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9/11: “Devoted To Duty Above Personal Risk”

A little something about me you may not have known: I used to design fire department patches (NOTE: I did not design this one; it is from The Fire Store, but it was exactly the image I was looking for). In fact, when I first got involved in the fire service, I designed quite a few of them and one of them, the patch I designed for the Bluffton Township Fire District, our neighbors here in South Carolina, is still being used. The Chief and the Assistant Chief at the time (who is now the Chief) wanted a motto on the patch. The motto we came up with is still being used: "Devoted to duty above personal risk." It still sounds good and to be quite honest, with most of us, it is the truth.

Given some of my posts, some of you, I think believe I'm a safety nazi. That's pretty far from the truth actually. I'm a true believer; when I got into the business, I did so because I wanted to be involved in it and because my family tradition led me there. But I'm the kind of guy that if I didn't believe in it, I wouldn't have stuck around. And the danger and the thrill, personally, did it for me. What's more, it wasn't enough.

Over the years, however, I matured. I grew up, which unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you speak to) changes things. I had the good fortune to meet movers and shakers in the emergency service world and each of them had a story to tell. Mostly their story was that while it was fun being at the edge of sanity with some of the heroics we pulled off and the chest full of medals we earned, we never really appreciated the impact that one stupid move could make that would change the world forever.

The events of September 11 really put my priorities into focus. On that beautiful September day and on into the night, I stood in front of the TV in my living room, oftentimes holding my then-baby daughter, with tears in my eyes when I realized that 343 of my brothers perished in the line of duty. The effect that this loss has had on our nation is questionable, as today it seems like the public has forgotten that day. But the scar it left on our job, on our family, is impenetrable. There are children growing up whose fathers will never hold them or see them graduate or walk them down the aisle. Or even look on with pride as they too choose to join our brotherhood. Who won't be there to pin on Lieutenant's bugles at that first promotion. Each of these 343 individuals had a profound impact on a number of others, and that ripple effect continues outward and outward until millions, even billions in this case, are impacted.

But the tragedy that happened that day is an anomaly, a blip in the statistics of firefighter mortality. In fact, we can't ever factor in the loss of 343 individuals on that one day in any of the data we analyze because it throws wild swings into the results. That certainly doesn't decrease their contribution any more. In fact, it immortalizes it. Forever that will be a group of people who stand alone. But the 100 or so firefighters who die in the line of duty each year are considered, in a figure that has decreased over time, but not nearly in proportion to the fires we now fight. Looking at the situation after that day and understanding the effect the loss of those 343 people had on so many, it is obvious that any casual approach to safety results not just in a loss to the immediate individuals involved, but to many others. Any poor decision causes a ripple that can become a tsunami.

So on a grand scale, the loss of even ONE firefighter is an unacceptable one and extrapolated out into an average loss of 100 brothers a year affects not just you or your crew, but families and community, and everything else, multiplied 100 times. And when a significant number of these injuries and deaths occur not from heroic deeds, but from failing to use common sense, I struggle with the argument that our "safety culture is ruining the fire service". Let's just take the injuries and deaths that HAVE occurred from people putting themselves in harm's way out of the equation, and in looking at casualties that are related to cardiac events and failure to wear seatbelts, we could make a significant impact on sending more brothers home every day than ever before.

But we CONTINUE to resist changes in our industry that would make that difference. Why? Because you safety nazis are sucking the fun out of our job. Because you are unreasonable in expecting me to maintain appropriate cardiac health to do the job. Because we resist the notion that there should be a standard for doing the job. Because it is inconvenient for me to wear my seatbelt.

There is absolutely no argument you can make to me that can reasonably suggest that increasing our safety is a bad idea. I am a chief officer now. I joke that my white helmet will likely remain white until I die, because my job is to send you guys in and to make sure that all I sent in comes back out in the same condition. It's not the fun part of the job, but at some point, I had to grow up and accept my role. I am no longer the "go to" guy on the scene for a really hairy rescue and even though I understand that, it's never going to escape me.

A few years ago, I jumped into the water with Capt. Tom from the EMS12Lead blog and we made a rescue. While he was a Lieutenant at the time, I was a chief. My chief, when handing me the Meritorious Service Medal (I missed the actual ceremony, Capt. Tom got one too), reminded me that my job was no longer in the water, but on the shore. He also indicated it would probably be my last medal. I indicated that if I got another medal it would probably be my last medal because I'd be looking for another job. He laughed at that. But it was an awakening. I realized how right he was. My job is to keep you guys safe. You job is to be safe about doing it and to only take risk when the risk is worth it. Not only will I keep from throwing your body into an unwinnable battle, I ask that you keep from making decisions that require the same.

We lost 343 brother firefighters in one day in New York City. They, as well as many more firefighters and other public safety professionals who survived, considered their duty to save others from that infernal hell and did so for thousands and thousands of others, and to their credit, we should be thanking them all for their courageous actions. But this tradition was an act that isn't replicated in all of these line of duty deaths, because in the majority of line of duty deaths, preventable actions or shall I say, more mature and considerate actions, could have saved firefighter lives.

To put it plainly, the lives we lost were not traded for a single save. Our "duty above personal risk", while meant to signify that willingness to sacrifice, can also be read that we are devoted to "duty" above "personal risk". We have a duty, not only to save the lives of endangered victims, but to be there to lead our families, to be there to teach our rookie firefighters, to be there to be a Cub Scout leader or to work in the PTA. We have a duty to live our lives to the fullest, not to casually throw our lives away without a sane reason.

