The teacher then told the student he could not instruct him. "If you are hunting rabbits", the master told him, "and chase two, you can be sure to catch none."

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We have to carefully balance risk versus the likelihood of occurrence.  Of course, if it snows and I calculated that we didn't need snow removal gear, some will be quick to point out that I have no idea of what I'm doing.  If I buy snow removal gear, those same individuals will be quick to point out again that I have no idea what I am doing.  There are those who understand and there are those who do not.  If you are going to be the Chief, it helps to have thick skin.  But in the long run, do what is best for your customers; making decisions based on observation and experience is the key.

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 I have heard all the arguments.  While you may be saying, "I'm currently friends with my supervisor and everything is fine", my response is that if this is the case, you are doing well.  Many bosses say they can remain objective, and fail miserably.  If your "friend/boss" would still call you in the office and read you the riot act just like he or she would to anyone else when you deserve it, then perhaps you are onto something.  And if you have that kind of relationship with your officer, I think it is great.  But it's like I have alluded to in a number of posts, these three simple rules of supervisor/subordinate relations must come to bear:

1. I am your boss.
2. If we can maintain that relationship and we can both be objective when it comes time to be, great, I'll be your friend too.  
3. If not, see Rule 1.

If you are the informal leader of a group and suddenly, you are the boss, it is going to put an amazing strain on your relationships with these individuals unless you are willing to stand back from the emotion and do your job.  

Let's go back to a little comparison and contrast.  Think about being a parent of young children.  You can be a parent and make the occasionally tough decisions that leave your children angry with you and while it hurts, you know you are doing the right thing.  But you can't be their friend and do that: friends are equals, contemporaries, peers.  If you were to approach a sticky issue with your child as a friend, do you really believe for a second that they will respect your authority?  

If you are a truly enlightened leader, the whole point in having authority is to use it to lead, coach, educate, and direct others.  If you don't believe that to be true then maybe you should take a long look at your relationships in that regard.  That's not to say, again, that you can't be a friend to your child.  As individuals mature emotionally, they recognize logic and the difference between right and wrong.  They have experiences that permit you to engage them and they can learn on their own.  But in dealing with those who are ambivalent about the difference, or have immature tendencies, or simply lack experience in understanding the difference, if you act as a friend rather than as a parent, don't be overly surprised if your children make the wrong choices because you were overly permissive in the attempt to be their friend.

I have myself been guilty of allowing a friendly relationship to cloud my view of how an individual is performing, or in some cases, even in how I respond to their actions when I give them news they don't care to hear, or challenge them with a task they think is objectionable.  I have a tremendous amount of respect for team cohesion and I understand and encourage cohesion as a force multiplier.  But there is a delicate balancing point between cohesion and fraternization.  In an emotionally mature adult, the lines can blur a little more because individuals can process the logic.  In the less mature adult, sometimes what seems to be logical is instead addressed with a great deal of emotion.

As a boss, you will have to make decisions that are occasionally not well recieved by the troops, especially if you are the one who is pushing for change in organizational culture.  As we have also said repeatedly, change is not something that comes easily in a lot of cases.  If it were, it would happen all the time and without resistance.  Consider the fact that you can be an honest, fair, and educated boss that people like to work with, have a lot of respect for, and consider a "friend".  But ultimately, when the hard part of the job comes into view, part of having integrity as a leader is reaffirming to the troops that you will always act in the best interest not of the organization or the personnel, but in the interest of the customers you serve.  If you can do that, no decision you make will be wrong, and people may disagree, but will have to do so respectfully, because service to the customers is the ultimate objective.  

Do yourself a favor as well as your subordinates. Choose what is best to serve the customers you are charged with providing for.

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A few shifts later, we did end up with one of these transports and the same crew was back on rotation.  I called the station to let the crew know what was going on.  I hung up from that and went back to my computer.  After a few minutes, I still hadn't heard the medic unit check in on the radio.  When I called the station to find out what was going on, I'll bet you know what the answer was. That day I learned a lesson the hard way.  The lesson: Don't give someone an order and then, when something unusual comes up, expect your orders to be followed without question.

