Skip to content

Archives for marketing

See all posts in the network tagged with marketing

Almost Good Enough

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

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 truck6alpha on February 18, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, Firefighter Safety & Health, Funding & Staffing, Media Relations, Training & Development, change, customer service, fire service, government, leadership, officership, planning, politics, professionalism, revolution, safety • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Prove Yourself

4 comments

a federal qDon’t waste your time thinking that opportunity is going to come find you.  The value of your network is extremely important.  Many jobs in the private sector get awarded to people who know someone within the company.  Referrals are worth their weight in gold.  But this also goes toward obtaining opportunities to prove yourself.

The chief of department, when he has a sexy project, isn’t going to come hunting you down unless he is familiar with your track record.  If you are some firefighter toiling away in obscurity at your designated “vacation station”, no matter how clever and innovative you think you are, the choice projects aren’t going to you.  Why should they?  The chief knows there’s a dozen guys who will kill for this opportunity; why search someone out and reward them with the plum assignment?

If you want those good assignments, you are going to have to sniff out and handle some unpopular ones first.  If you can prove your worth on one of those, the next time a less-horrible project comes up, you could possibly end up on the list for that.  If you handle THAT one well, expect a bump up on the list.  This is called developing political capital.  It spends, just like money.  As you gain this capital, what is really happening is that you are building a relationship between you and the chief, and the relationship is evidenced in the trust he has that you will be the right one for that challenging, but rewarding position.

I don’t care who you are, how long you have worked here, or how smart you think you are, if you can’t handle a small assignment, why should I stake my reputation on whether or not you are reliable, and the only way I can know that is by having some evidence in my pocket.

Can’t get the powers that be to feed you even the most lousy of projects?  Go out in the community and make yourself valuable.  By that, I mean, find some non-profit or civic group and join up.  These guys are ALWAYS looking for able bodied people, especially those who want to help for free.  For FREE? That’s what I said.  This, however, is an investment you are making.

The experience you gain from managing projects in the community will pay you back multi-fold, and in addition, you build up people in your network, people that later in your career you will be comfortable calling up directly on the phone and having a conversation with them.  A genuine conversation, not, “Hi, remember me?  Can I get you to give me a reference…?”

When opportunity comes knocking, if you aren’t prepared by being qualified to be the one to take it, don’t expect everyone to be knocking down your door to appoint you the next best thing since sliced bread.

Posted by truck6alpha on February 1, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Training & Development, change, leadership, motivation, officership, politics, professionalism • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Inflammatory Language

1 comment

This was a response I placed on FFN in answer to some statements being made about the fire service:

In 2008, there were 1,148,850 firefighters in the U.S., according to Karter and Stein’s U.S. Fire Department Profile report. With three reported “noose” incidents and a certain number of “other racist” incidents that may be out there, I would hardly believe that this translates into the Fire Service deserving of a comparison to the KKK. In fact, I am, have always been, and always will, be repulsed by any racism, sexism, or any other form of bigotry within what is supposed to be a “brotherhood”. The only thing white going on my head is my leather.

While blogging is relatively informal and held to a lesser standard of editorial responsibility, writers still have to understand that comments like these (whether or not she meant to inflame the readership and drive hits) are irresponsible. I’m not calling for her job or a boycott of FIRE RESCUE, but I certainly believe she owes everyone an apology.

As a blogger, I believe I have said things to make people think, and I know I have said things that may have been controversial, but never have I said anything that would be considered an insult to the overwhelming majority of firefighters who serve this Nation on a daily basis. I know there have been moments when I have been tempted to shake things up with a statement before, to see if anyone is paying attention, but there needs to be at least a tiny bit of journalistic integrity when you are blogging, else you are just part of the “Wild Wild West” with all the other trolls and morons out there.

WC is trying to do a job, just like the rest of us. I know on some issues that sometimes things sneak by you and sometimes you catch them. Should we ban free speech? Certainly not. Should we ban shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre? Yes.

If you are writing something simply to create angry responses and overwhelmingly emotional controversy just to drive traffic, maybe you need to be banned. But since I don’t know that to be fact, I think maybe we need to all be a little more responsible with what we say, ignore the trolls, and act like grown-ups.

Posted by truck6alpha on December 17, 2009 • Filed under: leadership • Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

The Fixers

5 comments
webIMG_1675

How can we help you today?

Are you a fire department or are you an EMS service?  Do you do both?  The knee-jerk reaction I sometimes get was one coined by a previous chief, “We are an EMS agency providing fire service”.  In fact, it sounds so clever that there are a vocal few who like to throw that out there time and time again, like they were the ones who originally came up with the concept (they’re paramedics, so they’re a little biased, I’m sure).

