HOW TO CHANGE YOUR DEPARTMENT WITHOUT CHANGING DEPARTMENTS
The change agent is a key player in every functional organization. The position of change officer in a fire department may reside by design or good fortune with the chief officer or any other official. In many places, the change officer is a nonelected, nonappointed line officer or firefighter who is well-read and understands the need for intelligent change. The successful change officer employs two basic methods of organizational change: seedplanting and transplanting.
For several years after joining our small volunteer fire department, I served unwittingly as the change agent. One day I described to a friend a disheartening series of hostile eruptions within the department. My friend, quite know ledgeable about management theory, said, “Well, of course. You should expect that. You’re the change agent in the organization.”
Until that moment I did not even know about change agents. I certainly did not imagine I had become one. I felt I was only trying to digest and apply to our department a lot of helpful information acquired from fire journals and conversations with firefighters from other departments.
Oddly enough, it turns out that many of these firefighters were the change agents in their organizations. Birds of a feather.
The change agent is a recognized player in all schemes of management. Lacking essential change, every organization is doomed and will be brought down by internal disorganization and inertia unless external forces shore it up and keep it running. No organization can enjoy self-determination without a progressive diet of intelligent change.
Generally speaking, experts in management theory ascribe a high organizational role to the change agent. I suspect that most management theorists secretly aspire to be change agents themselves but may lack the reason or the occasion to come out of hiding.
The average organization member generally does not appreciate the change agent. Even radical and revolutionary organizations tend to resist change within their ranks. Much more so do members of a conservative operation such as a municipal fire department resist change.
More than 500 years ago, Machiavelli outlined in The Prince the impediments to change: “It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, and more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who could profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who could profit by the new order. This lukewarmness arises partly from fear of their adversaries who have the laws in their favor, and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had an actual experience of it.”
Anyone wishing to become the change agent in a small, closely knit volunteer fire department would do well to reflect first on the vast scope of the role and its close resemblance to the role of the BAR man (Browning Automatic rifleman) in a combat unit, who had a brief life-expectancy since it was common practice to take this man out first.
For purposes of continuity in the nomenclature of the fire service, I propose a lateral field promotion for the department change agent to the rank of change officer. To consider this individual an honorary officer confers a measure of dignity’ that soon will be stripped away anyway.
The change officer holds a nonelected, nonappointed, and generally unpopular position that nevertheless always exists to some degree in every fire department. The position must be filled by one or more persons in every fire department if the department is to have a ghost of a chance of surviving the manifold changes and challenges confronting it.
The change officer occasionally is a genuinely elected or appointed official of the department. Perhaps he/she is a progressive chief officer who assumes the role of change agent and takes the lead in bringing progressive change to the department. Such departments are blessed by good fortune. As often as not, the role of change officer is played by a junior officer or line firefighter who reads a lot (especially fire journals), is ambitious, is thick-skinned, has a bent for management, and likes to tinker with organizations to see how they run and whether they can be made to run better.
SEEDPLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING
Seedplanting and transplanting are two basic methods used by those practicing the art of change-agentry. Seedplanting is the more effective technique in the long run, but transplanting is faster and more efficient.
Seedplanting is risky because the seeds sown one year may not germinate until the next. Or they may be lost or rot and never germinate. Or some rogue weed might arise to supplant the seeds that were sown. Seedplanting for organizational change is unpredictable. But seedplanting— when it works —is also effective, because it leads to a greater sense of ownership among the general membership, who will feel the germ of the idea stirring among them for a longer period of time.
Statement of the Ownership, Management Etc. of
FIRE ENGINEERING October 1, 1991
(This statement is published in compliance with the Act of October 23, 1962.)
Published monthly at Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Publisher: Henry H. Dinneen, Saddle Brook, NJ
Editor: William A. Manning, Saddle Brook, NJ
The Owner is: PennWell Publishing Company, 1421 So. Sheridan. Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Stockholders holding 1 percent or more of total amount of stock: Successors to estate trust of Helen B. Lauinger, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Known stockholders, mortgages and other security holders holding 1 percent or more of the total amounts of bonds, mortages or other securities: None.
The average number of copies of the publication during the twelve months preceding the date shown above is: Printed – 45,322; paid subscriptions by mail – 42,090; total paid subscriptions – 42,090; free distribution including samples by mail, carrier or other means – 1,430; total distribution – 43.520; office use, left over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing – 1,802; total above – 45,322. Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: Printed – 45.835; paid subscriptions by mail – 41,631; total paid circulation – 41,631; free distribution, including samples, by mail, earner, or other means – 1,470; total distribution – 43,101; office use, left over, unaccounted or spoiled after printing – 2,734; total above – 45,835.
I certify that the above statements made by me are correct and complete.
Henry H. Dinneen
Publisher
Transplanting is more labor-intensive and requires more detailed planning than seedplanting, but its results are immediately measurable. The department change officer will find occasions to employ both change techniques.