Individuals who become supervisors, and subsequently leaders, must understand that when they play pranks like that, the result is that people don't see you as credible. I do have examples of officers who have been able to be pranksters and be credible, but they are VERY far and few between.  In retrospect, a friend and colleague who I consider one of the best officers I have ever worked with was one of those.  But my observation is that he had the ability to pull off pranks that didn't require his active involvement.  And while never calling attention to his ability to pull a fast one, he wasn't the class clown either.  

Conversely, there are those who when they pull off the joke, they have to be in the middle of it.  This obviously detracts from their respectability.  They are not seen as credible.  The crew just sees them as an extension of themselves, with some added paperwork responsibilities.  When it comes to playtime, these characters are right there in the mix, setting someone up for a "bunny tail", throwing someone else's car keys into a bowl of water bound for the freezer, or throwing a bucket of cold water over top of the shower door on some unsuspecting boot.  And what's even worse is that when the officer engages in this behavior, it also means that to be a good sport, you must be okay with being the mark in some of the practical jokes. Otherwise, the argument is that you can dish it out, but can't take it, and depending on how you react, you may very well end up looking foolish, which certainly isn't going to do anything for your respect.

There are ways to not be a prankster and not be seen as a tight-ass either.  We have a long standing "tradition" of wetting individuals with ice cold buckets of water when they get promoted.  The day I got the official letter, I overheard some of the crew debating the wisdom of wetting me, since I don't engage in that nonsense.  But when all the work was done that day, I finished up a report, walked out into the kitchen and said, "Okay, if you're going to do this, let's do it and get it over with."  

Each of the other six guys at Station 6 that day got a shot at pouring ice water on a newly minted chief officer (see the picture).  I'll admit it was cold and that it took my breath away.  But I sat there and when they exhausted their last bucket and they were all standing around, I shook the ice off my shirt and stood up.  I then asked, "You guys done?"  They all acknowledged that they were, I simply said "Thank You", went inside to my rack and changed into a dry uniform.  Then I went back to my office to finish up my evening reports with a smile and a business as usual attitude.

Likewise, if you have that kind of attitude and someone does take a chance to pull one over on you, the best bet is to maintain a sense of humor about it, but remind the entire crew that it isn't smart to prank the chief.  I've said something like, "Are you sure turning the heater on high in the chief's car is a good career move?", which gets some light laughter, but everyone gets the point.  Later you can take the individual aside and actually use it to discuss this very same lesson here with them, so that perhaps they learn from it for when they become an officer. 

When you are a leader, it requires you to not take yourself too seriously.  But if you are busy dreaming up new practical jokes rather than dreaming up new training scenarios, the likelihood that you will be given the respect you desire as an officer is going to be slim. Officers who engage in practical joking with their subordinates are only asking for reciprocation; the biggest downside is that reaction may come at the time you least want it to.  Best to leave the funny stuff to the kids and stick to being the responsible adult. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Hilton Head Island Fire and Rescue

EDITORS NOTE: THE PERIOD IN WHICH THIS APPLICATION WAS OPEN IS NOW EXPIRED.  I ASK THAT IF YOU ARE STILL INTERESTED IN A JOB WITH HILTON HEAD ISLAND FIRE AND RESCUE, THAT YOU CONTINUE TO MONITOR FOR THESE OPPORTUNITIES IN APPROXIMATELY 12 TO 18 MONTHS.  AS A RESULT, THE LINKS TO THAT APPLICATION ARE NOW DISABLED.

The Town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, has opened up the floodgates for anyone interested in applying for the position of firefighter.  I have worked for this agency since it was created from the merger of three other emergency providers in 1993, but I also worked for all three of those other agencies at one point or another since 1982.  I have stuck with this team for so long and continue to do so for at least one main reason: Because Hilton Head Island Fire and Rescue’s leadership and personnel are committed to a vision of excellence and service and prove it regularly.