Something I said in a much earlier blog bears repeating:  customer relations are essential for any department operating in this day and age.  There are those who continue to disagree with the use of the word “customer” when referring to those who use our service.  Respectfully, I also continue to insist that just because they don’t walk into your shop and buy something doesn’t mean they don’t have a choice in using your service.  Taxpayers may not be able to change providers, but with enough votes, they can radically change your organization.

The world can change overnight.  If you think the current model of how we provide service is going to last another 200 years, think again.  As our customers become more educated and expect more innovation from government, look for them to insist on ways we can do things better.  We need to continuously and constantly evaluate our direction and possibly even reinvent  our concepts in order to stay out front.  Good customer service revolves around recognizing the needs of our customers and using our skills, abilities and past experience to improve service quality and to provide excellent service.

As has happened over really the last thirty years, our industry has evolved into one that defies definition, one that more and more reflects all-hazard response.  I’m going to go on record to say that I’m even confused as to what to call us anymore.  There’s a famous paragraph in Report From Engine 82 (Dennis Smith) that I’ll paraphrase, because I can’t remember it exactly.

In this city, when you turn on a wall switch, you may or may not get a light.  When you turn a faucet, you may or may not get water.  If you pick up a phone, you may or may not get a dial tone.  But everybody knows that if you pull the handle on that red box, you WILL get a fire truck.

The purpose of my poorly remembered paraphrasing of that statement was to illustrate that times have not changed from when the book was published in 1972; just substitute “call 9-1-1″ for “pull the handle on that red box”.  But what we have become has, as we become EMTs and HAZMAT Technicians and Water Rescue Technicians and etc., etc.  I read “Report” cover to cover when it first came out (I was eight- I’m a good reader) and the context of that paragraph has stuck with me forever.  Dennis Smith points out in his story how the fire department was used to handle plumbing issues, to handle overdoses, and to handle pretty much anything up to and including, things that happen to be burning.

So back to customer service; what is our mission?  Why do we exist?  If your answer is, “To protect people from fire” or “To help the sick and injured”, I’d suggest that maybe you should reconsider all of those calls that don’t meet that definition as distracting you from that mission.  If you’re anything like me and the organization I work for, I’d say that not handling those calls is probably counter to the needs of your community.  And what your mission should really be, is defined by those needs.

When someone dials 9-1-1 (or whatever they dial in your community), they do so because they have a problem they can’t handle themselves (or should I say they don’t know how to handle), they don’t have the resources to handle the problem, and they don’t have anywhere to turn for an answer.  Obviously, you are saying, “Well, if my pipes are leaking, why wouldn’t I call the plumber?”  Again, think about the ENTIRE situation.  Maybe they can’t afford a plumber.  Maybe they can’t find a plumber to come out.  Maybe they are totally freaked out by the situation and not thinking clearly.  There are many answers to the question, but the long and short of it is, they trust YOU to help them solve the problem and YOU are the people they call.

So what I’m telling you is that our job REALLY is to respond to a request for help, gather facts about the problem, analyze the options, apply a solution, and ultimately, stabilize the situation.  We may not FIX the problem, but when we leave, things should at least be stable.  We really don’t need doctor-wannabes or adrenaline junkies for our job, what we need are people who can look at any situation and understand the situation, then apply creativity using the resources at hand (either on site or on that BRT you brought) to stabilize their situation.  And further along that line, we’re not asking these individuals to rebuild the house, we’re asking them to stop the forward progress of the damaging element (or disease process or whatever it is) and return some means of order to chaos.  We’re not building a piano here, we’re improvising and hopefully we’ll come out with something that can at least pass for a musical instrument of some sort.

What should our business be called?  What is it that we do?  How can we possibly have meaning in our life if we don’t have a label or title for our life’s ambition?  When I hear of the trash guy being called a “Sanitation Technician”  or a dog-walker a “Pet Care Specialist”, I wonder what title really defines what it is we do.  What it really comes down to is that everyone recognizes the title for your job more than you could ever know.  When someone asks me what I do for a living, I answer, “I’m a Firefighter”.  The knowing look on their faces and the subsequent questions about my job, my worst call, my most stupid call, etc. confirm for me that most everyone understands what our job is really all about.  Now the bigger goal is to get those of us who do it to understand that as well.

Posted by truck6alpha on November 12, 2009 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighting Operations, HazMat, Major Incidents, Media Relations, Special Operations, Training & Development, US&R, change, customer service, fire service, firefighting, leadership, motivation, officership, politics, professionalism, rescue, revolution • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Distance Separates Us

5 comments

ladder talk webDistance separates us.  Of course it does, you are probably thinking.  That’s not that much of a revelation.  But distance separates us all the more so because by being distant, or more so, by not being alike, it also indicates a schism between you and I.  The fire and emergency services are united in our history, but at some point we evolved into many different representations of the same idea: service to others.  As to whether that space can be broached or not is the big question.  While we can all claim brotherhood and a desire to do this job, whether we are career or not; whether we are urban or not; whether we provide EMS or not; and a whole host of other differences keep us from effectively saying “We Are One”.

