, to me, if it is ambiguous and requires explanation, then it hasn’t conveyed any message at all.

Art in its most basic form, to me, has to send a message.  If you can examine a piece of art, even some of the most hallucinogenic pieces, and at least grasp the concept, or can see or smell or feel something about it (even revulsion, I guess, if that’s what you are trying to convey) then to me, you are creating art.  Whether I should have to FUND your wild-ass version of art, we might have a discussion about later, but I digress.

Just as a musician composes her artwork, or a painter his, or a photographer, or a chef, we as leaders should consider our masterpiece in people and in developing the synergy of teams.  We should have vision and an understanding of what it is we want to convey when others engage our artwork; we should choose objectives like colors and use those directions to define our artwork; we should compose our piece by insuring that the people, their output, and their interactions work together like colors and the perspective and the proportion work together.

Leading is an art form.  There are those of us who can appreciate a well-orchestrated, professional team and conversely, we can recognize bad art, that is, thrown-together, amateurish, and discordant “teams”.  Does your team reflect art or is it haphazard and lack thought?  Is it a free-for-all like a bucket of paint thrown up on the wall (that even my three-year old could do) or has it gone under the microscope and been honed into perfection?

Treat your teams like a masterpiece and appreciate what you can do if you take the time and refine your people.  Step back and take in what each part lends to the orchestra and realize that if you conduct it, and shape it, you can take even the most out-of-tune elements and weave them into a concerto that amazes all who behold it.  While not every element sounds in tune alone, together, and with the right synchronization, it can be plugged in to create greatness. When you can do this, others will see you as a true leader rather than one who just so happens to be playing along with the band.

Posted by on April 21, 2010 • Filed under: US&R • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Daily Values vs. Emergency Ops Values

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webDSC_0162A while back, Chris Naum at TheCompanyOfficer.com discussed briefly the New Rules of Engagement for Structural Firefighting.  This is, of course, a work in progress, but I urge you to read it and understand what these rules mean to us as practitioners.  We are called to save lives and fight fires, but to do so safely and responsibly, understanding that our resources are finite (you just can’t keep throwing firefighters into fires until one comes out safely with the victim).

If you search this blog for discussion about leading with values (I even linked the search to make it easy for you),  you’ll see that values were specifically mentioned in at least eight articles, not to mention all of the other times values were a peripheral part of the discussion.   Like it or not, organizational values define organizational culture.  These values help guide you in times when hard decisions must be made under ambiguous situations.  When organizations lack defined values, or personnel don’t understand them as the gospel truth, they don’t always reflect those values when challenged. If you have never implicitly discussed your organizational values, your personnel will revert to whatever values conform with those of the group (think “B” Shift) or scarier, their own beliefs (which you have no ability to predict).

While the article by Chris suggests that the Rules should be concise and bulletized in format, it is in that suggestion related to firefighting that I see these “rules” as reflecting our values in considering the risky nature of engaging with a particularly dangerous enemy.  I challenge each of you to read more about this and ask yourself, as well as your leaders, questions that help refine what to do in those emergency situations, especially as they involve our own organizations.

While we value the service we provide to our customers as being our highest calling, there comes a defining moment where we must place the welfare of our troops at a higher level, especially when it comes down to fighting a “lost cause”.  I am willing to personally take a calculated risk to save lives, but I am NOT willing to take a risk personally, or to expose each of you to a risk for the sake of a body recovery or to fight a structure that will be written off anyway.  I am as aggressive as they come when it comes to firefighting, but I value my personnel higher than any property, and I think we all need to think that way about how we choose to engage at these incidents.

But it is in this that the problem is apparent; we have made a decision to discuss our values in regard to emergency operations, but have we defined our organizational values when they come to day-to-day operations?  In many departments, the over-arching statement seems to be, “Use common sense and logic when it comes to making decisions”.

While I agree one-hundred percent with that statement (and that approach may very well save your life some day on an emergency scene), when we have recruits (and in that, I’m lumping Juniors, new volunteer members, etc.) making value-based decisions on day-to-day things (like when they are unsupervised or in situations where they are asked to show initiative), have we really done a good job of reinforcing our belief system to them and demonstrating a positive example by living those values ourselves?

