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No Trash Talking

Cicero said it best: "We do not destroy religion by destroying superstition." In fighting fire, however, if you suggest at all that doing things differently because the science indicates a better way, you'd think we were saying that the Earth was actually round.

Oh, yeah, that's right, the Earth IS round. Really, it is. Think back to those boring days of middle school, where we learned that the world being round was suggested by individuals who were then persecuted for suggesting such a thing. And in the fire service, it is true, that if you suggest doing things differently because the science says so, you too, are considered a heretic and burned at the figurative stake on the internet. Just read the comments and you shall see, it is true.

My father had a pretty serious heart attack this week and fortunately, was seen, evaluated, and sustained intervention for his potentially lethal LAD obstruction. He is snoozing peacefully at his own home in his own bed as I write this, courtesy of the modern miracle of medicine, for something that in my own lifetime, pretty much would have been a death sentence. The side benefit of these little disasters, however, is the chance to have side talks with my brother, who is on the cutting edge of the fire service in his own right, only he doesn't choose to have a nifty little blog like I do to talk about it.

We were talking about some studies in regard to the application of exterior streams to rapidly moving interior fire conditions, something that is seen to some in our business as being, let's see, "cowardly". As I said, however, as much as I too like to roll around in the heat and byproducts of combustion, from a purely scientific standpoint, it makes better sense to apply streams to the fire from the outside to control the fire quickly, rather than try to engage it automatically from inside. Rolling around on the inside of a burning building is not only hazardous, but in some moments, unnecessary, to achieve what it is we need to do.

Now this is certainly an oversimplification of the scenario, because there are other factors, but my point is that regardless of the science, there are those who profess to be immersed in the state of the firefighting art who think that just because they too like to get in and be "one with the Red Devil", that it actually makes sense to do so. And I am not saying (in this post) that it is right or wrong.

What I AM saying is, that we have many who resist the suggestion that change is warranted, not because of any other reason than their desire to do things the way we have always been doing things, and more often than not, because the changes being suggested happen to conflict with their mental image of the dashing, courageous firefighters of old, leaping into the flames and carrying out young damsels in distress and anything else that happens to make good headlines, like Fluffy, or a case of really good wine.

I guess that in the opinion of some, my father's heart attack might have been better off addressed by the liberal application of leeches, or bed rest and opium. But then, people died pretty often from things in years gone by that they don't die from today. You know: that science thing.

We can continue to keep our heads in the sand about advances in research, but like I have said, simply addressing the art of fighting fire from a fiscal aspect (and not an emotional one), each of my firefighters represents not only a living human being, but an expensive investment. And while throwing bodies into a battle without regard for how many lives are lost might have been the way you win wars in the pre-Napoleonic days, we realized that wars of attrition were more practically won through strategy and prudent use of resources, being that the losses were faced by the other side, not our own.

I have been batting around some ideas for the "vision" of fire, rescue, emergency medical service, and emergency management on the FHZ Twitter feed lately and getting some interesting comments via hashtag "FRED" (#FRED) and maybe its time to have some more open dialogue over what we should or should not be doing in our quest to save lives, property and the environment. At any means, I see this as opening up conversations that will be uncomfortable to some of you, simply due to the reactions I see when someone suggests doing things differently. But perspective is a funny thing and unless you open your mind up to a different alternative, you are doomed to only see one way of doing things. That one way isn't an issue if things are going perfectly, but every time I see an LODD that could be prevented, I'm thinking that isn't currently the case.

What do you have to say about this? Are you interested in a new reality? Are you interested in doing things better with less of a chance of losing more brothers in unnecessary and inefficient charges against an unwinnable situation? Or are you okay with the world being flat?

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on March 11, 2013 • Filed under: administration-leadership, change, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, leadership, safety • Tagged: #FRED, activism, adaptive leadership, advice, advocacy, blame, change, Cicero, clausewitz, Command & Leadership, conflict, consensus, Earth, education, effort, ego, EMS, EMS Topics, facts, FHZ, fire rescue topics, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, flat, forward, government, heart attack, Hilton Head Island, integrity, just culture, just leadership, leadership, learning, LODD, management, media, Mick Mayers, mission, motivation, NIST, opportunity, politics, positive, professionalism, quote, resources, safety, South Carolina, teamwork, technical solutions, thought, Training, Twitter, values, vision, warfare, world, zen zone

It Can’t Happen Here

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Our prayers need, right now, to be with our brothers at Bryan (TX) Fire Department in their loss of two valiant men, both of whom perished in the line of duty. We need to also support the two firefighters who were also part of the Rapid Intervention Team that went in and they too, were injured in this fire.

I am not well-versed in the operations of the Bryan Fire Department or their reputation. I can say that I have read some articles on their operation and have been impressed with what I saw; I have been to their website and they look like a progressive and forward-thinking organization. They do a lot of the same things my department does and are roughly the same size department as the one I work for. We run about the same number of calls, if my department were to have a "consistent" population (we have an "off-season" that causes a slight dip in response numbers). I would bet their people are a lot like the people I work with, and I'd bet their chief officers are a lot like me and my colleagues as well.

My department uses accountability and incident management practices that are considered to be the best in our business, and our culture is such that we use them daily, routinely, and intuitively, from the newest firefighter to the Chief of Department. We have modern equipment and we have high standards for our personnel. We are not "safety nazis"; we foster an aggressive approach to fighting fire and dealing with emergency situations, but there is a difference between "aggressive" and "arrogant". Safety is important, and we believe good situational awareness and good practices will keep us out of trouble, even when operating in harm's way. From what I can tell, the Bryan Fire Department is one of these types of departments as well.

We don't shoot from the hip at our department. For the most part, we try to take an unemotional approach to solving the problems we face on scenes. We get facts, we do the job, and we are proud to say that combined with our codes enforcement and fire prevention activities, we stop fires where we find them. When someone has a heart attack, between community involvement and everything else that makes up our team approach, we save them. We have more good days than bad ones, and that is always a force multiplier. I'd bet Bryan Fire Department is the same way.

As you can tell, I can identify with these guys and I have a lot of respect for their organization. They are, like a number of departments out there, just like the one I work for. But while I would like to think it can't happen here at my department, the difference between things going well and things going catastrophically, sometimes, is a crapshoot. You can do all the right things sometimes and it just takes one element to spin out of control, and tragedy ensues. I don't know all the facts about this situation, but I know this: we must try to give our people all the chances at success as possible in order for them to have any chance at all. No raindrop believes it is responsible for the flood, and you wouldn't think a tiny bird could bring down a jet airliner, but small things happen and result in big consequences. Everytime a brother goes down in the line of duty, it is imperative that we learn from it, so we don't have the same thing happen again.

