Growing the Organization by Breaking the Rules

From time to time, I write about innovation. When I do, I hear the cries of the masses tell me that the fire service doesn't innovate. Well, according to Carl Bass, those naysayers may be right. The fire service as a whole may not innovate, but the individuals it employs do. Check out the video and reflect upon how you as a member of the wildland fire service can be the movement of innovation to better the whole.

(Besides, Bass shares a lot of cool stuff that will change our world in the very near future..)



Here are some highlights from the video:

Innovation is Not...

• Invention
• Scientific Discovery
• Mathematical Proof

Innovation is...

• Innovation is the process by which we change the world.
• Innovation is about making things better in significant and meaningful ways.
• Innovation is the practical application of ideas and technologies to make new and better things.
• Innovation is hard.
• Innovation requires taking chances.
• Innovation requires challenging those things we think we know with certainty.
• Innovation is about taking risk and breaking the rules.

Bass's Reflections

• Nearly every company he knows wants to be innovative
• Innovation is fundamentally not a corporate phenomenon.
• Companies aren't particularly good at taking risk and breaking rules. They are good at making rules and minimizing risk.
• Innovation is done primarily by individuals.
• Companies need to hire the right people.
• We need innovation to solve the grand challenges of our civilization.

Five Trends Affecting Innovation:

1. The Age of Access and Experience
2. Business Un-usual
3. Digital Fabrication
4. The Rise of Information
5. Infinite Computing

Making Sound and Timely Decisions

Making Sound and Timely Decisions (Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, pp. 30-32)
To make sound and timely decisions, fire leaders assess the situation, seek out relevant information, weigh options, make judgments, and initiate action as required to create a positive outcome within inevitable time constraints.

The cornerstone of good decision making is good situation awareness. Leaders can increase their decision space by attaining and maintaining good situation awareness. Decision space is simply the amount of time that a decision maker has for considering options before reaching a required decision point.

Leaders can optimize their decision space by using time efficiently. Seeking advance information in new situations or utilizing standard operating procedures for routine tasks are examples of techniques that make good use of available time.

In the wildland fire environment, decisions have serious consequences and often can have life-or-death implications for others. With so much on the line, we have a responsibility to understand the decision-making process—the components, the flow, the effect of time—and to develop the skills and confidence that enables us to make the best decision possible with the information and time available.

Decision-Making Skills for Fire Managers from David Garvin
Prescribed fire and fire use managers had the privilege of hearing from decision-making expert David Garvin, Harvard Business School professor and author of Learning in Action (recommended read in our Professional Reading Program).  Share this video with your fire team today!



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Thanks to the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center for sharing this presentation with all of us.

LBE Deadline Approaching!!

The deadline is quickly approaching for this year's Paul Gleason Lead by Example Award. Visit our website TODAY!

No Time for Leadership--I'm Fighting Fire

Imagine my shock this summer when I spoke with four hotshots crews as they passed through the mobilization center at NIFC and one crew member stated, "We don't have time for leadership, we're out fighting fire." Leadership is not something we fit into our busy schedules. Fire leaders make time for leadership--not only for themselves but for those they lead and serve.

Had this been my only experience that day, I might have considered it an isolated incident. Unfortunately, few knew about FireLeadership.gov, few had attended any leadership training, and even fewer jumped at the chance to take a leadership pamphlet. What bothered me most was that some looked over their shoulders at their supervisors as if to gain permission to take one. Others came to me, ever so shamefully, to whisper, "I'll take one of those." Leadership development should be accessible to all and encouraged by every wildland fire leader in the organization because every individual has a leadership responsibility.

Levels of Leadership (Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, pp. 22-23)
Leaders provide purpose, direction, and motivation to those they lead. Although these leadership requirements are similar for the leaders at different levels of an organization, the challenges faced and the perspective required to meet the challenges are considerably different at each level.

Follower

• To become competent in basic job skills.
• To take initiative and learn from others.
• To ask questions and develop communications skills.

Leaders of People

• Accept responsibility not only for their own actions but for those of their team.
• Act to develop credibility as leaders: placing the team ahead of themselves, demonstrating trustworthiness, mastering essential technical skills, and instilling the values of the organization in their teams.

Leader of Leaders

• Build trust.
• Act as a conduit between the organization and the people on the ground, interpreting the vision into mission, translating abstract ideas so that subordinate leaders can take definitive action.

Leaders of Organizations

• Manage the most complex and high-profile emergency incidents.
• Plan for future operations as well as mentor promising people for key roles in our organizations.
• Represent the face of the wildland fire service to cooperators, stakeholders, and the general public.

Next Steps
Leadership development does not have to be conducted in a vacuum. The Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program offers a wide variety of resources for all levels of leadership. Therefore, become a part of something bigger and embrace FireLeadership.gov, including the blog and Facebook presence.

In 2013, we will roll out a leadership campaign intended to bring all units across the nation together with a common purpose for leadership development. Stay tuned for more information!

Happy Holidays

May you celebrate

this beautiful season

with joy in your home,

peace in your world,

and love in your heart!

Fighting Fire with Science

On November 26, 2012, CBS Los Angeles presented a great news story on the use of Fire Behavior Analysts (FBANs). Be sure to check out the story and journey of a few Orange County Fire Authority firefighters in "Fire Behavior Analysts Fight Fire with Science." The video highlights FBAN training at the National Advanced Fire and Resource Institute (NAFRI) in Tucson, AZ.