Take setting fires, for example.  While we (and society) continually insist that firefighters setting fires is wrong, is the culture around your organization such that going to fires and “fighting the red devil” is more important than community service?  Is it more apt to say that personnel walk around moping about the loss of call volume?  Are members who seek to demonstrate their commitment to the community challenged by the lack of calls to demonstrate that commitment?  Why is it that we are in this business, anyway?  If the answer is to run around in a uniform and drive fast down the road with lights and sirens on, well, we all know that only represents a finite amount of our jobs (and it’s not like I want someone who thinks that’s a good reason to be an emergency service provider anyway).

While it seems pretty intuitive that setting fires is a bad thing, when you are dealing with people who already have a less-than-mature attitude and a challenge to their belief system, you set yourself up for disaster.  If you really want to avoid this type of incident occurring in your organization, one of the basic things that should be done is to engage personnel in activities OTHER than fighting fires/running calls.  If you want to find out how committed these personnel are to the community, give them day-to-day assignments that include non-emergency prevention or participation duties- just have them man an engine and go show the flag at the local high school football game, or go spray water for the kids on a hot day.  Anything to have them prove their worth OTHER than running hot and exerting their “auth-or-it-tie” (it always loses something unless you hear Cartman saying it).

Organizations who find themselves struggling to recruit or to get people to do their jobs must evaluate if there is a gap between what the leadership defines as valued behavior and what the membership (or potential membership) defines as a valued behavior.  If there is a gap, someone had better define the expectations, or the expectation will be that everyone is entitled to define the organizational mission according to his or her own needs.  If that is the case, I’d expect to be reading about you on STAT911 or Firegeezer some morning soon, and not in a good way.

Posted by on April 16, 2010 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, customer service, education, Fire Rescue Topics, fire service, Fires, Funding & Staffing, leadership, motivation, News, officership, professionalism, Training & Development • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tolerance

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Take the time to understand others' points of view.

Take the time to understand others' points of view.

There is a great deal of controversy on the internet at any given time, but the postings between people we should be working with are getting to the point where they are troubling.  Heated rhetoric, personal attacks, and just out and out anger are more commonplace now then ever.

I posted this on my Firefighter Nation profile the other day in response to some of the discussions I have seen on other blogs lately.  If there’s anything I learned from doing research, is that even the military has come to understand that if combatants don’t appreciate adversary culture, they are likely to make assumptions that could jeopardize their mission. As a result, enlightened commanders take the time to immerse themselves in cultural education and counterintelligence to fully comprehend the aspect in which an adversary may approach a problem.  As a born cynic, my first viewpoint was that the understanding could be utilized to manipulate weakness or strength to be used against one’s adversary, but as I have grown older (and hopefully, wiser), I have found that in conflict management, many arguments could be simply defused by just toning down the language and accepting others’ viewpoints for what they are: opposing viewpoints.

This text was shared with me by a friend some time ago, but I wanted share it with you all in the hopes that maybe it could provide some perspective:

(Paraphrased from Dhammavadaka):

Remember always that you are just a visitor here, a traveler passing through. Your stay is but short and the moment of your departure unknown.

Speak quietly and kindly and be not forward with either opinions or advice. If you talk much, this will make you deaf to what others say, and you should know that there are few so wise that they cannot learn from others.

Be near when help is needed, but far when praise and thanks are being offered.

Take small account of might, wealth and fame, for they soon pass and are forgotten. Instead, nurture love within you and and strive to be a friend to all. Truly, compassion is a balm for many wounds.

Treasure silence when you find it, and while being mindful of your duties, set time aside, to be alone with yourself.

Cast off pretense and self-deception and see yourself as you really are.

Despite all appearances, no one is really evil. They are led astray by ignorance. If you ponder this truth always you will offer more light, rather then blame and condemnation.

Maybe some of you will take this for what it is worth and be a little less likely to fight with one another. Maybe you will continue to disregard any advice toward making peace with your brother firefighters and EMTs. But maybe if some of us kept our mouths shut and listened more, we might learn something. And further, maybe we need to be tolerant with some of the newbies and try to encourage their learning.

There is always a place for understanding the culture and approach of others, because you can then frame your discussion in terms which they can understand.  Be more open to ideas and accepting of others, and in the end, you will reach them because you can appreciate where they are coming from and they will appreciate that you took their sides under consideration.

Posted by on April 13, 2010 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, customer service, education, EMS Topics, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, government, leadership, motivation, News, officership, politics, professionalism, Training & Development • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What Defines A Successful Outcome?

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Teams must get adequate direction to insure successful outcomes.