If the time comes, God forgive me, to throw my life in front of another so that someone may live a full and productive life, I know in my heart what my action will be. But until then, I refuse to commit my body, or yours, to a decision based on a misguided view of heroism, or because it is what we always believed to be the duty of our calling.

Be safe and if anything, in the name of those who have gone before us, honor their memory by being there for everyone who remains. And I ask that God bless the civilian departed and their families on this 10th anniversary of their death. And most of all, God bless and keep our 343 brothers, their families, and the other firefighters who still suffer the effects of the horrible day, both mentally and physically. We love you and miss you all terribly.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on September 11, 2011 • Filed under: Fire Rescue Topics, leadership, Line of Duty • Tagged: 10th Anniversary, 343, 9-11, anger, brothers, cardiovascular, change, conflict, DC, fallen, FDNY, FHZ, fire, firefighter, Firehouse Zen, fitness, FRI, Hilton Head Island, LODD, Mick Mayers, New York, Pentagon, rescue, safety, September 11, South Carolina, stefan svensson, sweden, testing, truth, understanding, united states

Swedish Message, Part 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Replacing Search K9s With Search Cockroaches?

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I don't think there is any danger in seeing Man's Best Friend replaced by Man's Disgusting Scourge anytime soon, but this report I got today on the Homeland Security Newswire indicates that more developments have come about for adapting Adam Ant for doing Lassie's work. Instead of packing kibble for deployments, maybe we'll just be able to depend on the remnants of yesterday's MREs.

In this case the researchers are using the Green June Beetle, but given the size of the cockroaches (or Palmetto Bugs, as we like to call them in South Carolina) I have seen, we could probably equip them with a hammer drill and let them tunnel the victims back out of the rubble once they find one.

Cyborg insects are low maintenance, can get into very restricted and virtually inaccessible areas, and with these new developments, can be adapted for a number of different tasks. Some of these cyborg applications could also be used for monitoring hazmats or terrorist attacks, doing pre-entry search and recon for SWAT teams, or spy work. As far as our use of these creatures, the sky (or the basement) is the limit.

Never lose sight of this constant: Change is inevitable. It''s how we deal with it that makes the difference. What we know today as the way we do business may be radically different tomorrow.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on September 6, 2011 • Filed under: change, Fire Rescue Topics, Special Operations, Training & Development, US&R • Tagged: amazing, canine, change, cockroach, conflict, customer service, EMS, FHZ, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, government, Green June Beetle, Hilton Head Island, Homeland Security Newswire, innovate, insect, K9, leadership, management, MAV, Mick Mayers, motivation, network, opportunity, politics, professionalism, rescue, resources, risk reduction, safety, search, South Carolina, strength, Training, UAV, University of Michigan, US&R, vision

Do It Right The First Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Swedish Massage (or is it message?)

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Between emotion and other factors, sometimes people make issues out of things they know nothing about, or they fail to consider the facts before they resort to anger. So I kept that partially in mind when I saw the headline about the Swedish fire service “expert” who spoke at FRI this week. Obviously, even the headlines suggested a certain amount of anger from individuals in the American fire service about his statements.

While the headline of the linked article hit me in the gut a little, I was prepared to read something that I would not agree with, nor could ever agree with. In fact, before I even read the article, I already made up my mind that this guy was some academic who had never actually fought a fire before, and now he was going to tell us what we are doing wrong. Before making a statement, however, I actually read the article and you know what? In some of the points he made, he is absolutely right.

I don’t equate the comments he made on RIC (people were making unsafe decisions way before we had to come up with a way to save them from those decisions) as being anything other than his observation. While it may seem to him that people drive more recklessly since they feel safer in their cars, I think there are a few other factors at play when we suggest that firefighters have more comfort from having a RIC present, so they are comfortable taking more risk. I think just the understanding of the fact that a two-man or four-man RIC isn't likely going to get you out of a situation keeps me from going down that slippery slope. But while there are plenty of other things to agree with, those items are debate for another day. What I wanted to talk about was our reactions to the headline as compared to the level of “emotional intelligence” or commonly known as “EQ” (in contrast to IQ) that most people have and how EQ relates to certain events.

I want to keep this brief, but it really plays out in society as I see rational individuals presented with particular situations and instead of reacting to them rationally, they relate to them emotionally instead, and fail to grasp the true issues in play. Instead of seeking understanding, they presume their perception of an event to be the “facts” and are reluctant to see the alternative points of view. Some individuals with higher EQ can be educated, or shown the other views, and then make decisions based on those facts. Others with a little lower EQ may go grudgingly toward understanding. Some go kicking and screaming, and some are completely irrational and unwilling to understand. Obviously, we all score one way or another along that continuum and where we place in there helps us cope with issues that may run counter to our beliefs.

EQ also permits us to temper our behavior and allows us to think before speaking. We have people who frankly, engage their mouths (or fingers, via the keyboard) before comprehending the ramifications of what it is they are saying. While the statements they make may have elements of truth, these statements are “their” truth, and should also involve a little thinking about other viewpoints as well before being said.

Those of you who have known me for a long time may be laughing right now. I admit, I have said my share of things that I have come to regret later. But as I have gotten older, and hopefully, wiser, I have also brought some life experience and education to the table. Over the last fifteen years or so I have begun to understand that not only are most issues presented to us with only the surface points showing, there is usually plenty of time to blame and yell later; first I need to dig deeper and get the real story.

