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.