A STRATEGIC PLANNING MODEL FOR FIRE DEPARTMENTS

Understanding how the organization felt about itself and how it was perceived in the public’s eyes was critical to the strategic planning process.

BY RONALD JON SIARNICKI

Editor’s note: This article is based on an applied research project for the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program.

On January 27, 1998, I became the seventh person to be confirmed as chief of Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department (PGFD) in its 27-year history. (Actually, I was the eighth chief; one of the previous chiefs had served two nonconsecutive terms). I was selected from within the organization, and my appointment was unanimously approved by the County Council.

From the onset of my tenure, I set on a deliberate act of transforming the organization from a state of disarray into a progressive model fire and EMS delivery agency, wanting to place the department on the cutting edge in the delivery of fire/rescue and emergency medical services, as it had once been. Generally, the department’s internal and external customers felt that the department’s core competencies were being met but that the quality level of performance for day-to-day delivery of services had slipped. Many factors contributed to this slippage. The most prevalent were a drastic change in organizational philosophy and a massive number of monetary reductions caused by a seven-year economic downturn in the county’s fiscal status.¹

My vision included a business-like approach to operating and managing the department and the developing of a strategic planning process that would stabilize the organization. The objectives were to “make the process reflect the department as it is now, make the process value-driven, establish clear and obtainable milestones, and make the results inescapable for everyone in the organization.”² They were to be accomplished by asking this one key question every time a decision concerning the department was to be made: “Is the decision to be made the best possible solution for promoting the good of the citizens whom we have sworn ourselves to serve and protect?”³

The strategic planning process and resulting action plan took a little under a year to complete and, ultimately, was approved by the county executive. There was a three-year time frame for implementation.

DEPARTMENTAL BACKGROUND
The strategic planning process for the PGFD actually had begun before I assumed the position of chief; I had served as the acting fire chief for three months before my appointment. A department rebuilding process began during those three months, necessitated by massive budget cuts and reductions in force the department had experienced over the preceding eight years. In the early 1990s, the agency was forced to reduce its overall staff by nearly 25 percent, and the fire department experienced cuts in all of its ranks.⁴

MEETINGS WITH FORMAL AND INFORMAL LEADERS
I met with every formal and informal leader to discuss issues they considered important. Then, I met with all the groups and organizations that constituted the external customers of the fire/EMS department. This provided a wealth of information that was used to assess the organization internally and externally. This process revealed how the organization felt about itself and how it was perceived in the public’s eyes-critical information in strategic planning because it is intended, in the process of change, that these perceptions be transformed into a positive endowment.⁵

I took more than 75 pages of notes during this first step of the process. This information provided benchmarking criteria to evaluate whether the strategic plan ultimately adopted addressed the organization’s objectives and the customers’ needs.

MEETINGS WITH ELECTED GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
I then met formally and informally with the chief elected officials of the jurisdiction to ensure that the officials’ objectives for the department and the public safety agencies as a whole were incorporated into the process discussions.

Unless the top government officials who set government policy support the organizational members’ plan, it is doomed to fail.⁶ Government leaders’ rejection of the finished product or, even more devastating, their refusal to fund the plan, would be a sign of failure. The outcome of these meetings was kept confidential as a sign of loyalty to the government administration and, of course, my boss.

I used the issues raised in these discussions as additional organizational benchmarks for the strategic planning process, ensuring that the plan the organization was laying out was in alignment with current governmental policy. It was critical that the plan fit into the policy-making mindset of the jurisdictional government, including its current political and administrative agendas, which have a tendency to change midstream.

TEAM BUILDING
The next step was to ensure that the fire department management team, made up of senior command staff within the organization, fully understood and was aligned with the strategic planning process and the direction in which the department was going. Any new chief fire officer must engage in a team-building process. In the context of the PGFD plan, however, the team-building process was easy in that all of the key senior staff members were long-standing employees of the agency and supported me as chief. Their support saved some two months of preparation work that would have been needed to open internal lines of communications within the agency.

