"Invictus" is Here!

Thanks to the efforts of the Klamath Hotshots, another Leadership in Cinema lesson plan is available for your use in leadership development. The Invictus lesson plan chronicles Nelson Mandela's use of South Africa's national rugby team, the Springboks, to unite a nation.

Feel free to use the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program's Facebook page to discuss the movie and promote discussion across the program.

If you would like to create a lesson plan for the program, visit the Leadership in Cinema website.

You are a Leader 24/7

There is nothing worse than a hypocritical leader--one who does not lead by example.

After watching the video, consider the following:

• Do you set a good example for others to follow?
• What changes do you want to see?
• What practices do you use as a leader to ensure that you are giving the most to your leadership position?
• What can you share with other leaders about leading by example?

"Practice Makes Permanent"

Do you have "Dan days" built into your schedule?

Are you caring for yourself mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually?

Fireline Leadership Challenges:

• Share your methods of "practice makes perfect" as a wildland fire leader.
• Mentor someone.

An Enduring Leadership Legacy……….

Having just returned from the 2011 Fall NWCG Leadership Subcommittee meeting in Tucson, Arizona, I have been reflecting on my experience over the last five years as a member of the subcommittee. Specifically, how Committee Co-Chair Jim Cook will be missed as a result of his upcoming and well deserved retirement.

For those readers of this blog that are unaware, Jim was one of the principal founders of this committee and has been the "point person" that led the development of the NWCG leadership curriculum. The development and delivery of this curriculum has led to an organizational culture change that has positively benefited firefighters throughout the United States and Australia. Jim Cook, Paul Gleason, Mark Linane and other wildland fire service leaders turned the tragedy that was the 1994 South Canyon Fire into an opportunity for all of us to better understand the role that human factors play and how they affect critical decision making on the fireground.

I first met Jim Cook in 1985 when he was the Superintendent of the Arrowhead Hotshots and I was a Foreman with the Kern Valley Hotshots. As a result of our hotshot crews being two of the four Southern Sierra region Type 1 hotshot crews, we had many opportunities to work together locally, statewide and nationally. However, I lost touch with Jim and many other wildland fire service friends and co-workers after the 1990 fire season as a result of my being hired by the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. Over the next 10-15 years, we would on occasion run into each other at retirement parties (more like hotshot reunions) and training sessions. I was honored and felt privileged to have been asked by Jim to represent local government on the subcommittee and was even more humbled to step in behind former USFS Hotshot and current Santa Barbara County Fire Department Crew Superintendent Mark Linane.

Looking back, what I admired most about Jim as his career progressed and eventually took him away from leading hotshot crews was his passion for improving safety on the fireline and I'm not talking about through the traditional means of the day. He and other wildland fire service leaders were determined to empower first-level leaders by way of their understanding and applying time proven principle-based leadership concepts in a way that had not been attempted in the past. Out of this effort and over the years was born the L-180, L-280, L-380, L-381, L-480 and L-580 curriculum. The leadership curriculum now targets every level of organizational leadership…..from the first year firefighter to those leading and managing large organizations.

The NWCG Leadership Subcommittee is primarily charged with managing this curriculum in terms of assuring that new and/or obsolete material is updated, the lead instructors are of the highest quality, etc. There is no way of knowing for sure how many tragedies have been avoided over the years the curriculum has been delivered, but speaking for my own agency, I have several anecdotal instances where fire captains and battalion chiefs have shared with me decisions they made that contributed to the positive outcome of an incident and that may not have occurred without their having been provided the leadership training. I have many more stories of how the leadership skills they developed as a result of the training have led to positive non-emergency-incident related decisions being made as well.

While having dinner and beverages with Jim and the other members of the subcommittee the night before everyone traveled home to their home units, we asked Jim to share with us how many firefighters he estimated he affected over his career. He immediately went about figuring out the math specific to his time as a hotshot superintendent. As it ended up, this was several hundred firefighters. It was at his point that one of the more tenured committee members reminded Jim of all that had been accomplished as a result of his leading this committee since its inception........this brought about a more reflective pause. Ever the humble guy, Jim thanked everyone for their kind words, and as anyone that knows Jim would expect, he immediately began deflecting any praise for his efforts and began to focus all of us on how we need to continue to innovate and advocate for improved fire service leadership.

Lastly, I want to personally thank Jim for his friendship over all of these years and for also including state and local government fire service agencies in the leadership/culture change initiative. The excitement surrounding these training courses is spreading quickly as was experienced when first introduced to the wildland fire community many years ago.

Jim Cook will be formally retiring from the USFS in December 2011. His retirement party will be held on February 19 in Boise, Idaho.

Jim leaves an honorable legacy behind him and I'm confident that those that know Jim and read this blog may have an example or two that they may want to blog concerning some of how Jim and/or his efforts behind the development and implementation of the leadership curriculum may have affected them personally and/or those that they now lead or those they have lead in the past.

