BY MARK WALLACE, MPA, EFO, CFOD
Many fire departments have “SILLy” rules. They were usually adopted after someone did something dumb. This made the chief mad, and he wrote out a new rule to prohibit everyone from doing it again. It doesn’t matter that it was an isolated, unusual incident. But as long as we employ humans to be firefighters, we will occasionally have some dumb stuff happen. As a fire chief, I wish it wasn’t so. As a realist, I know that even the best of intentions will sometimes result in something happening that can only be described as silly.
Make no mistake about it. I strongly believe that we have great people in the fire service. Every fire department goes to great lengths to hire the best personnel. But we all have human frailties. There isn’t one of us who can truthfully say that we have never looked back at one of our actions or behaviors and wondered why we thought it a good idea at the time to do what we did. Our 20/20 hindsight then showed us that our behavior in this one particular instance was dumb, stupid, or just plain silly.
I’ve noticed that it is relatively easy to make new rules or policies. We just write them down right after someone does something stupid. All too often, we think that because we make a rule, it will never happen again. Once the rule is “in the book,” it seems to stay there forever. There can be many reasons for this, but mostly we decide that if we needed the rule once, we’ll probably need it again. Also by having a rule in the book, those of us responsible for the actions of the people are then insulated from the consequences of their future silly behavior. Choosing to be safe rather than sorry, the silly rule prohibiting anyone from doing the same dumb thing again just stays with the organization. It’s a great excuse but seldom justified.
Some rules that have been with an organization for a long time may have had a good reason originally but stay in place long after the circumstances change. For example, a fire department I know of (and which will remain anonymous) used to clean the apparatus bays every day at 4 p.m. I asked why. The initial response was, “I don’t know, but we’ve always done it that way.” After some historical research and asking an elderly retired member about it, we learned that the department did this because it was the time the horse stalls were cleaned out each day when the department’s horse-drawn steamer was the first-due apparatus for the city. After realizing this was the reason, the department changed its daily work schedule so that it is based on the needs of today rather than the fog of the past.
“THE BOOK”
It doesn’t matter what your department calls its “book.” Maybe it’s your Policy Manual or your Rules and Regulations or the standard operating procedures (SOPs). I think of the book as simply the department’s manual of operations. I like to think of all the stuff in “The Department Manual” as directives. There are several types of directives. I break them down this way.
First there are “rules” or standard department rules (SDRs). Rules are those things the department must follow because of some legislative requirement, statute, ordinance, law, or binding regulation-we must follow the rules, or we are violating the law. Some departments call everything they require personnel to do a “rule.”
The second type of directive is a policy. Policies or SOPs are made by the governing body or the department and require personnel to comply with something the organization believes to be mandatory. Fire department members simply must follow the policies of the organization because the organization has decided that it is required. Some departments call everything in their book a “policy.”
Next are the procedures or standard department procedures (SDP). Procedures explain how to complete recurrent tasks, such as an incident report or an EMS patient encounter form or a supply requisition. Procedures must be followed because that’s just the way the task is completed. There is little judgment required, and choices are usually limited to the selection of data from a drop-down menu or table. Often, procedures explain how to complete the blanks of a form. Flowcharts and checklists are other procedure-based documents common in many departments.
The last type of directive is the “guideline” or standard operating guideline (SOG). Most of the items in “the book” should be guidelines. Guidelines provide the best-known method to accomplish a particular task or reach a desired outcome. We believe this to be true usually because that is how we have succeeded at the task before. Personnel should follow the guidelines; if they do, the outcomes achieved will normally be the outcomes desired.
An important challenge with a system of guidelines is to constantly strive to find the best way to do something. “If we always do what we have always done, we will always get what we have always gotten” is the theory of this system. This is fine if our previous results have been to create great outcomes. If not, we have to keep working at a process of continuous improvement. Personnel must be encouraged to take reasonable risks when looking for better outcomes or to get the same outcome with less effort or resources. The focus must be on the outcome achieved instead of the process the members of the organization follow.
