Data-Driven Decision Making for the Fire Service

BY JUSTIN POWERS

In the fire service, decisions are constantly made by the fire academy cadets up to the chief of department. At times, they are significant; if mismanaged, drastic consequences can result. One way to achieve confident, successful decision making in the fire service is to collect and analyze data that will help guide the individuals in the right direction.

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Nobody wants to make the wrong decision. This is only magnified when a leader faces a decision affecting his livelihood and the livelihoods of those he leads. We must rely on our experience, intuition, and knowledge to make the correct decision. Although there are many methods that teach how to achieve this, nothing is guaranteed. Making a decision is often complex and scary; it is easier if individuals are armed with the right tools and information.

Data and Decision Making

Many organizations grasp the importance of using data in their decision making and have increased their confidence to allow them to decide and assertively make decisions comfortably. Confidence is powerful; with it, an organization or individual can ignore the self-doubt or negativity that naturally exists around decision making. However, overconfidence is disastrous; it has led to fire service injuries and deaths. This complacency can lead individuals down the wrong path of decision making.

How can fire service members confidently make decisions while avoiding complacency? They must use the tools that are around them. Data collection and analysis can help firefighters just as much as a self-contained breathing apparatus or a halligan can at a fire. What is essential is often invisible to the eye. For the fire service to grow in the 21st century, members must understand and appreciate the power of data as a decision-making tool.

Getting Started

The first step in implementing data-driven decision making is to collect the data, which can be collected from any emergency response. The challenge is to figure out what data would be helpful to future decisions.

Another enormous fire service challenge is that completing reports is an additional duty, not a primary duty. The importance of completing reports fully and correctly must be taught as basic firefighter knowledge, and all firefighters should learn this duty at the academy. Writing accurate, complete incident reports is the foundation of collecting useful emergency scene information to use in future operations to ensure efficiency and safety. Written reports must be mandatory for every incident; leadership should also highlight accurate report writing to ensure clean and precise data.

Complete, Accurate Data

All organizations must address and correct the issue of insufficient, inaccurate data. Poor decision making results from insufficient, inaccurate data—”garbage in, garbage out.” If a fire department wants to develop a data-driven decision-making culture, it must build a data collection foundation through accurate and timely reporting.

Analysis

Once collected, the data is analyzed for information that can be used in everyday decision making. For example, by pulling data from a department’s computer-aided dispatch, the leadership can see multiple indicators such as busy service areas, the busiest company, the busiest hour of the day, and the busiest day of the week. With the ability to extract this information, the department has a better chance at staging the proper tools for the areas that need it the most.

Good data analysis is as critical as good data collection. Incorrect analysis will result in inaccurate information, leading to poor decision making, resulting in operational inefficiencies and possibly tragedies. Within the past decade, the use of data analytics has grown in the fire service. Now, literature is available that can benefit any fire department seeking to establish a field data analysis program to turn complicated information into a helpful tool for making decisions. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Fire Data Analysis Handbook provides basic techniques for turning data into useful information. Additionally, several computer programs are available to aid in data analysis and statistics to make it easier to accomplish and understand.

Applying the Data

After successfully developing and implementing a data analysis program, fire departments can leverage the information gained through this process to make smart, strategic decisions to foster continuous improvement while confidently eliminating waste from within their operations. For example, departments can focus their efforts on improving response times. As we all know, response times are a vital part of providing the best service possible, but how many departments measure their response to ensure they are meeting the standards? In collecting good data, departments can measure their current response times and develop new strategies on how and where to improve them to provide their community with even better service.

Fire departments are not-for-profit organizations whose primary goal is to serve their community’s residents to their utmost. Public service department budgets are often tight. Fire departments often have to find areas to save money to operate while being good stewards of their community; this complicated task becomes more manageable with data-driven decision making.