I challenge you to read what was said by the expert with an open mind, and ask yourself, is he wrong? Is he right? But more importantly, ask yourself about your own personal reaction to his statements. Reluctance to change because a situation is presented differently than the way you think, even in the face of facts that indicate truth, indicate not loyalty or tradition, but stubbornness and ignorance. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Get the facts, sort them out, and THEN make a decision to speak. It’s a whole lot less stressful for you and others who surround you that way.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on August 31, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, leadership, News • Tagged: anger, change, conflict, FHZ, fire, firefighter, Firehouse Zen, FRI, Hilton Head Island, Mick Mayers, rescue, safety, South Carolina, sweden, truth, understanding, united states

Restricted Vision

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I was on the plane from Denver to Kansas City when the gentleman next to me struck up a conversation. As it turns out, he is a retired educator and clergyman and we shared some observations on technology, especially as it related to the issue of texting. We were laughing/struggling with the image of young people, so engrossed in texting that they were entirely distracted. But at some point I was reflecting on the subject and began to think about it from a different perspective. It seems to me that it is really an issue of intense concentration, to the point of restricting vision.

Being so focused on one thing, it is very easy to lose track of your surroundings. If there is ever a scenario when situational awareness is completely hampered, it is at these moments. Even if, as a leader, you were to "get up on the balcony" to observe from a different perspective, chances are that if your focus were so narrowed on one subject, you still might miss the subtle and even the obvious, when considering impact upon whatever is actually occurring.

Sometimes the challenges we face are so daunting or so in need of our engagement, that we forget to consider alternatives. These issues may cause us to hone in on only the details that are immediately apparent to us, as they may jump right out and comand our attention, and cause us to lose sight of the process: to define the problem, gather the facts, consider alternatives, and implement the solution. Instead we may become completely absorbed in whatever element of that process that causes us the most challenge and we may be paralyzed due to that restricted sightline. And just as importantly, peripheral vision helps us to consider other factors as they intercept our path and instead of navigating away or turning to combat the issue head on, these factors take us completely by surprise.

Consider that while we may be too close to our problem to be objective, we may even not resolve that perspective by standing back from it, because we are fixed on the issue and unwilling to pay attention to subtleties. When faced with a monumental challenge, it helps to step back from it, but it also helps sometimes to put the issue down altogether, to walk away from it and reflect, and then revisit the problem with fresh eyes.

Note: Thanks to my traveling companion for his insight and sharing his observations. And as an FYI, depending on what Irene does, I'll probably be a little busy, so if you don't see anything on FHZ for a while, please stop back by because once I get time, I'll get caught back up again. Thanks for reading.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on August 22, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, change, Command & Leadership, leadership • Tagged: adversity, change, Colorado, conflict, customer service, EMS, FHZ, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, government, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, opportunity, politics, professionalism, resources, risk reduction, safety, South Carolina, strength, Training, vision

Zen Zone #25

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"If you can dream it, you can do it." – Walt Disney

In between class sessions here in Colorado, Chief Ron and his wife, Linda, and I took a scenic tour of Rocky Mountain National Park by way of the Western Portal, going up to the Gore Range before turning around and going back into town. While the park is incredible and the vistas breathtaking, it occured to us that settlers going west centuries ago must have been awestruck coming off the plains and facing this massive roadblock.

We were also listening to a talk radio show at the same time and the moderator was indicating that we are never just given the keys to leadership, we have to earn them through trial and survival. Only after being faced with hardship and making it through do you realize that these challenges fortify you for any battles ahead.

Sitting in an air conditioned car on the paved road and using GPS to find our path, it became apparent to me that the next time I am faced with adversity, I need to consider these individuals. How daunting it must have been, going to a land unknown to them, packing up everything they had and moving it across the Rockies to forge a better life for themselves. Yet they not only overcame those challenges, they led the making of a new nation. What right do I have to worry about my petty issues?

If you believe in what you are doing, nothing can stop you. Consider the triumphs of others when given impossible odds and realize that you can do anything you dream.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on August 20, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, change, Command & Leadership, leadership • Tagged: adversity, change, Colorado, conflict, customer service, East Grand, EMS, FHZ, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, Gore Range, government, Granby, Grand County, Grand Lake, Hilton Head Island, Kremmling, leadership, management, marketing, Mick Mayers, motivation, National Park, opportunity, politics, professionalism, resources, risk reduction, Rock Mountain, safety, settlers, South Carolina, strength, Task Force 1, Training, truck company, Vail, vision, west, Wheat Ridge, Winter Park

Recharging

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I am here in Granby, Colorado, doing a truck company operations course for a few of the Middle Park departments. Other than our hosts from the Grand Fire District, we have some great guys and gals also from East Grand, Grand Lake, Wheat Ridge, Vail, and Kremmling. This is the part of my job I love: getting people who really want to do this job to another level. Everyone in the class seems to get "it". Chief Ron Richards, who I am teaching with, has said before, "This is missionary work. We are spreading the word about best practices, tricks of the trade, really, the art of fighting fire."