If you really want to honor the brotherhood, you will walk away from all this with the idea that we must hone our art, we must pay attention to the details, and we must embrace changes that give us the opportunity to go home to our families at the end of the shift. While we have those among us who would climb into a dumpster fire to put it out, those of us with a respect for the conditions present at any emergency understand that we risk our lives to an extent just by responding to calls and there isn't a reason sometimes to increase that ratio of risk to reward. But when we do, we do so with a skeptical eye and we always remember we are sending our brothers in to do a job where they are already, often or not, outmatched.

God Bless our fallen brothers, Lt. Eric Wallace and Lt. Greg Pickard, be with Firefighters Mantey and Moran in their recovery, and especially watch over the Bryan Fire Department and their families during this time. Whatever you do, never say "it can't happen here". Learn the lessons from this and many other incidents, and resolve that while these situations might very well happen outside of our control, we at least won't go down without a fight.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on February 18, 2013 • Filed under: administration-leadership, Command & Leadership, leadership, Line of Duty, LODD, News, safety • Tagged: activism, adaptive leadership, advice, advocacy, Bryan, change, Command & Leadership, conflict, education, EMS, EMS Topics, Eric Wallace, facts, FHZ, fire rescue topics, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, forward, government, Greg Pickard, Hilton Head Island, integrity, leadership, learning, LODD, management, media, Mick Mayers, mission, motivation, opportunity, positive, professionalism, resources, safety, South Carolina, teamwork, technical solutions, Texas, thought, Training, values, vision

Do It Right The First Time

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I can't remember if I blogged this before, but if so, it bears repeating. When my brother and I were very young, my father, who was also a fire chief, brought home from work some pencils with the phrase, "Do it right the first time" inscribed on them. This message was brought up by my father many times throughout my life, although I'll admit, there are days even today when something goes wrong and I think back to that message.

It may take extra time that you don't think you have. That time may seem very valuable. The shortcut you take may seem like it saves those precious seconds. But I have seen in my life, many times when those shortcuts have proven catastrophic, and in most of those situations, I look at them and wonder, had someone taken a few extra moments to do it right, what the outcome might have been.

While the historical issue between response to rescues in New York City is frustrating and sad, since it seems to me to be the confluence of a power struggle and turf battle, instead of celebrating a terrific save the other day, instead we have this tragedy to contend with, as shared with us by Dave Statter on his blog.

I have always learned and always taught that when lifting, we "crib to the lift". And while the spreaders are not the desired lifting tool, I have used them before and they have worked just fine. I preface that, however by explaining that I am also passionate about physics and when I have used spreaders, I also understood that the force applied must go somewhere, and if the load isn't stabilized, the force is going to create motion we don't want. In this case, the force displaced the object alright: lateral to the support (the spreader) and with nothing to support the load (cribbing) the load went to ground (and victim).

I don't care if you are FDNY, ESU, or anyone else. I have seen this very same shortcut taken before in departments that have had identically catastrophic results. I also recall other times when the load has shifted on the column, in one case, three stacked air bags. In this case, the firefighter, who happened to also be the salesman of the lift bags and should have a little expertise in their use, himself was killed.

There's a lesson to be learned in every tragedy. Aside from the physical principles that apply to all of us here on this planet, there's another very important one. Driving recklessly, failing to wear your seatbelt, not wearing proper PPE, not paying attention to overhead power lines, and in this case, not providing an alternate column to support the load via cribbing, all might seem like they are saving precious seconds, but failing to do the right thing the first time, ended instead in tragedy.

Take a moment to ditch the emotion and be the professionals you are. Do the right thing the first time.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on September 3, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, leadership, News, professionalism, rescue, safety, US&R • Tagged: car, change, conflict, crib, customer service, Dave Statter, EMS, ESU, fail, fall, FDNY, FHZ, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, government, Hilton Head Island, leadership, lift, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, motorcycle, New York, opportunity, politics, professionalism, resources, risk reduction, safety, South Carolina, Task Force 1, Training, truck company, vision

An Atmosphere of Growth

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One of my best friends (who happens to be my "B" Shift counterpart) came back from his NFPA Committee meeting (mine was in Baltimore and his was in St. Louis. I'm thinking we need to start doing these in Hawaii). He was telling me that during his travels, he happened to be having a discussion with an airline pilot. I guess the conversation came to the subject of safety and near-miss procedures.

According to this pilot, Chief H said, when there is a landing that isn't perfect, there is a culture of not pointing fingers that encourages the flight crew to report the event, discuss the factors, and to come up with methods to improve their performance. Sounds a lot like a near-miss policy to me, but the difference is that apparently, there is absolutely no resistance to reporting these issues because there is no threat of repercussion.

Now we have the Secret List and the Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System, and in our organization at least, we discuss standard operating guidelines in post-event critiques, but I don't know that those concepts even go as far as what Chief H was suggesting they do in this airline program. To me, it sounds a lot like common sense: instead of focusing on the situation that has already occurred, focus on the events we can fix or those we can grow to recognize and solve, and move forward.

But there is no way this kind of concept can evolve on many of these blogs. Hell, if anything is seen, like a glove missing or God forbid, someone isn't wearing their SCBA, it becomes a litany of what a dumbass the individuals are and how is it that these people are even still fighting fire.

Now while our department is very strict about the use of safety equipment and insuring best practices are followed, it is hardly a slamfest out there. If we see you don't have something, we suggest (pretty strongly) for you to go get it and wear it. This happens pretty rarely because we have squared away people who have been doing this stuff fairly often (with the exception of some of the rookies, of course). But really, we do make mistakes and there's a lot of times we laugh about it because once pointed out, everyone is pretty good about doing the right thing.

I'd hate, however, for someone to take a photograph of us when we rolled up on a scene, however, and someone just so happened to have missed putting a glove on. In the case of a recent fire we had, there was significantly enough fire on the outside to cause the arriving officer to order a transitional attack. His company deployed two lines to the exterior to knock down the rapidly extending fire, which they did without donning masks.

The next due engine stretched an attack line to the front door and using proper PPE, made the knock on the inside. Confined to the two rooms we found burning when we got there, nobody hurt. Nobody was coughing or hacking and honestly, the most difficult part of the evolution was dealing with the mosquitoes. But just on the chance there was a picture taken of those first few seconds, we'd have heard cries of "sissy" and "outdoor firefighter" from half the crowd and angry accustations of unsafe activity and amateurism from the other half.

Instead of showing the world you are the resident expert on firefighting (which I suspect half of the trolls would run crying at the sight of a real fire), why not use what you see on the blogs and posts to learn something from it and instead of sharing your incredible insight with us all, perhaps make some intelligent observations that could help others remember not to make those mistakes. I doubt any of the haters are reading this, so I doubt it will have much impact, but perhaps, maybe it will.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on August 12, 2011 • Filed under: leadership, professionalism, safety • Tagged: airline, best practices, change, customer service, education, FHZ, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, Hilton Head Island, injury, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, MVA, MVC, observation, opportunity, pilot, professionalism, research, resources, risk reduction, rules, safety, science, South Carolina, Training, vehicle operation

The Antidote To Road Rage

1 comment

Being a reader of FHZ requires you to maintain an open mind. Even if you don't agree with both sides of the issues here, understanding the contrary view permits perspective and in some cases, deeper understanding of the root causes of things we consider trouble. For an example, consider the recent road rage incident that seems to have piqued a considerable amount of interest. While I in no way sanction what was done, nor think it was a mature or acceptable way to handle the situation, realize that in many cases, feelings of frustration manifest themselves in angry, retaliatory behavior.