Thanks Jim!!!

Brian Fennessy
Assistant Fire Chief
San Diego Fire-Rescue Department

“We Will Never Forget You—Remembering Andy Palmer”

Submitted by Jim McMahill (Regional Fire and Aviation Management Officer, Midwest Region - National Park Service and NWCG Leadership Subcommittee NPS Representative) and the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center

This—wildland firefighter Andy Palmer’s tragedy—is the story of how we arrived at today’s Dutch Creek Protocol guidelines for emergency medical response and extractions.

Fireline Leadership Challenge:

1. View the video and share this with your employees and incident management team members, either during your annual fire refresher or at your annual team meetings.
2. After viewing, discuss the contents of the video, which challenges us with three questions we should ask ourselves each time we are weighing the decision whether or not to engage on a wildland fire incident.

• What will we do if someone gets hurt?
• How will we get them out of here?
• How long will it take to get them to the hospital?”

This is the Wildland Lessons Learned Center's second presentation in this year’s “Firefighter: Remember This” video series. Check out the first, "Firefighter: Remember This - Engine Rollover: Why This Accident Started Months Ago."

Happy Thanksgiving

On behalf of the NWCG Leadership Subcommittee, I would like to wish all readers a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. May each of you take this time to reflect upon all for which you are thankful.

Exposing Our Roots: 1997 - 1998

In 1998, the TriData Corporation completed the four-phase Wildland Firefighter Safety Awareness Study.

• Phase I -Identifying the Organizational Culture, Leadership, Human Factors, and Other Issues Impacting Firefighter Safety
• Phase II - Wildland Firefighter Safety Awareness Study - Setting New Goals for the Organizational Culture, Leadership, Human Factors, and Other Areas Impacting Firefighter Safety
• Phase III - Implementing Cultural Changes for Safety
• Phase IV - Developing a Cooperative Approach

Wildland Lessons Learned Videos - 10-Year Anniversary

• Introduction
• Successes
• Continuing Challenges
• Looking to the Future

Additional Events from 1999

• The Safety and Health Working Team (now the Risk Management Committee) sponsors L-180 development.
• A 40-hour leadership development training course is proposed.

Help Wanted

This blog was created as an avenue for wildland fire leaders to share their experiences in writing. Unfortunately, few have contributed. The following Seth Godin interview conducted by Dan Cathy may provide some insight and encourage wildland fire leaders to use their written voice.

Communicating Across Generations

I recently had an encounter with a young man of about 13 years of age. I had given him answers for a Halloween station he was to facilitate. As soon as he attempted to read the paper I had given him, I knew we had a serious problem. A deep sense of fear overtook him and he handed the paper back to me saying he could not read what was written. I had used cursive writing instead of printing. Our ability to communicate had taken a direct hit.

While attending L-580 this past spring, a number of participants had discussed the coming trend of public school systems eliminating cursive writing from the curriculum. Little did I know that it would be only a few months until I encountered my first experience with this new barrier to communication.

The new generation firefighter communicates differently. Right, wrong, or indifferently, changes in communication methods generally require that the older generation adapt.

I enabled my young friend to succeed by printing my work; however, there may be times in the future where technological ineptness or other factor(s) may render me unable to communicate. I keep myself open to new ideas and methods; but, I may find myself in a similar situation as my young friend some day.

How do feel about the ever-changing face of communication? How are these changes affecting communication in the wildland fire service?

Exposing Our Roots - 1995/1996

Where were you in 1995? Some of you may have been employed in wildland fire and can remember focus on changing our culture. Every once in a while I think there is great value in "exposing our roots"--letting those new to the wildland fire service know where the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program (WFLDP) began. Over the next few weeks, we'll revisit our history.

A Glance Back at 1994

Thirty four lives were lost on wildland fire incidents in 1994. Fourteen of those fatalities occurred on South Canyon fire near Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

1995

The Missoula Technology Development Center (MTDC) hosts the 1st Firefighters Human Factors Workshop.

• "To begin to address some of the human factors questions, experts in psychology, sociology, organizations, fire safety, and wildland firefighting attended a 5-day workshop in June 1995 to discuss ways of improving firefighter safety" (Finding from the Firefighters Human Factors Workshop, p. 3).

Smokejumpers and pilots participate in Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) training.

Following the deaths on South Canyon, the BLM commissioned the Firefighter Awareness Study--a four-phase study awarded to the TriData Corporation. Phase I - Identifying the Organizational Culture, Leadership, Human Factors, and Other Issues Impacting Firefighter Safety was completed in 1996.

1996

The National Park Service develops and tests a human factors course. The WFLDP now administers L-180 - Human Factors in the Wildland Fire Service. The 2010 video component of L-180 is available on YouTube. The course is currently under development for online delivery.