Strategy and Tactics: A CLARIFICATION
TRAINING
Let’s get the meaning of these often-used words straight—so we’re not tripping over them in the classroom or on the fireground.
DURING A LONG CAREER of fire department supervision and management, I’ve witnessed what can only be described as a neverending bastardization of the terms strategy and tactics. As a fire service instructor at the local, state, and national levels. I’ve read and heard fire service leaders, educators, instructors, and course developers continually interchange these two words. What one person describes as tactics, another describes as strategy. As an educator, I believe that it’s time to stop confusing our students. The two words are not synonyms and therefore are not interchangeable.
It’s obvious that at some point we must use terms as they’re defined in our English language reference books. The systems approach to management is flourishing in the
American fire service and EMS communities. We’re finally coming to grips with the notion that specific terms have specific definitions. We’re attempting throughout the fire and EMS communities to have only one term for each definition required in our fire service vocabulary.
At the National Fire Academy, as part of the incident command system courses, a sequential mental processing system has been taught for a number of years. This system is used to guide the commander and his subordinates through the information gathering, analysis, and decision-making process needed at emergency operations. It’s as follows:
Size-up Size-up
Strategy Strategic Goals
Tactics Tactical Objectives
Methods Tactical Operations
Alan Brunacini, chief of the Phoenix Fire Department and chairman of the NFPA’s board of directors, states in his fireground commander system that there are three levels of operation: strategic level, tactical level, and task level.
There’s little doubt that in both of the above-mentioned systems there’s the intent that strategyand tactics won’t be treated as synonyms. However, I find that many instructors who have the ability to teach one or both of these systems don’t have a handle on how the terms differ in definition and application.
A search through various fire service textbooks for definitions of the terms as applied by our respected authors finds the same confusion and interchange of terms. Most didn’t define the terms, but gave examples that often were contradictor)’.
In order to find the accepted definitions that appear most closely to meet the definitions required by the American fire service, a search through various dictionaries and encyclopedia was undertaken. Those that defined strategy and tactics did so primarily in military terms. Since military operations are very similar to fire department operations in theory, I believe that the references to the military within the definitions are appropriate.
DEFINITIONS
One encyclopedia that addresses the topic is the Academic American Encyclopedia, 1984 Edition. Grolier, Inc. Pertinent excerpts and summations are as follows:
Strategy—“….Broadly stated, strategy is the planning, coordination, and general direction of…operations to meet the overall …objectives.”
STRATEGY AND TACTICS
Tactics—“…to implement strategy by short-term decisions on the movement of troops and employment of weapons on the field of battle.”
Application —During World War II, the Allied forces agreed on the goal of defeating Germany with a direct attack waged on the European continent. They effectively massed their forces in England, deceived Germany regarding the point of invasion, collected intelligence on the distribution of German forces, and determined the invasion points. These were strategic considerations and the setting of strategic goals. Units of the various Allied forces were assigned specific positions and specific objectives to achieve within certain time frames. These were tactical considerations or tactical objectives.
Another encyclopedia that discusses the subject is the Encyclopedia Americana, 1984 Edition, Grolier, Inc. Pertinent excerpts and summations are as follows:
Strategy, Military—General Sir Edward B. Hamley said, “The theatre of war is the province of strategy, the field of battle is the province of tactics.” General von Clausewitz said “Strategy is the art of using battles to win wars.”
Tactics—“…is the art of using troops, weapons, and equipment in combat.” To quote General von Clausewitz, “Tactics is the art of using troops in battle.”
Application—In 1805, Napoleon’s plan to place his forces behind Field Marshal Mack was strategic in nature; his subsequent operations in close contact with the Austrians to force their surrender were tactical.
As for the dictionary definitions, a few’ are as follows:
From the Random House Dictionary Of The English Language, 2nd Edition, 1987, Random House:
In military usage, a dictinction is made between strategy and tactics. Strategy‘ is the “utilization … of… forces … through longrange planning and development to ensure … victory.” Tactics deals with the use and deployment of troops in actual combat.
From The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, New College Edition, American Heritage:
Strategy—“The science or art of military command as applied to overall planning and conduct of large-scale combat operations.”
Tactics—“The technique or science of securing the objectives designated by strategy; specifically, the art of deploying and directing troops, ships, and aircraft in efficient maneuvers against the enemy.”
Application—At the start of the Chancellorsville campaign (1863) of the American Civil War, Major General Joseph Hooker’s strategy outwitted General Robert E. Lee, forcing Lee to fight at a serious disadvantage. However, Hooker’s weak tactics enabled Lee to seize the initiative and gain spectacular victory.
SYNOPSIS
I believe it’s fair to conclude from those definitions that the term tactics most definitely describes the movement, placement, and use of troops (firefighters) and weapons (fire apparatus, tools, and equipment) in a combat (fire or other emergency) situation. Tactics deals specifically with who the human resources are and where they and the equipment are placed, what specific task they should accomplish, and when they accomplish it. In fire service terms, it’s normally the assignment of companies or units to specific incident scene activities in coordination with assignments of other companies or units.