Do you want to recharge your batteries? Teach. Take what you have learned and share it with others. You don't have to be a certified instructor to teach. Even the lowest man on the totem pole can learn something and share it with others. Sharing knowledge changes the world.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on August 19, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, change, Command & Leadership, Firefighting Operations, motivation, Training & Development • Tagged: change, Colorado, conflict, customer service, East Grand, EMS, FHZ, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, government, Granby, Grand County, Grand Lake, Hilton Head Island, Kremmling, leadership, management, marketing, Mick Mayers, motivation, opportunity, politics, professionalism, resources, risk reduction, safety, South Carolina, Task Force 1, Training, truck company, Vail, vision, Wheat Ridge, Winter Park

An Atmosphere of Growth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You Can Quote Me On That (Before 2010)

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Antidote To Road Rage

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

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

Individuals have given themselves the freedom to make poor decisions, then be let off the hook because we shouldn't "judge" them, or because their mommy didn't hug them as a child, or whatever victim story they happen to choose this week. The reality is that while reacting negatively to those who act in error is not acceptable, neither is the act that sparked the reaction in the first place. Perhaps if our nation's law enforcement would start hauling off people who run red lights; who make erratic and unanticipated turns without use of a signal; those who drive too slowly in the passing lane, who fly down the shoulder to cut to the head of a merging line, or those who fail to pull to the right when an emergency vehicle is asking for the right of way, perhaps you might see a considerable decrease in road rage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Belated Father’s Day Tribute

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I probably could have posted this on Father's Day, but after the events I experienced this week, it's really good to see it in context. I continue to believe that being a father is a very difficult situation to be in sometimes. The other day, after being challenged by my daughter Caroline’s afternoon (and evening) at the ER, I was dealing with that and put the other two out on the deck to play. We have a large kiddie pool, since I don’t have the time, money, or patience to deal with a real pool. At one point, I noticed my oldest daughter Emma walking around with one of two Blackberry phones that were on our kitchen counter. These were phones previously used by my wife's company, and she wanted me to extract the data from them, especially pictures she had on one of them. Seeing this, I told Emma that they weren’t toys and to put them back, but being a little distracted dealing with Caroline, didn’t follow up on things.

Later that evening, while tucking the girls into bed, my wife found the second of the two Blackberries in my youngest daughter Honora’s bed. The screen was waterlogged and upon opening the battery door, it was full of water. In short order we found the other Blackberry similarly waterlogged. The good news is that the children are still alive. Hopefully we are not out $750 worth of phones and a whole bunch of important work pictures. The phones will be sitting in rice for a few days and the culprits sitting in room restriction for a few days as well.

All children get into mischief and I weigh the situation against the likelihood that it wasn’t intentional and maybe someday soon we will laugh about it. But the issue is that a certain amount of discipline must be leveraged to provide an effective and memorable lesson. The discipline must be appropriate for the situation, and of course, past infractions have to be counted. They haven’t been very cooperative lately, so this really upped the ante. And while a spank on the rear might handle a quick tantrum or something like that, punishment for an event like this must deliver a life message and spanking won't cut it. So room restriction it is, and while they are there, we want the rooms spotless.

But as a parent, in this case, the effort is difficult. My wife is going out of town for the weekend and I had some fun things I wanted to do with the girls. I could easily change the discipline but what message would that send? I want badly to go into their rooms and hug them and tell them that there’s a good chance I can resurrect the data, but after having specifically telling them the phones were off-limits, they disobeyed the order and everything ISN’T just okay. Smiling and making nicey-nice is not going to help things any, except in the immediate moment. Failing to listen to an order must bear repercussions.

People often remark about how good our children are and we take a lot of pride in that. But they see the result of lots of second-guessing, mistakes and heartbreak, because that’s what being a parent is like if you are doing your job. You struggle between doing what’s best to positively reinforce good behavior and what’s best to discourage bad behavior. And bad behavior, regardless of fun plans and the desire to kiss and make up, must have consequences. To not have consequences invites repeated poor performance.

Honestly, I have it easier than some people have it, because my kids are pretty good. But it’s a continual cycle; they are good, and they make it easier to provide positive experiences. When they are bad, we struggle with wanting to continue to be affectionate and supportive, even though we know that to act like everything is okay would not send the right message.

Caring leaders endure the same exact experiences. If you choose, re-read what I just wrote and insert “leader” in the context every time you see “dad”. As a command officer, I make decisions that on occasion, must be followed regardless of what those who are recieving end want to do, or feel like doing. They may even want to question my decision. In this case, there must be repercussions to disobeying a direct order.

Making discipline mean something is required to elevate the attention level of the subject. Some people can be reached with something as simple as a look. Some require the equivalent of a 2×4 across the head. And enforcing discipline hurts for us sometimes as well because those decisions are based on experience and understanding of a particular situation, but those decisions are contrary to the desires of the "children". Sometimes, despite insisting that what we say is right, our children disobey us, and discipline is invoked, in order to reinforce a message. Likewise with our subordinates.

I try to support positive behavior through positive reinforcement. And when I have to administer discipline, I struggle with doing so, because, as a good leader, I probably care more than I should. But I also know that I am fortunate to have good people who, given the chance, will make good decisions, and I like to think that is a continual cycle.

Consider this when you lead. You are responsible for the welfare of the people who you supervise. If you are the designated leader, you have to be proactive, and provide opportunities for success. But when things don’t go right, it is not time to be everyone’s best friend. It is time to do what is right and that involves, more often than not, making hard decisions that benefit all involved. As I say often to my children, "I am not your friend, I am your father. If we get along we can be friends, but I am your father first." Feel free to insert "boss" in lieu of "father" in that statement as well.

