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.
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