We are personally and positionally either enabled or disabled by our ability to learn. For each of us, this help/hurt reality is directly connected to learning the dynamics of the change process. How we deal with the current blur of new, different, many times confusing and often disruptive people, places, and things that continually bounce into our lives will determine how effective, sane, and successful we are. Humans react to change in interesting and sometimes complex ways.
As we study, learn, and apply effective change agent boss behaviors, we must sort out the difference between how humans react and respond to what is to them a rational issue or process and how we react and respond to the emotional part of what is happening to us. The rational part is based on hard management science; the emotional part involves dealing with the human art of understanding how humans feel. We have discussed in this forum the illogic of how fire officers are typically trained and socialized (95 percent tactical/5 percent human relations) and then actually spend their time doing 95 percent human stuff and 5 percent hose and ladders.
About 20 years ago, we started a discussion about delivering service to Mrs. Smith, who is our typical customer. As we described how she connects to the experience of having a very personal problem that is disrupting her life and calling us for help, it became natural for us to understand the emotional reaction she is having. Looking at our response in a way that considers how she feels about her situation and the memory she is left with, based on how we treated her, allowed a new discussion inside our service about the emotional dynamics of how we interact with her.
When we became more emotionally literate, we became more effective in delivering our service to her-in terms of how we consider and connect to the emotional dynamics she is going through. As we continued to improve the balance (and combination) between problem solving rational operations and personal attention and kindness, the more valuable we became to her and the community in general.
Our members have historically dedicated themselves to delivering high-quality service to her, the entire Smith Family, and the Smith dog and cat. When we examined her state of mind when she calls us and hopes we can solve her problem because she trusts us, the discussion opened up our consideration about how humans react when they are in an emotional state and situation. This was a new and different conversation for us simply because most of us were raised in our service to consciously and deliberately suppress our emotions when we operate tactically. As we went through this change, it did not lessen the need to manage our operations in a very rational and clinical way, but it created the need for us to simultaneously set up a basic emotional support plan to personally support Mrs. Smith, particularly considering her current emotional situation and state of mind.
Occupant Support Sector
Many progressive fire departments developed and refined an Occupant Support Sector (OSS) that would routinely take charge of Mrs. Smith and provide short- and medium-term support and recovery. When this occurred, the incident commander continued to speak rational tactical/operational language to the troops, and the OSS spoke emotional language to the customer. As we refined this bilingual capability, we received feedback that Mrs. Smith identified OSS as “the Fire Department” (incident command is very transparent to the customer). This fairly simple change created a huge opportunity to increase our ability to directly deliver customer care and added value that was NICE (respect/patience/kindness/consideration) at a critical time. Doing this created a positive memory for Mrs. Smith.
As we continued to improve the emotional connection to the outside customer, we became more comfortable (and fluent) in conversing in emotional terms. This ability also caused us to identify the same emotional elements inside our service to our members because the inside customer (us) is no different from the outside customer (Mrs. Smith) when having a personal problem that creates an emotional effect; such an effect comes naturally with just about every personal problem. We are now doing a lot better job of providing mental health support and assistance to our members when they are trying to survive the wear and tear of life.
Rationality and Emotions Part of the Change Process
We have continually talked in our monthly free-for-all about how critical it is for a functional boss to develop the understanding and effective leadership techniques that necessitate a combination of hard (rational) and soft (emotional) management skills. Most of the time, the situation requires the application of both at once; that is why we call functional boss behaviors art and science. How well a boss can identify the need to speak rational and/or emotional language to fit the person and the situation is a critical capability that will determine how high that person can go up the vertical leadership capability scale.
As an example of dealing with the rational and emotional parts of the change process, let me use a personal situation. Every morning, I walk out in my front yard and pick up the newspaper that miraculously appears there while I am asleep. I take the morning edition to my newspaper reading chair. Bella, the little white dog (LWD), hops up in my lap, and we read and discuss what changed since we were in the same spot yesterday. Sometimes she slightly tilts her head based on what I just read to her, meaning, “You gotta be kidding.” This is a regular routine we go through every morning. We very naturally relish reading and being surprised-and many times bewildered-by the latest chapter in the ongoing drama of change. All these feelings are the luxury of being retired and watching the parade at the very bottom of the political foxhole. Bella really doesn’t care about the daily score of who does what to whom because she is thinking about a breakfast treat.
This morning ritual occurs without a hitch unless my beautiful wife rearranges the living room (weekly) and moves my chair. When this occurs (weekly), it completely disrupts my regular routine. When I attempt to explain (weekly) to her that it is just plain wrong to geographically rearrange such a critical part of my ongoing stability, she summarily explains that I must better understand that change is inevitable, so she does it as a character-building exercise and to increase my personal flexibility.
I guess I should take my own advice about being a student. The LWD doesn’t seem to be bothered by it, so she should really be my role model. Role models have a huge significance in our education. To be more effective, we (as serious students) should use those models as performance and behavior improvement targets. The “move the chair” example is relevant to being a leader. Bosses like my wife, who is clearly in charge of furniture location, has the self-empowered authority (read: raw/primitive power) in her job description to move the chair. She routinely (weekly) develops and executes a new, different arrangement plan. Although I am disoriented by the change, I sit wherever she puts the chair. Bella could care less where the chair is as long as a sitting human creates a lap to sit on.
I was a boss for a long time, and I got to move a lot of organizational “chairs” that I didn’t sit in. The longer I was a chair boss, the more I tried to study the best tactics for rearranging what was familiar and comfortable for the person closest to the change who did (personally and physically) sit in that chair. Although this shift in approach was not rocket science, the more I studied standard, predictable, mostly emotional reactions (to what I changed), the easier my life as a boss became.
A serious boss student should attempt to predict and understand the reaction to change in the person who has to directly live with that change. A major characteristic of an effective boss is to automatically and naturally engage in a level of empathy, particularly during periods of change that disrupt the security and personal comfort of those who must adjust their behavior and performance to fit into the change. A simple way for change agents to do this is to remember how they felt when they were in that position.
Our service is currently rearranging in a major way our tactical furniture and the familiar location of the comfortable chair we have happily been sitting in for many years. We have historically developed a culture (read habit) of approaching and attacking offensive fires from the inside. This long-standing interior attack ritual has resulted in a massive emotional attachment and value for us because doing it (fast/aggressive) got us a membership card in the “club.” Currently, fire testing performed by highly trained, very street-oriented fire scientists is producing highly developed evidence that many traditional fire attack methods must be updated for both safety and effectiveness-simply, our chair is being moved, and it is interesting and educational to watch our very emotional reaction. I asked Bella about it, and she said: “Keep the doors closed, hit the fire (if you can) before you go in, and then do everything you have done so well for the past 200 years.” She seems to think that life would go on as we have known and loved it and we would be safer and happier. Then she wanted her morning treat.
Retired Chief ALAN BRUNACINI is a fire service author and speaker. He and his sons own the fire service Web site bshifter.com.
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