Who among us has not experienced anger at the inconsiderate moron who fails to pull to the right when we are well behind them, permitting us a free lane on the way to some emergency? Even in your personal automobile, how about the idiot who not only signals they are going to take a right turn, but then shoots across to two lanes of traffic to make a left? Like he couldn't just make the wrong turn, make a u-turn, and make things right?

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 victim story they happen to choose this week. The reality is that while reacting negatively to those who act in error is not acceptable, neither is the act that sparked the reaction in the first place. Perhaps if our nation's law enforcement would start hauling off people who run red lights; who make erratic and unanticipated turns without use of a signal; those who drive too slowly in the passing lane, who fly down the shoulder to cut to the head of a merging line, or those who fail to pull to the right when an emergency vehicle is asking for the right of way, perhaps you might see a considerable decrease in road rage.

The base cause of indignity is usually the result of inconsiderate behavior. Someone flaunts the rules and disregards the normal values of society, and the enraged individual is angry at the injustice of the situation. I would be willing to bet that if anyone could write a ticket (not that I am an advocate of that), you'd see a lot less road rage.

Why? Because if there were a non-violent method of resolving the conflict, I would be willing to bet that people would take that option. The problem is that there is no resolution. The enraged individual feels as if there is no way the situation will be resolved, they feel the injustice of the situation, and they act out in frustration, sometimes regardless of the consequences.

Now let's take this a step further. Think of a non-driving situation in which you were pushed to the edge…Was this reaction a result of powerlessness, of frustration evolved from conflict in which you were victimized and felt no method to resolve your issue? Perhaps it was an automatron manning the phone at your credit card company, or the cashier at Wally World, or the cable guy who doesn't show up when he says he will. You percieve a lack of power to change the situation and that lack of control becomes overwhelming. Over time, you may even be willing to act on it, in such a possibility, even inappropriately.

So what is the solution for our version of road rage? Education? Humorous attempts to enlighten the inconsiderate sometimes work, as in this fine example from the Tuscaloosa Fire Department. Other attempts like this one from Eugene, Oregon and this one from an agency I can't read on their final slide aren't as memorable (IMHO) but still get the message across.

But the more in-depth solution would be for individuals to maintain less distrations in their vehicles (phones, texting, and radios come to mind), and more overall awareness (simply paying attention to the fact that you SHARE the road with others). And likewise, the way for you to avoid conflict that cascades into an intractable situation would be to step back for a second and understand the other person's perspective, and recognize that your escalation of the incident, although it may very well be warranted, is pushing you and the other party toward a battle that someone is going to lose.

Conflict in life is inevitable. Conflict escalation and intractability is not. Be one of the first on your block to be the voice of sanity and work to understand, not to react.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on June 26, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, change, Command & Leadership, customer service, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, leadership, Media Relations, motivation, politics, professionalism, rebellion, safety, Training & Development, Vehicle Operation & Ambulances, Videos • Tagged: anger, change, conflict, consideration, customer service, Dave Statter, driving, education, empathy, EMS, eugene, FHZ, finger, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, go right, government, Hilton Head Island, idiot, inconsiderate, leadership, management, marketing, Mick Mayers, moron, motivation, officer, opportunity, politics, professionalism, red lights, risk reduction, road rage, safety, South Carolina, STAT911, tips, Training, tuscaloosa, understanding

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.

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

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.

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

3 comments

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.

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

Article: Modern Approaches To Fire Suppression

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Picture from FireRescue1.com

Not long ago I was asked by Jamie Thompson over at FireRescue1.com to write an article on fire suppression. While I wrote it a few weeks before, it published yesterday. But yesterday morning, before the newsletter with my article came out, I was reading the FireRescue1 article on the Chinese water cannon and this inspired my morning “message to the troops” to be about innovation and change. Of course, the point of my article was about innovation and change, so it was good timing.

I have been having some pretty in-depth discussions lately regarding change as related to technology. There are people who feel like all of this technology is overwhelming and distressing and changes should be avoided. There are those who think technology will solve all the ills of the world. And then there are many who see technology as being a useful tool that when applied to the right situation, can produce wonderful results, and conversely, be misapplied and create major disaster. Some think that there should be more emphasis on the basics, which would supplant the need for technological shifts. And there are those like me who see potential in these changes and wonder how we could harness the power of both to provide safer and more effective service.

While the water cannon discussion illustrates an interesting discussion on technology, the comments reflected several differing opinions, and while I noted that there was a lot of discussion about what it wouldn’t do, I only saw one serious commenter reflecting on what it might be able to do. Many think that innovation stops at invention. In fact, innovation can really be considered having a new birth there. Because once something is invented, there are usually a few individuals out there testing it, finding out its limits, and trying to envision what this new development might mean to them. And they tweak and refine and experiment, and then, voila, we have a new way of doing things.

Innovation has plenty of effect on your daily life, but you have to take some time and appreciate that effect, because we tend to take it for granted. How many things were invented that aren’t necessarily used for the original intent? In the fire service, we take things all day long and make them do things they probably weren’t designed to do (which isn’t always good). How much better would our organizations be if, instead of looking at the problems, we saw the challenges and rose to solve those issues instead? If we took into consideration the changes we have made and came up with ways to even improve farther on those ideas?

While honing our technique is desirable to improve performance, as one commenter on my article suggested, and he goes on to suggest that CAFS and other fancy things can’t overcome poor technique, I agree in part and principle. But I disagree on a different level, that is, from the aspect that if we have good technique AND technological improvement, we can have an exponentially beneficial effect on solving problems. Good technique AND good tools create a force multiplier.

Solutions for problems are all around us; we just need to take the time to find them. Knowing where we come from is important, because it helps us to understand where we want to be. But abandoning good technique for promotion of good technology is NOT the answer. The answer lies in both, and knowing that in order to improve our condition, we must take advantage of all of the opportunities that come our way, if not to stretch out from that point, to know that this is NOT the way to go. We all must experiment and learn and understand. But most of all, we have to be open to the ideas and see them with clear vision.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on February 2, 2011 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, customer service, education, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, Firefighting Operations, General, leadership, motivation, planning, politics, professionalism, rebellion, revolution, safety, Training & Development • Tagged: CAFS, change, conflict, customer service, disaster, economy, education, Elkhart, EMS, FHZ, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, FireRescue1.com, foam, force multiplier, Hilton Head Island, hose, innovation, invention, Jamie Thompson, leadership, management, marketing, Mick Mayers, motivation, nozzle, officer, opportunity, planning, politics, professionalism, research, resources, risk reduction, safety, South Carolina, suppression, Training, vision

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.