Teams must get adequate direction to insure successful outcomes.

To begin with, let’s slide over to Dave Statter’s site for this embarrassing moment in Missouri.  I have been in plenty of fires where the scene has had incredible damage and I have been to scenes where there is an awful lot of confusion, and while on the face it seems like a thorough search of the structure wasn’t completed, I have literally stepped on a deceased victim before, not realizing they were there because of the surrounding damage, debris, and the condition of the body.  I wasn’t there, and my comments actually have to do with successful outcomes.

We all define what completes a job, or any task, I should say, differently.  What makes a task complete has to do with your work ethic, your education level, and the amount of feedback you receive from supervisory personnel.  When we perform a task that has been assigned to us, what I think is “complete” might be radically different from what you understand as “complete”. While performing a daily task, this might not be of any consequence.  However, on the emergency scene, an error or omission might involve a seriously embarrassing (or worse, deadly) incident.  Completion of any assigned task requires a series of elements: an objective, material resources, personnel resources, and time, to mention the key items.  The clearer the objective, or the more well-defined an objective is, the more likelihood that the objective will be accomplished with the desired outcome.

In a situation like the Missouri incident, while extraordinarily tragic for ALL the parties involved, the discussion lends to the issues of the definition of a successful outcome.  While the public has an expectation that NO MATTER WHAT, if someone is in a burned building, that we have all of the ability in the world to find ANYONE, they are sorely mistaken.  Again, I don’t have all of the facts here, but I do know that I have been involved in fires where we literally had to sift through debris to find teeth or bones in order to determine (or rule out) the presence of a missing person.  Likewise, not expecting to find someone in a bathtub, and with significant structural damage, I could see how someone might get missed.

However, there is a certain amount of thoroughness that we must apply to each job in accordance with the desired outcome.  In this case, if there is an expectation that we have a missing individual, if they were reported to be at home, and the evidence is such that there might be a person in the building, then no stone must be left unturned to either find or rule out the presence of the victim.  This is on one end of the spectrum; the other end is that we should not unreasonably expect a team to be so thorough that they are tied up for entire shifts working on projects that are of little importance because our expectations are so high and our definition of a successful outcome almost unreachable.

As leaders, we must do our best when assigning work to assess the competency levels of the personnel we are assigning the work to in order to gauge the amount of information we will need to provide.  As leaders we must also provide the appropriate resources to get the job done, and even sometimes, we have to run interference for the team so they can get the task accomplished (scheduling, meddling Battalion Chiefs, you know what I mean).  But supervising the crew doesn’t just involve telling someone to do something, then expecting some miraculous outcome.

When people are not given adequate tools, direction, or a defined outcome, you can’t expect the outcome to be consistent with your expectations.  Too many times I have heard of company officers who are frustrated with the final outcome of something they have assigned, and my first question is, “Was the outcome adequately defined?”  Nine times out of ten, that is the problem.  I even say that to myself and if something hasn’t been done according to what I expected, I need to realize that I’m only going to get what I asked for in most cases, although some of you all surprise me (in a good way) with your extra effort and the excellent result you produce.

The Missouri incident illustrates that there are significant differences in the understanding of what constitutes a finished job.  If there are haphazard approaches to gathering information, we can’t expect to assure the outcome will be as desired.  And while successful leaders allow subordinates to learn through independent discovery, independent discovery with a chance of success requires that you at least give them the tools (material, education, personnel, and time) to achieve a positive outcome.  Anything less and you shouldn’t be surprised.  Insure that as leaders, you set your people up to succeed.

Posted by on April 9, 2010 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, customer service, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, leadership, Media Relations, motivation, News, officership, planning, professionalism, Training & Development • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Squirrel In The Middle of The Road

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Our job entails more than responding to emergencies.

Our job entails more than responding to emergencies.

The other day I was sitting at Coligny Circle, which is a pretty busy spot on our Island.  I was actually trying to get some work done using the Town’s open WiFi connection there, rather than watching squirrels running out in the road.  A long time ago I wrote (in my first blog ever, over on FirefighterNation.com) about how some people make decisions like a squirrel decides whether it is going to cross the road: first this way, then realizing impending danger – that way – then thinking maybe that was a bad idea – this way…then the awful crunch of tire meeting squirrel.