For example, fire departments that provide fire suppression and emergency medical services (EMS) should examine data to determine the workload for each role to plan future needs successfully. On average, most calls will overwhelmingly be EMS calls. By collecting and analyzing data, fire departments can determine what mission requires more resources and plan to ensure that the community’s needs are being met. At times, the equipment staging and proper position staffing can be complex. Still, with this data collected, the leadership can adequately answer these questions confidently and align resources and funding to ensure that these emergency calls are appropriately responded to.

Preparing for the Future

Data-driven decision making not only gives fire departments confidence in making a decision that will support their strategic plan, but it allows them to predict future requirements, which can change and be difficult to anticipate, depending on the size of the community served. Private companies seek this advantage when implementing data-driven decision making; their ultimate goal is to gain a leg up on their competition. Since the fire service is a not-for-profit organization, its motivation is to provide the best service to the community. It can accomplish this by collecting data correctly, analyzing it, and presenting it as understandable information to its leaders and field crews.

When organized and explained clearly, information is powerful. When this is accomplished, the fire department can use it as the foundation for strategic decisions and to justify its existence. Make some of the data available to the public the department serves for transparency and accountability. Some fire departments oppose this, but it is imperative to show the public how the fire department’s operations compare to fire service standards.

Continuous growth should be every fire department’s goal, not merely the department’s size but its efficiencies. Continuous improvement means always striving to become better. The organization accomplishes this by examining areas in which it can improve and areas in which to reduce the amount of waste, using clean, accurate data to maximize the effort.

Continuous growth has occurred throughout fire service history. Motorized pumpers replaced horse-drawn steamers. While this change was taking place, some were skeptical, and others never bought into the idea. Still, the change stuck, and the departments committed to changing with the times and evolving into bigger and better organizations. It’s still true; those who adapt and overcome will survive.

Benefits of Data-Driven Decision Making

For individuals to successfully navigate this complicated world, they must have some plan or strategy, and the stronger the project, the better the chance of success. Organizations, like individuals, have the same stresses and responsibilities to meet. For example, to meet customers’ requirements, they must produce a product quickly but also take care of their members, as parents take care of their children. Therefore, many organizations investigate ways to increase their production efficiency to give them a better chance to succeed. The foundation for this change is the confident strategic plans that are created with data analytics.

Lean Six Sigma

Another method that complements data-driven decision making is the management style Lean Six Sigma. Lean Six Sigma, developed among car manufacturers, is a mindset focusing on eliminating waste and producing quality products promptly. The fire service must strive to eliminate wasted effort among the firefighters to avoid burnout and injuries while quickly providing the highest quality of customer service. For Lean Six Sigma to work, data must be properly collected and analyzed to find the fire service areas to focus on. The fire service is desperate to adjust to the current environment, which has changed drastically with COVID-19. Many elements of society that we once found average will never be the same even after the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. An essential factor in any business is the ability to adjust with the times because nothing ever stays the same. As the years pass, the organization must adapt, or it will not be able to survive. The fire service is not strong on change; some get defensive when new methods are suggested. Lean Six Sigma’s secret is continuous improvement; this simple term can lead to many business and personal successes. If the organization wants to succeed, it must accept that success is not owned but rented, and the rent is due every day. To become better, individuals and organizations must work to become more fluid and efficient and seek improvement.

Data can be an extremely useful tool for any organization, no matter the size. It enables organizations to see what is otherwise invisible rather than speculate and form opinions around the kitchen table. However, data is only as good as its user. If an organization implements data analysis programs but chooses not to invest in good data collection tools, the data will be skewed and useless. Poor collection methods mean inaccurate data, but this is also affected by members who choose not to buy into an analytical mindset. The fire service includes members with eventful and long careers full of experience and wisdom accumulated over time.

Although I am in favor of data utilization when facing tough fire service decisions, I also respect the expertise of fire service veterans. That knowledge is just as crucial to the department’s success. When data is married with personal experiences, the organization will succeed and have more and better opportunities for success in the future. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a German philosopher, said, “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”

JUSTIN POWERS is an analyst with the Office of the Fire Chief for the Kansas City (MO) Fire Department. His primary responsibility is developing a culture of data-driven decision making to allow efficiency and quality decision making for its executive leadership.