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

Stuck In The Past

5 comments

The definition of something “world-class” years ago led me to consider what we mean in the fire service when we say “world-class” in the same breath as “progressive” and “professional”. The use of these terms is truly in the eye of the beholder. Given the evidence that continues to mount in the Charleston incident, many people in that community are struggling through the nightmare of believing their fire department was the definition of excellence only to find that the leadership mentality was still operating in the past.

I guess its all in how you frame your reference as to what is acceptable versus what is “excellent”. It certainly sounds as if that culture is evolving into a better place with Chief Carr at the helm. But across the entire fire service, while exposed to so many ideas, we continue visit the same problems within our own organizations that other organizations have been experiencing for years.

Professionalism or progressiveness isn’t defined by experiencing the same problems over and over again. Being effective doesn’t include repeating mistakes that others have made, got the t-shirt for, and moved on from. If learning isn’t occurring from all of the rhetoric, then what use is it? When your organization is experiencing such dysfunction that it is obvious even to the newest recruit, then how clueless are you to insist that everything is coming up roses?

The sad part is that this lesson has to come on the backs of dedicated firefighters and the deaths of our brothers. While it appears our friends in Charleston are moving forward, we continue to read story after story around the rest of the nation of lessons that continue to be learned the hard way. After all, how many unbelted firefighter LODDs need we read about before deciding once and for all that using our seatbelt is a smart idea?

Instead of reading the news and saying, “Wow, that’s incredible”, perhaps we should be saying, “Wow, how do I make sure that doesn’t happen here?” Be an agent of productive and progressive change. Set the positive example and show others what the real definition of progressive and professional is and be a real leader.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on August 3, 2010 • Filed under: "accident prevention", change, command, Command & Leadership, education, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, Fires, government, leadership, LODD, Mass Casualty Incident, motivation, News, planning, professionalism, rebellion, revolution, safety, Training & Development • Tagged: administration, Billy Hutchinson, Brad Baity, Brandon Thompson, change, Charleston, Charleston 9, Charleston Fire Department, command, conflict, Earl Drayton, education, EMS, FHZ, fire, Fire Daily, fire prevention, fire rescue topics, firefighter safety health, firefighters, firefighting operations, Firehouse Zen, fires, health, Hilton Head Island, leadership, line of duty, LODD, Louis Mulkey, major incidents, Mark Kelsey, mass casualty incident, Melvin Champaign, Mick Mayers, Mike Benke, Mike French, news, opportunity, patient management, politics, rescues, risk reduction, safety, seat belts, South Carolina, Super Sofa Store Fire

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.

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]

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

Balance and Equilibrium

1 comment

I think it does us good to be a little of everything. One of the best parts of the fire and emergency services is that although it is the same job each day, for the most part, the challenges presented to us each day differ. Conversely, one of the problems with fire and emergency service is that we enjoy it so much, we are reluctant to leave that part of our world behind from time to time and appreciate other aspects of our lives.

Months ago a plane landed on the beach near my house, striking a jogger and killing him. In terms of emergencies, this is a pretty big deal in our code-enforced, fire-protected community. It is within a short walk from my front door. Yet I had no desire to go see the scene, to go join in the bands of gawkers, or to show my relative importance by going down there in a uniform and stepping authoritatively through the fire line tape. I’ve seen a plane crash before; I have the t-shirt.

Unless I am compelled to do so for official business, or intend to engage in a learning session in which I can take away lessons from the event, I’d just as soon avoid hanging around to look at the carnage of someone else’s bad day. However, in the fire service, we have among us a considerable number who have bought into the whacker lifestyle wholesale. They are the thrill-seekers, or the egomaniacs, or the wannabes, people who aren’t motivated by helping others, but for the “glory” and the adrenaline. One of the complaints I have against that mentality is that it seems to lend credibility to the theory that some of these people are suffering from low self-esteem and they lean on the title of “firefighter” like a crutch. There is a certain thrill in responding, everyone is looking at you, everyone is happy to see you.

The biggest problem with that is that we just don’t run that many calls that are that thrilling. This isn’t Emergency, where each new episode brings an exploding chemical plant or someone dangling from a crane. We don’t run two or three workers in a day; chances are that if you do, there won’t be much fuel load left in your jurisdiction before long anyway so you’ll be back to not running calls again shortly. So in real life, where most of our calls actually involve solving a relatively mundane problem and interacting with a customer, and the people who work for you aren’t motivated by helping others, conflict arises. When frustration sets in, the result can follow one of a number of courses.

The mature find alternative methods to focus their energy. On the other side of the spectrum, along come the individuals with the emotional intelligence of a fourteen year old. Among other issues, these folks act out their aggressions not so constructively, by engaging in destructive behavior. I’m pretty sure all of us can describe this kind of behavior, ranging from burglary, to arson, and other things. Just read Dave Statter or Bill Schumm’s blogs for the reports if you doubt that. Somewhere in just left of the middle of this range there are those who develop behavior that is not destructive in the physical sense, but doesn’t help them any; the constant devotion to one issue to the exclusion of all else.

Everything is good in moderation, and even the good things in life can become bad if we do them all the time. Spread the time out a little and smell the roses. Take some time for yourself. Sharpen the saw. But don’t think that focusing exclusively on any subject is going to bring you happiness, and if you keep at it, it could also burn you out. Stay safe and keep a healthy mental attitude.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on June 30, 2010 • Filed under: change, Fire Rescue Topics, leadership, motivation, officership, planning, politics, professionalism, safety • Tagged: balance, burnout, change, FHZ, fire service, Firehouse Zen, government, incident management, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, whacker

Risk vs. Reward and Patient Advocacy

2 comments

An OLD shot of Savannah's LifeStar landing for a Hilton Head Island F/R medevac.

The SC-TF1 Director copied an article to our command staff that I found interesting. It ran in Popular Mechanics titled Unacceptable Risk (I couldn’t find a direct URL for it, so here’s the pdf: HelicopterCrash).

Our organization allows paramedics on scene to request a medical helicopter evacuation with a minimum amount of oversight by the medical control physician. Being a paramedic myself, I know when to call for a flight and when not to. I am not about to call for a chopper to take a patient to a hospital for a broken foot, and likewise, I am intelligent enough to be able to assess a patient and opt to fly them to a hospital that has the resources to help my critically injured victim. I am appalled at some of the case histories where someone was flown out for a routine (very routine) injury and consequently, I know of agencies who simply won’t call for a flight, regardless of the need for it.

How bad of a medic must you be that you can’t tell the difference between a potentially life-threatening injury and one that can be transported by ground to a hospital? If I’ve got an altered patient with a potential head injury, I know they need to go to a trauma center. So what if I have to go on an out-of-jurisdiction transport to the trauma center- it’s what we do.