Over the past decade, the efforts Dave Iannone and Chris Hebert have put together brought a lot of us old crusties to the digital age.  These innovative experiences took firefighters (and non-firefighters) from around the world and brought us closer together.   But while this has been a good thing because I now know and can better understand the perspectives of a volunteer firefighter in Moosejaw, AK as well as a firie in New South Wales, Australia, it is saddening because I see some of what I had hoped not to see.

Although I was first promoted to officer rank in 1985, I’m afraid I wasn’t a very good officer.  Sure I could run tactics and make sure people were doing their jobs, but I lacked maturity and looking back on it, depth.   In 1988, my eyes were opened.  During a weekend seminar on Fire Service Leadership, Chief Harry Diezel (Ret, Virginia Beach Fire Department) opened my eyes and put me on the path that I have since continued along.  Twenty years ago, this guy said that networking was one of the single most important elements of leading. Yes, twenty years ago.

I quickly found out what firefighting was and was not about.  In that one class, I realized that there was firefighting, there was being a fire officer, and there was fire service leadership.  While I never had the opportunity to work with Chief Diezel, his words have never left me.  Although some of his ideas still are met with resistance from some of our colleagues and did that weekend from people in the class, the ideas have only been confirmed over the years to me as his concept of emergency service delivery made Virginia Beach one of the model departments of the Eighties.  Over the years, people like Howard Cross, a legendary instructor at the National Fire Academy, have also reinforced those concepts to me.

Like these individuals did for me, I have always wanted to do for others.  Firehouse Zen is part of that legacy.  I want others to look at this job with renewed perspective, to comprehend, rather than simply demonstrate knowledge.  To understand, rather than to just repeat memorized information.  To seek alternatives, to improve, and to be about positive change rather than to be about the status quo.

FireEMSBlogs.com is just a natural evolution of sharing this body of knowledge.  Dave and Chris have done a tremendous job to bring us together and to allow us to share experiences, to bond, and to better appreciate the situation each of us must face daily.  We have, however, light years ahead of us and so long as we refuse to acknowledge that our differences are actually a good thing, we will never be united.

To effect change, we must seek to understand.  To understand, we have to be presented with knowledge and that knowledge comes from others.  As the internet bridges the miles and brings our world closer together, we are finding that we share a lot more than we thought we had in common, and yet we also find ourselves unwilling to accept the views of others and even assault those who happen to share a contrarian view.  In order to grow, it is imperative that we open our minds and take the tools we are given, and use them to the best advantage.  Do us all a favor this year; point a colleague toward some of the networking opportunities out there, especially the one afforded by FireEMSBlogs.com, and tell them that there’s no time like the present to start working toward tomorrow.

Posted by truck6alpha on November 4, 2009 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Firefighter Nation, National Fire Academy, Training & Development, change, education, leadership, politics, professionalism, revolution • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Eating Our Young

5 comments

It’s not going to require much reading to see why the fire service can’t get enough of it’s collective s*** together to provide a united front on anything.  Check it out at Dave Statter’s blog at STAT911.  You can skip the video (for my purposes) and go straight to the comments.  There’s enough anger and bile in this area to prove my point.

We will never move forward in little packs of warring tribes.  We need to show a little love and respect for our brothers, regardless of who they are, where they work, career or volunteer, and their personal opinions.  Laughing at a burned brother, making derogatory remarks about each other, etc. is counterproductive, but even worse, the people who are laughing out loud are the politicians and the competing interests, because they know that so long as we continue down this path, there won’t be any resistance from us when it really is needed.

Posted by truck6alpha on October 10, 2009 • Filed under: change • Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Science Is Your Friend

1 comment

While taking Honora to school a few days ago, Bob Edwards was speaking on NPR Radio with Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, the authors of the book, “Unscientific America”.  While the book apparently discusses “scientific illiteracy”, some of the commentary seemed applicable to what we currently endure in the fire service; clinging to tradition for tradition’s sake and the global ignorance of scientific findings that can improve our efficiency and safety.

The authors, in discussing their premise, suggested that the general populace isn’t stupid when it comes to science, they’re just disengaged.  The idea that they put forth is essentially that science needs to discover a way to get people to re-engage on the issues, which is not as easy as it might seem.  While the scientific community as a whole might not necessarily agree upon the ways to communicate their issues, for scientists and supporters of science to simply dismiss the “emotional side” (my quote) of others when it comes to scientific issues is turning their back on the problem.