SELECTING A FACILITATOR
A critical decision made early in the planning process was the selection of a plan facilitator-an individual who would participate in the team-building procedures with the command staff, help integrate them into the planning process, and serve as the primary facilitator for all public sessions held in conjunction with plan development. The facilitator may be from inside or outside the department⁷ and must possess good people skills that will serve in leading group discussions, keeping the project on track, bringing the group back together, and pointing it in the right direction should the group stray from the desired pathways.⁸

I chose as facilitator a civilian employee who had been laid off by the organization approximately a year before and now owned and operated a successful fire/EMS management consulting company. She had a master’s degree in education and was well versed in many of the departmental issues, having served in the agency for well over eight years. She was given a one-year contract. She organized and packaged all the information gathered during the process, and the PGFD model was developed into a work plan that formed the basis for the remainder of the planning process.

THE WORK PLAN
The work plan established the following agenda:

• Conduct a values scan of the fire/EMS department.
• Formulate and adopt mission and vision statements.
• Select a business modeling plan.
• Conduct a performance audit of staff and absent stakeholders.
• Conduct a gap audit (of resources and ideas).
• Conduct detailed planning as a decentralized activity.
• Conduct contingency planning, including conflict resolution.
• Identify implementation, feedback, and critical success outcomes.

DEVELOPING THE PLAN
At this point in the planning process, a cross-sectional representation of the agency was brought together to begin developing the actual plan. An open invitation was extended to anyone within the organization who wished to participate in the process. The agency’s known informal and formal leaders received personal invitations. Seventy-eight individuals, from all facets of the organization, committed to be directly involved in laying out the three-year plan. Each work site and functional area was represented by sworn civilian and volunteer members.

The first gathering of this group was a two-day session held in a county building auditorium. Throughout the process, It was stressed that the department did not belong to any one person but that everyone was a stakeholder in the organization. To ensure inclusion and acceptance of the final product, all parties involved had to be open to the proposed changes-an attitude contrary to the management styles of some fire and rescue organizations.⁹ However, innovative thinking is necessary if service delivery organizations are to survive the daily trials and tribulations occurring in their agencies. Survivability is measured by an organization’s ability to adapt to its changing environment and to know when to invoke necessary change.¹⁰

During the first two sessions, the project facilitator guided the group through a specific team-building and issues-identification process. Session attendees were allowed to openly vent their frustrations with the organization while remaining focused on the organization members’ desired needs and wants. This gave agency members an opportunity to voice their opinions concerning many of the real issues affecting the department.

The issues coming from this session were documented for later reference and use; the names of the individuals who presented them were not recorded so that no one would feel threatened or intimidated. Open and honest dialogue is needed to develop an accurate list of issues to be addressed by the plan. (7)

Once the issue-identification exercise was completed, the group moved on to identifying the organization’s proposed current mission. This included laying out the organization’s vision as seen by the individual members so that the group and the agency as a whole could understand the organization’s role and the objectives for delivering service to internal and external customers.

MISSION AND VISION STATEMENTS
The group developed the following as its new mission and new vision statements. (2)

Mission: To improve the quality of life in Prince George’s County by promoting safety and delivering the highest possible level of protection for lives and property.

Vision: To be an organization that effectively and reliably provides for the safety of our community:

• Responsive to the needs of our citizens.
• Providing professional care.
• Operating in a responsible and cost-effective manner.
• Ensuring a safe, healthy, and supportive work environment for all of our employees.

CORE COMPETENCIES
The following core competencies (the major services an organization performs¹¹) were established:

• Emergency response-EMS, fire suppression, and all hazards response.
• Emergency preparedness-natural and man-made disasters.
• Risk management-fire prevention, hazards risk mitigation, public education, and community links.
• Law enforcement-code enforcement and fire cause determination.
• Organizational capabilities-management of the public and business administration.

DISCUSSIONS ON AGENCY’S VITAL FUNCTIONS
Group sessions three and four were dedicated to fostering members’ understanding of the vital functions the department had to perform to meet the objectives in the mission and vision statements. The focus was on identifying what needed to be fixed, changed, or improved in the department. The group then developed goals for invoking the actions needed to correct the problems identified.