Regardless of whether or not the aeromedical evacuation of a patient is risky and may or may not have tangible benefit, the decision must come to this: What do I need to do for the best interest of the patient? I don’t care if you don’t like the way they look, or they stink, or you are tired. When you became a medical response professional, you probably took an oath that involved a statement like “Above All, Do No Harm”. Our jobs involve making sure our patients not only get care, but that it is the right care, it is not care that is provided at a huge cost because we were too lazy to do our jobs, and that the patient’s rights are maintained in their treatment and transport to a medical facility (or not).

Just as I wouldn’t make you take a treatment that could possibly kill you in order to cover my ass, ordering a helovac for a finger amputation isn’t in my first line of thought. And I know I curse and fuss when I DO call for a chopper and a spot of rain on the pilot’s windshield causes them to scrub the mission, but you know what? I’m a big boy- I’d MUCH rather you err on the side of keeping your crew and my patient safe and I’ll deal with the fallout otherwise. But to just say, “All patients go by air” or much worse, “No patients go by air” is ridiculous.

Maybe like everything else, we need to stop applying a broad brush to a situation and do our jobs, by appropriately assessing our patient, determining their logical needs based on mechanism of injury, observable findings, and our experience, and make a good call as to what to do with them. If we ca’t do this much, it’s no wonder we continue to have to convince people we aren’t just “ambulance drivers” but real, live, medical professionals.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on June 28, 2010 • Filed under: "accident prevention", Command & Leadership, customer service, education, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, leadership, News, Patient Management, professionalism, rescue, safety, Vehicle Operation & Ambulances • Tagged: accident, education, EMS, fatal, FireEMSBlogs, Firehouse Zen, helicopter, medical, trauma

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.

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.

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

Get Your Facts Straight

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As usual, Dave Statter is hard at work getting us News from the Beltway, where there always seems like something is going on (it’s a happening place). In this case, crews were on scene preparing to extricate a patient declared deceased when it was determined that the victim was in fact, alive. While I was not there, nor are all the facts out there for examination yet, it makes for a very graphic illustration of today’s discussion: What facts may seem to be in evidence right now may not always be accurate, thus the need for continual re-evaluation of your situation.

I’m not advocating continual monitoring of the “pre-hospital dead”, although I would hope that this is a good case for the medically affiliated that we need to insure pulslessness and apnea, and confirm asystole in three leads (and print it). That is called triangulating your facts and documenting them in the hopes things don’t change later (like the person is actually alive).

No, what I want to discuss is that in all kinds of places where we need to make a decision, even though something appears to be true right now, it might not be in a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days. Conditions change and regardless of the origin of the facts you hold dear, they might not always be accurate facts. The response to this ever-changing environment isn’t to throw up your hands in frustration (like my children and firefighters seem to do sometimes), but to re-evaluate your situation and to flex with the new conditions. There’s a quote attributed to Whitey Ford I heard years ago (and of course, I can’t find my source now) and I have to paraphrase it because I don’t remember it exactly: “Don’t make up your mind about something until the moment you absolutely have to; it may be that by the time for coming to a conclusion occurs, the conditions may have changed.”

People who worked with me closely before I made Chief probably recall my frustration with schedule changes, personnel changes, equipment and apparatus changes that occurred over the course of a shift, often with no warning. Now as a Chief Officer, I have a different perspective on the situation because I now have to step back and look at “the whole forest”. I now understand how and why some of those “course changes” have come about and I also see why frustration with those changes is counterproductive.

As firefighters, we deal with changing conditions on scene without too much drama. We know Murphy is a constant companion and if anything, we are surprised if everything goes RIGHT on a scene. No incident is “textbook”. But because we are good at our jobs, we flex with the new situation, understand it, and make whatever we have work. Why we can’t do that in our daily operations, I guess, is my question.

If there’s anything I know about myself, it’s that I know I am not a patient man. In fact, I’m probably one of the least patient people I know. I also know I don’t have a lot of tolerance for less-than-excellent performance. But part of maturing and growing involves experience, and experience shows us that there are many changing elements that occur over the course of a day, and a life, and reacting to them rather than soaking them in and understanding them (and then solving the problem) isn’t productive. In fact, it is stressful and irritating to those who we have to live with.

I have a lot of personal growth and understanding to continue working toward and I wish some of this stuff would have been shared with me when I was a firefighter and a young officer, but it wasn’t. I now have that benefit of experience, though, and it is my responsibility to share it with you all. Take the time to understand the situation and instead of criticizing, find benefit in the lessons we learn and resolve not to let mistakes happen again, or at least in the environment we personally control.

Get facts before making critical decisions and don’t dwell on them too long, because in many cases, the facts will change before you even get a chance to decide on them. Take decisive action when necessary, and when not, take considered action, and always, always, continue to re-evaluate the situation. By understanding your surroundings, you will be safer and your life richer for it.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on January 28, 2010 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, customer service, Firefighter Nation, leadership, News, officership, Patient Management, planning, professionalism, Rescues, revolution, safety, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: change, Dave Statter, deceased, education, EMS, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, incident management, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, opportunity, planning, risk reduction, Whitey Ford

Command Presents

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Hilton Head Island Fire Station 7

It’s that time of the year that we hear the word “presents” often enough to make your ears bleed, so I was wondering if my misuse of the word “presents” got your attention. Apparently it did, or you wouldn’t be reading this now. Or maybe you didn’t notice. If you didn’t notice, go and look again: when we speak of “command presence”, we speak of the characteristics of the person in charge to lead from a strong, visible, and decisive point of view, not “presents” like a gift. Having strong leader-like characteristics as part of your daily personality could be a “present”, if your job is to be a leader. It also could be very annoying to the people around you.

According to my family and friends, acquaintances, and the Myers-Briggs (and every other psych profile I’ve ever gone through), I exhibit decisive, directive behavior as part of my normal personality. More often than I care to, my “command presence” comes out when I’m talking with 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). This just goes to show you there is a time and place for everything. Explaining to your daughter the intricacies of math, for one, is probably not a good time to be strong, visible and decisive.

Likewise, when you are leading firefighters into emergency situations, it is not a time to be easy-going, reserved, and willing to compromise. There are those out there who are; they are also the ones with crews free-lancing, poor accountability, mixed commands, and poor coordination. These are also the ones who get people hurt and killed.

While you don’t have to be the second coming of Field Marshal Rommel, you should understand that the fireground or rescue scene is the place where only one person can be in charge. Coupled with the observation that leadership abhors a vacuum, you can probably understand that if you fail to establish a clear picture of who is in charge, someone else will. It’s not the act of having a fist fight to decide who that is; the only person who can be in charge is the legally responsible incident commander. How that decision is made is pertinent to the laws of your jurisdiction, but if you have someone who can’t command, they probably shouldn’t be in that position.

All too often, I see failure in company officers who are “best buds” with their troops on a daily basis, and then can’t understand why there’s so much chaos on their incident scene. It is simply because those people don’t necessarily see you as the “alpha dog”. To them, you are just another “member of the pack”. Other members of the pack don’t call the shots, the alpha dog does. And like I said, if you aren’t filling that role, someone else is. That person will also be the one that when things go south, everyone turns toward for the answers.

