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Images

I really don't share as many of the images I take on a regular basis, which is funny to me, because I love photography. A few days ago, one of my best friends, also a Philadelphia native, and I took a little trip "home" to Philly to catch a Phillies game and a Flyers game. This was a birthday present from my wife and I really looked forward to it.

As it was, I brought my camera, but for probably the first time, I left it behind while we soaked up as much of the city as possible for our little two day getaway. Any pictures I took, I did with the camera on my smart phone, which isn't too bad, but isn't exactly what I am used to using when I do see something I want to shoot. So I didn't take all the shots I really saw, and for me, that is completely out of character.

Even though Jeff and I were there together, we didn't go into any stations along the way (Jeff is my counterpart Battalion Chief for "B" Shift). I won't say we didn't see any along the way, but we were in such a rush, we really didn't stop in like both of us would have probably done on our own if we were on a less tightly scheduled timeframe.

Since we were really there for the two sports events, we limited our travels to Central and South Philly, close by to the sports complex. We saw some PFD units, doing this or doing that, but really paid them no mind. By the time we left and made it home, I was surprised at the lack of pictures I had, and especially since there weren't any of fire department stuff, which is probably pretty funny for any of us. After living in South Carolina for 30 years, I don't get "homesick" like I used to, but this time was a little different. This time I really found that I missed Philly, the places I would go to, the smells, the attitudes, all of it. It just really hit me this time, but as is normal, you get home and get back to work and put the thoughts aside.

What we see today, might be gone tomorrow. What we can touch and hold right now may be a memory moments later. We do things, like take pictures, to preserve those images, and to remind ourselves of what we experienced. We do these things to preserve, to record, and to share those thoughts. In one minute, we can be gone and not anyone may even be able to understand why.

The other morning, while checking my e-mail, I saw that LODD notice. I learned of the tragic loss of the two brothers from Ladder 10, and the hospitalization of two others. I listened to the audio and closed my eyes, imagining what events must have transpired. And while I am not a Philly firefighter, I felt a little differently this time, like I knew these guys, and understood the situation. And while I was saddened, on this occasion, it just made me feel deep down inside how much I miss being there.

These brothers went into an expsoure building to check on conditions. We have all done it a hundred times. Then the next thing they knew, it was changed. The building came down around them and two of the crew were lost forever. Two others were hurt, one so severely that CPR had to be administered. In a moment, families were ripped apart, friendships severed. What any of us would give to have those moments back again, those moments just before the world changed. If that crew was anything like my crews have always been, they were probably making stupid jokes about what was going on, wry observations on their current condition, all the while watching and listening for anything that could tell them more about their surroundings, about what work needed to be done, or what information needed to be shared.

We know not the hour of the day or the place where things will change forever. They do, routinely, daily, and these moments sometimes pass without notice. Take a moment and tell those around you how you feel about them. Take a moment and enjoy your surroundings. Live each moment like it will be your last and put a determined mindfulness on your surroundings. Appreciate now what you have, because tomorrow, it may all be gone.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on April 12, 2012 • Filed under: change, Firefighter Safety & Health, leadership, Line of Duty, LODD • Tagged: change, collapse, Daniel Sweeney, disaster, EMS, FHZ, fire rescue topics, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, Hilton Head Island, ladder, LODD, Mick Mayers, Philadelphia, photo, positive, Robert Neary, safety, thought, tragedy

Swedish Message, Part 2

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In the last few days, we discussed the presentation by Dr. Stefan Svensson at FRI, who, after watching the presentation myself, made a case that the American Fire Service is taking a path that doesn’t consider facts. The reaction by many of my American fire service brethren are very obviously based on emotion, not logic. And frankly, for a group of people who pride themselves on being professional at their craft, maybe the firefighters in our nation do have a little to be desired when it comes to taking care of business in the manner in which it should be done.

Dr. Svensson pointed out in the very beginning that his observation of the situation is as from the perspective of an outsider. And while he has experience as a firefighter, he also has experience as an educator and a researcher. So instead of approaching his discussion from a hysterical standpoint, he used a historical standpoint: that facts are facts and frankly, the methods of changing our culture isn’t working. Sometimes some tough love is necessary, if we are sincere in wanting to bring everyone home in the morning.

Furthermore, at no point in his presentation (and I have listened to it and took copious notes) has he said that the Swedish fire service is better than any other fire service. In fact, he prefaces his presentation by saying that Sweden also has issues and they are not “better”. But while data can always be manipulated to say what you want it to say, try looking at this objectively:

What gain do we get from having an increase in firefighter fatalities? It’s not that we encourage firefighters to die, but the trend is there. Just based on the data Dr. Svensson shared, firefighter fatalities in America have been slightly reduced, but for the most part, have remained steady. Put that rate, however, in the context of decreasing civilian fatalities and decreasing fire responses, the ratio of firefighter fatalities per civilian fatality has INCREASED. Likewise, the ratio of firefighter fatalities per fire has also increased. Dr. Svensson even stated, this was AFTER pulling out the training and station deaths. The inference is that even with a reduction in call volume, we continue to see a steady stream of firefighter fatalities. And based on the language used by some of the commenters, the macho and egotistical feedback has been pretty predictable. Why do we take so much pride in our injury and mortality rates? Could it be that we are okay with it that way?

One issue I really found interesting was his discussion of cardiovascular fitness relative to the job. I have said on number of occasions that I am appalled by the continued reluctance of the fire service to embrace meaningful fitness standards. At the same time, these issues are relative to the general population: fitness is decreasing, obesity is increasing, and subsequently, cardiovascular issues are also increasing. In the meanwhile, the job of fighting fire has not changed, in fact, it has grown more challenging, and is compounded via station closures and staff reductions by having less personnel in many communities to now do the job that many were allocated to before.

Fitness requirements support a simple fact: we need to have an acceptable standard of fitness, therefore we need to have more comprehensive medical screening. The problem is, as Dr. Svensson observed, in the United States, we evaluate ability, not fitness. This is directly a result of equal opportunity mandates but has an undesired effect. In an effort to minimize discrimination, we have embraced ability testing to determine whether a person can do the job. We say, “If you can do the job, you should be allowed to” because we are trying to be more inclusive. But the tell-tale issue for whether or not a person is going to stroke out on us or have an MI isn't whether they can or can not pull a ceiling or drag a dummy, it is much more insidious than that. Cardiovascular issues that are killing firefighters aren’t readily apparent. And I know firefighters that can whip through an abilities test without too much going on, but it doesn't require a physician to take one look at them and say, this guy's a candidate for the Big One.

But honestly, I could go point for point about the presentation and I'm not. At least not with you all.

I intend to have my personnel listen to the presentation and view the PowerPoints included. I also intend to ask them to challenge themselves and ask, "Is he right? Is he wrong?" And I'm going to trust that my people are going to listen to what is going on and look past the harshness of the message and evaluate it like grown-ups. There is importance of having knowledge of the past in order to understand the present. And we have quite a few people who are okay with romanticizing the concept that it is our duty to die in the line of duty for no apparent reason. It is okay to be maimed for life for no apparent reason. It is okay to shovel a company into a burning building with deteriorating conditions because if we don't, we are pussies.

Well, it is okay only because the “leaders” in our business hype it as the standard as to what should be. Their mentality is okay for a future of knuckle-draggers, but what if we gave you a finite number of resources and told you that if you screw them up, you don’t get more, so you’d take better care of them? Or even better, if you are reckless with those resources, you have to pay for them? Well, how much longer do you think it is going to be before the lawyers realize that incident commanders sending their personnel into a situation with no control, no coordination, or no meaningful mission (other than "searching" an untenable building) are in fact, killing personnel, and liable for wrongful death restitution? It won't be long, because it is already happening.

The tradition of the fire service I had passed to me from my father, who got it from his father, and got it from his as well has been established that we must do whatever it takes to save lives. But there is a profound disconnect: Have we in fact created these expectations ourselves? Maybe this is where we ask the public: What is it you want from us? If you read any of the civilian comments in these communities where they are struggling with funds, there is a certain amount of "screw the firefighters" being said and not a whole hell of a lot of support. Perhaps we need to really educate the public and seriously ask them: "If you are expecting us to sacrifice our lives to get you out, there needs to be some relational support. Otherwise, f*&# off."

If we keep repeating traditions that don’t make sense and cause us unwarranted pain, what does that make us? Stupid? I think that's what Dr. Svensson said that some of you all are upset about. If you had a son who was pledging a fraternity, and the traditional hazing was to get painfully burned over a percentage of his body because hey, that's the tradition, I'd bet you'd tell him he's nuts. The only tradition I am buying into is that as a firefighter, I am willing to take a risk to save someone if I have the possibility of saving someone. But we aren't even doing that. We won't even buckle our seatbelts, and where is the tradition in that?

The most telling part of the presentation came in the discussion on survival training. While I don't necessarily agree with some of the issues, the real focus was this: Right now we focus on how to get out of problems. Maybe we need to be re-focusing on how to stay out of trouble to begin with.

