A forum where students of fire and leadership come together to discuss, debate and exchange leadership development concepts, experience, and thoughts with an intent to promote cultural change in the workforce and strengthen the wildland fire service and the communities they serve.
Today is the eighth anniversary of a single shift on the Yarnell Hill Fire that took the lives of 19 firefighters.
We use this solemn day to remember that instance and begin a week of reflection
to honor all our sisters and brothers who have perished in the line of duty. We
honor through learning.
Each day of the Week of Remembrance builds upon the previous
day. We encourage you to give this Week of Remembrance the time and attention
it deserves, and that will likely take more than 6 minutes each day. It’s worth
it!
Closely related to the concept of situational leadership, situational communication involves selecting the appropriate communications tools given the people and the situation involved.
“We do not have to rely on memories to recapture the spirit of those we have loved and lost ― they live within our souls in some perfect sanctuary which even death cannot destroy.” ♦ Nancy "Nan" Witcomb, Poet ♦
[Photo of Clay Whitted, Granite Mountain IHC, by Kari Greer]
Fire leaders work to instill the Five Communications Responsibilities in the culture of all crews, teams, and units. These responsibilities are not just tactical tools but apply to the staff and management environment. In high risk environments, the best level of protection against errors and accidents is effective team communication. Therefore, everyone—regardless of position—has an obligation to communicate critical information.
Leaders must employ multiple leadership skills to influence decisions, forge effective relationships, facilitate cooperative efforts, and ensure that objectives are achieved. ♦ Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, p. 16 ♦
Fire leaders show respect by keeping people
informed—describing leader’s intent for assignments,
providing timely briefings and debriefing, identifying
hazards, and answering questions at appropriate times.
By keeping our people informed, we consciously create
a command climate that fosters appropriate initiative by
subordinates.
What do wildland firefighters and football players have in common?
Answers include good leadership and the willingness to share their leadership development stories.
To showcase our partnership with the Wildand Fire Safety Training Annual Refresher, we share Eric Hipke, South Canyon survivor, and WFSTAR personnel's trek to the Pacific Northwest to see how the Seattle Seahawk organization embraces leadership.
Learning from successful organizations has been a valuable and inspiring mechanism to keep the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program viable.
Overview: The intent of this module is to initiate a discussion on leadership, teamwork and communication utilizing examples from a successful organization outside of the fire and military community.
Exercise Instructions: Watch the video and read the Introduction and the Terminology. Then, discuss the two exercise questions (in small groups or as a whole class). Share with the whole class if done in groups. After completing the two questions, we want to learn from YOUR successful organization. Share your success stories with WFSTAR so that others can learn from your organization. Instructions are located at the end of the module.
*************************************** INTRODUCTION In previous fire training courses, the focus has been about learning from leaders within the wildland fire and military community. This module is the first in a series designed to focus on learning from organizations outside of the military and wildland fire community. There are a lot of concepts that translate from football to firefighting and we thought it would be insightful to interview members of the coaching staff from the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). Regardless of your interest level in sports or personal team affiliation, the fact remains that it takes a high degree of leadership, teamwork, and communication to operate effectively at the professional level of sports.
Success – for the purposes of this module, the Seattle Seahawks were chosen as a case study for success based on three criteria (using data from the 2010 to 2014 seasons):
Development of players: During this five-year period, 22 players were selected to the Pro Bowl. Example of player development can also be seen by looking at the starting roster of the team that won the Super Bowl in 2013; of the 22 starting players (11 offensive, 11 defensive), 13 were drafted in the 3rd round or later (included undrafted players). Players also receive professional development training to prepare them for careers after football (business training, entrepreneur workshops, etc.).
Development of coaches: Two coaches from the Seahawks were promoted to head coaches for other NFL teams. Several other positional coaches were promoted internally and externally.