In this time of giving, give your subordinates a lesson in leadership. Your leadership should set a positive example, a role model, if you will, for your aspiring officers. Command and control is important on the emergency scene and failing to work with that does not instill confidence in the abilities of the IC. It is essential that not only do your charges see you as a leader on the scene, but in the station as well, for if they do not, on the scene is a bad place for them to convince them of that. Make it a “present” to the people you are responsible for teaching and watching over. Give them the tools to lead others, and they will hopefully show you that they trust your leadership, and when the time comes, they will walk on that path as well.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on December 10, 2009 • Filed under: command, Command & Leadership, education, Firefighter Nation, Firefighting Operations, leadership, Major Incidents, officership, professionalism, rescue, safety, US&R • Tagged: change, disaster, education, fire service, Hilton Head Island, incident management, management, officer, politics, South Carolina

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.

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

An Atmosphere of Trust

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You want that hole WHERE?

Having worked my normal 24 hour shift, I got up at 0530 and went to the station’s kitchen to make a pot of coffee. As I stood there, filling the pot with water, I realized that the crew’s dinner kitty was still sitting there on the counter. Although it wasn’t much, it made me think about the trust that you find (or don’t find) in some firehouses. It contrasted with a discussion I overheard about one shift raiding the other shift’s fridge just the day before. Now while most of our stations are “hardened” facilities and require an ID card for entry, I remember when we could leave the place wide open and never have to worry about anything being touched. In this day and age, not only do we need to worry about some mutt walking in while we were on a call and stealing a laptop (it happened to one of our guys), we have to worry about the criminal elements who want our ID, uniforms, or even a vehicle, so they can pose as a firefighter.

Trust, however, is a pretty interesting concept of its own. As a leader, you have to earn the trust of the troops. And as I pointed out, twenty years of being their buddy can go right out the window if you hose them on one thing. I’ve found that it’s better to be circumspect than to lie to another firefighter. If you just can’t talk about it, you might as well lead off by saying that, because if you try to act like you are bringing them in on “the scoop” but you can’t tell them the full details, your credibility is shot.

I look at the way my crews trust me in differing degrees. Do they trust me to command them going into a burning building or to guide them at a building collapse or a confined space incident? I’d guess most of them do since I’ve never had them second-guess me on a scene. Do they trust me on most things? I’d guess they do. Do they trust that I’ll get the roster right in the morning. I’d bet much less so (I’m notorious for having to re-send everyone the “amended” roster). But whatever you do, you had best build credibility in the areas you want them to find you credible in, because if you don’t, your word is crap.

I know company officers (and chief officers) who simply aren’t trusted. The guys may like them, they may have a beer with them, but get them aside and they’ll tell you, “This officer isn’t trustworthy”. They may feel like the officer has got their back on daily things but just can’t trust them to make the right decision on the fireground. And on the fireground, when people have the possibility of being injured or killed, you’d better bet that if you are leading a crew, a section, or the entire incident, you’d better have some credibility. Because do you know what happens when you don’t have credibility? No one will listen to you.

When elements of mistrust exist on a regular basis between the troops and the brass, those factors simply add to frustration levels that always exist anyway between these two dynamics. If you are an officer trying to increase team morale and trying to slow down the rampant rumor mill, you’ll find that deep at the seat of these sentiments lies that mistrust. Be it that the previous leaders were untrustworthy, or that others have continued to fuel the conspiracy theories for their own amusement, in any case, so long as your people fail to trust you, no amount of money, new trucks, etc. will stop the train. It requires making that leap to show them that you can be trusted. In exhibiting your faith in them, hopefully they can begin to have some faith in you.

Maintaining this kind of relationship requires a lot of work. From first-hand knowledge, it can often be frustrating. I am a “firefighter’s firefighter” (or at least I hope that’s how my people see me) and I still walk the walk as much as talk the talk. Yet when I pinned on those chief’s bugles, it didn’t matter that some of these individuals have known me and what I am about for decades: I’m a chief now. The whole element of trust seemed to have to begin from scratch and work its way back to the same level it was at when I was a Captain, I guess.

The problem is that for as much as you try to show these people that you are only interested in doing the right thing, because of years of mistrusting anyone in a white helmet, they don’t feel comfortable putting their trust in you. Firefighters pride themselves in being a cynical bunch; show me one firefighter worth his or her salt and I’ll show you that they have a skeptical eye about pretty much any subject that presents itself. It’s a survival mechanism. While others pride themselves in seeing a half-full glass, we fully expect that the glass is half-full alright: with an unknown toxic. Firefighters require everyone and every incident to prove it is safe to trust first, and only then will they dip their toes into the pool. So an understanding of that culture requires actually living it because the lack of “street cred” automatically targets you as being an outsider and unable to be trusted.

We as leaders must work hard to develop a space of trust. Of all of the qualities of a leader, trust is most important. Frankly, no one is going to follow you if they don’t trust that you’re going to take them someplace they want to go. While you may have all kinds of degrees and certificates, there’s nothing other than setting an example for your troops that is going to teach them that they can follow you and that they can trust that they’ll survive the experience. If you are trying to change your organizational culture and continually meeting resistance, chances are that your either personnel aren’t mature enough to appreciate that individuals are different and new leadership isn’t automatically to be distrusted (until you’ve done something to break that trust already), or because no one has ever given them a reason in the past to let go of their fears and follow you. In both cases, it’s going to require you to stand in front and establish that relationship or understand that you need to develop a thick skin, because the sniping will never end. Standing up and setting an example seems to be the most productive means of accomplishing the mission.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on November 15, 2009 • Filed under: command, Command & Leadership, customer service, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, government, leadership, officership, professionalism, revolution, safety, Training & Development • Tagged: change, education, fire service, government, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, motivation, officer, opportunity, safety, tips, trust

Turtles, Circumstances, and Change

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Just this week, not only on our relatively quiet haven of Hilton Head Island, but right here in the community in which I live (Palmetto Dunes), comes a story which has become national news. Before I knew it would be on CNN and everywhere else, I read in our Island Packet this article on a romantic proposal gone wrong, and the subsequent death of sea turtles. Now while I never really thought I might read in the same article anywhere, the words “sea turtle”, “romance”, and “death”, you really might be wondering, “What does this have to do with the fire service?” I can reassure you that it does.

How it does is that it clearly illustrates the law of unintended circumstances. I’d be willing to bet you that no one involved in this story desired to kill off 60 turtles and had no idea that their simple luminary tribute to the sanctity of marriage would touch off what ended up on the AP news feed. But as a result of something they did, or might also be the case in our situation in fire and emergency services, didn’t do, there was heartache, conflict, and even injury and death.