Now as some of you know (who have been following me for a while) I’m not crazy about squirrels.  But while continuing to battle with the squirrels in my yard and despite my general impression that they are just rats with bushy tails, I still don’t really wish them any harm. While I would not come to a screeching halt to avoid hitting a squirrel with my car, I’m certainly not going to swerve to hit one, and I’ll even slow down to give them the benefit of doubt.   But just because I don’t really care for them, I still at least respect them as an adversary and I would never go out of my way to hurt them.

Well, it’s like that with you all and my other fellow beings; I respect you and your thoughts, I pray for your souls and your enlightenment, and I’d never go out of my way to hurt anyone. I’d even avoid doing so if I could.  But at some point we will come to a critical intersection where your indecision matches up with my desire for forward motion and we revert to that law of physics where an object in motion will continue in motion unless acted on by some outside force.  Are you getting it?

I have little to no patience with the status quo, especially if staying with the status quo serves no purpose.  I was remarking this morning to a friend that many “leaders” are afraid of the unknown because they don’t know how the unknown is going to treat them now or their legacy later.  It may be that the future holds them to account for their inabilities, their failures, or their inequities.  The status quo provides comfort.  The status quo provides reassurance.  If we know that the future is the status quo, we can control that. Everything else is shrouded in mystery.

If you live your life afraid of what is about to come, you will be afraid to take any chances.  If you live your life afraid of what is about to come, you will be cautious to the point of avoidance when an opportunity arises.  If you fail to take a chance when an opportunity arises there will be no growth.  While there are places for leaders who simply maintain peace, if your world is in constant turmoil, as a leader you must strive for change.  If your world in constantly evolving and you fail to grow with it and improve, you will go the way of the dinosaurs.  Or even better, the way of the indecisive squirrel.

If we weren’t losing firefighters from preventable cause, or if we didn’t have technologies that would help us to save lives and property more efficiently, or if we had leaders that were fully prepared to lead others in providing emergency services, we wouldn’t need to change.  If we had a fully efficient EMS system in every community and adequate layperson interventions in place, and lives were improved by rapidly delivered patient care, we wouldn’t need to change.

While there are those who continue to promote equilibrium, the time is not now for equilibrium.  Equilibrium suggests that things are okay, and things are clearly not okay.  We must as leaders continue to strive for improvement. We must encourage and motivate those who follow us in order to build a better customer service delivery model.  When things have improved not by what “seems” like improvement, but based on objective, measurable data, then and only then should we be comfortable resting on our laurels.  Our job entails more than just responding to emergencies.  It entails responding to community needs and assisting our neighbors.  That assistance comes in many forms, but the agencies who get it will be survivors, and those who don’t, well, I think you can figure that out yourself.  It’s not a matter of “if”, but “when”.

When the squirrel decided he wanted to cross the road, it was because he had an objective to reach on the other side.  Staying on one side of the road meant the objective would not be met.  Going after that objective involved a certain amount of risk.  The squirrel may or may not have considered that risk before making his decision.  We are not squirrels.  We hopefully have enough brainpower to determine whether the risks that we take are worth the rewards at the end and make the right decisions.  And if we rush out into the stream and find ourselves challenged there is also a risk in changing direction that we need to take into consideration.

As emergency service leaders, we must ensure that the decisions we make are based on objective, unemotional criteria involving what is best for the people we serve.  No tradition supersedes our prime directive of service to others.  Any decision we make must consider the ultimate mission: protection of life, property, and the environment.  If we remain locked in on the present and base our actions on serving the status quo, we don’t achieve that mission and we will have failed.  Our failure has consequences; unfortunately, in our business, those consequences often involve injury, death, or other severe loss.  It is incumbent upon us to keep that from happening.  But other consequences are pretty devastating as well like the elimination of overall budget, which can result in reduction or elimination of staff, programs, equipment, or whatever else you can imagine.

Challenge yourself and your team to remain vigilant to unmet needs, to consider means to remedy those needs, and to strive for continual improvement.  If you don’t engage your vision, it is tantamount to going out into the road and freezing in the path.  And we all know the ending to THAT story.

Posted by on April 5, 2010 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, customer service, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, Funding & Staffing, leadership, motivation, officership, politics, professionalism, revolution, Training & Development • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

RESPECT

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Making Friends In Australia.

Making Friends In Australia.

I thought this morning I missed the cutoff for the First Due Blog Carnival.  Of course, as usual, I’m confused.  The link was to The Handover EMS Blog this month being hosted over at 999Medic. Since I’m all about keeping with the spirit of things, I’m going to post anyway, this month’s subject being “respect”.