Leading with Silence

“Your actions speak so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying.” ~ Unknown

I recently read Peter Bregman’s HBR.org article “Do You Really Need to Say Thank You?” The article resonates with me following numerous conversations with coworkers and friends about the lack of feedback from their supervisors, especially with regard to e-mails and phone calls. Is this a sign that our leaders are busy preparing for a doomsday event or do they just not care about their employees?

Open and fluid communication is the life blood of an organization. Failure to respond to an e-mail or phone call can cause undo angst. Even if you cannot give full attention to the sender’s message, a simple acknowledgement of the message is respectful and the responsibility of every leader. Advise the sender that you will respond in more detail and when.

Peter Bregman says it best, “Acknowledging each other is our basic responsibility as human beings living in community with other human beings.”

They Choose To Serve in Times of Need

By day they are a fire prevention specialist in Nevada, a state assistant fire management officer in Utah, a fire equipment specialist in Idaho, a fire training specialist in Colorado and other BLM fire program professionals. But when one of their colleagues, known or unknown to them, falls victim to a line of duty death this group of BLM personnel come together to form what former Director Bob Abbey called "the very best of who we are" as people and as an agency.


The 12-members of the BLM National Fire and Aviation Honor Guard come from a variety of backgrounds, jobs and locations, but at least twice a year they train together, travel together and hone the precise ceremonial movements of their trade. Woven in and throughout those movements is a high sense of honor, dignity, and service over self in respect for a fallen colleague, bringing immeasurable comfort to the family of the fallen. . .

BLM Fire and Aviation Honor Guard members, left to right: Vanessa Marquez, Andy Rothleutner, Tommy Hayes, Juan Zepeda, Lamar Liddell, Gary Helming, Chris Delaney, Shannon Meyers, Cliff Hutton, past member Jenny Camp, Todd Richardson. Not shown, current members Lisa Kemper and Dennis Strange.

Whether they are serving as pall bearers, guarding a casket, acting as a family liaison, folding and presenting a flag, or conducting other ceremonial rites, they present a highly professional, honorable, respected and respectable face to the BLM and the Fire and Aviation Program. 

BLM Fire and Aviation Honor Guard members serve as pall bearers for Caleb Hamm, a BLM hotshot crew member who lost his life on a fire in Texas. Members shown, left to right, include Dennis Strange, Todd Richardson (partially shown at the back of the casket) Vanessa Marquez, past member Jenny Camp (partially shown), Shannon Meyers, Andy Rothleutner and Cliff Hutton.

"The Honor Guard, to me, is my opportunity to give back to those firefighters and their families that have given everything and paid the ultimate sacrifice protecting America's natural resources and the American people," says Chris Delaney, who has served as the honor guard coordinator for the group since 2005. "The profession of firefighting is more than a job; it is a lifestyle and brotherhood that bonds people unlike any other profession."

Cliff Hutton, left, and Gary Helming at the Candlelight Vigil, one of the events held during the annual National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Each October, the group travels to Emmitsburg, Maryland and the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend held at the U.S. Fire Administration's National Training Academy campus; a FEMA/DHS facility. The weekend consists of activities and ceremonies for family members of fallen firefighters as well as a Saturday night candlelight vigil and Sunday morning memorial service. BLM Honor Guard members fill a number of roles, ranging from family escorts to guarding the memorial monument, often through the night; as well as perform whatever other tasks or duties asked of them.

Juan Zepeda, left, makes final checks and adjustments to Vanessa Marquez's uniform prior to a ceremony at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend in Emmitsburg, Maryland. 

BLM Fire and Aviation Honor Guard member Tommy Hayes escorts Joy Stearns at a National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Joy's husband, Brett, was killed by a falling tree on a fuels project in Colorado.

During the week leading up to the memorial weekend, Honor Guard members participate in training or other educational exercises and meet with BLM leaders when possible in Washington, D.C. Each year they also take a short time from those endeavors to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, representing the BLM Fire and Aviation program by honoring of all who have fallen in the line of duty. The group comes together again each spring for training, group development and to ensure they are ready to respond on a moment's notice when needed.

Members of the BLM Fire and Aviation Honor Guard join military guards in a wreath-laying ceremony representing the BLM Fire and Aviation program by honoring of all who have fallen in the line of duty at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.

Each member brings their own reasons for choosing to serve in such a capacity, and as a whole they form a unique and special group whose service to the BLM and the families of fallen firefighters is exceptional, distinctive and beyond the every-day call of duty.

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Reprint from The BLM Daily, Monday, November 19, 2012.

Happy Thanksgiving

At this time of Thanksgiving the NWCG Leadership Subcommittee pauses to count our blessings:

The freedom of this great country in which we live.

Its opportunity for achievement.

The friendship and confidence you have shown in us as readers of and contributors to this blog and overall support of the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program.

For all of these things we are deeply thankful.

Our best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving.

 

Behind the Holiday

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and our reflection upon one of this nation's greatest leaders, President Abraham Lincoln, we share this version of Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation via the National Park Service.

27. "BLESSINGS OF FRUITFUL FIELDS

Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the settlers at Plymouth in the Massachusetts colony in 1621 under the leadership of Governor William Bradford. Washington and Madison each issued a Thanksgiving proclamation once during their Presidencies. It was not until 1863, however, when Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Day Proclamation that the holiday was established as a national annual event, occurring on the last Thursday of November. The first observance of the national holiday came one week after the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg. The language of the proclamation is beautiful and marked by a rare felicity of expression.

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the everwatchful providence of almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.


It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S THANKSGIVING DAY PROCLAMATION, OCTOBER 3, 1863.