Actions are taken in our fire stations and on emergency scenes on a daily basis that sometimes go badly, and I would venture to guess that 99.9% of actions that resulted in poor outcomes were purely unintentional. However unintentional these actions (or inactions) are, though, our actions may have wide-ranging impact on our entire organization. Our actions or inactions may not even be noticed today, or could end up as front page news. We must constantly be vigilant of the actions we take and how they affect our current situation, and even more importantly, our team, our agency, and our customers. What may seem insignificant to us may end up costing someone their life later.

Working together as a team, we have to have the courage and the ability to say, “Hey, that doesn’t look right” to our colleagues, and they should also be able to say it to us. It’s a basic tenet of crew resource management. Fostering this attitude in your team requires cultural and social change, especially in our traditional paramilitary hierarchy. Our most important role in this concept is awareness of the things we do and importantly enough, to do things right, as well as to be open to the suggestion from others that we should be doing something differently.

Being in the position of a transformational leader requires more than being right, it requires us to be open to the idea that we might not be. As part of a team, when we make a mistake, we must strive to understand what occurred and what the results were, so that we and others don’t repeat that mistake. When we mistakenly lay off blame we don’t really learn from the mistake.

I had a driver once who had a minor accident with the apparatus we were assigned to. It was obviously a result of a failure for someone else to do their job. But he owned that situation and every time he pulled out of the station from then on out, I noticed him looking to insure it never happened again. It is imperative for us to understand our shortcomings (hey, I have many), own them, and resolve to do better next time.

I’d say that if that couple ever does decide to re-visit our Island again, they’ll never forget to blow out the candles when leaving the beach. It’s called a watershed moment, In our lives, it is one thing, but when we have one of these events occur while operating as part of a team we are tasked with leading, it is a requirement that we critique it, learn from it, and resolve to not let it happen again.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on September 25, 2009 • Filed under: change, customer service, education, fire service, Firefighter Nation, General, leadership, Media Relations, officership, professionalism, revolution, safety • Tagged: change, education, fire service, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, media, motivation, safety, South Carolina, turtles

(Insert Task Here) For Dummies

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I’ve been very busy working on my wife’s company’s website and unable to really spend any time blogging lately. That’s probably a good thing as I really have wanted to learn a little more about creating sites from scratch (or close enough, using Dreamweaver) but found it to be much harder at first than I thought it would be. I created a whole bunch of sites several years ago which caught the attention of many of you (the old HHIFR Station 6 – The Icehouse website as well as one for each of our stations, etc.) using a VERY user friendly online program. Then when someone decided to jack up the price on the site hosting and it ultimately started to come out of my own pocket, I just let it close down.

But anyway, since then I have undertaken several web management and development projects and the long story short, I had to purchase the book “Dreamweaver for Dummies”. It really opened up the door and now I am making much more headway than I had at all before.

I have contemplated a “Firefighting for Dummies” book, but I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Or how about “Paramedic Certification For Dummies”? As I’m writing this, someone is probably stealing my idea, but I’m afraid itn not likely that any fire academies or paramedic training institutions out there are going to spend big bucks recommending a book to their students that suggests they are dummies (I think the books are mostly of the “self-help” genre).

So anyway, as I was writing this, I’m watching the news and on a neighboring island, there have been a significant number of drownings this summer. Now the video-journalist shoots a picture of the beach and on it there are not one, not two, but FOUR signs warning people about the rip currents, etc. I’d bet there’s more, but the segment had to fit in people talking and stuff. There’s talk now about educating the tourists and other beachgoers.

Any time that you have multiple signs on anything warning about something and people disregard the warnings, something tells me an education message isn’t going to do much more than heap onto the pile of ignored information. I don’t know what the answer is. Think anyone hanging out at the beach would like to purchase an advance copy of “Beaching for Dummies”?

When we put people through a training academy and we tell them about the safety issues of our job, then educate them on a daily basis, warn them with little tags and signs on the equipment we use and the apparatus we ride, and put posters in stations, etc. and unsafe behavior continues, is it an education issue or an attitudinal issue? There’s a favorite question someone asked in a seminar I was in once, as to whether the problem a subordinate had was a commitment issue or a competence issue. The difference, he said, was, “if you were to put a loaded and cocked .45 to the head of the person and said, ‘do the task’, if they could then do the task, the issue wasn’t a competence issue, it was a commitment issue”.

Now I certainly don’t advocate trying this at home, but it kinda makes for an interesting point. Because the issues I am discussing here are the ability for personnel to take precautions regarding safety issues, it really is an issue of life or death and yet there are those who choose to challenge the odds anyway. So is it really a competence issue? Is it a commitment issue? I’d suggest that it’s the challenge of “it can’t happen to me”.

Despite the warnings, despite the education, and the despite the dangerous nature of our jobs, firefighters continue to exhibit risky behavior when no value is gained by their doing so. Something as routine as buckling your seatbelt doesn’t take away from the glory and excitement of going to a working fire, yet firefighters are killed and injured every year because they fail to do it.

It puzzles me as to why people continue to do things that are contrary to common sense. Hell, I’m one of them. But there are things I do that I know will save my life and I make it a point to share those tips with people on a regular basis, and yet I see those same people ignoring that advice and getting hurt. Maybe we do need a “Firefighting for Dummies” book.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on August 17, 2009 • Filed under: change, education, fire service, leadership, professionalism, safety, Uncategorized • Tagged: education, fire service, leadership, management, motivation, safety

Innovation Distinguishes Between Leaders and Followers

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If you didn't know, that's a quote from Steve Jobs (I didn't). I was sitting in the office of our Deputy Chief/Ops, reading a magazine while he finished up a meeting, and I saw that quote. I liked it a lot and wanted to share it with you.

The quote was being used by David White, the editor of Industrial Fire World, in this month's editorial, where he is discussing "evolution vs. intelligent design". His point was that while it is fantastic we have these newfangled radios and all, they're really not worth anything if we can't talk to anyone on them because they're too complicated to use. What's more, while we have been wrestling with interoperable communications for eons (I mean, look at the Tower of Babel and all), we have another situation that merits a technological solution: tracking firefighter location inside a burning structure.

While some of this stuff is a little out of my immediate reach, there are tools used daily around us that don't get used to their full efficiency. Take for example, that little bundle of software you probably have on your computer right there in front of you. If you're like me, you have some sort of office pack with a word processing application, a spreadsheet application, and a database application. In most total office packages, I would surmise that they are interoperable between each other. I'd be willing to bet you that most fire stations these days have computer workstations and in each of those you also have some sort of interoperable office pack.

How many of you are proficient at using these programs, not just as stand-alone applications, but in concert with one another? Can you create a table in Excel and transfer it to Word? Can you create an Access database and then query it to get information, then export it to Excel to create graphs and tables for presentations?

I was at a "presentation" the other day, and the person was trying to influence a governmental body into giving their project funding. While the speaker was disorganized, what was more appalling is that in this day and age, there weren't any supporting slides or visuals to reinforce their points. There's that whole theory of how much you retain by hearing and seeing something in comparison to just hearing it or just seeing it that you learned in Instructor I (one more reason for requiring this kind of a course as a pre-requisite for Fire Officer I: it teaches you how to communicate to an audience). You'd think that by now someone might have retained that information themselves. If you care enough about your project that you're willing to get up in front of a whole bunch of people to discuss it, why wouldn't you try to SELL it?