My children will survive this event and live to tell about it, as will we. But hopefully we will now have further understanding as to what is expected and the consequences of failure. And in the same respect, when you have that moment with your charges, they should too.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on June 23, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, change, Command & Leadership, Firefighting Operations, leadership, motivation, officership, professionalism, Training & Development • Tagged: change, children, command, conflict, customer service, discipline, education, EMS, father, FHZ, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, officer, opportunity, politics, professionalism, resources, risk reduction, safety, South Carolina, team, Training, understanding, vision, welfare

Letting Go

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I was reading an interesting story to my girls last night and wanted to share a short and modernized version. A young and an old monk were traveling through a mildly flooded downtown. They came upon a place where a rich and haughty woman was standing in the doorway of a shop, yelling at her limousine driver. The driver couldn’t carry her across the water because his hands were full of packages. The woman sternly insisted that her shoes would be ruined if she were to get them wet. The oldest of the two monks intervened, picking her up and carrying her, so she wouldn’t get wet. Instead of thanking him, she slammed the car door shut and never said a word or even looked in his direction to acknowledge his effort.

The two monks then continued on, but the youngest was getting angrier and angrier as the time passed. Finally, the younger burst out: “I can’t believe that woman! Who does she think she is?! What nerve!” Pausing a moment, the older monk looked at the younger monk and replied, “I put that woman down a long time ago. Why haven’t you?”

From time to time, we all must look at ourselves and ask if we are holding on to slights, issues, or biases that keep us from moving forward. There are those who simply won’t move on, won’t learn from their experiences, or refuse to put aside petty differences. You can’t grow if you don’t walk away from those issues and learn from them. Just resolve not to repeat them, but to dwell on them isn’t helping anyone.

Our job is stressful enough without our adding unnecessary baggage to our day. Keep fit, not only physically, but mentally. Take a moment and do something good for someone else, for no reason other than to be nice. You’ll feel a lot better about yourself when you do it.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on May 12, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, Command & Leadership, leadership, Training & Development • Tagged: change, conflict, EMS, FHZ, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, flood, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, monk, motivation, officer, opportunity, philosophy, politics, professionalism, risk reduction, safety, South Carolina, vision

New Section: “Microcoaching”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

S – Subjective analysis: What is going on here?

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

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

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

Then we follow up with the action part:

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

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

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

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on May 3, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, leadership, Training & Development • Tagged: analysis, change, education, EMS, FHZ, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, Google, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, microcoach, microcoaching, motivation, officer, opportunity, professionalism, risk reduction, safety, SHOW ME, South Carolina, subordinate, Training, vision

We Try Harder

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tillered Aerials and Safety Collaboration

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Hilton Head Island Truck 6 working in Palmetto Dunes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Capacity Building Exercise To Change All Exercises

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m With Stupid But Not Right At This Moment

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Lifted from the Canyon Lake Fire & EMS Facebook Page

I’m afraid my strategy for capturing the interest of the uninitiated has fallen through, so I’m going to have to return to preaching to the choir. I guess it’s just as well; I’m not sure I want the lunatic fringe stalking around on my site anyway. It just so happens that I’m in the heart of Texas as I write this, talking about leadership to a class of firefighters at Canyon Lake Fire and EMS. There are also a few from the Bulverde and Spring Branch departments and they seem like a great bunch.

I have had the opportunity to speak a little about what we should be doing as leaders, as well as what we shouldn’t be. But regardless of how impressive our team is, we are probably all cursed with at least one individual on our team who simply doesn’t get it. By saying they are “on the team”, it’s really only in the sense that they are assigned to your team and you haven’t found the way to move them along yet.

There are people out there who are surprisingly reluctant to get with the program. Its as if they have some delusion that if they buck the system long enough, regardless of their piss-poor attitude, archaic methodologies, or lousy work ethic, some sea change will sweep down and save them from the rest of us.

While in my early days I was not the officer that I am today, I still have always said, if you stay off my radar, we can get along just fine. While that may be an invitation to the slackers to do what they do best, in fact, the slackers find ways to get right up there in my sights and hoist a billboard pretty much saying, “Come and get me.”

I believe that if we give people our expectations, provide them the resources necessary, and provide feedback as they move along, we can get excellent results. There are those, however, who are more interested in seeing how far they can push the boundaries.

If we (that is, the team) have a shared vision of excellence and we have a good plan to get there, and doing so is for the benefit of those we serve, and we have the approval of those people as well, what on God’s green earth would make anyone otherwise think that it is okay to steer the team in another direction. My take on it is that if you are that unhappy, just go. Find some other idiots who want to sit around and be negative and hang out with them. I can think of plenty of places to find people like that, if you are looking.

I realize that I don’t have the greatest ideas and to some, they might even sound crazy, but at least I HAVE ideas. I think, therefore, I am. Those of us who, instead of sitting around bitching, come up with ways to solve problems, while we may always be chasing at things, we are at least moving forward to do so.

This group here in Texas is very fortunate. Chief Wherry and his staff seem engaged and professional. They have a bunch of attentive people who are polite and respectful. The Canyon Lake department is a relatively young department and they don’t have a lot of baggage. That being said, they are a department with a lot of growing to do and while the foundation seemed to be intact before we got here and will hopefully be strengthened by the time we are gone, it really comes down to what they do with what we have now given them. From the best I can tell, I think they will be just fine.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on March 9, 2011 • Filed under: change, command, Command & Leadership, customer service, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, fire service, firefighting, Funding & Staffing, leadership, motivation, officership, planning, politics, professionalism, rebellion, rescue, revolution, Training & Development • Tagged: Bulverde, Canyon Lake, change, conflict, customer service, EMS, FHZ, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, government, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, marketing, Mick Mayers, motivation, opportunity, politics, professionalism, resources, risk reduction, safety, South Carolina, Spring Branch, Task Force 1, Texas, Training, vision

Article: Modern Approaches To Fire Suppression

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Picture from FireRescue1.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Residential Fire Sprinkler Comparison

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Post-fire picture of a room with a single residential sprinkler head activation. Nice save.