We have seven stations serving a world-class beach resort community with all-hazards emergency response.  Since 2008 we have completely replaced our entire fleet of 10 engines and in two months we will have completely replaced our fleet of 10 ambulances.  Our tillered aerial is also scheduled for upgrades within this budget year and the other TDA in the next five.

Everyone on the line is required to be cross-trained and certified.  By the first year, all newly hired firefighter/EMTs must carry at least an IFSAC or ProBoard Firefighter II credential and a National Registry EMT Basic credential.   Within your first year, a stack of other required credentials will quickly accumulate from the classes we send you to if you are hired and don’t have that training.  But that’s just the beginning of a long career in which education is encouraged.

Hilton Head Island Fire and Rescue supports earning a college degree if you don’t yet have one, and more than a few personnel have gone on to graduate with degrees through the Town’s tuition reimbursement program. In addition to the number of personnel who regularly attend the National Fire Academy, our organization also boasts its share of Executive Fire Officer graduates.  HHIFR is well represented by a number of personnel who write, teach and consult on the national and international issues in emergency services.  We have representatives on NFPA and IAFC committees, national and state training committees, and serving as instructors of the South Carolina Fire Academy.  In fact, all line officers are required to maintain an instructor credential with the South Carolina Fire Academy in addition to a number of other certifications.

If you truly believe that our mission is to prevent disaster first, we are the department you want to be affiliated with.  Our building and fire codes are some of the strongest in the region and they are enforced by our excellent Fire Marshal’s Bureau as well as the Town’s Building and Codes Enforcement teams.  A great number of occupancies on the Island are protected by fire sprinklers and equipped with monitored alarm systems.  We have a very proactive outreach to youth through participation in school education programs.  Our personnel teach regular CPR and first aid courses to the public, and we had one of the first community-wide AED programs in the nation.  Disaster planning and management is conducted by the Town’s own Emergency Management staff, located in our Headquarters and working hand-in-hand with the rest of the team.  If all else fails and disaster does strike on the Island, citizens and visitors call our own enhanced 9-1-1 communications center, operated by public safety communicators who are also part of the HHIFR family.

Our CFAI-accredited department runs advanced life support ambulances along with our engine companies and we not only respond, but we transport as well.  Hilton Head Island Fire and Rescue co-hosts (with our brothers at Bluffton Township Fire District)  one of five recognized US&R Regional Response Teams in the South Carolina US&R Program as well as the regional HAZMAT Emergency Response Team, with responsibilities as part of the state-wide counter-terrorism response plan.  We have a brand-new training facility with a tower and propane props, our own fleet maintenance facility, and are in the process of rebuilding our fifth station out of seven, with the remaining two scheduled for demolition and re-construction in the next three to five years.

Hilton Head Island is a unique place to live and work.  While the United States Census lists Hilton Head Island with a population of 48,000, the average daily population exceeds 100,000 when you add in visitors, workers, day-trippers, and at peak can be up to 275,000.  The residents of the Island are very particular about their level of expectations. There are many CEOs, managers, military leaders, and retired executives who call Hilton Head Island home, as well as native Islanders, young families, and immigrants.  We have to serve all of them with a very high standard of care, no matter what their emergency is.  It is what we expect from our personnel, 24/7.

I have passed on more than a few opportunities when after reflection, I realize how good it is here and how much I enjoy it here.  We have amazing personnel working with us and we have a very supportive community to work in.  If you would like an opportunity to work with this team, please check out the links I have embedded in this post to learn more about us and our community, and take the time to apply.  As a parting note: While sharing this information via my blog does not qualify me for a referral bonus (I have to actually KNOW you), I’d rather that if given the opportunity, you mention that you found this process through the Firehouse Zen site.  My request is simply to illustrate the power of networking through this type of media.

