Rapid Lessons?

 

In 2011 the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center (LLC) received an email from a helicopter crewmember. This crewmember had a story and a few lessons to share about loading external baskets.

Challenge #8 - 2022 WFLDP Campaign

 

Challenge #8: Leaders build learning organizations.

Select at least one Rapid Lesson Sharing submission from the LLC’s database.

In your journal or with your team discuss the following:

• What happened?
• What are the lessons?

IGNITE: Invest in Knowledge

 

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. – Benjamin Franklin

[Photo: Idaho City IHC/USFS]

IGNITE the Spark for Leadership and SHARE throughout your networks. #fireleadership #firememes

Opportunity – Create Opportunities for Firefighters to Teach and Learn.

Following the 1994 South Canyon Fire tragedy, a major effort was set underway to improve how firefighters learned from our history. One of the proposed actions was to establish a national Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center, which became a reality in 2002.

The Wildland Lessons Learned Center (LLC) Turns 20

As the foundation of the 2021 Wildland Fire Leadership Campaign, we celebrated the accomplishments and products of the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program (WFLDP) overseen by the NWCG Leadership Committee. This year we focus on the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center (LLC).

The LLC will be telling their own story, but we want bring in a little more history to coincide with the bi-weekly sharing of  Learning in the Wildland Service.

Congratulations to the LLC, our valued sister organization, on their 20 years of service to the wildland fire service!

The History of the Leadership Curriculum

It’s difficult to believe, but there was a time when the wildland fire service did not have any formal training courses focused on leadership. There was a course called “Supervisory Concepts and Techniques” which focused on how to be a good supervisor. But is supervising firefighters the same as providing quality leadership?

After the tragic loss of life on the 1994 South Canyon Fire, the fire community started to talk about things like “human factors”, “group dynamics” and decision-making. This created an environment in which fire leaders started to reach out to other leaders in high-risk endeavors (aviation and the military) to discuss other ways of doing business.

There were a multitude of efforts in the fire community to try something different regarding human factors and fireline leadership. Trial courses on human factors were developed and delivered at the local level. Articles were written and published in professional journals. NWCG approved a proposal to develop a course on human factors.

The combination of all of these individual efforts eventually led to the development of the “L-course” leadership curriculum that we use today. This was not a top-down nor a bottom-up effort. It was a combination of both. The efforts of many provided the curriculum we use today.

This shows the power we have over our own learning system. We can change how we operate and how we learn.

[Click here to download Learning in the Wildland Fire Service.]

Challenge #7 - 2022 WFLDP Campaign

 

Challenge #7

You are responsible for yourself first—building on the strengths you bring to the organization and improving the weaknesses you have.

In your journal, take inventory of your gifts.

• What do you do really well?
• What does your organization need you to do that you are not very good at?
• How do you learn best, and how can you better yourself so that you can provide more value to your team?

IGNITE: The Pillar of Opportunity

 

Opportunity

• Be Consistent – Make learning part of everyday operations for yourself and your team.
• Create the Climate – Make time for learning a part of all operations.
• Embrace Failure – Approach unintended outcomes with learning in mind.

- Learning the Wildland Fire Service, p. 9

An Informal Learning System

How do the new folks learn to recite the 10 and 18? How do transfers from another crew learn what ratio is used for drip mix on this crew?

True Confessions - Seeking to Understand

As part of the 2022 Wildland Fire Leadership Campaign, we are reading Learning in the Wildland Fire Service. If you are following along, we are discussing the wildland fire service learning pillars (inquiry, opportunity, and dialogue) and their associated tenets. Today's blog discusses the "inquiry" pillar.

IGNITE: Understanding Our History

 

We need to understand history so that we can learn from it, so we can see the true costs of arrogance, of appeasing evil, and taking shortcuts, as well as the glory of courage, justice, and temperance. ♦ The Daily Stoic, blog♦

[Photo: Justin Vernon]

#fireleadership

IGNITE: Culture Evolves

 

Culture is not static. All cultures evolve.

♦ Simon Sinek ♦

[Photo: San Juan IHC]
www.fireleadership.gov

Inquiry – Think About the Whole Learning System

 

Where does the majority of our learning take place? Is it in the classroom? Is it on the fireground? Is it in between the two?

Challenge #6 - 2022 WFLDP Campaign

 

Challenge #6 
Inquiry: It is each individual’s responsibility to think about how they are learning and seek any and all avenues to improve their knowledge and skill level.

• Identify how learning takes place in all the environments you operate in.
• Make an effort to improve what needs improving.
• Monitor goals and progress in your journal.

IGNITE: The Enemy of Inquiry

 

“Certainty” is the enemy of inquiry. Genuine inquiry requires humility—letting go of the notion that we already know what we need to know. 

♦ Learning the Wildland Fire Service, p. 11 ♦ 

[Photo: Tallac IHC]

Healthy Learning Environments

 

Firefighters are both teachers and students in various learning environments throughout their time in the wildland fire service. Healthy learning environments can occur every day on the fireline, at the station, on the road, during off-duty activities, as well as in formal courses.

[Click here to download Learning in the Wildland Fire Service.]

2022 Professional Reading List Revealed

The WFLDP is announcing the 2022 Professional Reading List! The four books chosen for this year are: The Hero Code by Admiral William H. McRaven (USN Ret.); The Stress Effect by Henry L. Thompson; Fully Present by Susan L. Smalley and Diana Winston; and Bringing Columbia Home by Michael D. Leinbach and Jonathan H. Ward.

IGNITE: I AM

 

“I am a part of everything that I have read.”

♦ Theodore Roosevelt ♦

Photo: Alpine IHC

www.fireleadership.gov

Dialogue and Its Tenets

Prepare – Study past operations, communications, decisions, and actions.

Listen – Practice listening, especially when it’s hard.

Initiate – Always bring up learning.

[Click here to download Learning in the Wildland Fire Service.]

Challenge #5 - 2022 WFLDP Campaign

 

Challenge #5 - Tenets of Inquiry: Be Humble • Know the System • Be Accountable

Respond to the following on your “Inquiry” page in your journal:

• Are you open to the possibility for improvement?
• What are the informal and formal learning systems around you and your part in them?
• What and how are you teaching and learning in those systems?

Tenets of Learning - Inquiry

 

INQUIRY

• Be Humble – Always allow for the possibility of improvement. 
• Know the System – Be able to articulate the formal and informal learning system around you and your part in it. 
• Be Accountable – Take inventory on what and how you are teaching and learning.

[Photo: Kyle Miller/Wyoming IHC]

Opportunity and Its Tenets

Be Consistent – Make learning part of everyday operations for yourself and your team.

Create the Climate – Make time for learning a part of all operations.

Embrace Failure – Approach unintended outcomes with learning in mind.

[Click here to download Learning in the Wildland Fire Service.]

What Defines Us?

 

In this blog, we revisit a post from Shane Olpin, former NWCG Leadership Committee chairman and leadership development specialist for the USFS. Shane retired in October, but was honored this weekend for him many contributions to the wildland fire service. Shane's influence and legacy will last for many years to come. Best wishes, Shane.