When a guideline is not followed, it is the responsibility of that person taking another approach to achieve as good or better outcomes to the task. The variance and its results should be examined thoughtfully. When the outcome is really improved, the challenge then is to recreate the improved outcome consistently using the newly discovered best-known practice. Working to find a better way to operate my fire department organization led me to the concepts I call “creating value-driven organizations.”
VALUE-DRIVEN VS. RULE-DRIVEN FIRE DEPARTMENTS
There are several ways to make qualitative distinctions between fire departments. One distinction is whether a department is considered rule-driven or value-driven. These are different management styles whose philosophies are at the opposite ends of the range of possibilities.
No department is strictly a value-driven organization because all fire departments must follow some rules. At the same time, no fire department is completely a rule-driven organization that is not affected by its values, but most traditional fire departments are more rule-driven than value-driven.
An extensive standard operating procedure manual (SOPs) identifies these departments. Nearly every conceivable procedure or policy is documented in minute detail so that there can be no confusion about the expected behaviors and required procedures. The rule manual is usually several inches thick and often consists of several volumes. It’s very common that members of the department can identify who “caused” the rule to be adopted.
Rule-driven organizations tend to limit choices in favor of organizational consistency. Innovation and creativity are usually limited by the rules established, but if the department has a good set of rules that are followed by the personnel of the organization, it will be a good department.
Value-driven departments, including the McKinney (TX) Fire Department, have taken a different approach to providing its services. They are progressive departments that base their operations around a set of core values. These values are a fundamental part of the department’s system of operation.
Their primary concern is whether the outcome of all they do is considered a success and whether the actions taken or decisions made were consistent with the values of the department. They focus on providing excellent customer service to meet the needs of the community and constantly strive to find better ways to do their jobs.
McKINNEY’s “SPIRIT”
In McKinney, the program is called SPIRIT. We use SPIRIT, its core values, and its three-part decision-making/performance evaluation philosophy of (1) doing the right thing, (2) doing your best, and (3) treating people the way you would like to be treated as the foundation of our value-driven organization. SPIRIT is the acronym for its six core values:
• Community Service,
• Producing Quality Results,
• Personal Integrity,
• Responsible Action,
• Innovation and Problem Solving, and
• Teamwork.
SPIRIT is the focus of all aspects of the organization from hiring to performance appraisal to its approach to service delivery to discipline. This value-driven system bases its decisions on these values first and foremost but still has the rules and regulations required by law. Its members are encouraged to make innovative and creative decisions. They are encouraged to take reasonable risks and to make decisions that use their common sense under the specific circumstances. Flexibility is greatly increased. We strive to use the individual knowledge, skills, and abilities of our members to the greatest extent possible. Personnel are encouraged to use their heads and their hearts to do the right thing to the best of their abilities. The result is an overall focus on how to perform in an excellent manner instead of how to meet the minimum standards set forth in the book.
The focus of a value-based system is on outcome, not a process. Although the SOGs may provide suggested procedures, the department recognizes that every situation has a certain degree of uniqueness and encourages its personnel to use their creativity and innovative ideas to the best advantage of the organization to achieve high-quality outcomes under the conditions they face.
Value-driven departments recognize that there are many possible paths to reach the same outcome. Some may be better than others. Some may have been previously tried and proven effective. Others may be new approaches that achieve the same or improved outcomes than have been obtained from the past actions during similar incidents. The innovations and creativity of the members of the department are valued, implemented, and celebrated. Successes are studied extensively to determine how to replicate the desired outcomes and the achievement of excellence. If the improvements achieved can be consistently better, they are adopted as the new best practice or guideline.
When an organization trusts its members to obtain the best possible outcomes while not compromising its values, the need for extensive rules, policies, and procedures is drastically reduced. The members of the organization become more innovative and creative. The members given the authority to be flexible and get the job done in an excellent manner will commit their discretionary work efforts for the good of the organization. They soon feel that they have the power to make a real difference in the outcome of the tasks they perform and the service they deliver. They develop increased pride of ownership in their work effort. As a consequence, the quality of their effort improves and the effectiveness of their outcomes increases. Their outcomes are soon viewed as excellent because that has become the focus of their performance. And the snowball of excellence begins to grow and grow as the organization rolls along.