Good luck! And click here if you haven’t already for the application site!

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We all have a job to do.

When it comes down to it, we don’t really know what’s in the hearts of anyone else, do we?  All we can do is read what people write and listen to what they say and watch their face to see if we are getting anywhere. The internet provides a place where anyone can feel brave and say what they want to say behind the anonymity of a computer terminal without fear of reprisal.

It’s those who feel the need to draw lines in the sand wherever they go that are probably the most disturbing.  Is it fire vs. EMS?  Career vs. volunteer?  East Coast vs. West Coast?  Rural vs. Urban?  European vs. North American? We all have a job to do and the job has different elements depending on where we are, what we are dealing with, and how we perceive the issues at hand.  Why fight about it?

If we were all the same, I could see being able to say who is better, but it’s the equivalent of comparing apples to elephants.  There are similarities in certain facets of the business, but really, as we have said on here a hundred times, emergency service delivery is a very specialized business in your unique community.  There aren’t too many tenders wandering the streets of Manhattan, and conversely, there aren’t many six-man truck companies in rural Arkansas.  Saying one is better than the other is ridiculous; they don’t compare.

Anymore it seems like the nameless and faceless just want to stir up controversy for the sake of stirring up controversy.  Of course, it’s easy to stir up controversy if you have no fear of reprisal.  There used to be a certain argument that the controversy was there to open up minds and to inject fresh ideas, and given some recent posts I have been watching, I am inclined to say that I saw no new ideas or the championing of best practices.  I didn’t see people fighting injustice with their secret identity.  Instead I saw bullies and provocateurs making illogical statements and specifically baiting others, just to get a rise out of someone.

It’s a product of our society, I guess.  We can all be intimately connected yet have enough distance between each other to feel safe.  People bemoan how uncivil society has become, but forget that when we were all cooped up in our little neighborhoods, if someone acted in a manner contrary to the social mores, they became quickly ostracized.  Living in a community with others you had to get along with meant that associating with provocateurs wasn’t safe.  Now we can align with people who espouse all kinds of wild ideas and don’t fear anyone, because really, how will anyone know?

Firefighting and other public safety personnel were always respected because honestly, these people were part of our community too.  We didn’t do things that hurt others because we felt a certain connection to them.  We went to school and church with them.  We were likely related in some form or fashion.  Our parents knew one another.  These days, there’s enough distance that you can be the bully you always wanted to be and hide your 95-pound weakling body behind the monitor.  If you treated people like that in your old neighborhood, you’d likely have the crap beaten out of you.

I believe there is a certain amount of merit to having a pseudonym, if it is used for good, and especially if you know that saying the right thing will have detrimental consequences.  But I don’t see so much of that these days as the other, the troll who just wants to make spurious statements and not have to back them up.  There’s nothing I love more than reading through a thread of meaningless diatribe to find out the idiot on one end is some Junior with the wacker-pack and a keyboard.

If you really want our industry to be recognized as professionals, it requires conduct that is professional.  It requires discussion and exposition of ideas, but it doesn’t have any room for intolerance or illogical thought.  We must remain open to the perspective of others, regardless of whether they are the aforementioned Junior or the saltiest jake on the truck.  But being respective and considerate of other ideas doesn’t mean that we have to lay down and sing Kumbaya if someone is being a troll.  Maybe we need to call some of these people out, or even better yet, ignore them, and perhaps they will go away.  We all have a responsibility to project what we desire in our society as a good example, and to guide the poor examples either toward enlightenment or toward the exit.  In either case, it requires action, not ignorance.

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You can choose to keep your head in the sand or come up for air. It's really YOUR choice.

In an uncharacteristic Firehouse Zen moment, I’m going to share some not-so-heartwarming news with you: If you fail to evolve, you will die. It’s not all about cheerleading and mentoring. Some of this motivation has to come from the subject themselves. If you are not intrinsically motivated, you can only be kicked in the head so many times before it’s time for us to move on to someone who genuinely WANTS to succeed.