We conducted a comparison burn today at Hilton Head Island Fire & Rescue to demonstrate the effectiveness of residential sprinklers in the control of incipient fire. Since I was off, I was able to video it as your ordinary citizen and the crowd, which was pretty nicely sized for the Island on a Saturday morning, was very impressed.

I posted it to my personal Facebook page, but felt like this was important enough of a video to share it with all of you Firehouse Zen readers. Feel free to pass it on. (UPDATE: These are now posted to YouTube also).

The teamwork involved in putting this presentation was very encouraging: all three shifts participated in one way or another, led by Chief Fire Marshal Joheida Fister. It’s another reason the people I work with at HHIFR are individuals I consider to be the best in the business and make me proud to be associated with them. The funds for creating the demonstration were provided through a grant. The building of the props were done by HHIFR personnel and local businesses (including my personal favorite, KPM Flooring) contributed elements of each room, lumber, the sprinkler system, and the installation.

The first burn is of an unsprinklered furninshed room of frame construction. The inner walls are sheetrock. In addition to an ordinary fire load in a bedroom, a small Christmas tree was at the front of each room (which surprisingly did not significantly contribute to the fire load in either case until well into the fire spread, as you will see). The detector activated in the first room in 9 seconds, the room was untenable and very shortly after flashed over in under a minute.

The second burn is an identically sized and furnished room, the only exception being the presence of a residential sprinkler head.

As I have said on my FB page, if this doesn’t illustrate the live-saving capability of residential sprinklers, I don’t know what else to tell you. You can dry things off after they get wet. You can’t unburn your family or your home. But I am obviously preaching to the choir. Therefore, it is important that you all share these videos to many, especially the non-firefighters you know. This is important information and these two videos pretty graphically demonstrate the difference.

While there is a significant amount of undeserved controversy regarding residential sprinklers, especially the myths of inordinate cost, the whole “Hollywood all-the-sprinklers-going-off-at-once” myth, and a number of other things, the reality is that with smoke detectors and sprinkler installation, more lives will be saved and fire loss will decrease. It’s a no-brainer. But it IS a tremendous cultural shift and most homeowners, not being accustomed to this type of protection device, are on the fence. They will continue to be on the fence so long as we are pushing systems and others argue against them. This is the time when we need to be the driving force to push harder.

Share the video. This is a game-changer and we need to be behind it, at least if we really do ascribe to the notion that our first responsibility is the protection of life and property.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on December 4, 2010 • Filed under: change, customer service, education, Fire Rescue Topics, fire service, Firefighter Nation, Firefighting Operations, Fires, government, leadership, Media Relations, motivation, News, professionalism, technology, Training & Development • Tagged: change, customer service, education, FHZ, Fire Marshal, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, government, Hilton Head Island, Joheida Fister, leadership, management, marketing, media, Mick Mayers, motivation, opportunity, politics, research, residential, risk reduction, safety, South Carolina, sprinklers

Increasing Tempo and Decreasing Resources Equals Frustration

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If we all pull together, there's no telling what we can achieve.

We have, in emergency services, always been in the business of doing more with less. It’s our creed. But there comes a point where we are expecting the outputs to exceed the inputs, or we are shoving more input in than we can possibly output, and in either case, something is going to blow. This can be written:

Where t = tempo, r = resources and f = frustration: ↑t + ↓r = ↑↑f.

When we reach the result ↑↑f, it has been often expressed with an expletive and a raised middle finger. To illustrate, let’s think about this like a mall parking lot, shall we?

In the preferred scenario, we have a goal and in order to achieve that, we have to put something into the process to make it occur. If we have our theoretical parking lot, so long as the number of cars that go into the lot are equal or less than the number of cars exiting the lot, there won’t be a lot of pain. However, when the balance tips and the number of cars entering the lot exceed the number of cars exiting, there will be quite a deal of anger, especially if the input of cars continues to exceed the available number of spaces and a bunch of mouth-breathing numbskulls drive around the lot aimlessly, exponentially adding to the confusion. In normally high-performing organizations, situations like these can evolve into frustrating moments when we continue to expect more and more for less and less, without considering that what we have is a definite resource issue. In those finite resources, of course, we are referring mainly to time and funding.

If I were to build you a house, and money was no object, time was no object, and you didn’t care what it looked like, I would have absolutely no problems putting you in a home. If money were no object I could buy what I want; pay myself what I want; I could hire people who have built homes before; and any number of resources I could possibly need, I could get, if you know what I mean. Likewise, if time were no object, I wouldn’t worry about how long it took for permits, or whether or not the subs were there on time. And of course, if you didn’t care what it looked like, I could build you a tent and charge you several million dollars.

When we begin to place limiting factors on the outputs, there occurs a correlating increase in pressure. As managers, it’s easy to delegate. There are plenty of managers out there, however, who delegate without consideration for the resources needed. It doesn’t do us any good to keep throwing more plates in the air for our subordinates and expect the outputs to remain consistent. It’s the theory of laminar flow: the more pressure you add, the more chaotic the environment and the less effective the output. You need to either decrease pressure, add capacity, or increase the size of the discharge.