A key feature of a value-driven organization is a fundamental trust in the members of the fire department to do their best to achieve excellent outcomes in all that they do. These organizations know that if their members (1) do the right thing, (2) do their best, and (3) treat people the way they would like to be treated, the organization can ask no more of them. If they follow these three philosophies, silly stuff just doesn’t happen.
Even value-driven organizations need some rules, policies, and procedures. They must have those rules, policies, and procedures required by law or their city council or board of directors. The policies adopted in value-driven organizations involve issues of timeless conduct and behavior, such as “don’t drink,” “don’t fight,” “don’t steal,” “don’t do drugs,” and “don’t be mean,” for example. The rules and policies are as few and as simple as possible. They apply to everyone-all of the time. They are also strictly enforced.
If an organization commits itself to being a value-driven organization, then it should strive to eliminate the obsolete, unenforced, and silly rules. It should set its personnel free so they can achieve the desired outcomes even if it means variances in process. These organizations don’t change rules by breaking them, and they enforce the rules they have.
The “fun” begins when a department that was once a rule-driven organization decides to become a value-driven one. It takes time and commitment. It takes trust that your personnel will adhere to the value system and operate according to your philosophy of operations. As a department transitions from the rule-driven end toward the value-driven end of the range of operating philosophies, it will normally find some silly rules that have been in the book for years.
All fire departments should review their book of policies, rules, regulations, procedures, and guidelines on a regular basis. I’ve found that many departments have not done this in years. It becomes very empowering within a value-driven fire department and helps to prove that you trust the good judgment of your personnel by making your bottom line of performance to
1. Do the right thing,
2. Do your best, and
3. Treat people the way you would like to be treated.
You prove your commitment to this concept by finding and eliminating the silly rules your department has had on the books because someone long ago messed up and the chief made a new rule.
When you begin removing silly rules from your department manual, do it with flair and ceremony. Have a shredding ceremony. Put on your “Class As.” Bring your staff together and stand at attention while the chief’s copy of the silly rule is removed from his manual and ceremoniously jammed into the shredder. Get a small, portable shredder from the local office supply store and go around to all of the stations on each shift and do the same thing with the battalion chief’s or captain’s copy of the rule. Then let each member do the same thing with his copy.
At the same time, remember to distribute a new copy of the table of contents that has deleted the now removed rule or policy. This is a good time to make a distinction between the types of rules in your book, if you haven’t done that before. Standard department rules should be a reference to a law, statute, or formal mandate on the organization. Policies are those things the organization decides to require. So, eliminating the silly rules of the department is really about eliminating as many of the unneeded policies as possible.
I suggest that you hold a contest to find those things that can be eliminated from the book. It shouldn’t be good enough to simply suggest that a directive be eliminated. Require the proposal to explain why it is no longer needed and how the department will handle the situation covered by that policy in the future. Form a policy committee to review the department manual and evaluate the recommended eliminations and changes. Then, recommend to the chief that formal action be taken. Don’t forget that some things in the book are legal requirements or policies of the city that cannot be eliminated without higher approval. Even if that’s the case, make the recommendation and justification for the proposed change.
Each time the removal of a directive is completed, hold a ceremony and reinforce the department’s values and philosophy of operations. Continually hold each member to the standards you set. If the members of a department do their best, do the right thing, and treat people the way they would like to be treated 100 percent of the time, you can ask no more. When they do have some silly behavior, the correction and retraining should be easier because the expectations have been made clear. When you get your personnel to focus on how to achieve excellence instead of on the minimum performance required to follow the letter of the rules, the need, as well as the temptation, to add more silly rules will be eliminated. ■
■ MARK WALLACE, MPA, EFO, CFOD, a 36-year veteran of the fire service, is chief of the McKinney (TX) Fire Department and author of Fire Department Strategic Planning: Creating Future Excellence (Fire Engineering, 1998). He is a frequent speaker, trainer, and consultant on organizational effectiveness and has lectured throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. He has written numerous articles for fire service publications.