I am inspired by this post from the New York Times that discusses what is known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect — our incompetence masks our ability to recognize our incompetence. In essence, some people are so stupid, that they don’t even recognize that they are that stupid.

It’s like the contemporary fire officer who continues to discuss his or her lousy computer skills.  Do you know one?  While twenty years ago, it might not have been a big deal, but virtually everything we do these days as a company or chief officer requires a certain understanding of how to complete forms, create documents and memos, and to analyze data.

I don’t know of a single department in the nation who is still using a typewriter to perform these tasks, although I’m sure someone will pipe up and claim that distinction.  Unless you are some superstar fireground tactician, I don’t know anyone so gifted that they can forgo the skills required to cover the administrative requirements of the job, and those skills include basic computer use.  Claiming you can’t work a computer just doesn’t cut it in the 21st Century; if you are so confused by a word processing program that you can’t manage to put out a coherent memo, it might be time for a career change.

But this isn’t a rant about not being able to use a computer.  The point is that as times evolve, so do our jobs.  You can complain about it and moan about it all you want, but the expectations placed on us as leaders require us to understand and manage change. You may not be an early adopter, in fact, you might be the last one dragged kicking and screaming to the next level, but at some point, you must make the change or expect to become irrelevant.  As a company officer, your redeeming skill might have been that you could last the longest in a smoky room without puking your guts up, but now that we have methods to skip that desired attribute, you’d better polish some of your other abilities up soon else you will be yesterday’s news.

We must constantly evaluate our knowledge, skills, and abilities and determine what we can do to evolve.  If we fail to do that, we are dooming ourselves to obsolescence. If retirement is within your sixty-day window, that might not matter to you, but if you plan on hanging in for the next few years, I suggest you learn more.  You have to be smart enough to realize you don’t know everything and certainly not so stupid that you think you do.

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While there are all kinds of talk about mergers and regionalization of service in his new community, he took the opportunity to give me a tour of two separate organizations going through merger issues in their own communities which happen to be within several miles of one another- Southeastern Adams Volunteer Emergency Service and Penn Township Emergency Services - who are going through changes right now (they’re in two separate counties).  I am not going to go into the issues that these organizations are encountering right now, nor do I know enough about their situations to comment on them either.  The situations in both places, however, prompted me to want to briefly discuss the emotional aspect of change as related to organizational mergers, since there is a lot of talk about them lately.

Both of these organizations seem to be going about things the right way.  One of them, the Southeastern Adams Volunteer Emergency Service, even went so far as to create a “museum” in their new facility.  The museum honors the fire departments that predated their merger with display areas that you have to pass to get to the display area of the current organization.  In doing so, the visitor gets the message pretty clearly that the history of these other departments is essential to the history of the combined department.  Having been through a merger ourselves back in 1993, I know what it feels like to see the department you once worked for become a footnote in history.

During these trying economic times, we are all trying to find ways to maximize return on investment.  While more recently it seems as if the ol’ merger idea is getting trotted out by communities trying to make things work a little leaner, it’s not just the aspect of merging two organizations that requires discussion.  There are the mergers of fire and EMS, mergers of volunteer and career forces, and of course, the regionalization of resources that is created when different communities merge their agencies.  In fact, while I was writing this, I got an e-mail blast on which the Erie County, NY merger ideas were being discussed, up in Tiger’s neck of the woods.