SEEDPLANTING FOR NEW TURNOUT GEAR
My first adventure as a departmental change officer dealt with antiquated turnout gear. As a small, suburban fire department answering only a few’ dozen calls per year 25 years ago, we saw’ no need for everyone to own his own coat, boots, and helmet. Moreover, those were the days well before the adoption of NFFA 1500 and comparable standards. We owned two engines. There were three sets of turnout gear on each engine. It was first come, first served; and on cold winter nights, six men answered calls properly clad while the others went out and froze.
As a youngster in the department, I risked raising my hand at a business meeting one night and called attention to our inadequate supply of turnout gear. I asked whether it wouldn’t be better if we all w ere supplied with adequate equipment.
You’ve heard thunder. You’ve seen lightning. Perhaps you’ve witnessed a tornado. Or a tanker explosion. Maybe even a BLEVE or two. It all broke loose that night, right in that meeting hall!
I shut my mouth and kept it that way for a whole year. By that time I discovered that our six sets of turnout gear had deteriorated into a foulsmelling, mildewed, rotting mess. Men would pack equipment back into engine compartments still wet and sweaty from a long night’s work. The cuffs and collars on the coats were ripping loose. Boots were rotting through at the folds. Donning the gloves felt like sticking your hands into last week’s stew.
With a couple of years of experience behind me, I got up my courage and mentioned the deterioration, suggesting that if we maintained our own gear it would keep in better shape, the equipment would last longer, and the department would save dollars in the long run. And then I ducked, knowing by now exactly what the response w’ould be.
Another year went by. I raised my hand again, and I pointed out that many of the other firefighters were hunters, ice fishermen, and the like and owned suitable winter clothing for standing around on freezing nights after a fire had cooled down. I pointed out that I owned no such equipment and asked whether they would consider that reason enough to furnish turnout gear. Perhaps a tad embarrassed by my humble plea, the resulting uproar was held to dull mumbling.
Lo and behold, after another year passed, one of the hard-core oldtimers suggested it might be a good idea if we were to get some more turnout gear, w’hat with new state and federal regulations and so forth. The department agreed. A motion was passed, and we did it!
I was both relieved and chagrined. That had been my idea. Why did I hit my head against a wall so hard and get nowhere and then someone else accomplish my goal with just a quiet word? I discovered things become easier when you gain seniority. Veteran change officers probably have a similar story to tell.
Nevertheless, I was satisfied that I had acted as the seedplanter for an important step forward. I considered the acquisition of my first set of turnout gear a personal victory.
FROM SEEDPLANTER TO TRANSPLANTER
My transformation from seedplanter to transplanter came about under moderately violent circumstances. It occurred about three years ago after a time of particular stress for our department that included integrating w’omen into the ranks. Many members blamed me personally for the changes taking place instead of viewing the changes within the context of the changing climate surrounding the department.
A few members were dishing out some pretty caustic treatment. I finally decided, “To hell with this! Might as well be hung for a loaf as for a slice.” And I determined that I would skip the slow process of seedplanting whenever possible. Instead, I planned every necessary change completely, researched the alternatives thoroughly, and most important, whipped my ducks into perfect marching order before every departmental meeting. When the moment came during the meeting, I held up an idea as a fully formed seedling, created a large hole for it, planted it, watered it in the presence of all to behold, and stood back and watched it grow. And voila! If his ducks are marching straight, a change officer soon learns he can make a lot happen in a hurry by transplanting changes instead of seedplanting.
TRANSPLANTING FOR A CELLULAR TELEPHONE
As an example of transplanting an idea, consider the action of a change officer who discovers that his department needs to carry a cellular telephone on a command vehicle. Without the benefit of prior seedplanting, he must present a concise proposal with plenty of supporting arguments against the inevitable objections. For example, he would note that a cellular telephone would do the following:
- Provide backup communications when excess radio traffic chokes the primary channel, as often happens during storm-related emergencies.
- Provide a more secure channel for relaying privileged information, such as a patient’s medical condition or a motorist’s alcohol situation. Privacy is important in small communities where more people listen to emergency channel scanners than to commercial broadcasts.
- Allow firefighters held over at a scene to call home or phone their place of business without having to hunt for a telephone or pass along
- private information through the dispatcher.
- Provide a direct line of communication to outside agencies such as the state fire marshal’s office or CHEMTREC in a haz-mat emergency.
- Provide a direct line of communication with outside resources such as hospital emergency rooms and helicopter ambulance services.
- Allow the dispatcher to contact the command vehicle when the driver fails to turn on the radio or is keying the mike by sitting on it.
Confronted by six good reasons to purchase a cellular telephone, the department agrees. Heated, but disorganized, objections may arise from a small minority, as they often do. But that little seedling of an idea takes root right on the spot! A motion to buy the cellular phone passes that same evening.
What succeeds like success? The keys to transplanting live seedlings and lively ideas are planning, preparation, and organization. A little guts and experience also help