In the early to middle parts of the last century, scientists were looked at as heroes.  Science brought us protection against disease; it brought us innovative fabrics and materials.  Science ushered in a nuclear age and took us to the Moon.  Science, however became pedestrian or became background noise.  Although Mooney and Kirshenbaum didn’t suggest it, I suggest that maybe we all began to take these accomplishments for granted.  Consider that every other time I upgrade my computer it becomes a third smaller and four times faster (and I seem to have to upgrade these bad boys about every two or three years).  While the laptop I am typing this on has 500 GB of storage, my first work computer back in 1988 had MAYBE a 120 megabyte hard drive.  Since I wasn’t so computer literate back then, I couldn’t even begin to tell you how much RAM it had.

While these technological miracles happen almost daily, maybe they’ve become a little too commonplace.  And of course, the unintentional wall established between science and the rest of us (maybe I’m a bad example) doesn’t afford any converts.  In fact, the authors discussed that Carl Sagan suffered considerable stigma from the scientific community because of his efforts to put science in a context others could understand.  The result was that he was considered to have “populist” (their quote) views and was somehow, not worthy of inclusion into the supporters of science.

What has happened is that science just isn’t as popular a subject.  Mooney stated that if you read the newspaper, “Science doesn’t beat the horoscope or the sports pages” among most people.  Along with the theory that your political view influences your perspective on science (I’d agree with that), especially in this day of deeply divided emotions about our nation and the people who run it, I’d bet that the thought of discussing some of these scientific endeavors (stem cell research, evolution, etc.) with some of your friends or family probably makes you uncomfortable, regardless of where you stand.  So it’s no question that science in many circles, isn’t exactly a hot topic of conversation.  In fact, unless you are surrounded by a bunch of like-thinkers, you might well avoid scientific discussion altogether.

So just as goes science as a discussion for us all, so goes the fire service for those of us within it.  Go to any firehouse and you’ll see some strong feelings on certain fire service topics.  For any of us to discuss deeply held beliefs about our fire service brings up some pretty raw emotion.  Depending where you sit on many of these issues, sometimes it is better to sit it out and watch the fighting than it is to engage.  Why is that?  Well, I know personally, while I don’t shy away from conflict, I am not interested in engaging in an all-out battle with anyone who just can’t see any side of the issues except the one they are on.  If I choose to remain open-minded and civil, so must you.  That doesn’t seem to prevent people from acting like assholes though (yeah, I said it).

Blogging and posting is a little unique.  The anonymity of being online seems to permit some of the less enlightened individuals to pipe up when they should probably just stick a sock in it and slink back to their corner.  Especially when I’m being lectured by some moron who has two or three years under his (or her) belt and all of a sudden, they are the subject matter expert du jour.  Since the privacy of the internet protects cowards and psychos from getting popped in the mouth if they cross the line, I’d just as soon focus on positive discussion, but it doesn’t seem to stop some of them.

The emergency service industry, as does the scientific community, must remain objective while considering the deeply held beliefs and traditions of those who came before us.  While it seems that logic should overturn any voodoo, the scientific community can’t be dismissive of the emotion attached to these beliefs, because they can be equally as powerful, and no scientist has really been able to explain that.

I’ve said before that I love the traditions of the fire service.  I come from four generations of firefighters and I am proud of that heritage.  But just as my grandfather and my father were renegades and agitating for change and improvement, so do I.  I’m happy to keep a roto-ray on the front of my engine, but I’m not so keen on rushing so quickly to a fire alarm that I flip a rig.  I guess that’s a tradition that seemed to occur a lot in the past that I’d just as soon leave behind.  And yes, there are some who still think that this is acceptable behavior, as do those who think risk/benefit analysis is for sissies.

If we really want change, we have to understand that it scares some people.  Being dismissive of their fears or their preconceived beliefs doesn’t bring them to us in harmony, it creates division.  Understanding how and why things do the things they do is just as important as understanding who we are and where we came from and how we got here.  Since most of you reading this already get “IT”, I’m probably preaching to the choir, but perhaps we can do a better job of reaching out to the dinosaurs and conveying our respect for the way things were done, as well as educating them on safe and effective practices.

Understand that although scientific exploration may bear out an idea and that idea is as right as rain, that same idea will remain locked up in your head somewhere if you’re unable or unwilling to frame the idea into something everyone can understand and eventually, embrace.  If I had the universal answer to all of our problems, I wouldn’t be sitting here asking you open-ended questions.  But it seems that the questions keep getting asked and we aren’t hitting on the answers.

As a brotherhood, we need to band together and discover what others have found before us.  That together we can work toward improving public safety while striving for our own safety as well.  That tradition is important, but it doesn’t supplant common sense.  And that science, in reaching out to find answers to our questions, has achieved a method of achieving logical approaches to many problems, but we have to sometimes choke back emotion and realize that improvement sometimes means walking away from the treasured, but flawed, reasoning of our past.