Winning: In the same five-year stretch, the Seahawks have made four playoff appearances including two Super Bowls (won Super Bowl 2013, lost Super Bowl 2014). The Seahawks currently have five consecutive seasons with 7+ wins (out of a 16-game season).
Humility – This term is mentioned several times by the coaches as a major emphasis of the team. The term humility comes from the Latin word humilitas, a noun related to the adjective humilis, which may be translated as "humble", but also as "grounded", "from the earth", or "low", since it derives from humus (earth). The author C.S. Lewis once wrote: "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less."
Exercise
The video focused on three main elements: leadership, teamwork, and communication. What effective methods or techniques from the video do you see demonstrated in your current work environment (on your crew, in the office, or during incident responses)? Provide specific examples.
What effective methods or techniques that were discussed in the video do NOT happen in your organization? What can YOU do to improve the conditions in these three areas? Provide specific examples.
We want to learn from your successful organization and share it with others. Please provide a brief description including:
What type of “team” are you a part of? Engine, hand crew, IMT, etc.
What effective methods of leadership/teamwork/communication does your organization use?
What has been the outcome from using these practices? Optional – provide your contact information so others may contact you.
Share your stories using the email: annualrefresher@gmail.com. ***************************************** Visit the WFSTAR website to download the Instructor Guide or Student Workbook. Be sure to talk with your Training Officer to ensure this module is part of your annual fireline refresher. If not, host your own tailgate with the Seahawks!
During the difficult and long 2002 fire season, two handcrews were assigned to a firing operation on a large fire complex in the Pacific Northwest near the location where several firefighters had lost their lives in a burnover several years earlier.
Brendan Fennigan Captain, West Metro Fire Rescue Category: Initiative and Innovation
Congratulations to Brendan Fennigan for being selected as one of the recipients for the 2020 Paul Gleason Lead by Example award. Four individuals and one group from across the wildland fire service have been chosen to receive this national award.
Looking out for our people includes not only those who work for us but also our leaders and peers. Leadership is about influencing others to accomplish tasks that are in the best interest of our organization; this often means influencing those above us and leading up. Similarly, we are open to upward leadership—and, in fact, encourage and reward it.
Recently as I watched the national evening news, the anchor announced that William “Wild Bill” Guarnere had passed away one month shy of his 91st birthday. Just a few months back, I remembered seeing the same announcement on the evening news when Edward “Babe” Heffron passed away at the age of 90. Both were lifelong friends who made their homes in Philadelphia.
Hearing this news caused me to reflect on what I knew of the men and their story of selflessness and courage. Both men were World War II veterans who gained fame when historian Stephen Ambrose wrote Band of Brothers about their shared war experience as well as that of the others from their famed unit.
HBO turned the book into a highly popular Band of Brothers miniseries in 2001 and is now featured in our Leadership in Cinema library for those who would like to use it. The HBO mini-series tells the story of Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army. Both Mr. Guarnere and Mr. Heffron served in the famed Easy Company during World War II, where they participated in some of the biggest battles in the European theater. They parachuted into Normandy the night before D-Day, fought in Operation Market Garden and helped hold the critical Belgian town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Mr. Guarnere’s war ended in Bastogne when he lost a leg while trying to help another wounded soldier, and he returned home having been awarded the Silver Star—the nation’s third-highest award for valor—two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts for wounds suffered in combat.
Fire leaders work to keep fear from being a barrier by understanding those fears that affect their team. Fear can destroy communication and, with it, trust and cohesion. In looking out for our people, we are mindful of their fears and vigilant in eliminating unnecessary fears.
Challenge #23: Fire leaders walk the talk of the learning organization by scheduling routine debriefings to evaluate performance and apply the lessons learned.
Watch the AAR video at https://youtu.be/HN483rIRaWU .
Take note of the specific recommendations on facilitating an AAR.
Identify a specific issue or upcoming event within your organization and arrange (volunteer) to facilitate the AAR and put the practices into action.
