Challenge #36 - 2021 WFLDP Campaign

 

Challenge #36: Good leaders hone their critical thinking skills.

• Read Albert Rutherford’s book "How to Think Critically."
•  Watch “The Man Who Saved the World.”
•  Discuss with your team how critical thinking and courage can bring to chaos.

IGNITE: The Two Types of Decisions

There are two types of decisions: good decisions and lessons learned. - Simon Sinek -

[Photo: Anonymous]

Fitness for Command

Our position as leaders requires us to take people into unpredictable situations where mediocre leaders can be quickly overwhelmed in a crisis and make dangerous errors in judgment.

Challenge #40 - 2021 WFLDP Campaign

Challenge #40: Leaders employ their people in accordance with each person’s capabilities; they also help their people build new skills. 

• Visit the “Skills You Need” website for coaching tools. 
• Devote a few pages in your leadership journal to “Coaching Tools.” 
• Transfer tips on coaching to these pages.

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.

This blog originally posted December 7, 2012.

IGNITE: Good and Bad Decisions

 

Determining whether a decision is good or bad means examining the quality of the beliefs informing the decision, the available options, and how the future might turn out given any choice you make.

♦ Annie Duke ♦

[Photo: Kootenai National Forest/USFS]

Seeking and Accepting Responsibility for Our Actions

Fire leaders seek responsibility and accept responsibility for their actions. We also accept full responsibility for poor team performance, credit subordinates for good performance, and keep superiors informed.

[Click here to download a copy of Leading in the Wildland Fire Service.]

Challenge #35: 2021 WFLDP Campaign

Challenge #35: Effective leaders create an atmosphere that fosters resilient teams.

• Assess how committed your organization is to resilience by taking Dr. Karl Weick and Dr. Kathleen Sutcliffe’s survey → https://www.mro.net/MRODocuments/MRO%20HERO%20Survey.pdf
• Read Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity by Dr. Karl Weick and Dr. Kathleen Sutcliffe.

IGNITE: The Ultimate Team Result - Resilience

 

(Photo Credit Josh Neighbors/South Dakota Wildland Fire)

The ultimate team result is resilience: teams that can bounce back when problems or errors threaten cohesion and synergy. - Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, p. 55

Increasing What is Known

Fire leaders seek and accept feedback to maintain accurate situation awareness about ourselves. We are willing to examine and probe blind spots, seeking feedback from others. Because blind spots can lead to problems, leaders accept and act on feedback as part of the responsibility to mitigate error.