Posted by truck6alpha on October 1, 2009 • Filed under: Firefighter Nation, change, command, customer service, education, fire service, firefighting, leadership, motivation, officership, planning, politics, professionalism, rebellion, revolution, technology • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tribes

2 comments

I’ve been pretty busy lately so I haven’t been able to post.  Something about the end of summer, doing deliveries and computer stuff for my wife’s company, doing the initial planning and contacts for our annual Down Syndrome Buddy Walk, and of course, getting the kids back to school.  With all of that, something really important is also this weekend, the beginning of football season.

When I met my wife almost 20 years ago, I’ll admit, I was not as much of a college football fan as I was of the NFL.  But my very subtle leanings toward the Notre Dame Fighting Irish became pretty intense as a result of my wife’s having attended the University, as well as much of her family.  It was in becoming part of the Powers clan that I learned much more about the University of  ”Our Mother” and really more than what I saw on TV that I liked.  I learned more about what the University means to the alums (and to us “subway alumni”) because of their adherence to higher standards, standards that may not have recently evolved into winning on the football field, but standards that have resulted in producing people of integrity, faith, and dedication.

But this isn’t a blog about that.  This blog is about tribes.  The “tribe” that I am a member of, those of Notre Dame fans, is so because of what the University means to me.  It’s not because the number of games in the win column (although that’s nice), it’s because of what they stand for.  There aren’t names on the backs of their shirts because it’s not about the individual, it’s about the team.  The student-athletes at the Univeristy of Notre Dame are expected to graduate; they’re not just taking up a scholarship for the purpose of winning.  When I wear a shirt identifying me as a supporter of Notre Dame, it’s because of my pride in the school and the product it turns out; from the people I have met, those would be educated, compassionate, involved people.  I am proud of my association with the University, even if it is only as a supporter and not an alumni.

Why do people wear shirts or hats or anything with a logo on it?  Generally, it’s because they identify with the group or product that the logo represents.  People wear logos or get tattoos often because they are trying to send a subtle (or not so subtle) message; “I relate to this advertisement”.  People put stickers on their cars for the same reasons.  They are trying to say, more often than not, “I like what this represents”.

Why do we wear firefighter logos or tats?  Why do we sport “colors” even when we don’t have to?  I live in a resort community and often I’ll be shopping at the supermarket and see someone wearing a t-shirt with a FD logo on it.  I always ask- “You on the job?”  Surprisingly enough, some of them are not.

We identify with our fire service identity because it is meaningful to us.  If it were not, we would certainly not advertise it.  If we worked with the “Loser Fire Department”, something tells me we wouldn’t wear their shirt when we were off duty.  We’d probably wear someone else’s.  Or maybe we wear the shirt of another department simply because we identify with them as brother firefighters.  I have a shirt that is one of my most prized possessions, the shirt a Capitan Miguel of “Cuerpos de Bomberos y Rescate, Cancun, Quintana Roo” told a firefighter to take off and give to me when his own shirt didn’t fit me.  I can’t even imagine that happening here in the States and interestingly enough, the same thing happened to my brother in Dublin, Ireland.

So the short version of this is, if we are so proud to associate with each other as brother firefighters, why is it that we continue to battle each other over trivial items and fail to band together to achieve greatness?  Even when we realize that we have more in common than we don’t, we continue to bicker and we fail to get together to realize gains in important issues, like sprinkler legislation, fire prevention, embracing accountability and incident management strategies, and especially in firefighter safety.

Then, what makes things even worse, is when we have people who bring disgrace to what we value.  People who represent themselves as members of our brotherhood who do things contrary to our mission, by setting fires or calling in false alarms, because they are “bored”.  People who steal from their brother firefighters, and people who say they are something when they are not, and in doing so, short-change those who HAVE earned the right to wear the badge or the patch.  And of course, people who wear the colors but don’t train and don’t work toward betterment of of their team, people who are just filling a spot.

Although I never went to Notre Dame, I realize that when I am wearing a logo on my shirt that says I support Notre Dame, that in some small way, I do represent what that stands for, even though anyone with a few bucks can go down the street and buy one easily enough.  But when I am in a crowd and I see someone wearing something with an “ND” on it, I yell, “GO IRISH!” to them and in a lot of cases, the person ends up stopping and talking to me about the University, or this year’s team, or the last time they were on campus.  We have an immediate friendship because of our common interest and of course, our view as to what is good about our “team” is often something we share.

When you are wearing your colors, your fire department colors, are you saying something good about your organization?  Are you trying to tell others that you are proud to be associated with that group? Or worse, are you ashamed to be wearing anything identifying you as part of your organization because of what they are and what they stand for?  if so, perhaps you should consider associating yourself with a different team.  I think if you wear the colors, but constantly bad-mouth the organization, then you probably should look really hard at what it is that you think the team is about and ask yourself if you really do want to continue being associated with that group.  Maybe it’s a message to move on.