While this was occurring, the facilitator extracted a list of the functions each attendee proposed as necessary for fulfilling the department’s mission and core competencies. These functions were later formulated into action steps specific to the agency’s goals.

Formulation of the department’s strategic plan goals and the actions necessary to obtain them was completed at a later meeting.

PGFD GOALS
The PGFD established the following 25 goals:

1. Expand advanced life support delivery.
2. Introduce emergency response technicians as cross-trained firefighters and paramedics.
3. Improve the quality of basic life support care.
4. Ensure that suppression activities meet or exceed all national voluntary standards.
5. Evaluate existing response policies, and develop changes to implement consistent objectives.
6. Develop a resource deployment and staffing plan.
7. Staff all authorized career positions.
8. Increase volunteer recruitment and retention.
9. Develop and implement a comprehensive training program.
10. Improve the communications system.
11. Establish a departmental operations center.
12. Provide a safe and healthful work environment.
13. Reduce accidents and injuries through commitment to safety in all operations and activities.
14. Implement a wellness and fitness program.
15. Improve our level of preparedness for terrorism attack.
16. Expand the Special Events unit.
17. Expand public education and awareness: community obligation.
18. Increase public education and awareness: building new links with the community.
19. Develop professional alliances for staff.
20. Develop improved decision-making and implementation processes.
21. Improve data collection, analysis, and departmental automation.
22. Develop a business plan to enhance revenues and create new opportunities.
23. Establish benchmarks for organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
24. Leverage and purchase technology.
25. Prepare for fire/EMS department accreditation.

RESTORED COHESIVENESS AND COMMUNICATIONS
Another objective realized through these group meetings was the restoration of interpersonal communications among organizational members. The budget cuts and losses that had occurred within the department over the past several years had splintered the organization and hampered communications among all agency components.

The planning process also exposed team members to different ways of thinking and helped them to realize that their point of view was not the only one that could be used to address the department’s vital issues and concerns. This understanding brought the organization back together as a functional unit of management, planning, and control.

DATA STORAGE AND USE
Throughout each of the steps in this process, accurate record keeping and documentation of discussion issues were maintained so the information could later be used in presentations to civic and other community groups and in budgetary discussions. The information was incorporated into a data file, to facilitate its easy transformation into a recoverable format for the individuals involved in writing the plan. The format would also make it easy for the facilitator to group like concerns and issues into a framework that would serve as the document’s foundation (outline). A core group of individuals who had been active in the entire planning process ensured that no key points were missed. Ensuring that the goals were realistic and attainable and could be attributed to the entire strategic planning process model was not easy; the senior command staff needed to provide a great deal of oversight and direction.

The data obtained from my interviews with customers, the senior command staff, and county government administrators, after some refining, were inserted into the organizational plan. This original data served as the road map for the process and also as a means of ensuring that benchmarking would be completed along the way.

THE PLAN FORMAT
A rough draft of the plan was completed and circulated among the command staff and several of the session attendees to ensure that it addressed those issues participating members had identified as needing change. This review process took about three weeks because of the personal schedules of the individuals involved and the actions needed to disseminate the information throughout such a large organization.

All of these activities eventually led to the creation of a final draft document that, in essence, became the comprehensive strategic plan. I reviewed the document one more time; it was my last chance to ensure that it met its anticipated objectives. After the review, which took about two weeks, the draft document was forwarded to the plan facilitator for minor corrections and final formatting, which included adding descriptive graphics and other computer-generated images supporting the text.

The County administration approved the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department Plan in early 1999. The department immediately began to implement the plan’s recommendations.

GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING A STRATEGIC PLAN
The following guidelines will help ensure that the plan your organization adopts will improve your organization, enhance its service delivery approach, and be flexible enough so your agency can incorporate changes as needed.