They don’t think about safety because it is simply a part of what they do. It is not a thought, it is ingrained in their culture. It's not standing outside a house quivering because we are too scared to fight the fire. It is taking resources, defining the problem, and using the resources wisely and to the best effect to create a solution. We are letting our egos get in the way of facts. Instead of getting cranked up about what was said, listen to what he is saying. There are other approaches that make sense, yet we continue to ignore them.

I'm not even going to suggest that we should have a safer work environment. I'm just going to say that instead of pointing at the Swedish guy and being offended at what he said, perhaps we should listen, take what we can from the discussion, and learn. He used that language for a reason: to make a point. He isn't over in Sweden right now rubbing his hands gleefully because he has offended the Americans. He made it clear that as an outsider looking in, he sees a problem and wants us to be aware of it. However, he is also concerned that we are ignoring the issues based on our emotional reaction to the problem, rather than the rational explanation of how to solve it. I don't like being called stupid either, but as I have been told before, if the shoe fits, wear it.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on September 8, 2011 • Filed under: Firefighter Safety & Health, leadership, News, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: anger, cardiovascular, change, conflict, FHZ, fire, firefighter, Firehouse Zen, fitness, FRI, Hilton Head Island, LODD, Mick Mayers, rescue, safety, South Carolina, stefan svensson, sweden, testing, truth, understanding, united states

Giving As Much As We Have

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"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." – Arthur Ashe

The facts are not in yet from Asheville, yet I can say this with certainty. A man, just like any of us, woke up the other morning and got ready to go to work. He probably went through his morning routine like we all do, kissed the wife and kids, drove to work, and reported in. He likely threw his gear on the rig and checked out his equipment, without a thought that in a few hours he would be gone.

As the Bible says, we do not know the day nor the hour. We need to prepare as if every day were the day. But our choice to serve isn't for the money or the fame or the worship as heroes. We know these things aren't the reason we do the job. And as Chief Croker said, the greatest act of heroism is when we don that badge; after that, it is what we are expected to do. Hopefully we are never called to sacrifice our lives in the line of duty, but God fobid, if that event occurs, we should make that sacrifice only to save another.

Continue to reach out to these folks and to the families and friends of our other departed brethren and keep them in your prayers.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on July 30, 2011 • Filed under: Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, In the Line of Duty, Line of Duty, News • Tagged: death, EMS, FHZ, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, government, leadership, lessons, LODD, management, Mick Mayers

Grow Up

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Let me begin by saying, I am the number one fan of Animal House. I would never do anything to disparage the film or any of its characters. And I am not being Dean Wormer here. But it's time to put that little part of our lives behind us for a moment, although it is a part of me I can never quite leave behind. So here's a little test.

Consider the events in Holyoke, MA over the past week or so. If the action you are about to take would cause undue embarrassment to you or your organization, or your family and loved ones, would you still do it? If your action was the cause of something that makes the front page, or the national news, and it's not something you are proud of, would you do it? If the action you are about to take would invoke criminal or civil penalties against you, would you still do it?

What happened here was a very innocent practical joke on the part of an interim chief. I feel badly for him and I really don't believe this chief to be an idiot (as some have stated) or a criminal (as others have), or even a bad guy. I don't even know the man. But what he did, especially in the anti-public servant climate within which we are currently suffering, was not exercising good judgment.

There is nothing about this incident that suggests that anything happened here other than an attempt at a little levity, albeit at the expense of violating the laws about calling in false alarms. Am I judging the man or his actions? No. I don't know all the facts, although they seem pretty apparent on their face. Do I understand the mentality? Yes. I have moved a fire engine parked at the supermarket to the other side of the parking lot along with a few other practical jokes. But the next blog post will be all about THAT angle regarding leadership, so stay tuned. I don't believe anything other than that this was a practical joke gone wrong.

But in light of this incident, maybe instead of testing someone's physical fitness, their aptitude for reading a sentence, or the many other things we should be testing and aren't, maybe we should put at the top of the priority list, a test for maturity. Because other than the only test that seems to be important in some departments these days – that would be the ability to fog a mirror – we insist on knowing all these important things about how much someone can lift, or how fast they can run stairs, or how fast can they calculate 2+2 and we miss out on what seems to be the heart of our industry's problem. If you haven't picked up on it, that would be a test for whether or not the individual we are about to hire or promote is capable of objectively separating their inner teenager from the responsibilities of adulthood.

Again, lest you think this is all about pranksterism, there are actually many examples of where a certain level of maturity is important, and why it's not a good idea to have people associate with us that think it is okay to video someone lighting fireworks out of your ass. The public perception these days is swinging toward the "bunch of overgrown kids pretending to be important" side and away from the "upstanding citizen who is here to keep us safe" side. While some of our colleagues might not see that as being important, the public, when choosing to spend their hard earned dollars, are really not interested in sending money in the direction of waste and frivolous behavior. They want to be reassured that the individuals to whom they are entrusting their tax dollars are responsible, thoughtful, and perceptive. People who are making the news wire for setting fires, calling in prank false alarms, stealing from treasuries, and any other number of violations of society, are NOT considered as being responsible, thoughtful or perceptive. In fact, if this is news to you, haven't you probably ALSO been the ones complaining because the public doesn't love you anymore? Acting like you are still a member of Delta Tau Chi is not okay when you pin bugles on your collar (and I am the number one Animal House fan, remember?) Sophomoric behavior is best left to sophomores.

There are a number of us who are frustrated with the eroding public trust that comes about when certain participants in our field act like a bunch of day care refugees. The failure for some to consider the ripple effect their actions have on others is incredible. We are in a real struggle to define the fire and emergency services. There are daily reports of communities downsizing departments, "renting" them out (that would be privatizing them), or simply reallocating funds that would have been spent on fire and emergency services to other competing interests. We are at war here for our very existence, and every negative report is used against us, implicitly or not, to give rationale as to why we (fire and emergency services) shouldn't get the support we need.

There is no need to comment that I'm sucking the fun out of the job. Right now, we need to be working harder than ever to save our standing in the community, be it as a career or volunteer professional. We definitely don't need our own people shooting our efforts in the feet. Fun is when we can come out of a good worker safely, with a smile on our face because we did a good job; or high-fiving in the nurse's lounge because we just pulled an asystolic patient out of their nose-dive and they are sitting up talking in Bed 2. Fun is when we are on the training ground joking around with each other while resting after a particularly challenging evolution.

Grow up. Fun doesn't come unless you earn it. It's not fun being a loser. You can have fun all day long, but in the end, if you haven't accomplished anything, you're just one more clown among many. When you are truly professional, you can work hard and have fun at it too.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on July 2, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, Command & Leadership, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Funding & Staffing, leadership, News, Training & Development, Vehicle Operations & Apparatus • Tagged: animal house, backlash, bravery, career, change, clown, conflict, customer service, economy, education, EMS, FHZ, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firegeezer, Firehouse Zen, fun, government, Hilton Head Island, hypocrisy, leadership, loser, management, marketing, media, Mick Mayers, motivation, officer, opportunity, planning, politics, professionalism, public trust, resources, risk reduction, South Carolina, virtue, vision, volunteer, voter

You Can Quote Me On That (Before 2010)

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I was driving down the road the other day and thinking, you know, I too could have a list of quotes, just like the real writers have. So in the interest of filling up a page of useless knowledge, I went back to FHZ from September of 2008 to December of 2009 and I also threw in a few notable statements I made way back on the old Firehouse Forums as a member of the IACOJ, before some of you were born, I think.

Now, I do read a lot and listen to podcasts, etc. and I will check my quotes with a deep internet search to make sure I haven't stolen someone else's ideas, but I'm pretty sure I said this stuff at one time or another. I also left off anything I paraphrased (I hope) and added some stuff that exists in unpublished posts (there are a few dozen of those). Believe it or not, we here at FHZ have standards. They are low, but we do have standards.

So here you are, from the beginning of FHZ, some of the more memorable ones:

"When I give you an order, I want to see it done, or your dead body where you died trying to do it."
"Never eat more than your mask can hold."
"I am not your friend, I am your boss. If you want to be friends, that's okay, but that doesn't change the fact that I am your boss first."
"The company officer is the designated adult supervision in the station. Act like it."
"There won't be a group hug at the end of this. I don't do Kumbaya."
"When I call for a resource I'm gonna give you type and kind. If I call for a Lincoln-ful of Panamanians, I don't care where you got it, just give me the closest one."
"Let's put this in terms you can understand: Confined space rescue is nothing more than HAZMAT on a rope."
"Being a truckie requires resourcefulness. You are presented with a problem no one else knows how to fix and you fix it with what you brought to the party or what you can swipe. After that, it's all magic."
"Individuals have given themselves the freedom to make poor decisions, then be let off the hook because we 'shouldn't judge them', or because their mommy didn't hug them as a child, or whatever the victim story is this week." (Okay, I just used that one again the other day).
"The base cause of indignity is usually the result of inconsiderate behavior." (Oh, and that one is new. But I liked it).
"Conflict in life is inevitable. Conflict escalation and intractability is not." (Alright, that one is new as well. Back to the old stuff).
"There's enough ugly going on around us right now without our own people bringing it down on us."
"Each of us should be serving as a positive example of how to do the job, volunteer or career, and without acting like a bunch of amateurs and whackers."
"The important part in our lives, really, isn't necessarily what we can fill up our minds with at every moment, but about creating space to let more in."
"There are a few things that you should raise the stakes for, like your faith, your family, and your country. But when faced with an unwinnable scenario and a profound lack of resources, sometimes it is best to save what you can save and live to fight on another day."
"Where t = tempo, r = resources and f = frustration: increasing t multiplied by decreasing r = exponential increase in f."
"The taxpayers in your community ultimately decide what level of service they want. If they are insistent that giving you no resources is okay, then they have to be educated to what extent that investment will reap disaster. Risk is proportionate to return."
"There are other sides to every argument that get squashed by the rush of the ADD crowd to comment. Don't fall into the trap of the unenlightened. Think before you post."
"I can think of no rational society that thinks it is okay to screw the disadvantaged for the benefit of the privileged. Taking advantage of the less fortunate is simply bullying."
"When we use the phrase 'customer service", if that's not appealing to you, try saying it like this: 'doing what is right for our neighbors and the people who visit and work in our community'. That should be a little more pleasant."
"Successful coaches match schemes to personnel, not vice-versa."
"If you are going to successfully implement change in your organizational culture, there should be a reluctance to be where you were and a desire to get where you are going."
"I'm pretty sure that when my ticket , I'm not going to be quoted saying something profound, poetic, or heroic. It is likely going to be something that can't be repeated around children or the faint-hearted."
"If we really want our industry to recognized as professional, it requires consistent conduct that is professional."
'Legitimate power, in the sense of leading others, is limited to the amount of leverage the followers will permit."
"Tansformative leadership requires commitment, honesty to self, and an understanding of the world. It's yours if you can embrace change, open yourself up to it, and set the example to others."
"Our business is too dangerous to leave the teaching to amateurs."
"Perhaps if you guys are going to fight fire like you are in the '70's, you should be paid like we were then too."
"If as a team, you can't agree on the destination, someone needs to get out of the car. Ultimately, getting to the destination requires assessment, negotiation, understanding, cooperation, and ends with commitment."
"More often than I care to, my 'command presence' comes out at inopportune times, like when I am talking to my wife (she doesn't like it), my kids (they're not crazy about it either), or my colleagues (they probably think I'm insufferable anyway)."
"If you fail to illustrate a clear picture of who is in charge, someone else will come in and fill that drawing in for you."
"Sometimes the best we can do is to pin it down to the neighborhood of origin, if that's what was burning when we got there."

Since at some point perhaps I'll add another page of these for the next years, if one of the sentences I uttered strikes a chord with you, point it out to me and I'll add it. I'm all about customer service. Until next time, thanks for reading.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on June 29, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, change, Command & Leadership, customer service, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, Firefighter Safety & Health, Fires, Funding & Staffing, leadership, Line of Duty, Major Incidents, motivation, officership, planning, politics, rebellion, Rescues, revolution, Special Operations, Training & Development • Tagged: change, conflict, credentialing, customer service, disaster, economy, education, EMS, FEMA, FHZ, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Forums, Firehouse Zen, government, Hilton Head Island, IACOJ, incident command, incident management, kind, management, marketing, media, Mick Mayers, motivation, NIMS, officer, opportunity, politics, professionalism, quotes, resources, risk reduction, safety, South Carolina, team, Training, type, vision

It’s Been Busy

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If you were wondering where I have been for almost a month, the title sums it up. I have sat down for a few minutes a few times but something distracting kept coming up. Priorities being what they are, unfortunately, this blog is fairly inconsequential in comparison to the other issues. But don't think that I wasn't thinking about it, often.

I'm trying to get re-organized and to get my feet going in the direction they are supposed to be pointed. But even my attempts to do that seem a little clumsy. But I did take the time over the last month to add some "me" time in and that seems to be working out, for at least a little bit of the day.

Today I went with the family to the beach. We have a guest staying with us for a week and when my wife asked me what I wanted to do today, I said that is what I wanted to do. You do have to understand, however, while we live within a very short walk from the beach and go there pretty much every weekend, it is not my normal choice. See, the whole thing about going to the beach means the herding of three young girls is involved, and getting them in swimsuits and slathered with sunscreen is about as easy as fishing with a volleyball net. Then there's the packing of the stuff, of which there is lots. And of course, we have to put on sunscreen as well, which I won't mince words about: I hate sunscreen. But as you can tell, I met with mild disbelief when I said it's what I wanted to do.

So while getting to the beach is almost a total inconvenience, being there is different. My wife likes to relax and tan, read a magazine, and try to sleep (I doubt she ever gets a chance). The girls have to categorize all the marine life, socialize with the tourist kids, build at least three big holes, eat (and for Honora, that is full-time), and beg me to do stuff I really don't want to do, but am reluctantly willing to do most of the time. I like to keep moving and the thing my brother-in-law got me hooked on is hunting for shark teeth.

And thus the lesson in this lengthy explanation of why I haven't been here. Today, when I found one of those elusive shark's teeth, I gave it to our guest as a souvenir. She was grateful, but asked if I didn't want it. While I keep a few of the teeth, I usually give them to my kids or if there's some child nearby who has never seen a shark's tooth, I'll give it to them. And today when I gave away the tooth I had just found, I realized why I liked looking for them.

It is literally the one time during my entire week when I am focused on something and have nothing else occupying my mind. I mean, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about work or wondering why my five-year old was battling the undertow, but those thoughts (well, I'm kidding about the undertow part) are really on the periphery. My phone is back up at the chair and there's really nothing to distract me other than my own thoughts.

Part of the art of searching, I have found, is that I discover more teeth when I stop looking and just see the teeth rather than to look for them. Sometimes it's the angle of the sun, or sometimes it is a certain color or the position of the tooth that strikes me as odd, but it isn't easy to find them and so going to the beach and finding two or three each trip is pretty rare, unless you are Uncle Michael, who is the world champion shark tooth finder, at least according to his brother in law and his nieces. I usually don't go away without finding at least one, but more than that is really pushing it.

But the whole state of mind is important. That is, we all need to find something that gives us pleasure, or at least allows our mind to go into neutral, in order to stay sane. When I was young, I worried when I wasn't thinking about something. Now, in what I consider to be a more enlightened moment in my life, I realize that it is more important to occasionally disengage from the world, to put all those concerns aside for a few moments, and to clear out the junk that accumulates in our heads from everything we deal with daily. The important part in our lives, really, isn't necessarily what we can fill up our minds with at every moment, but about creating space to let more in.

I have been struggling trying to find a special something to put in my blog, like the Weekly Weasel or the Microcoaching ideas. I spent a lot of time, a month almost, trying to figure that out. Then today I realized, it's not what Firehouse Zen is about. This blog wasn't meant to be work, it was meant to enlighten. Those who get it will come back and they'll bring their friends. Those who don't get it, won't. If you read what I say here and it strikes a chord, great. And if not, try again later, because maybe it will. But more importantly, I need to go back to insuring that what this blog is about isn't being the best or the most read or crammed with the most information. It needs to be about whatever that need is at that moment. And if you like it, share it and whatever will be, will be.

I promise to stop trying to live up to the daily grind and go back to doing what I do best. And if people like it, they'll be back. And that's about the best that anyone could ever want to be.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on June 12, 2011 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, leadership • Tagged: change, conflict, FHZ, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, opportunity, professionalism, risk reduction, South Carolina, vision

We Try Harder

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SC-TF1 Demobilizing From Chalmette, LA after Hurricane Katrina, 2005.

I had the opportunity to be part of a test rehearsal for a web conference going on Friday. In one of the questions, we were asked, “If you had to give your department a grade, what would it be?” I was the only one who gave my department an “A”. Of course, when you see that you have made a choice like that, you immediately begin to second-guess yourself.

I was pretty self-conscious about that decision, even though nobody knew who answered each question and nobody would have known it was me that graded us so. I actually thought about it long afterward, in an attempt to understand in my absolute certainty with 10 seconds on the clock, that we deserved the highest mark on a standard grade. It was, frankly, a little presumptuous of me.

The quick answer is that we don’t deserve an “A”. We are definitely customer oriented and we are definitely aggressive firefighters who use best practices and manage our risk appropriately. We are definitely on the leading edge of EMS delivery and while we are not THE organization by which all should be measured, many would be doing pretty well to do so.

But while we are definitely making huge strides and we have many accomplishments, we aren’t where we feel we should be. That is universally agreed upon in our organization. There is just too much to do, and while we are hitting the high priority items, there are so many things we want to do, and have begun doing, but there are only 24 hours in a day and finite resources otherwise at our disposal.

It is for the same reason, perhaps, that I should instead embrace the criticism of some in the knowledge that the minute we stop reassessing our service we become complacent. Don’t believe for a second that I don’t take the criticism personally, because although I shouldn’t, I do. Just as you know all the idiosyncrasies of your own children, you’d never stand for anyone else criticizing them. And, after 29 years of being part of the core individuals who pushed, pulled and shaped what is now known as our department, I have very little patience for the particular individuals who have come along since with a lot of criticism and no substantive contributions. My personal take on it, in fact, is that we have a list of people who would be happy to take their jobs.