We don’t wear items that associate us with things we detest.  We may not be completely in love with whatever it is that we happen to be wearing, but I can reassure you, no one wants to wear ANYTHING that has any identification with something they hate.  So if you like it enough to wear it, and that patch happens to be the trademark of the organization you are a part of, shouldn’t you be doing whatever it is that YOU can do to make that team better, or at least showing that you endorse what that group is all about?

When I put on a blue t-shirt that happens to come from your organization, I can reassure you, I wear it because I have a lot of pride in the fire service, enough pride that when someone says to me, “You on the job?”, I say back, “Yeah, I’m a firefighter”.  How many other jobs are out there where people do that?

Posted by truck6alpha on September 5, 2009 • Filed under: Firefighter Nation, Media Relations, change, customer service, education, firefighting, leadership, motivation, officership, professionalism • Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Innovation Distinguishes Between Leaders and Followers

No comments
Safely chocking those wheels.

Safely chocking those wheels.

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 truck6alpha on July 28, 2009 • Filed under: change, customer service, education, fire service, firefighting, government, leadership, motivation, officership, planning, politics, professionalism, revolution, safety • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I Wanna Be A Libertarian

5 comments

mod abf slidell (7)For the most part, I consider myself a Libertarian in that I’d just as soon the government not tell me what to do.  In some aspects, I guess, I’m pretty conservative in my values, so I’m a little Republican, and I like the idea of people on welfare getting off of it someday, especially since I had to eat a lot of PBJs and continue to drive a car with 100k+ miles on it to afford the house we live in (but that’s called choosing your priorities).  And although I’m all for funding the arts, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to fund anything called “Piss Christ”. 

Socially, I guess, I’m pretty Democratic.  While I want people off of welfare eventually, I’m also realistic in that there are people who really need help.  I also believe that just because I believe in certain things, others do not.  Just as soon as I would never force anything down your throat, though, I’d just as soon you didn’t force me to either.  So I’m all in favor of saying “One country, under God” and courthouse lawn manger scenes, in season, of course.

Our government should help when it can and stay out of our business when it can not. But when public safety is involved, time and time again the public has shown it can’t be trusted to do what is right for their neighbors, so there are times when the government should really step in and set things straight.

What am I talking about?  Well, in Breckenridge, Colorado, an ordinance was passed to create a defensible space between properties.  While some people see this as a sane thing to do, others think that it infringes upon their rights.  As I see it, it is the right to have highly combustible timber and brush leading right to your home (or your neighbors), and then, I guess, your right to bitch about it when it catches on fire and the fire department is overwhelmed trying to help all the other Libertarians in your neighborhood.

Now, I don’t for a minute think all these people are Libertarians (nor do I care, and the same for any other political affiliation, just bear with me), but there really does come a time when the common good trumps that of your personal rights.  Call it a slippery slope, but you know, as much as I embrace your religious rights, I don’t see a problem with being able to see your face when you enter a public building.  And I as much as I believe in my First Amendment rights, I think race-baiting and hate speech should be banned, because it is apparent some people lack a certain amount of civility.

When we in emergency services make proposals for public safety, we should always consider the effect we have on individual rights.  The decisions we make really do affect those rights, but so long as we are using good logic in doing so, the public has to understand that we need a LITTLE HELP sometimes.  If you choose to exercise your right to build right up to the interface, you are going to have to give us a little break when we ask you to cut back the forest from your house a little.  When we tell you that you need to leave your home because the fire is heading in your direction, trust me, if I could leave you in place, I would, because frankly, you’re just going to get out there and tie up the highway and gawk and get in my way instead of evacuating anyway, so I’d just as soon leave you there.  I do, however, realize that leaving you to burn up in your property, regardless of your individual rights, is going to land me in court because I left you to do what you wanted anyway.

How do we take into consideration individual rights versus the right to protect people from themselves?  By educating people, and sometimes that requires bold and candid speech.  It is this exact kind of speech that politicians hate, because it shakes up the status quo.  So long as the populace is happy, the politicians are happy and it’s a lot less work.  When we make decisions to cut back trees or not to respond to calls for help at a certain windspeed during a hurricane, or to evacuate people from harms way, it certainly upsets people and they take that moment to complain.

We have to make the grown-up decisions, though; it’s why we exist.  Sometimes it’s best to leave things be, but sometimes you need to point out to people that their decisions could very well result in injuries and fatalities.  If people can’t see their way through those choices, then maybe we should just restrict our response to help them when all Hell breaks loose.  After all, we wouldn’t want the government to interfere with your life, would we?