There is an economy of scale that politicians seem to throw up as the overwhelming benefit for merging, but these same people often completely discount that there is also a certain amount of emotion in bringing agencies together.  Denying that concern would assume that you are oblivious to human nature.  While a merger could make all the sense in the world to us all from a purely pragmatic aspect, there is the sense of loss and insecurity that comes when we make the jump from the known to the unknown.  Some of us may bemoan the change from our current cozy little relationship to a bigger organization.  Some might be concerned that our opportunities might be diminished or eliminated.  Others might understandably be worried that while in our daily existence there is a certain work load that is acceptable and manageable, but a change from that might require increased commitment and turmoil.  In career and volunteer mergers, there is the understandable concern that one side or another lacks respect for the other, or misunderstands the motives of the other, or is simply trying to remove one or the other from existence.  Likewise, the merging of fire and EMS forces often requires the consideration that players perceive their jobs as changing, or their function as being redefined, or even that something they have trained for and devoted considerable energy to their whole lives is now being considered as less than important.

None of these feelings should be discounted when merging and in fact, each should be addressed clearly to outline future expectations and to reduce ambiguity.  Facilitated panels should be created to foster discussion between the merging parties, and community representatives should also be consulted.  After all, they are affected as well and they may have a perception (positively or negatively as well) regarding the merger that must also be considered.

The opportunity for asking questions requires time to be put aside and resources committed to getting and giving answers.  Unfortunately, some of the answers to questions prior to merging might even be, “We don’t know”.  And while some members might take that as lacking commitment or integrity, I seem to think it is a perfectly honest answer when, believe it or not, “we don’t know”.  But while all of these emotions can be attributed toward trekking into the unknown aspects of a merger, they are all really very relevant toward any global change in the way we do things.  There is the perception of loss, the unwillingness to transition from the known to the unknown, and the resistance to added (and undesired) responsibility and workload.  So in order to facilitate smooth change, one must give thorough credence to these emotions and not ignore them, but embrace them.

Think of it this way; this is now a new frontier.  We have the ability (considering you want to adopt best practices to make the transition to a BETTER place than where you once were) to reinvent ourselves, to create a new culture of excellence, to provide opportunity for growth that didn’t previously exist, or to make our workplace more efficient, more safe, more modern, or more embracing of good, rather than poor methods of doing our job.

Bringing people in who have experienced these changes to talk to them and pick their brains, is wise and I think, well advised.  Open minded individuals who have been through these experiences, both good and bad, can advise you on the blessings of such an endeavor, as well as to point out the pitfalls and perils of the same.  But any organizations going through this experience are cautioned that no mergers are the same, and the motives that drive mergers are often not the same, or so altruistically motivated, either.  And of course, depending on what agencies are merging and the positions of the stakeholders on either end of the merger, not everyone will agree with what is and isn’t important when moving toward a merger.  What is important is that all viewpoints are considered (and I don’t mean adopted, but that the emotions are given some credence and there is an effort to understand these perspectives) and that issues are discussed and issues causing concern are communicated.

Out with the old and in with the new isn’t necessarily a good thing.  Mergers that are universally embraced are pretty rare indeed, as someone is going to perceive the event is involving loss.  And some mergers are frankly, a terrible idea. But if the motives of the key players are based on a genuine concern for doing what is best for the community, and that the concerns of those who have to deliver that service are given credence and at least understood, a merger can be a whole lot less painful than many individuals make it out to be.

In many cases where mergers have not gone well, it is because one side or another, or individuals within the dynamic, perceived that a loss or change from their current situation was going to negatively affect them, so there was a choice made to muddy the water.  As in any conflict between parties, if anyone fails to appreciate or understand the perceptions of the other, they are setting themselves up for failure.  The best practice is to try to gain multiple perspectives on the situation, understand those perspectives, and to try to achieve consensus on as many issues as possible.  This is, after all, a team approach, but ultimately, everyone should agree that whatever happens, the motive for merging and moving forward should be based on what is best for the community and the people you are striving to serve.  All other motives should be secondary to that directive.

Merging isn’t easy and pain will be involved.  Anytime change occurs, there will probably be some loss and some resulting pain.  But if these efforts are being undertaken for the right reasons, and if the leaders are motivated to do what is right by the people we are trying to serve rather than to protect self-interests, things can be done to honor those who have gone before us, and to serve professionally those who we are sworn to protect.

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