Our line of reasoning, however, should be to embrace the constructive criticism that can be drawn from some of the comments. We should always perform self-critique, but self-critique is not self-immolation. We should always be pulling lessons from where we are and where we want to be, and the reason why we aren’t where we want to be. But this isn’t an effort to tell us what a bad job we are doing, but ways in which we need to improve.

The minute we begin to believe we are Number One in the county, the state, the region, or the nation, and we begin to believe we are “The Best”, we (all of us) tend to believe we can’t learn from others or from ourselves. It also demeans the rest of those who do an excellent job providing service with the resources they have in the community they must serve. Of all things, though, it’s pretty presumptuous again to suggest that we are the best at anything other than delivering the emergency services on Hilton Head Island, because really, that’s all that matters.

My own personal vision for our organization is to be one of those departments that others hold up to say, “This is the gold standard. This is how we want to be”. We continue to make leaps in that direction. We are, though, our own worst critics. We need to always be looking out for better ways to improve. Daily, we must try harder.

The effort must be placed on continual improvement. “Zero defects” is a pretty lofty goal, but in our business, zero defects may be the difference between life and death, between going home in the morning or going home in the hosebed of the rig under a pair of crossed aerials.

Never get complacent. Never believe you are the best, at least not for longer than it takes to get to the desired result, then to take a breath, look around, and say, “Where to from here?” The moment we stop, we die. We should always resolve to do better each time we are presented with a new challenge and to dig out whatever lessons we can observe from our current situation. There is no time to dwell on it, though. Digest it, make the adjustment, and move on.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on April 27, 2011 • Filed under: "accident prevention", administration-leadership, change, command, Command & Leadership, customer service, education, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firefighter Safety & Health, firefighting, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Funding & Staffing, government, leadership, motivation, officership, planning, politics, professionalism, rebellion, rescue, revolution, technology, Technology & Communications, Training & Development • Tagged: 2005, accomplishments, aggressive, challenge, Chalmette, children, complacent, conflict, constructive, continual improvement, contributions, core, criticism, crossed aerials, customer oriented, customer service, emergency, EMS, FHZ, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, firefighters, Firehouse Zen, gold standard, Hilton Head Island, idiosyncrasies, Katrina, leadership, leading edge, Louisiana, management, Mick Mayers, Number One, opportunity, professionalism, resources, risk reduction, safety, SC-TF1, self-critique, self-immolation, South Carolina, SUSAR, Training, US&R, USAR, web conference, Zero defects

Tillered Aerials and Safety Collaboration

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Hilton Head Island Truck 6 working in Palmetto Dunes.

In the years before becoming a chief officer I spent the very large majority of my career as a truck company officer. The last ten years of my assignment to Truck 6 was spent on the tractor-drawn aerial we currently have. The crews assigned to Six-Truck will have a “new” ride soon; our reserve tiller is off being re-tractored and the trailer refurbished. Once the new one returns, the ALF piece that served us valiantly for all these years will then rotate to reserve status.

Since I was the lifer truckie captain and one of only three in the department who had even sat behind the wheel of a TDA before (I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason I got the job), I got to shop, spec, purchase, equip, and train the company in our new concept. We brought in an expert who was likewise, a lifer truckie, and learned to drive the TDA the old fashioned way (drive it around the parking lot for a while).

My observation was such that, as an educator, there was probably a more effective method of developing drivers for this specialized piece of machinery. When we were doing research on writing a course on driving tillers, I found a shocking lack of information (at that time) on them and ultimately, a few colleagues and I developed the coursework from which we certify our personnel to drive. This, to satisfy the naysayers, also involved INTENSIVE driving of the vehicle: beachfront parking lots during summer, night driving, driving in the rain, and lots and lots of situational stuff. Needless to say, when we were done, that first round of drivers was pretty proficient.

Lately we have been finding that there is a desire for some to want to reduce the requirements for TDA chauffeurs and tiller operators and I expressed my opinion that this was not the way to go. Our organization does all kinds of stuff in our community in conjunction with our customer service outlook, as well as respond on emergencies. Time is very valuable, but I also know of a long and distinguished history of TDA mishaps that each time point to a missed element of discipline and training. There are basic laws of physics that really come into play with a tractor-drawn aerial that don’t in your basic straight frame aerial, and I have been less than tolerant of relief drivers who don’t understand that.

So you can imagine my interest when I found out about this video collaboration between the Raleigh and Seattle Fire Departments as can be seen here:Raleigh and Seattle Collaborative Training Video I have been watching to see what lessons we might get out of the Raleigh TDA rollover and it seems as if we will have a very valuable tool for educating not only TDA drivers, but all firefighters as well.

But while this could evolve into an entire lesson on driving tillered apparatus, the discussion I want to actually have is that there is a wealth of information out there that you all have the opportunity to obtain. We find too often that people are unwilling to accept the observations and experiences of others and instead “reinvent the wheel” regularly, wasting time and money in the process. But these two departments saw needs and worked together to produce a valuable teaching tool.

There is no shame in finding out what mistakes (or positively, what efforts) have been previously made in our business and asking questions about he good, the bad, and the ugly. This is called research. We ask questions to determine an answer to a problem and rely on science and experience to make decisions. The problem is, it requires effort and it requires being candid about the issues. But no progress gets made without learning about what went right and what went wrong.

Check out the video and tell me what you think. I have already viewed it a number of times and take away something new each time. We are fortunate (and thankful) that no one was killed in this event. And it goes without saying, I thank both departments for their sincere effort in making the job safer. But the lessons learned are no good to anyone if we keep them locked up in a closet. Share the knowledge, collaborate, and learn from one another.

Note: I meant to add this link as well and failed to do it: The Fire Engineering article that spurred my interest. I like to give credit where credit is due.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on April 20, 2011 • Filed under: "accident prevention", administration-leadership, change, customer service, education, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firefighter Safety & Health, leadership, motivation, News, officership, planning, professionalism, rollover, safety, seatbelts, Training & Development, training-fire-rescue-topics, Vehicle Operations & Apparatus, Videos • Tagged: aerial, change, credentialing, customer service, education, FHZ, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, Hilton Head Island, injury, ladder, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, MVA, MVC, observation, opportunity, professionalism, Raleigh, research, resources, risk reduction, rules, safety, science, seatbelt, Seattle, South Carolina, TDA, tiller, tractor drawn aerial, Training, truck, vehicle operation

The Capacity Building Exercise To Change All Exercises

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We are all interconnected; how so remains to be examined. We are part of a bigger whole.

Our industry is in dire need to undergo extensive capacity building. Capacity building is the assistance provided to societies which have a need to develop a certain skill or competence. More recently, however, capacity building is being used to facilitate innovative approaches to social and environmental problems.

Capacity building can be defined as “activity which strengthens the knowledge, abilities, skills and behavior of individuals, while improving institutional structures and processes such that the organization can efficiently meet its mission and goals in a sustainable way.”

For organizations, capacity building may relate to almost any aspect of its work: improved governance, leadership, mission and strategy, administration, program development and implementation, identification of revenue streams, diversity, partnerships and collaboration, evaluation, advocacy and policy change, marketing, positioning, planning, etc.

For individuals, capacity building may relate to leadership development, advocacy skills, instructional abilities, technical skills, organizing skills, and other areas of personal and professional development.

When I began to write this article, I was thinking about a different direction than the one I shifted to this morning. I happened to be listening to Bob Edwards this morning, as I do routinely when I am driving around. He was interviewing Tom Shadyac, best known as the director behind movies like Ace Ventura. I’ll let the I Am video tell the story, but in short, he had a mind-opening experience as a result of a bike accident and the subsequent recovery, and it inspired him to make a documentary which seeks answers to deeper issues.

The point in his interview that really got me was this: We have been taught over the course of our lives when faced with a problem to ask “What is wrong?” when we should really be asking “Why is this wrong?” Shadyac suggests a more metaphysical approach to our cultural issues which revolve around more cooperation and supportiveness and less competition and strife.

When I applied this to what I had begun to write, it occurred to me that maybe we (emergency services and in society as a whole) are going about this all wrong. Our continual inability to work together to foster positive change is likely deeper than even we originally suspected. If we continue to go after each others’ throats in the vollies vs. career, East vs. West, Fire vs. EMS, safe vs. unsafe battles which rage daily in our business, how can we ever expect to achieve any respect from others outside emergency services, much less endorsement on issues we can all agree on.

It seems to me that the KSAs we need to teach are farther removed than basic operational issues, the KSAs we need to emphasize are our greater connection throughout the entire emergency services industry, how we need to get past the things that divide us and unite about things we can agree on and change.

We talk about “brotherhood”, but what really is brotherhood anymore? You have brothers in career shops bashing brothers in vollie houses because of a number of reasons. Shouldn’t we simply agree that we both do a dangerous job, made more dangerous by the bean-counters limiting our abilities to obtain cutting edge technologies, the best training, and sufficient staffing?

I realize that I have indeed been asking “why” things are wrong for a long time, while many of my brothers were and are still focused on “what” is wrong. I just guess I needed someone to point that out to me.
The capacity building in ourselves, in our organizations, and within our industry is essential for our continued survival. Einstein said, “We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.”