Posted by truck6alpha on July 9, 2009 • Filed under: DHS, FEMA, change, customer service, fire service, firefighting, government, insurance, leadership, planning, politics, professionalism, safety • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Past Will Continue To Haunt Us

2 comments

I’m supposed to be working on my final Executive Fire Officer paper but in doing some literature review, I came across a voice from the past.  I happened upon a copy of “The Fire Chief’s Handbook” from 1978.  Now to someone like me, 1978 doesn’t sound like too long ago.  But putting it into perspective, there were no CD or DVD players then.  As a matter of fact, the Walkman hadn’t even been out yet. 

1978 was 31 years ago. That’s a long time for a lot of things, my friends, much less for a book. But here I am, three decades later, reading this paragraph:

It is not difficult to convince a community that attention should be given to certain technical aspects of fire extinguishment.  It is much more difficult, however, to convince a municipality that increased knowledge and skill in management have now become necessary to insure the most efficient use of resources invested in protecting life and property against fire.

The discussion goes on to say that “until recently, fire protection in most of our communities had been a relatively simple and catch-as-catch can affair”.  Wow- so thirty years ago, you’re saying there was actually some discussion about increasing requirements and demands?  Sounds like a familiar argument.

So I guess when I hear someone balking at the needs for higher education and a new approach because our industry is evolving into a more complex environment, I guess we’re still talking about things we were talking about, well, when disco was popular.

I think I’ll make this short and sweet because I’ve got a lot to do, but isn’t it odd that what was considered the seminal book on fire service management was pointing out then what we still haven’t accepted now?  I’ve said several times before, that the fire service will go into the 21st Century, like it or not, kicking and screaming even, but as our world evolves around us and things change, if we continue to resist change, we ourselves will become an anachronism. As long as organizations and leaders think that the fire service will go on without turmoil by just sticking your head in the sand and hoping it will all go away, it won’t.  When you come up, the world will be telling you that if you don’t evolve, you may not survive.

Posted by truck6alpha on May 25, 2009 • Filed under: change, customer service, fire service, leadership, motivation, planning, professionalism, rebellion, revolution, technology • Tagged: , , , , ,

Putting Things In Perspective

No comments

As much as the media hype is annoying and excessive, my heart breaks for the parents of the first swine flu death in the United States, as well as for all of the other deaths that have occurred so far. As the parent of three young children, I can only imagine the pain that the family is going through and pray that things work out somehow.

However, as I was explaining to several people, and I have also said in my Twitter and Facebook feeds, we need to look at this situation and put it in perspective.

According to the Global Energy Network Institute, 35,ooo people die DAILY from starvation in the world.  Yet since these people probably aren’t subscribers to USA Today or have TVs to watch network news, I guess it’s not that much of a problem.

According to the American Heart Association, over 150, 000 people die each year from myocardial infarction (heart attacks, for you non-medical types).  The actual figure for 2009 translated into an average of 413 people dying per day, from a largely preventable disease, and a disease that we as EMS providers toil daily to educate the public about and secure funding for programs to mitigate against, but there is no media frenzy.  Now realize that number has dropped since 1980, so we are chipping away at the problem, but still, this is an astounding number of deaths from something we could work harder at solving.

Then of course, there is something much more preventable, that of death from injury.  According to the CDC, in 2006, people were dying at a rate of 490 a day from injuries.  How many times have we tried to get that message out, but have our PSAs relegated to after the 11:00 news when everyone has gone to bed?

I think we need to look at the swine flu situation carefully.  We need to take reasonable measures to mitigate against further outbreak and to minimize exposure to ourselves and our families.  But like the HIV hysteria of the ’80’s and every other crisis that comes along, the media has done a great job overselling the drama when it suits their purpose, and a mediocre job of helping us get the message out about many other efforts like putting smoke detectors in homes. It is our job to continue to bubble up the real message to our customers and it is our job to help the CDC and other parties to keep the effects of this pandemic to a minimum.  But the hysteria can stop already.  I have enough drama in my life, I don’t need this to make it that much more of a challenge.

Take universal precautions, eat and drink healthy and stay fit, and stay well.  Let’s not make this any worse than it needs to be.

Posted by truck6alpha on April 29, 2009 • Filed under: DHS, Media Relations, Uncategorized, customer service, education, fire service, funding, government, leadership, politics, safety • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

Telling The Story

1 comment

south-beach-villas-6There’s all kinds of supporting documentation regarding the differences in simply sending a message and telling a story.  In doing the research for a paper I mentioned earlier on this blog, I found that some companies like 3M and Nordstrom used the art of telling a story to deliver their vision instead of simply outlining their goals and objectives.  USA Today ran an article on the use of storytelling in the boardroom back in 2004, and there’s a good article on Brandchannel.com breaking down the whole concept of storytelling. 

I probably don’t use storytelling enough, but instead I consciously try to break things down into analogous bites that people can get their heads around a little better.  In either case, getting your message out to your audience, be they firefighters, EMTs or the public, isn’t just the effort of writing down some bullet points and hoping they get the idea, it’s taking the idea and putting it into a context they can relate to, and giving them information they can use and share with others.