• Involve key governmental leaders early in the strategic planning process to ensure that their views of the organization’s mission and vision are incorporated in the self-assessment process.
• Give senior organizational staff members and administrators the opportunity to buy into the process. They are the individuals who will be selling the plan to the other members of the agency and implementing it after it is adopted.
• Include all formal and informal leaders in the review process to reduce any negative impact after the document becomes public.
• Have a professional facilitator run the strategic planning process to ensure that the project will not get derailed and that there is accurate record keeping throughout the process.
• Use every step of the process as an opportunity to team build within the organization’s framework and boundaries. This will ensure cooperation in the department and enhance the project’s success.
• Create a written action plan containing all of the issues that participants in the self-assessment have identified as needing addressing. The plan will form the road map the organization is to follow if the goals and objectives laid out in the planning process are to be realized.
• To help readers understand the final plan, include an introductory section that explains the basic reasoning used to create the plan and the process by which it was justified. This will give the reader a clear, concise view of the agency while showing the plan’s relative worth and the potential impact it can and should have on the department.

As is true of any document, it should be written in easy-to-understand language and should be proofread so that it reflects professionalism.¹²

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Author’s note: The research project on which this article is based is directly relevant and related to the Strategic Management of Change Course (SMOC) offered through the National Fire Academy. SMOC addresses the systematic approach to change within the confines of an organizational structure and the need for a well-planned process for instituting adaptations of the change methodology. The Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department used an organized approach to create a new way of assessing itself and delivering vital life-saving services.

Endnotes

1. “Annual Operating Expense Budget,” Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department, Largo, Md., 1998.
2. “Strategic Plan,” Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department, 1999, 5.
3. Ibid., 6.
4. Annual Operating Expense Budget, PGCF, 1998.
5. Goldstein, L. D., J. W. Pfeiffer, & T. Nolan. Applied Strategic Planning: A Revised Model for Organizational Growth and Vitality. (New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1991).
6. Klingner, D. E. & J. Nalbandian, Public Personnel Management; Contexts and Strategies. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1985).
7. Meredith, J. R. & S. J. Mantel, Jr. Project Management., 3rd ed. (New York, N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995).
8. Cascio, W. F. Managing Human Resources, 4th ed. (New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1995).
9. Strategic Management of Change, Executive Fire Officer Program, National Fire Academy. (Emmitsburg, Md.: United States Fire Administration, 1998).
10. Hamel, G., & C.K. Prahalad. Competing for the Future. (Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, 1994).
11. Burgelman, R.A., M. A. Maidique, & S. C. Wheelwright. Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, 2nd ed. (Chicago, Ill.: Irwin, 1996).
12. Guide to Writing and Research, University of Maryland, College Park, Md., Summer 1995.

Additional References

• Certo, S. C. Principles of Modern Management, 3rd ed. (Dubuque, Ia: William C. Brown Publishers, 1986).
• Mathis, R. L. & J. H. Jackson. Personnel, Human Resource Management, 4th ed. (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Company, 1985).
• Millett, S. M. & E. J. Honton. A Manager’s Guide to Technology Forecasting and Strategy Analysis. (Columbus, Oh.: Battelle Press, 1991).
• Schermerhorn, J. R. Jr., J. G. Hunt, & J. G. Osborn. Managing Organizational Behavior, 5th ed. (New York, N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994).
• Spechler, J. W., Ph.D., P.E. Managing Quality in America’s Most Admired Companies. (San Francisco, Ca.: Berrett-Hoehler Publishers, 1993).

Articles, Documents

• “Economic Development Report,” Prince George’s County Government, Largo, Md., 1998.
• “Government Performance and Results Act of 1993,” United States Government, Washington, D.C.
• Graduate School of Management & Technology Curriculum, University of Maryland University College, College Park, Spring 1999.

RONALD JON SIARNICKI, executive director of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, retired in July 2001 as chief of the Prince George’s County (MD) Fire/EMS Department. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science management from the University of Maryland, University College (UMUC), College Park, and a master’s degree from the UMUC School of Management and Technology. He is a certified Fire Officer IV, Fire Service Instructor Level III, Fire Fighter III, and State Emergency Medical Technician. He has served as a UMUC faculty member for the fire science curriculum since 1997.