I’m suggesting that a good place to start is in a society where there are those who have a core value of service to others, a society in which the greater good is supposed to be placed above that of the individual, and where characteristics of selflessness and courage are valued attributes, not hindrances. If there is any established society in which those morals are daily sought and in which we insist they are founded upon, it would be the society made up of fire and EMS professionals.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on April 4, 2011 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, customer service, education, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, Firefighter Safety & Health, Fires, Funding & Staffing, leadership, motivation, officership, planning, politics, professionalism, rebellion, revolution, Technology & Communications, Training & Development • Tagged: abilities, Ace Ventura, Bob Edwards, capacity building, change, conflict, cooperation, customer service, education, einstein, emergency service, EMS, FHZ, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, government, Hilton Head Island, I Am, knowledge, KSA, leadership, management, metaphysics, Mick Mayers, motivation, officer, opportunity, planning, politics, professionalism, research, resources, risk reduction, safety, skills, South Carolina, team, teamwork, tom shadyac, vision

Saying Goodbye To A Friend

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We best memorialize our brethren by remembering the lessons they teach us.

I actually started writing this post six months ago. It’s probably not like you’d think. I had my initial moments of grief when a friend and colleague passed away late last year. But after that, like one of us has said, “It’s like I keep expecting her to walk through the door any minute.” It’s like she went away and we haven’t really come to the belief that she’s gone.

Susan’s credentials as a leader were impressive. She came on board not long after our department was in the throes of a major overhaul of our command staff as a result of retirements and going on to bigger venues. But while her impact on our organization was large, her time with us was short and to be quite candid, the changes she endeavored to make didn’t quite stick the way they should have.

I guess one of the reasons I never finished posting (because the post actually went on from here) was that it kept sounding like a eulogy and that’s not what I wanted to do. This issue isn’t about me or anyone else who is still around picking up the pieces, but about moving forward, transitioning, living through a traumatic event and learning how to move on.

I dragged this back out again from my “drafts” pile because for the better part of yesterday, I was trying to catch up on my workload and making pretty decent progress. I think I’m only backlogged to November now (that’s LAST November). Things came to a crawl, however, when I began to tackle the next priority on the list, which was (is, because I’m not done) a “Line of Duty Death” guideline (LODD, for my non-fire readers). While Susan’s death was not an LODD, it was very much about a loss to our fire department family. I have always been impressed by our ability to rally, and of course, the amazing memorial that was virtually shot from the hip.

We can always look back in amazement at what we instinctively got right and make notes about what we probably could have done better at. Her family asked us to coordinate the services and a few stalwart colleagues/friends jumped in there and did a pretty damn good job organizing and contacting and negotiating to create a memorial worthy of commemorating Susan’s impact on our lives. While there’s none of us that wouldn’t have wanted to fill Yankee Stadium for her, we did a good job of filling the venue we had, and the service was both tearful and funny, the way she probably would have wanted it.

But the moral of this story is that when we lose someone dear to us, we have a need to commemorate their life. The deceased are deceased and while it is my belief that we honor them by having a ceremony, and it is also my belief that they are taking in our feelings and understanding how much they meant to us from a better place, when it comes down to it, a lot of that may be more about us processing our own feelings and trying to get us to move on to the next phase of our lives.

I have said before, and again in this post as well, that if we really care about leaving a legacy, we should consider the culture we develop as a result of our leadership of others.

What better memorial to another than to recognize that our beloved was such an important part of our life that the traditions they instilled in us, the commitment to excellence, and the dedication to service so ingrained in our culture, that we refused to let that value die long after that person was gone from this mortal coil. Unfortunately, when I think back on it, I think maybe we might have failed Susan.

With some substantial challenges on our horizon and after talking to others within our organization about a renewed commitment to improvement and service, I have to meditate a little on what that truly means and how to go about facilitating that change among the people I am responsible for mentoring. As a chief officer, one of the hardest things you have to do sometimes is admit to yourself that you have let your vision be narrowed by petty issues. As a chief officer, your vision can’t be obscured by the trees; you need to view the entire landscape.

My job must be to focus on positive strategic change. I have company officers who must translate that change into daily tactical objectives. If they can’t do that, they have to do some soul searching themselves, because the purpose of the officer on a team isn’t to be one of the gang, it is to lead the team. It is the job of the officer to work with other officers to form an effective cadre of other leaders and to be above pettiness themselves. When you make the choice that your badge will have bugles on it, it’s time to leave the past behind and focus on the future. And if you ca’t do that, then you need to admit that it might be better to return to the gang. No one ever said leadership was easy.

We have many people in our lives whom we love in their own special ways. All of the assembled brothers and processions of fire apparatus, all of the pipes and crossed ladders and other powerful traditions are nothing if we can’t be true to ourselves and appreciate that our calling is to serve others. Service to others is the hallmark of our tradition. People would not revere firefighters if not for their long-standing tradition of selflessness, of commitment despite adversity, and of bravery in the face of death and destruction. If we truly want to memorialize our loved ones and our brothers, we need to re-dedicate our careers toward self-improvement, education, and dedication, as well as to teach and mentor those who are behind us in the ranks.

Don’t make saying goodbye a hollow promise of honoring the deceased. The funeral is just the beginning of a new life without that person standing next to us. If they really mean something to us, we will consider the lessons they taught us and create action instead of words.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on March 28, 2011 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, customer service, education, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firefighter Safety & Health, Fires, Funding & Staffing, In the Line of Duty, leadership, Line of Duty, LODD, motivation, officership, planning, politics, professionalism, revolution, safety, Training & Development • Tagged: change, conflict, customer service, death, education, EMS, FHZ, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, government, Hilton Head Island, leadership, lessons, LODD, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, officer, opportunity, planning, professionalism, South Carolina, Susan Williams, understanding, vision

Haters Need Not Apply

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Sometimes we have to make decisions in a fog. But not always. Take the time to see the whole picture.

The brotherhood of fire and rescue is but a microcosm of the greater part of society. In turn, a visit to any un-moderated site will reveal that the general public isn’t any better about being civil, so we probably shouldn’t put a whole lot of worry into the declining civility among people who profess to be part of a brotherhood. It’s just become a norm of our victim society that it’s okay to be self-righteous and it’s okay to go after anyone who doesn’t think like us.

You would think a group of people who profess brotherhood as a redeeming value would be a little slower to throw one of their brothers under the bus when something goes wrong, but as I mentioned in the Tuscon post, that is obviously not the case. In the event that an individual within our ranks does something completely against the grain of our collective morals, like set fires or engage in child pornography, I am entirely understanding about the emotion involved in that rage. It is proportionate to the offense. But since I’m sure you all have heard of cases where the other side of the story ends up being a compelling explanation, we need to take care and exercise caution about expressing our condemnation, because, as we command officers tend to say, the truth actually lies somewhere between Points A and B.

I’m not a hypocrite by any means; I am right there with you. I just happen to also take a little bit of time to rein in my passions a little. If you were standing next to me at the moment I got the news of a “firefighter declining to respond to an incident”, I’m sure you’d have seen another side of me. However, the luxury of the internet is not only real-time event coverage, but the ability to pause before re-communicating your opinion, especially since unless you were there, it is your opinion and based on conjecture, not on tangible evidence. You might not be able to take back what you just blurted out of your mouth, but you can certainly check yourself before clicking the radio button. Very few of the stories I hear are actual prima facie cases. Since these stories unfold so quickly, we often find that there is more to the story that doesn’t get revealed due to the emotions choking the lines of communication.

It brings up the topic of this page, however, since some of the e-mail (I typed in “e-mal” in my draft – was that a slip?) doesn’t seem to agree with me and of course, there are those who can hide behind their pseudonyms in the comments. While I am sure the act of someone failing to go to an emergency challenged our beliefs in what was good and right about our profession, on lesser occasions, the anger and vitriol for say, someone not wearing their gloves in a picture, is a little over the top. And I say “a little” in my most sarcastic tone of voice. Some of the comments from the peanut gallery are also those who, given their profiles, probably haven’t seen too many incidents more challenging than a dumpster fire, and even then, they weren’t even in charge of that.

Individuals these days, in this moment of instantness (you like that?), are quick to react instead of reflect. They simply don’t have the patience for the whole story. They want their news, their blogs, their everything instantly and then they act on that information accordingly. In a time-compressed environment, there is only a moment to digest what we have heard and then to regurgitate it so that we can be the first to make a comment. The first to comment must be the best informed, right? The self-appointed subject matter expert? The one on the inside, right?

For me, I see it in the type of readership I get here at FHZ. The comments are usually thoughtful and agreeable. I post every comment, pro or con, so long as it isn’t spam. And although I may not agree with you, I consider your perspective on the issues as valuable and enlightening. But I get the impression that the few individuals who have seen fit to be trolls (with one notable exception) haven’t read farther than the first paragraph anyway. Anything over 140 characters for a lot of these individuals is a lot of wasted time reading.

We don’t do controversy here on this blog. We are interested in a bigger picture. If it is an event that is truly worth discussing and there are alternate points of view, we engage in another time-wasting effort: dialogue. We ask questions. We pose thoughts. We engage in critical examination. We remain open-minded. It’s a little too much for some people, I am aware, but it keeps the riff-raff out.