There is a reason why we can re-tell a joke we haven’t heard in years and funble sometimes with our phone number.  The joke has context and we can relate to the story somehow, but our phone number, well, is just a number.  But if you have difficulty remembering the number, try breaking it down into a story: the number 278-3324 for example.  For me, the first three digits, 278, are the main drag in my community.  33 is the number on the Rolling Rock bottle and 24 is my father’s first fire department ID number.  By putting these together into a little story in our head, we can remember it.  We can do this with other things as well: The five Great Lakes are “HOMES”; Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.

Take your mission statement for example.  Unless it’s a short phrase (which it should be anyway), can you remember it verbatim?  Maybe you should convey your message in a short bite and use some storytelling to translate what exactly it is you are trying to demonstrate and the direction you want your organization to move in.

We have an excellent homilist at my church, Deacon Joe.  Instead of getting up there and lecturing, he tells a story, and people can walk out of the Mass and recount that story, maybe not exactly, but they get the overall message.  You can see people leaning forward and focusing intently on what he is saying.  They laugh at the humorous parts and they can be seen nodding in agreement at some of the more salient points.  He does a great job of getting that week’s message across to his audience.

The next time you have an important message you want your intended audience to really understand, do a litle experiment; tell a story and see if people can recount what it is you are trying to get across more readily.  Maybe by doing so, you might be able to get people to understand in a way they never experienced before, or at least since their childhood.

Posted by truck6alpha on April 13, 2009 • Filed under: change, customer service, education, fire service, firefighting, leadership, motivation, officership, politics, professionalism • Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

What Is "Better"?

1 comment

2005-1132I was playing around with Twitter the other day and blundered onto a site that discusses social media, coincidentally named Social Media Insider, which of course, led me to a link (and to another) in regard to quality.  The title of the blog was actually “What Does Better Mean” and it was on a blog on marketing that Seth Godin writes.

He points out, essentially, that the consumer defines what is better, which in our business, seems to be counter-intuitive at times.  I have seen on the occasional post and heard on the street and in fire stations around our nation, a certain level of frustration with the whole “customer service” mentality of running an emergency services organization.  And frankly, if you live in a community where they have bigger concerns than their fire loss (like in areas with high crimes rates, high unemployment, or any other major emotional issue), the definition of a quality fire department might be that of one that shows up when someone dials 9-1-1.  My point being, that although YOU desire your organization to be the best, it hasn’t necessarily carried over to your customer base (i.e.; taxpayers).  Unless you do a better job marketing your organization, don’t go expecting them to hand you money the next time you ask for it.

If you live in a community like the one I live and work in, there is a certain expectation that things will be the “best”.  But just what is the “best”?  Is it defined as the best because we say we are the best?  Or is your definition of the best backed up by quantitative data that supports your claim, by having significantly lower reaction times, or significant numbers of neurologically-intact post-resuscitation patients, or excellent customer satisfaction as measured by surveys?  Or is it that you have shiny trucks and nobody says you AREN’T the best?

I had a short discussion with my friend/colleague Lt. Tom today (the author of the Prehospital 12-Lead ECG blog) and it revolved somewhat around the definition of “better” and this blog by Godin came to mind.  The thing is, we don’t get to define what is “better”, the taxpayers do.  And if they want something a certain way, we have to be cognizant of that desire and fulfill it.  If we as experts in our field see it differently, it is incumbent upon us to do some education.  Crying about it isn’t going to help, and unless you can frame the discussion into something the public can really get their head around, don’t expect an overwhelming outpouring of support.  Tom actually showed me a presentation he was doing that was excellent and even I could see that what he was saying made sense and would be a benefit to the community.  Now it comes down to getting an audience.

If you aren’t taking the time to visit your taxpayers in the schools, in their civic clubs, at the nursing homes, and in any other method you can get the word out there, you shouldn’t be surprised when no one is overwhelmingly standing in your corner at budget time.  And in this time of economic crisis, you really need people in your corner.  This is the time when people have to realize that support of public safety is essential and new plants in the median can probably wait.

The only people to count on for this task is your own people and if you aren’t motivated by the prospect of sitting down and having lunch at the elder-care center, think about the lunch you’ll be choking down when your budget gets shot down by 10 or 15%.  If marketing your organization is distasteful to you, think of the alternatives.  Get out there and hit the trail and show your customers what “better” really is; an organization that cares about its community and is willing to go and meet them and show them what they need to do to make themselves more fire and disaster safe.  We all love fighting fires, but at some point, somebody has to pay the bills.  It’s time to grow up and do some advertising for your department and hope it is good enough to win over supporters.

Posted by truck6alpha on April 9, 2009 • Filed under: change, customer service, education, fire service, funding, government, leadership, motivation, politics, professionalism • Tagged: , , , , , ,