Now while I haven’t read the other posts yet (I don’t want to be led in a certain direction), I want to call attention to the issue that so many of us in emergency services are bemoaning the “lack of respect” for our profession these days.  I’m going to make this short and sweet: you will never be afforded the respect you think you deserve if you can’t clean up the mess you have made.

We have continued, for decades, even centuries, to tolerate less than professional conduct from our “brothers”.  We have failed to embrace better methods of doing our jobs.  We have shunned safety over bravado.  We have permitted people to lead us who lack education and enlightenment.  We continue to resist standardization not for the sake of technical improvement but because “that’s not the way we do it here”.

This is as much about the fire service as it is about EMS.  I keep seeing battles popping up all over the place about whether the fire service is the best place for EMS, or third party, or whomever.  People, LET IT GO.  Communities must evaluate what suits them best and do that.  Different models work for different circumstances.  Continue to fight among each other at your own peril; the divisiveness is staggering.  We are in emergency services, all of us.  If we continue to beat each other up, we all continue to lose.  And when we lose, the community loses.

You want respect?  How about showing consideration and professional courtesy toward one another?  I went to comment on a blog yesterday and saw a terse statement about something along with a statement pretty much daring someone to reply.  For people to have a difference of opinion is acceptable; for someone to be daring someone to comment so they can exchange heated words, well, it’s reprehensible.

I had the opportunity to speak with a visiting delegation to our Town from Brazil yesterday.  I did a little research and opened up with a paragraph introducing myself and my position with the Town in Portugese.  I likely butchered it, but these visitors were immediately smiling and laughing (at my Portugese, I’m sure), but it opened us up to dialogue.  I spoke about the six weeks I spent on a similar exchange to Australia and the amazing experience I had and the memories I will have forever.

But what I spoke about mostly was how that experience made me realize that an entire world away, we were all really brothers and sisters.  We might speak a different language, but it sure as hell doesn’t make them idiots.  We have ideas and dreams and vision and it is muy importante that we share those ideas and dreams and visions and seek to understand what we can do not only to further our own goals, but to reciprocate, to help othters achieve their vision as well.

If we really want respect, we need to give respect.  How many times have you heard that one?  But so long as we go on with an entitled attitude, that the people we serve should be eternally grateful to us and bow down and kiss our asses on a daily basis, we will fail miserably to earn their respect.  To them, we are just another expenditure in the municipal budget.  We need to embrace a servant mentality, and even more so, we need to understand our own culture and how that interacts with the other cultures we deal with.  I’m not talking about foreign culture; I’m talking about the fabric of your neighborhood and community, and in a bigger sense, our emergency service world.

Posted by on April 2, 2010 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, customer service, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, fire service, Firefighter Nation, leadership, motivation, officership, professionalism • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Technology Assessment

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web reddrive download 423If you haven’t figured out by now I’m kind of intrigued by all the technology that people use on a daily basis and how it could be incorporated into making our jobs easier in the fire service.  I can’t get over all of the opportunities that are out there to try to improve things, and yet for some reason the fire service stays riveted on old technology. It could be that there’s not enough money in the fire service to help improve these technologies.  You’d think that someone with the money might realize that better technology could be make us more efficient and also reduce pain and suffering and loss of property and all that other good stuff.

Right now I’m completely enmeshed in our community’s application for Google to provide ultra-high-speed internet (we’re talking 1 GB here).  I can only see the possibilities and they are endless.  Part of my comment to them in defense of why Hilton Head Island should be awarded this opportunity revolved around the public safety applications of this high-speed Internet.  Applications like streaming video for training and meetings would revolutionize our organization. Existing mapping and pre-planning information could be shared via server or just kept on the Internet.  I can go on and on.

Our organization is really embracing some new concepts right now in an effort to improve capability.  Sometimes these ideas work and sometimes they do not.  But the act of trying these things out are learning opportunities in themselves.

What ideas are you working on that will revolutionize the way you do business?  How can we improve our delivery of excellent customer service using existing technology?  What idea, no matter how far-fetched, would make our job an everyday joy?  What things must we change in order to make these reality?

Posted by on April 1, 2010 • Filed under: change, customer service, education, Fire Rescue Topics, Funding & Staffing, leadership, planning, revolution, Technology & Communications • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,