While sifting through some paperwork and wondering why one of my subordinates was struggling with a certain aspect of his job, it came to me that while this individual was very competent in some areas, he needed help in others.  It certainly wasn’t an issue of overall competency, just a need to polish some rough edges.  So I began to send out subtle messages in my daily briefings in the hopes that he would begin to get the idea through his own discovery, and by doing so, achieving more buy-in.

Over the last three years these have evolved into a daily lesson for everyone on my shift, and those same lessons have been requested by some of the personnel on the other shifts as well.  I have even incorporated some of those briefings into my blogs, or vice-versa, pointed people to Firehouse Zen for more in-depth discussion on the subject matter, as well as inserting links to some of the other sites here on the FireEMSBlogs family as they fit the message.

“Microcoaching” was a term that came to me out of the blue.  I had never seen or heard the term used before, but since it sounded almost too good of a word to have not been used before somewhere, I figured I’d better make sure I wasn’t stealing someone else’s work.  Of course, a quick Google search turned up a few references to the word, but no definitive source as to “the” definition, so I am going to capture it for my own use, and claim it as a term I will use for myself, but I can’t say that I was the first one to throw it out there.

I intend to throw out a few experimental articles that hopefully will cause you to reflect a little more on the item, that involve perhaps a picture and some thought provoking questions.  In doing so, I’d like to get some more feedback on whether you like the concept or what I can do to improve on it.  As always with Firehouse Zen, most of the learning won’t come from the end result, but the journey there.  But I offer these to you for your own use, the source credited, of course, but free for your use in mentoring and coaching your own personnel.  And in keeping with the “micro” part of the term, they’ll be short.

And for disclosure’s sake, I like to take pictures of my department, but for educational purposes, I will be using them often in a completely different context in which they were taken, and the individuals in the pictures may or may not even be involved in a situation that reflects the scenario.  So don’t automatically infer that the picture is ACTUALLY the scenario, it just is being used to underscore a point or to provide something to reflect on.  So let’s get started:

Scenario: You are a battalion chief supervising a shift of four stations.  On a relatively frequent basis, you get to actually be out on the drillground teaching the crews, but the training responsibilities almost all fall on the company officers.  One of your officers, however, conducts almost no training.  He has his personnel attend the formal training classes, but in and around the station, if any non-assigned training occurs, it is entirely because of the initiative of the personnel he supervises.  Therefore, while his crew may meet the minimum standards for training, they aren’t really getting any of their education from him.

In our Microcoaching sessions, we will be asking some standard questions that follow the format “SHOW ME”.  We start with the “SHOW” part of the equation, or the analysis of the situation:

S – Subjective analysis: What is going on here?

H- History: How did we get to this point?

O- Observation/objective analysis: What are the causative factors?  What underlying issues might be in play?

W- Wonder: What can we do to improve?  Do we even have a problem?  What are the good things we see?  What are the lessons we can pull from the situation? What is the take from the subjects on the situation?

Then we follow up with the action part:

M- Mentor: How would we convey the lessons, get feedback and give feedback?  How would we reinforce our expectations?

E- Evaluate: Has the desired change taken place?  What signs can we point out that positive change is occurring?  Have the lessons stuck?  What can we do to make the changes permanent?

From here, I would imagine that you can just use this to ask your own questions of your personnel, or just reflect on the answers, or if you'd like some feedback or to share, feel free to comment.  Otherwise, stay safe and hope you enjoy this new section.