Representing a significant risk to safety and operational effectiveness, stress can bring about reactions such as tunnel vision or confusion that substantially degrade situation awareness—in ourselves and in our people. To mitigate this risk, leaders act to alleviate the effects of stress by:
[This article by the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center’s (LLC) Analyst Travis Dotson was originally featured in the Fall 2013 issue of Two More Chains.]
By Travis Dotson
Have you ever been through an After Action Review that was a waste of time? Have you been to the AAR where you blaze through the process:
Fire leaders walk the talk of the learning organization by scheduling routine debriefings to evaluate performance and apply the lessons learned. - Leading the Wildland Fire Service, p. 42
Leaders understand that people derive motivation from individual values and needs; others cannot force a person to be motivated any more than one person can force another to change. However, we recognize that leaders are responsible for putting in place the conditions in which people are motivated to act.
Issuing clear instructions includes a requirement for providing leader’s intent. Leader’s intent provides the foundation for ensuring that tasks are fully understood. – Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, page 33
Do your part and share throughout your sphere of influence!
Randy Skelton, Shane Olpin, and Maeve Juarez present Josh with the award
JOSH ACOSTA Fulton Hotshot Superintendent USDA – Sequoia National Forest
Category: Mentoring and Teamwork
Congratulations to Josh Acosta for being selected as one of the recipients for the 2020 Paul Gleason Lead by Example award. Four individuals and one group from across the wildland fire service have been chosen to receive this national award.
The first of our standing incident priorities is life. No objective is worth the lives of our people; and we put the safety of our people first, above all other mission objectives. However, in the complex and high-risk environment of wildland fire, we realize we cannot completely guard our people from all the inherent risks involved in our work.
Facilitator Action: Show students David Marquet's "Greatness" speech (about 10 minutes) as a primer on intent and means of getting students into the leadership mindset.
Facilitator Statement: We're good at telling people what they can and can't do on and off the fireline. We do this in spite of the fact that each of our actions on a fire happen in a very dynamic environment and the plan doesn't always fit nicely into what we "can" do. That's the reason we have this concept of leader's intent.
Student Practice:
Discuss the three parts of leader's intent:
Task
Purpose
End state
Facilitator Statement: The reason we have leader's intent is so our subordinates are able and willing to make decisions on their own while understanding and contributing to the overall objective. If they have the understanding of what needs to be accomplished and they have the technical ability to complete the task, then they should be empowered to make decisions that produce the desired outcome.
Unfortunately, we often spend too much time telling people HOW to do things instead. When the situations start changing, they become afraid to make decisions because the change is not something they have been told how to deal with.
Leadership Challenge:
Challenge students to think about leader's intent when they give out assignments on an incident.
Facilitator Action:
Show students the following Apollo 13 clip (about 10 minutes):
Start: "Houston, we have a problem."
End: After they move to the LEM and the scene switches to Johnny Carson on TV.
Student Practice:
While watching the Apollo 13 movie clip, use your IRPG to consider how leader's intent is used in the movie clip as well as how the leadership values (duty, respect, integrity) and their underlying principles are applied.
After viewing the clip, discuss with other students what the students observed.
Facilitator Action:
Group discussions will vary. Consider asking conceptual questions to complement group discussion (about 20-30 minutes). Questions may include:
Who is in charge? Does that change? (Discussed if it's Lovell or Kranz before the incident, and how Kranz takes charge once the incident occurs.)
Who was empowered to make decisions? What happened when they did? (The decision by ECON to shut down the reactant valves and abort the moon landing generated the most discussion on this topic.)
When was trust and cohesion apparent? When was it not? What influences trust and cohesion and how do you change that? (Our emphasis here was about Swigert not being completely trusted yet despite being technically competent--a common challenge in our world when working with someone new on an incident.)
What values and principles did you observe and how were they applied?
Thanks to Brian Looper (WA State DNR) for this contribution.
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