Strategy is broader in scope; it covers the planning and general direction of operations. Strategy’ is determined through analysis of the problems that face the commander. Strategy development is preceded by gathering of information (size-up), analysis of that information, and identification of the problem or problems that must be solved. Strategies become statements of what must be done in broad terms to solve the problem or problems. Strategies are not what specific resources are assigned. This would be too detailed to fit the definition.
SPECIFICS
Let’s try some incident scene examples to focus even more closely on the definitions as they apply to the emergency’ scene.
Size-up and analysis of incident information indicates that a two-story’ dwelling is burning on the first floor. The smoke and heat are extending to the second floor, filling the only staircase. A woman is seen at the second-floor window, obviously unable to exit the dwelling by means of the stairway. What are the strategies?
Given that the priorities for any incident are life safety, incident stabilization, and property conservation, the strategies in order are: search and rescue (rescue the person on the second floor and search the structure for other victims); confinement (confine the fire to the room of origin); extinguishment (extinguish the fire); ventilation (ventilate the dwelling); salvage (do salvage work); and overhaul (effectively overhaul the building).
These are the broad goals that must be achieved for a successful conclusion of the incident based on identification of the problems faced by the incident commander. These are strategies by definition.
What will the tactics be? Remember, tactics is the movement, placement, and use of firefighters and their equipment—the actual assignment of resources to objectives and the coordination of those resources. Tactics for this situation could be as follows:
Truck 1 rescues the person on the second floor and ventilates the building;
Engine 1 protects the interior stairway and confines and extinguishes the fire on the first floor;
Engine 2 assists Engine 1 and begins salvage operations on the first floor.
The incident commander controlled the movement, placement, and use of the firefighters and their equipment. Additionally, he should effect proper coordination and timing of the achievement of the objectives. Given the identified problems and the developed strategies, are the tactics that were employed accomplishing the strategies? If the answer is yes, then this clarification of the terms strategy and tactics is valid.
Here’s another example: The size-up and analysis of incident information indicates that a 100′ by 150′, one-story, ordinary’ (brickand joist-) constructed building is 50 percent involved by fire. The roof has begun to collapse, and fire is threatening an adjacent two-story frame structure. What are the strategies?
Given the same incident priorities as in the other example, the strategies in order are to search and rescue (search the accessible part of the burning structure); exposure protection (protect the exposed building from fire spread); confinement (attempt to confine the fire to the burned area of the fire building); extinguishment (extinguish the fire); salvage (salvage as much property as possible); and overhaul (effectively overhaul the fire building).
STRATEGY AND TACTICS
These are the broad goals that must be achieved for a successful conclusion of the incident based on identification of the problems that the incident commander faces. Again, these are strategies by definition.
What will the tactics be? Tactics for this situation could be expressed this way:
Truck 1 searches and rescues anyone found in the building; Engine l protects the two-story frame structure on the exposure 2 side; Truck 2 sets up a ladderpipe to assist Engine 1; Engine 3 sets up master streams and handlines to operate on the main body of fire from the exposure 1 side; Engine 4 reports to Engine 3; and Engine 5 sets up master streams and handlines to operate on exposure side.
As before, the incident commander controlled the movement, placement, and use of the firefighters and their equipment. Additionally, he should effect proper coordination and timing of the achievement of the tasks. Given the problems identified and the strategies developed, are the tactics employed accomplishing the strategies? Again, if the answer is yes, we can say that this clarification of the terms strategy and tactics is valid.
HOW DO YOU FIT IN?
In the NFA Model Incident Command System, the incident commander is both strategist and tactician, provided he hasn’t delegated the responsibility for assigning companies or units to tactical objectives to another officer. More specifically, as long as the incident commander continues to manage the operations section of the incident, he must be both strategist and tactician.
If the operational units is delegated to an operations chief, the incident commander becomes the strategist and the operations chief becomes the tactician. At this point, the incident commander directs the operations chief to accomplish specific goals at specific times. The operations chief assigns the companies and units to specific tactical objectives and coordinates those efforts. The company and unit commanders assign their personnel to specific tasks within the scope of the tactical objectives assigned by the operations chief. As the tasks are successfullycompleted, the tactical objectives are achieved, and the incident commander’s strategic goals are accomplished.
A continuous size-up must be done to monitor the actions taking place and to determine if the tactical objectives and tasks that were assigned are solving the identified problems. If not, the operations chief must reevaluate the tactical objectives chosen and provide whatever alternative tactical objectives or reinforcements are required. Likewise, the incident commander may find that one or more of the strategic goals can’t be accomplished, and that the strategic emphasis may have to change.
There’s no doubt that strategy and tactics must be defined in a way -JL. that’s valid, easily understood, and can be easily taught. I believe that the presentation here fulfills these requirements. Others may be able to provide another w’ay, but in the end we must have a single definition for each term.