The most challenging part, however, is remembering that the personnel you most trust with pulling off clutch moves are the same ones who tend to get loaded and loaded until they reach a snapping point. These are your high performers who won’t dare tell you “no” because they really want to succeed and to help you to succeed as well. It’s important to discuss the workload with these individuals and if you find you have to back off the heat for a while, make it happen. They’ll appreciate your recognizing the situation and in allowing them to adjust their pace, may be able to come back stronger in the long run. But keep beating that same horse and I can reassure you, it might take a while, but when it does go down, it won’t be peacefully.

Your job as a leader is to continually evaluate the situation and adjust. If additional resources exist, you can add these, but unfortunately, that isn’t a likely scenario. So it comes down to heat if we want to increase the outputs. As leaders, we have to constantly assess whether the heat we add to the problems is sufficient, or too much. If it is not enough, things will go at their own pace and may never be accomplished. Too much heat and you run the risk of backlash. But the right amount of heat creates change. And if change is what is required, you are going to be the one with your hand on the throttle. Manage it wisely; it’s a temperamental machine sometimes.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on October 12, 2010 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, customer service, education, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, leadership, motivation, officership, planning, professionalism, rebellion, revolution, Training & Development • Tagged: burnout, challenge, change, conflict, customer service, education, EMS, FHZ, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firehouse Zen, frustration, girls lacrosse, heat, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, motivation, officer, opportunity, parking lot, planning, politics, professionalism, resources, risk reduction, safety, South Carolina, team, tempo, work

Vest-Wearing Yard-Breathers

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I am one of them, so be nice.

You have likely heard others say, “Discretion is the better part of valor”. This is actually a misquote. In fact, Shakespeare’s Falstaff said: “The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have sav’d my life.” You have to understand the context in which Falstaff said this, which was after playing dead to escape being killed. His justification was that words like “honor” and “valor” will get you nothing once you’re dead. Falstaff’s suggestion implies that feigning death in this situation, which was a cowardly act, was defensible because what good are those terms if you are dead?

There is a certain argument made by people in our profession that indeed, having a safety mindset is, well, cowardly. There is a belief that the goal of the reflective vest-wearing, “yard-breather” population is to deprive each and every one of you out there of a draped casket and a bagpipe escort, that ‘tis much better to serve you and your company up as cannon fodder and damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. If you want to meet the objective of a LODD funeral, I suggest that at least you do it for a good reason. Unfortunately, given the statistics, that’s the least likely way you’ll go down in our business.

While there are excesses in every aspect of our lives, and I’ll grant that the safety officers sometimes come up with some really less-than-fun approaches to our jobs, you aren’t serving any purpose to get killed in training, except to inflate the LODD death statistic every year. If you happened to be one of the valiant 343 who died saving the equivalent population of several small cities, to me, you are a hero. If you happen to die because you refuse to buckle your seat belt, to me, less so.

We must make snap decisions daily that involve life and death. Sometimes we make good decisions and sometimes, things don’t go as expected. In the eyes of some, discretion suggests cowardice, but to me, discretion suggests a good command of resources and appropriate application of force to create leverage, thus defeating an enemy. Napoleonic conflict didn’t go out of vogue because it was effective; instead commanders realized the solution was impossible if there were a finite number of live bodies available. Thus, there was a practical need to change their approach.

If I may appeal to your rational side, if safe practices are really just sucking the life out of you, then try thinking about it from the perspective of your survivors. When you go off half-cocked and do something you think might be “heroic”, the rest of us often have to clean up the resultant mess. You may be off to Valhalla or whatever it is you believe in, but the rest of us earthbound souls have to pick up where you left off, get the kids to school, pay the bills, go to other calls, etcetera, etcetera. Like it or not, when you tap out 5-5-5-5 on us, life goes on down here. If you want valor, talk to a mother supporting several young children on a firefighter death benefit, or those same children who must go on and now won’t get to see Daddy at Christmas. Those individuals represent valor to me.

Discretion is, in truth, the better part of valor, if you are of the belief that there is more to life than another parking lot. Sometimes it takes more courage to push on. If you can’t see that for yourself, put yourself in the shoes of those who have to deal with the aftermath. If you’re not going to be safe for your own sake, do it for your family. There’s nothing heroic about making dumb choices.

While the vest-wearers may have a job we don’t like as much, in essence, they are there to protect ourselves from ourselves. We have to pull back on the reins sometimes and that goes against what some of you all might like, but honestly, we need a much more mature attitude from everyone on the team when it comes to approach of our most dangerous situations. Like we football coaches say to the youngster who has just done his best T.O. imitation in the end zone: “Act like you’ve been there before.” If we can all exhibit calm, cool, professional behavior, not only will we conquer every emergency, but we might live to talk about it later.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on September 20, 2010 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Nation, leadership, motivation, officership, planning, professionalism, Training & Development • Tagged: change, customer service, EMS, FHZ, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, football, Hilton Head Island, incident management, leadership, LODD, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, NIMS, officer, opportunity, professionalism, rescue, resources, risk reduction, safety, South Carolina, Training, vest, yard-breather

How Hot Does A Barrel Fire Have To Get For Proper Helmet Crustiness?

12 comments

The Legend.

I have been very busy. So in a recent Firehouse Zen post on our Facebook page, I asked what subjects you all might like to read about on FHZ. One popular request was from alert reader Pete, asking “How hot does a barrel fire have to get to make your helmet look really crusty?”

Well, Pete, in answer to your question, I’m not quite sure, having never done that myself before, but I’m sure there’s someone out there who could answer that question for us. But the subject begs another question like “How crusty does someone have to look to you before you feel like they know what they are talking about?” I have found, for example, in the individual with a dozen patches on his or her coat, an inverse relationship between the “advertising” and how much I trust their “experience” on the scene. When I was young, I had the patches. Fortunately, I had some real jakes pull me aside and explain just how squirrely that looked.