The readers of this blog generally have proven to be those who I could sit down and have a beer with and talk about something other than the fire service, or have a conversation about the fire service in say, the context of a retail business, or a day care, or the University of Life. They can see things for more than what is printed on the face. They possess deeply considered ideas or are able to see that there are advantages to listening to the opposition. The readers of this blog are those who I consider to be the hope for emergency services to evolve out of the tar pit of whackerdom and rise to the level of professionalism.

If you know of someone who operates on a different playing field than the norm, send them here and ask them to say their piece so we know they are here. But most importantly, we are looking for readers (and commenters) who have ideas to share and innovative ways of looking at things. Just because the issue appears to be obvious, it isn’t often the case. We want to talk with REAL leaders, those of you who consider enlightened leadership to be a desired trait, not a hurdle to our position. We need engagement, not brick walls. Haters and groupthinkers need not apply.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on February 24, 2011 • Filed under: change, command, Command & Leadership, customer service, education, EMS Topics, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, Firefighter Safety & Health, firefighting, government, leadership, Media Relations, motivation, News, officership, politics, professionalism, rebellion, revolution, safety, technology, Technology & Communications, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: anger, brotherhood, change, command, communication, conflict, controversy, customer service, dialogue, education, EMS, enlightening, environment, FHZ, fire, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, firefighter, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, groupthink, Hilton Head Island, instantness, internet, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, opportunity, politics, professionalism, pseudonym, public, rescue, society, South Carolina, subject matter expert, truth, tuscon, victim society, whackerdom

A Little Safety Parable

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You too could be roadkill. Photo courtesy of aanimalcontrol.com

So I’m walking from our house to the beach with my three daughters. There’s a road we have to cross in between here and there that’s pretty busy. On occasion tourists come flying around the curve, not realizing that there’s an area where you have to cross (although it’s not a marked crosswalk). While no one has been hit at that spot in the 29 years I have been living on the Island (that I know of), I know it’s a bad section that you can’t see around. It occurred to me today when I was making that crossing that it’s a lot like the risk we endure as firefighters.

I had the opportunity this weekend to read a recent article on Stat911, that seems to have created some serious wailing and gnashing of the teeth between people who call themselves brothers. Honestly, it was pretty sad to me as I read these comments. I admit, it is a little bothersome when a video comes out and a number of people point out the obvious mistakes made, but as I mentioned in an earlier article here on FHZ, we should be looking at things that go wrong and learning, and resolving to keep from repeating events that maim and kill our brethren.

Conversely, instead of saying how stupid some of these people are, perhaps we should offer some constructive criticism and offer suggestions on methods that would help solve the problems, rather than lowering the bar into that angry pit of accusatory language. And when we generalize about whole departments or organizations based on a squirrely few, we aren’t doing anything other than trying to piss one another off. I agree 100% that some of the repeated actions (or inactions) taken by other firefighters that endanger themselves and their their colleagues are a little infuriating (like refusing to wear a seat belt), but like the point I have also made over and over again, people aren’t going to learn when you rub their nose in it, they will learn when they see the logic in changing.

But back to my story. There is, of course, risk in crossing the street, but we accept that risk when we go for a walk, don’t we? As a pedestrian, we take a calculated risk every time we go out in the road, but it doesn’t stop us from doing it. In fact, walking in the middle of a busy street is exhilarating. There’s a certain adrenaline rush when you run out in front of moving cars.

As a responsible father, however, I’d advise against running in front of a moving car. I’m sure I’d get in a little trouble with my wife, the law, and probably get a few death threats if I just let my children run out in front of cars. If my four-year-old got struck by a car there, after having just let her run out there, knowing the risks involved, wouldn’t that make me a little bit liable? But given the logic espoused by a few of my more enlightened colleagues, I suppose I am overreacting when I tell my girls it’s a wise idea to look both ways at that intersection. After all, no one has ever been struck or killed here. If I insisted on having the street marked with lines and a sign, I might be construed as overreacting if you ask some of these folks.

I eat risk for lunch. I eagerly chose to pursue a fire service career because it was exciting. Even more so, I focused my whole career to concentrate on special operations. I’m the Deputy Director of a US&R Task Force. I used to teach high-line rope rescue, and hold internationally recognized instructor certifications in SCUBA and water rescue. I hold NPQ and IFSAC certifications as a HAZMAT Technician. Two of my favorite hobbies are mountain biking and skiing. I’m not in the slightest bit worried about taking risks.

But there is a serious difference between taking stupid risks and calculated risks. Firefighting isn’t Jackass. We have a serious job to do that involves serving the public, and using our personnel as cannon fodder doesn’t do the job. If you take a risk and die trying to save a life in our job, I’ll be the first one to sing your praises. If you take a risk and die trying to save a burning trash pile, I’m sorry, I’m not impressed. If you get burned because you failed to use the safety equipment we provide you, I guess my first question will be, why wasn’t it used?

I think some of the plastic vests and hard-hats are a little much sometimes, but I can understand the effort to make ourselves more visible and to avoid having something clonk us on the head. But as a leader and chief officer, I also know what can go wrong, what can go seriously, seriously wrong, and to ignore it because I’ve never seen it first hand would be folly. And to just turn my back on personnel who fail to use good safety practices, knowing what the outcome could be, would be negligent.

Quit the name calling and sand throwing and act like grown-ups. You can argue that it’s just “ragging”, but it’s not. The language some of you all out there are using is just plain wrong and malicious. And it certainly doesn’t represent your side of the argument professionally at all. I can give people crap all day long with the best of them, but that’s not what some of you are engaging in. What you are engaging in is simply destructive behavior, and it’s one of the reasons why our profession isn’t always taken very seriously. The only people we are hurting here is ourselves.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on August 7, 2010 • Filed under: "accident prevention", change, EMS Health & Safety, Fire Rescue Topics, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firefighter Safety & Health, In the Line of Duty, leadership, Line of Duty, LODD, motivation, officership, professionalism, safety, seatbelts • Tagged: change, conflict, Dave Statter, education, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, Hilton Head Island, incident management, management, Mick Mayers, risk reduction, safety

It’s The Minimum

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If you didn't have standards, this might be your first out engine. Swan Creek/Emu Creek Bushfire Brigade, Queensland, Australia 2002

Authentic Neapolitan pizzas are typically made with tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese. Genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of high-protein wheat flour (type 0 or 00, or a mixture of both), natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer’s yeast, salt and water. The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer. After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other machine, and may be no more than 3 mm (⅛ in) thick. The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a 485 °C (905 °F) stone oven with an oak-wood fire.^[4] When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant.

Those were just a few of the standards for an authentic Neapolitan pizza (published on Wikipedia), as recognized and protected by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana. Likewise, most of the things you take for granted in the world, with the exception of things like knock-off Rolexes, are constructed from materials meeting standards, are built to certain standards, and if they carry any kind of guarantee of quality or workmanship, must meet performance standards.

Unless your organization is living in a 1950’s time warp, the people in your community, when they call the fire department for help, expect help for many things that exceed the scope of “firefighting”. Regardless of whether your community is staffed with a career or a volunteer department, there are increased expectations on the level of service being provided. I can rationally argue the need for standards on a number of different levels. I will, however, only provide you with this one today; it’s the minimum.

If you want to call yourself a firefighter, there are certain things you should be able to do. If you cannot do these things, you run the risk of hurting yourself, not to mention others. You also run the risk of making an emergency greater than it was when you arrived. As a reasonable and prudent individual with a duty to act, you agree that your “job” (as a firefighter) entails certain knowledge, skills, and abilities to allow your organization the ability to advertise a product. What that product is in your jurisdiction could be limited to fighting fire or could be all-hazards, or anywhere in between.

Your community, in supporting the “fire department”, does so with the understanding that you are what you say you are. The community defines that expectation; if their only expectation is that a group of bubbas show up to put out a fire when it occurs, then maybe you don’t need to meet a standard. If that’s the case though, when insurance companies decide the risk is too great in your community, don’t be surprised when the citizenry can’t get coverage and they hang you (or your chief) in effigy at the town square. And that may be getting off light.

Minimum standards, among other things, define. Since a group of individuals representing different aspects of the world affected by a certain thing decided and agreed on a definition, and that group is recognized by the others affected by that thing, the definition becomes a standard. I could write a standard on constructing nuclear plants and declare it the minimum standard, but since I have no authority or expertise in doing so, my standard would likely be considered meaningless and useless.

For those who aren’t in favor of standards, I’d suggest that it’s not that you aren’t in favor of standards, but what is in those standards and how they came to be. If that’s the case, I’d say that before you make any proclamations on a standard being a “bad” standard, you seek to understand how that definition came to be and how it happens to be the minimum. In many cases, I’d bet that you’d find that others wanted a much stricter or more restricting definition and the end result was what everyone on that committee agreed was acceptable for use or was prudent.

Like I tell the people who work with me, don’t complain about anything unless you tried to do something about it. If you don’t like a standard, feel free to get involved. But the long and short of it is this: standards exist for at least one primary reason, and that reason is to define what something is. In the absence of any other meaningful definition, if something close fills that void, that standard will be the one that defines the subject matter. You can be angry about it if you like, but if you don’t like it, change it.