If you want to be a leader, it's not just about surviving, it's about EXPERIENCING. You have to stretch and pull, not push. You don't see the lead climber at the back of the pack, do you? They're the one forging the way, finding the path, and establishing the precedence. You have to get out ahead of people to lead them and the way to do that in places other than on the battlefield is to be innovative and thinking about new ways to do things, and learning and finding out the better way up, not by taking the same path everyone else takes.

To be a real leader requires creativity and more than anything, the ability to manage in a dynamic environment. If you are willing to be flexible and change with the conditions that present themselves, people will look to you for the answers when they don't have them. This isn't just from your subordinates, either, this will very likely come from your superiors as well.

There's a question I once heard on The West Wing, "Would you rather be 'The Man', or 'The Man that The Man Goes To'?" If you are a subordinate who desires to be considered a leader (or wishes to have real influence), consider that premise. I hear from people all the time who complain that they wish their boss was a better leader and I always say, "Why don't you fill that spot?" Leadership abhors a vacuum. If the appointed or legitimate leader fails to lead, someone will. If that place is filled by you, insure that you cement your value to the boss and the rest of the crew by being a positive, motivated, seeker of truth and knowledge.

If you care enough about your job that you want to lead, you should consider that leading requires more effort than following. A lot of that effort is learning how to be ahead of everyone else in the pack, especially when it comes to improving your condition and by employing creativity to do a safer and more effective job. Be proactive and be the best at what you do. if you do that, I can reassure you, with a good attitude, people will come knocking on your door for the answers.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on July 28, 2009 • Filed under: change, customer service, education, fire service, firefighting, government, leadership, motivation, officership, planning, politics, professionalism, revolution, safety • Tagged: change, education, fire service, Hilton Head Island, Industrial Fire World, leadership, management, marketing, motivation, opportunity, politics, South Carolina, Steve Jobs, Training, West Wing

Reserving Our Scorn for the Deserving

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I know that I am one of the chief purveyors of snarkiness as a means of combating the less-than-professional element in our midst. I guess that just because I have a personal vision of what I'd like to see the fire service evolve into, there are those out there who also have a vision of well-lit POVs and thumping bass stereo in their engines as what is considered to be worthy of discussion. However, just as many other red-blooded males of the species, I'm okay with crushing my enemies, seeing them driven before me, and hearing the lamentations of their women. To each his own, I suppose.

So the dilemma, I guess, is which battles need to be fought and to what degree. This then relates to what level of sarcasm should be employed when you are trying to point out that someone is discussing what we consider to be bizarre or to the extreme and we are trying to point out that yes, they are an idiot. As I have found out over the years(and especially recently), the degree of snarkiness should probably be limited when dealing with the less fortunate, the disadvantaged, and the criminally insane.

As to why we blog or write, there are different reasons, of course. I am not interested in blogging for the interest of stirring up hate and discontent, except as it goes to encourage spirited but civil debate over subjects that require deeper thought. So for me, my reason for writing and expecting feedback is to ask questions to challenge the minds of others, in an effort to learn more and to grow.

Some people blog and posts to hear themselves speak. Just as when we must tolerate the gas from a nearby infant, what comes out of the mouths of some of these people may stink, but just as we wouldn't flame a child for passing an offensive cloud in our direction, we must consider the source of some of these scratchings ("writings" would be pretty charitable for some) and be relatively tolerant.

Likewise, no amount of clever rhetoric is going to get you back the thousands you'll have to spend defending a frivolous lawsuit. What it really all comes down to is that we must decide for ourselves what is harmless and what is dangerous, and go after the dangerous and ill-advised. All other discussion is probably wasted because with some of these individuals, no amount of logic will sway them from their misdirected viewpoint.

I guess my measurement on deciding which individuals should be dealt with would be that there are those whose views are derived either because of laziness (and reluctance to change because it would require them to do something other than to take up space), those who are as a result of ego or greed guarding their domain (and reluctant to change because it would cost them their position in our "society"), those who are defrauding others (for whatever reason, again as a result of ego or greed, aware that change would cause people to analyze their claims), and the malicious.

Believe it or not, I don't find too many people in our business that fit into the category of deserving of a flame attack. In most of the cases I have found where I am dealing with someone who gets my temper to flare up, after a few moments of deep breathing I have found that they fit into the category of the misinformed. The question then is, are they receptive to education, or is it me who needs to be educated? After all, maybe I'm the one who was misinformed or misunderstood the issue. The key, I have found, is that both parties need to be open to civil discourse and willing to appreciate the viewpoint of their counterpart. It is in this area where I find many of us, including myself, to need improvement.

By checking our emotions at the door and getting to the point of the discussion, figuring out the difference between factual information and rhetoric, we achieve enlightenment. Let me paraphrase something from the Tao Te Ching; the useful part of a jar isn't the jar, it is the empty space within the jar. Unless we are willing and able to understand someone else's position on a subject, no matter how right or wrong, we will not be able to teach someone the truth, or appreciate the truth ourselves. In understanding how someone comes to a conclusion, we can then effectively show the way, if that is what is necessary, or we can be shown the way.

I may have lost some of you with that, but it is in this that you can probably see the point better. When was the last time you were completely convinced that something was the truth, only to find out after time that you were wrong? So in that interim, did you find yourself defending that "truth" to the point of being uncivil to another? How did you feel then about what you said or did that may have been to defend your position, only to find out now that you were wrong? Did you regret your actions?

There is an eastern tradition that the victorious should be be magnanimous in victory and as much as possible, allow the defeated to save face. In doing so, you secure allies and you earn respect. If you trot around like T.O. after a touchdown after winning your point, be reassured that if you are ever wrong, it will be rubbed in your face (like I wish someone would do to T.O.). When you are convincing someone of your point, you'll find it to be a good move to win them over rather than to point out their folly and subsequently, you'll find that you gain trust and respect as well.

It may feel good to be snarky and rub someone's face in their ignorance (I enjoy it), but after a while, you'll find it to be a hollow victory. I'm sure we can all agree we should never attack the unarmed, and in a battle of wits, that is the root cause of much of the problem. So instead of being smug about our victory, maybe we should celebrate together that we have another convert to our cause. That seems to be a more appropriate celebration anyway.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on July 27, 2009 • Filed under: change, customer service, education, fire service, leadership, motivation, officership, politics, professionalism, revolution, safety • Tagged: change, fire service, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, motivation

Although I am affiliated or employed by certain entities, I in no way speak in this forum or others on behalf of those entities unless I have specifically stated such. Any implication otherwise is doing so contrary to my agreements with those entities. The result is that the observations and opinions by myself or on behalf of Firehouse Zen are not sanctioned by any other entity other than Graffiti Train Sherpa Publications and are protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America.

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