If you are a young firefighter (or an old one looking for some real guidance) truly looking for a mentor, instead of looking for who has the nastiest looking gear or the most patches, maybe you should just talk with some of the informal leaders of the group and find out who THEY really respect. Watch their faces when Chief So-and-So speaks: if even these guys are listening and soaking in what is said, then you can trust that they believe that person is a leader. If they look like they’re not paying any attention, chances are the individual may have a title, and may even have the education, but maybe not the street cred to back it up. That kind of observation is much better at judging who’s “been there” than looking at the amount of garbage melted on their lid.

Note the helmet in the picture. While some of you may understand that the helmet is upside down (to better protect the ratchet system), some of you more insightful ones might wonder why I have an upside-down helmet as my featured photo/logo. Well, it’s because the useful part of the helmet isn’t the shell, the truly useful part is the space in which you put your head. So while some of our brothers are obsessing over the proper level of carbon on the hard part up there, what would be a better thing to concentrate on is what is filling the hole, when it comes to deciding who is the best person to look up to.

While taking really good care of your protective ensemble is important, there’s nothing wrong with a little smokiness to show you have been there. But the truth of the matter is that even though someone may LOOK the part, it’s what is under all that crust that really counts. So skip the barrel burnishing and earn your look the old fashioned way; safely but aggressively, taking reasonable risk to save lives, taking a little risk to save property, and none at all for the already lost. Get in there and get it, but don’t be stupid in the process.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on August 27, 2010 • Filed under: change, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, leadership, motivation, professionalism • Tagged: burned, education, fire service, FireEMSBlogs, Firehouse Zen, helmet, Hilton Head Island, leadership, management, Mick Mayers, motivation, officer, ratchet, risk reduction, safety

Roto-Ray and Federal Q’s On POV?

8 comments

It's my world and you all are just living in it.

It’s a little bit of stand-up, but a good question. When I wrote the other day about the critiquing and counter-critiquing going on with a certain news article, I thought what I said might hit a little bit of a nerve, or at least people would peek in to see what was going on. Nada. Virtually no reaction.

However, when I wrote about the Roto-Ray a few weeks ago, I got more hits than I have ever had in my history of blogging. I’m thinking by mentioning the Roto-Ray, the Federal Q, and POVs in one title, I’m going to be the high flyer of the internet. Maybe I should invoke Lindsey Lohan’s name and I’d be a blogging God.

It is said that a good writer writes to his audience. While I consider my audience to primarily consist of enlightened fire officers, I’m beginning to realize that I am NOT writing to the people who need it most: young, impressionable firefighters who need career guidance toward a future officer (and leadership) position. I’m pretty sure, given most of the comments and all, that the people that are reading my blog already get it. I’m preaching to the proverbial choir.

Unfortunately, the things I find interesting as a 46 year old are not what interests a 22 year old, it seems. Or anyone in society these days, either, I guess. I mean, I was doing a hold-down-the-button scan of TV the other day and did a drive-by of the Joy Behar Show. On it, the discussion was regarding the trashy/slutty minor daughter of a reality TV star who is posing in a bikini and whether it is wrong or not. Is it wrong? OF COURSE it is wrong to exploit your daughter for ratings! What kind of morons are you people anyway? What’s worse is that I’d bet the market share for that show was through the roof. If this isn’t evidence that our society is going to hell in a handbasket, I don’t know what is. And the demographic these shows are targeting is pretty obvious when the commercials are all for bail bonds, accident lawyers and payday loan sharks.

It’s no wonder a flight attendant goes nuts and tells everyone to f*&% off, grabs some brew and jumps out the emergency exit. It’s like a majority of people just don’t get it anymore. People are rude to total strangers and think it’s okay. They hide behind their cute internet pseudonyms and say hateful things, make unfounded accusations, and put it out there as genuine fact. We have politicians actually CAMPAIGNING on hate platforms as they scare the populace into thinking the end is near. It’s no wonder everyone is stressed out, angry, abusive, and hateful; their “leaders” are setting the prime example!

I plan to continue blogging on substantial matters and hope I can persuade others to check out Firehouse Zen and even more so, to share it. Even if you don’t share the link, share what you learned. There’s a lot to be said for rational, intelligent discussion about differing points of view and learning in the process. It reminds me of an interview I was listening to on NPR the other day with Governor Mike Huckabee. When asked whether he was a conservative or a moderate, he insisted he was a conservative. In fact, he said, he had very strong convictions about almost everything. The difference, however, was that he was willing to listen to alternative points of view and appreciate their perspective, if at all, to help sharpen his own argument. While I’m not hawking for Governor Huckabee, how refreshing and unusual it would be if our politicians stopped beating their war drums and listened a little while to other views and to consider them just as logically as they would consider their own stances?

Whether you read my blog regularly or not, I’m hoping you do, but thankfully, my children’s college education doesn’t rely on it. But I would hope that you would at least share what you learn here and come back and read often, as well as to provide me with some insight as to how this information impacts you as well. What would be greater would be if some of us actually live it.

Posted by Michael "Mick" Mayers on August 12, 2010 • Filed under: leadership • Tagged: change, conflict, education, FireEMSBlogs, Firefighter Nation, Firehouse Zen, government, Hilton Head Island, management, marketing, Mick Mayers, motivation, opportunity, politics, safety

A Little Safety Parable

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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