In the meanwhile, if it’s an accepted standard, you can assume you’ll have to meet it. You can say all day that you choose not to meet certain standards, but if you are like me, you will understand that to not do so will leave you open to a number of things, including liability. The only way to escape it is to lay that decision on the people who are at that payscale: the politicians. But that’s a blog post for another day.

Stay safe and do the best you can with what you have. But remember, the standard is what defines you. If you have no standard, you have no definition, and in that case, a monkey can do your job. Even pizzas are made to standards. If having no standard is what your community believes to be okay, then know that you ultimately get what you pay for, and if your community doesn’t support a department with minimum expectations of members, they shouldn’t be surprised when everything within the city limits are a smoking ruin some weekend.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on July 28, 2010 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, credentialing, education, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Funding & Staffing, government, leadership, motivation, NIMS, officership, planning, politics, professionalism, safety, Training & Development, US&R • Tagged: conflict, credentialing, FireEMSBlogs, Firehouse Zen, First Due Blog Carnival, Hilton Head Island, management, marketing, Mick Mayers, NFPA, NIMS, rolex, standards, Training

The Roto-Ray: Beauty or Beast?

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Ahhhh, the Roto-Ray. For those of us who grew up in or around East Coast fire companies as children, they are something we cherish dearly, a unique spinning tornado of light on the front of a shiny engine or truck. The department I work for, in a reach toward tradition and including a touch of modern technology, specified LED Roto-Rays on the fronts of our new fleet of engines and our future tractor-drawn aerial (minor refurb of Truck 7′s trailer with a new prime mover).

When I posted some pictures of our new quints on Facebook the other day, I was surprised to hear that some people aren’t fans of this fancy warning light. In response, I searched for similar feelings and found that there are, in fact, quite a few who don’t like them, and quite a few who do. So I guess, Roto-Rays are the Philadelphia Flyers of warning devices: You either love them or you hate them.

A write-up I found on them came from the Fenton Fire Apparatus website, from which I have paraphrased:

Roto-Ray Warning Lights have been used on fire and rescue apparatus for over 65 years. Roto-Rays are three sealed beam lights rotating @ 200 RPM in a horizontal plane that still commands attention in today’s traffic. The Roto-Ray Model 200 has three red sealed beam lights; the Roto-Ray Model 200W, available where permitted by state law, has one white and two red sealed beam lights.

Both models draw @ 10 amperes at 12.8 volts D.C. current [Since I'm not a technical guy, I don't know if this is for the new LED version or not]. Both models are available in four different mounting applications. Roto-Rays have an all spur gear drive train with all-driven components using ball bearings. The lamp spider is made of aluminum or polished chrome. All housings are made of 16 gauge steel. All Roto-Rays except the hidden mount are available in an all-chrome version. Roto-Ray Warning lights have been tested by an independent testing laboratory for compliance with applicable California and Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) standards.

I also found the patent information on the Roto-Ray, which was issued in 1930 to Edward Rumsey. So that’s a little about them. Anecdotally, I think they work great. A few weeks ago I was driving down the road in daylight hours and I caught in my rear-view mirror this visible circle of red and white behind me. It was our Engine 6, pulling out onto the main drag about 3/4 of a mile behind me. Between the reflective chevron striping of the front bumper and the Roto-Ray, it was pretty visible. Scientifically, I have no proof (sounds like an Executive Fire Officer research paper to me).

I have found a few threads where these devices have been debated like at NassauFDRant and of course, at the ol’ Firehouse Forums. There are also dozens of pictures and videos of them online, like this beautiful Hyattsville rig.

So what say you? What’s the controversy, other than cost (which seems like some of the issue)? Or tell us your special Roto-Ray story. In the meanwhile, I’ll do some deep Internet searching to see if I can find more history (like where the first one was used) and I’ll post it if I find it. Stay safe and thanks for reading.

[Editor's Note: I have also added a picture of the front of one of our rigs so you can see it; I'll find the night shot at some point]

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on July 14, 2010 • Filed under: Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, safety, technology, Vehicle Operations & Apparatus • Tagged: controversy, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Hilton Head Island, Mick Mayers, Philadelphia Flyers, Prince George County, Roto-Ray, safety, warning lights

Back To Work

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As some of you may have realized, I was on a vacation. While the first days involved attending to the business of the NFPA Technical Correlating Committee, of which I am a member as a result of my chairmanship of NFPA 1006, the remainder involved a jaunt by RV through some of America’s National Parks and Monuments with my wife, her sister, and my three young children. My wife and “Aunt Patrice” were pretty self-sufficient, as many adults tend to be. The three young ones, however, do require supervision (hopefully you all recognize this as being said tongue-in-cheek, since they are three little girls, ranging from 4 to 9, and each of them is already convinced they know WAY more than Dad).

While the supervision of children isn’t that much of a stretch from my real job (supervising firefighters), it does bear discussion here, since it doesn’t seem that all fire officers have the same understanding. Supervising my children involves primarily looking out for their welfare. It involves insuring they don’t plunge headlong off of one of the many steep overlooks of the Grand Canyon, and that they don’t shove an entire roll of toilet paper into the RV toilet, both of which could result in a disaster requiring lots of paperwork. This actually sounds much like my work at the fire department as well.

Watching children involves logistical functions such as scheduling and insuring they have the right materials for the job, which in my case involves a lot of distraction and could involve duct tape and beer, were it not for the intervention of my wife and Aunt Patrice. Likewise, I could probably fix most of my problems at the fire department with a lot of duct tape and beer, but I know laws prohibit the former and policies prohibit the latter, so I have to actually use the skills of negotiation, coaching, mentoring, and apparently, parenting.

So you see, my job as a father (and sherpa) doesn’t differ really much at all from my job as a Battalion Chief. When you put it in that perspective, seriously, you realize that the people you work with and for require your insight and creative application of problem solving to make the day go safely and effectively. Sun Tzu once said, “Treat your subordinates as you would your beloved children, and they will willingly die for you when you give the order.” While I don’t desire that from either my subordinates or my children, you get the point that if you apply the skills of GOOD parenting to both your children and your charges, they will hopefully respect and obey your orders, and do what is necessary to achieve success.

While my leave was really only marginally scarred by a Philadelphia loss to Chicago (where, coincidentally, Aunt Patrice is from) and the constant updates on the games from she and her friends, I had a great time and actually look forward to singing “Here Come The Hawks” for Fire Daily on the World Wide Web. I got to somewhat enjoy the final game from the comfort of the Maswick Lodge in the beautiful Grand Canyon and when it was all said and done, I said to my children (who Patrice convinced should all be loud, raucous Hawks fans for my benefit) that you know, it’s just a game. When I walked out onto each of those vistas of Zion, Bryce and of course, the Grand Canyon, I realize that ultimately, none of it really matters unless you build something out of all of these experiences, and share them with others. That’s really where leadership falls into the grand scheme of things, and if we can’t enjoy the sunsets and laughing at ourselves from time to time, what good is it all?

I’m glad to be back at work. Enjoy your day with your people as well, and remember, it’s all in how you choose to look at it as to how things will go for you and your team. Maintain a positive perspective and even the big things can be made right again. Be safe.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on June 15, 2010 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, fire service, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations • Tagged: Bryce Canyon, change, FireEMSBlogs, Firehouse Zen, Grand Canyon, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, officer, safety, Zion Canyon

Safety Message With A Parental Advisory

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Repeat after me: "It will all be okay." Breathe deeply.

That got your attention, didn’t it? However, I strive to maintain a “G” rating on FHZ, and the language is not that bad. I’m not interested in pushing any of your buttons; I just want to get this safety message across.

So let’s just jump right into it. Depending on where my shift falls, I drive my youngest daughter to school three or four times a week. Without fail, there is one dumbass who every morning, manages to tie up the carpool line for an extra five minutes while she yaks incessantly to one or another of the other parents waiting in line.

When she finally decides to pull up her tricked-out Escalade and discharge her whiny little brats, she ties up those exiting by stopping and talking to someone else. Thus far, I have not succumbed to the (strong) urge to walk up and pull her out through the partially open window of her status machine. But even as I originally contemplated this post, she ran a stop sign, swerved across three lanes of traffic at carpool pick-up, cell phone in one hand and double decaf frappe crappacino in the other, cutting cars off, just so she could pull up next to one of the other moms (there for the afternoon social, of course) and gab some more. (Breathe deeply).

“Where is he going with this?” you ask (cautiously). Well, while watching this daily comedy of the bizarre, I was thinking that perhaps our apparatus operators are also too distracted while driving very large, inertially-challenged, parade beasts, and maybe this is part of the cause of so many minor and major vehicle collisions each year.

Take for example, the discussion that I encountered this past week. I am the Chair of our department’s standard operating guideline committee and people sometimes pull me aside to discuss recent changes to our manual. With recent changes to the way we back our apparatus, our logic is to make everyone get off the apparatus (except the drivers, obviously) and act as spotters to provide some more eyes on the blind sides of the apparatus. As you can expect, there are those who think more than one spotter is a bad idea. I think that given the number of accidents we have had, we should be doing anything in our power to change things, since the current modus operandi doesn’t seem to be working all that well. If one spotter isn’t working, two or more might be better, but one certainly doesn’t seem to be doing the job now.

In our organization, the command staff (unreasonably, I guess) believes that any number greater than one is an unacceptable statistic for collisions. We LIKE being proactive. Consequently, we have people who think a few collisions is okay. ”It’s the price of doing business”, I heard someone say.

Of course, when assigned to spot the apparatus, if we happen to be doing so with a spotter who can actually manage to do more than fog a mirror, that’s all well and good. I say this because we have drivers who still manage to back into something even with an individual out there to plausibly prevent such an occurrence. Of course, that’s if THE SPOTTER isn’t themselves distracted by their own cellphone, the hottie crossing the street, shiny objects, or the flashing lights.

Between the radio going, the siren blaring, the other distracted drivers, the officer ordering, and the three swans-a-swimming, our modern fire apparatus operator has a serious challenge when it comes to paying attention to the road and the myriad hazards encountered between Point A and Point B. In today’s emergency services, and having read some interesting posts by members of some of the forums, while many of us believe the foremost concern of the apparatus operator should be the safe operation of their vehicle, there are people who are more concerned with what music they should be blasting on their way to “the big one”. Then we wonder why we have accidents.

Years ago, I heard someone say that if every vehicle on the road was equipped with a nine-inch stainless-steel spike in the center of the steering column, we would probably decrease the number of traffic accidents ten-fold. While I agree that a sharp object pointed at my chest would probably cause me to think twice before exceeding the speed limit, I think a less lethal solution, like a machine that would punch you in the balls for exceeding the physical limitations of the rig, might just be the answer. Trust me, if I were smacked in the cajones every time I unlawfully exceeded the speed limit, it would get my undivided attention. I certainly wouldn’t make that mistake twice. So, if you’re sincere about avoiding this terrible contraption: FOCUS ON DRIVING THE (Pick one: engine/truck/medic/rescue) SAFELY, because I’m off to get the patent.

It is painfully obvious each time we roll a vehicle, smash one into a car at an intersection, park one on the train tracks, or run over our back-up man that there are serious issues of attention at play here. Instead of focusing on getting to the fire first, we need to focus on getting to the fire in one piece. And so long as officers on these rigs sit silently and pray that the ride ends up well instead of speaking up and ordering the driver to slow down and drive reasonably, we will continue to lose our brothers and sisters for what- so some hopped up adrenaline junkie can pretend he’s Mario Andretti racing in a 25-ton killing machine?

Just as my story about the clueless soccer mom riled some of you up, so should the image of a fire apparatus driver ramming into the side of a carload of kids be equally, if not so much more, reprehensible. After all, our subject mom is just another dumbass civilian with a cell phone. But you, my friends, are caretakers of the public trust. The taxpayers chose to allow you to drive the biggest, shiniest example of the American Fire Service down its public thoroughfares because they had a semblance of trust that you wouldn’t mow them down like a dog when you were running to that alarm activation.

Let’s be serious about safe driving of our trucks. If you really want to kill yourself, do it at the scene where at least you can pretend you were saving someone’s life. Driving down the highway like a maniac isn’t helping anyone, may likely kill someone, and is really just an excuse for showing off. Don’t be a dumbass.

Do your job and be proud you are a firefighter, and keep your community safe by easing back a little on the throttle. Focus on what is important; delivering your highly trained crew with the necessary equipment to the scene of the emergency, and insuring that not only they arrive safely, but everyone and everything encountering you in your travels survives the experience as well.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on June 1, 2010 • Filed under: Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, Firefighter Safety & Health, In the Line of Duty, Line of Duty, LODD, motivation, officership, professionalism, rollover, safety, seatbelts, Vehicle Operation & Ambulances, Vehicle Operations & Apparatus • Tagged: change, customer service, education, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, safety

Almost Good Enough

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Pseudoladder. Could pass as a truck company in some places.

What does it mean to be “good enough”? Is being good enough sufficient to meet the needs of our customers? Is it good enough to meet safety requirements? Is being “good enough” good enough to keep civilians from being killed, much less firefighters?

When we establish a standard, the document is a minimum definition of what is “good enough”. While standards may prove irksome to people, those standards keep what is featured in the attached picture from being termed a “truck company” in some communities. When we have standards it keeps the old “five bubbas, a pound hound and a pickup truck” example that I like to use from time to time from being called an “urban search and rescue task force”.

As an officer, and more accurately, a leader, what is “good enough” for you to proclaim that title? Is it a minimum standard of education and experience? Or was it that you had the lowest social security number? Or even worse, was it because you are a “nice guy”? That would be the ol’ elected standard, in some places.

In most businesses, unless you are related to the boss by blood or marriage, there are certain standards required for achieving the pinnacle of success in your company. It may very well have been that you were the person who lasted the longest, but chances are that you had some kind of a spark of leadership somewhere if someone decided to put you in charge. Fogging a mirror might not be the only criteria, but if you fogged it the best, maybe that was the deciding factor.

As a leader in emergency services, “good enough” gets personnel injured or killed. ”Good enough” costs the public millions of dollars in waste. ”Good enough” is the price for an annual fire loss that leads all industrialized nations. So long as we continue to settle for the status quo, “good enough” is good enough.

If you fail to recognize that just being good enough isn’t, take this as a call to achieve more than that. By establishing vision, promoting core values, declaring a mission and goals, and doing something to tie all those things together, you take your team from existing to succeeding. By seeking innovation and more effective practices, we strive for excellence. By observing the mistakes of others and instead of ridiculing those people, learning constructively from their experience, we avoid having to make the hard (and painful) mistakes ourselves.

No one reading this probably feels like “good enough” is the answer to anything; by reading this, it shows you are probably interested in motivating yourself and your team and are looking for answers. If anything, be reassured, “good enough” has killed and injured more of us than any one factor, by way of heart attacks, falls, drownings, vehicle accidents, and any other number of causes of firefighter deaths. It shows itself in complacency and in acceptance that what the current situation is cannot be altered. I challenge you to look into your soul and wonder if by standing around and doing nothing, you were leading, or simply accepting your role in the line.

Be excellent and strive for being the best. It will keep you and your crew alive and it will better serve the public you are charged with protecting.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on February 18, 2010 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, customer service, Fire Rescue Topics, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firefighter Safety & Health, Funding & Staffing, government, leadership, Media Relations, officership, planning, politics, professionalism, revolution, safety, Training & Development • Tagged: change, credentialing, disaster, economy, education, fire service, government, management, marketing, Mick Mayers, motivation, NFPA, opportunity, politics, risk reduction, safety, standards

Playing With Sharp Objects

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Recently I was dwelling on an inventory of stupid and dangerous things I have done in the past. Since the list was way too long to go on about, I began to wonder why I did those things. While some of them were from my youth (like jumping off a roof with an umbrella), and some were from my bachelorhood (getting my Suzuki GS750E up to very unsafe speeds), it occurred to me that a lot of them occurred during my adolescence after watching the movie “Hooper“. At no time during any of those periods did I have a suicide wish- I didn’t WANT to die- but in my mind, I hadn’t really given it much thought. I hadn’t fully considered the consequences.

You can put the dangers out in front of someone in back and white. You can paint the picture for them in classes and education. You can bore them to death with your blog, like I do. I think that what it really comes down to, though, is that unless you have a very graphic experience with death and understand not only the implications on you, but on others, I don’t think most people can really grasp the message.

There is a lot to be said for working in our business. I have seen my share of people ejected from vehicles to convince me that wearing a seatbelt is a good thing. I have seen enough burned homes to understand that being fire safe will head off a lot of heartache. But no matter what, we have people who ride in fire apparatus without seatbelts and won’t keep their fire station free of hazards, and then they wonder how they end up on the national news wire. Risk vs. benefit doesn’t have to be limited to the fireground.

I enjoy fighting fires, but some of the fires I used to fight still baffle me. I have literally put everything on the line for an unsavable building before and to what end? They tore down the building later. But we still have people charging into fires, like they just want to roll in it for a little while. Well, the excitement of the fire is one thing, but I’ve actually seen what a fire can do to someone, so you’ll have to excuse my reluctance to get up close with it and get to know it better.

As emergency service leaders, we need to remind ourselves that just because we used to play in the street when we were kids doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Riding on tailboards and charging into unsafe buildings was fun until we saw people dying from those decisions. Be the grown-up and help point out to your personnel that just because things used to be one way, we have actually learned from our mistakes and it only makes sense to avoid these problems in the future. Revisiting them for experience’ sake isn’t fun, it’s just stupid.

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Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on November 23, 2009 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, leadership, officership, professionalism, safety, Training & Development • Tagged: change, education, fire service, government, Hilton Head Island, incident command, leadership, management, motivation, safety

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Swedish Message, Part 2

Giving As Much As We Have

Grow Up

You Can Quote Me On That (Before 2010)

It’s Been Busy

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The Capacity Building Exercise To Change All Exercises

Saying Goodbye To A Friend

Haters Need Not Apply

A Little Safety Parable

It’s The Minimum

The Roto-Ray: Beauty or Beast?

Back To Work

Safety Message With A Parental Advisory

Almost Good Enough

Playing With Sharp Objects

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