INFLUENCING CHANGE WITH A NEW CULTURE
BY F. C. (FRED) WINDISCH
Many volunteer/combination fire and rescue service agencies begin the new year with a new fire chief, station chief, or other senior staff officers. In many cases, the “change” is the result of retirement, relocation, or the members` desire to make a difference.
This article reviews several concepts that can improve management after a change of leadership.
WHY ASK WHY?
Change should not be made for the sake of change–but for the sake of improvement. The easiest way to commit to change is to continually ask the question, Why? For example, why does the membership “vote” on admitting new members into the organization? Shouldn`t there be an application process that screens, an interview that identifies “why” prospective members want to join, and (possibly) a mentor program that involves a current member? Shouldn`t we allow new members to prove themselves under conditions that promote commitment and dedication via the orientation and recruit-training process?
There is nothing improper about resurfacing the “W” word on a regular basis for routine policies or procedures, but we also must remember that some bridges have been crossed many times. We must balance with a value-added attitude that addresses improvement–not just changing for the sake of change. Maybe we can brainstorm and identify some potential failure points to allow for a productive change process.
QUALITY
A quality-improvement process utilizes such concepts as “continual improvement,” “customers,” “do it right the first time,” “planning,” “error cause removal” (discussed below), and other actions that create a system of great service to our public. We must remember that quality is defined as “meeting defined requirements.” We must be focused on continual improvement and our internal and external customers.
Continual improvement? Customers? Process and program? Who are our customers? Our members, our boards of directors, our officers, our families, and any others who may be in the process of EFFECTING our products are our internal customers. They are the folks who make things happen, and they maintain a “corporate culture” that sets the stage for the quality of work we produce.
Do we get “lost” responding to an emergency and then joke about the driver? Or do we have a process in place to initiate corrective actions and a plan for error cause removals? Most problems encountered most likely stem from multiple “causations.” Let`s look at the individual who may not quite know the proper route to the fire. We could easily place blame on the person, but in reality we probably do not have a communication/training process that addresses driver responsibilities, officer seat responsibilities, sufficient dispatch information, or up-to-date (even existent) map systems. This is an example of deep root cause analysis that has identified multiple issues. Support the above causations with a lack of training on proper map-reading techniques and generic knowledge transfer of the district, and you can easily recognize multiple causes of the error. Using an up-front approach of not placing blame and performing objective determination of error causation can eliminate mistakes without getting personal.
Think about the words process and program. A program has a beginning and an end; a process is a continual action or activity. I know our training process continually is adjusted to meet the needs of our members, our internal customers who provide our services to our community. Do we spend an inordinate amount of time teaching ladder-pipe operations when the vast majority of our fires are room and contents? Develop an attitude of eliminating “programs” and thinking in terms of processes.
External customers are the people who receive our products (services). Have you ever placed yourself in the position of a homeowner who is very distraught due to the “pan-on-the-stove” fire? There is smoke, there is stench, the cabinets are ruined, and here comes a bunch of dolts with mud on their boots and coattails knocking pictures off the end tables. These same “high-performance members” are also standing around joking and generally implying they really don`t care (yes, we know they do care because they are there). What is this homeowner thinking right now? Our customers develop perceptions based on attitudes of “employees” and their actions.
I challenge you to create a questionnaire and provide it to some of your external customers. Ask them to tell the truth. How did we do? Do you see any room for improvement, etc.? Do you want to carry this evaluation further and send a survey to your members asking them what they think about your officers and the organization? We should try to place ourselves on the other side of the table on a regular basis.
MOTIVATION
Busy = Motivation is a formula that works. Members who are busy develop and demonstrate ownership and pride. If members are not allowed to participate in the decision-making processes (to some degree), they feel left out. Are your officers` meetings general sessions open to the members? Motivation comes in many colors, but basically professional pride and a sense of accomplishment motivate individuals. If a person is not proud of his organization, he will never be self-motivated for improvement or plain old performance.
Members need to have regular task assignments that make them responsible and accountable. We are beginning a new process called “high-involvement work teams.” Our elected and appointed officers attended a team-building workshop, and we all agreed we needed to identify projects to further involve our members (internal customers). Our station captains and company lieutenants are the workhorses of our organization, and they are expected to be the first line of management. They are in a difficult situation because the chiefs are tugging one way (toward managing) and the members are tugging the other way (toward hands-on involvement).
The work teams are being designed so members can show responsibility and ownership by performing high-impact routine tasks (thus removing some time-consuming tasks from our officers). Some of these tasks identified to date are pager and radio maintenance and assignment tracking, station maintenance “crew chiefs,” EMS supplies inventory, assistance with placing bar codes on all equipment, equipment maintenance and records, and serving as apparatus engineers (possibly a quarterly assignment to allow others to gain the experience of maintaining inventory and equipment inspections). All of these activities will foster among our members self-motivation and commitment to developing improved performance. Any person who “owns” a process will be more dedicated to the organization.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
A part of our culture is the leadership setting the stage and leading by example. Have you ever heard about walking the talk (instead of only talking the walk)? Leading by example displays “walking our talk.” All of the discussion points in this article create and maintain your organization`s culture.
Leaders are to lead and participate. Everyone is to attend training sessions–sometimes teachers, sometimes students. Officers must abide by the same rules as the members because members easily recognize those who do not lead by example. “Do as I say, not as I do” is not acceptable.
CONSISTENCY
Try to be consistent in everything. A favorite chief of mine uses the phrase “firm but fair.” This is a great statement that shows caring and not favoritism (another problem with volunteer organizations). Try to develop pat answers for standard questions, and develop an operations manual that addresses standard issues and standard operating procedures. Then, everyone will follow the same rules.
How can we prevent cliques from becoming a problem? There is nothing wrong with teams, and friendships will develop almost immediately when people “click” together. Notice the words “clique” and “click”? We probably cannot prevent cliques from occurring, but we can certainly minimize “wolf packs” from being the norm. We can do that by direct contact when we notice favoritism being applied.
All members must meet minimum participation levels as established by the organization and must be held accountable. The rules must be realistic and consider volunteers` personal lives. The officers must be firm and fair in enforcing the rules. There is no value for our internal and external customers if we have a membership of 50 and we see only 25 members! If your organization wants to encourage a social membership, then separate the emergency business from the social business. Develop an organization chart that allows members to have the opportunity to remain as productive as possible, but don`t lose sight of the mission of the organization. By the way, does your organization have a mission statement?
BEING A PEOPLE PERSON
Officers need to develop relationships with the members assigned to their companies (or other structure within the organization). How can officers develop reasonable performance evaluations if they do not know that members` kids play basketball on Tuesday nights? An effective officer will take the time to understand team members` schedules. The officer might ask himself, Name one member who does not want to be here. We need to provide members with the minimum of requirements that are based on reasonable expectations. Members will meet these expectations.
There are many schools of thought regarding interactions between people. I firmly believe we must be flexible and willing to work with people when presented with problems. If we can develop caring attitudes and use the situational leadership model, we can reach every personality within our organization. We need the individual talents of all of our members. The consideration “Name one member who does not want to be here” is raised once again.
In the vast majority of performance failures, the root cause can be traced back to a lack of training, the method of training, or the lack of communication. Of course, we must have a willing listener; but most of the time, we (as leaders) have not made all our requirements clear or have minimized the importance of following the specific policies/procedures–in other words, most failures are due to a lack of management`s attention. Therefore, fix the problem don`t fix the blame (attack the problem, not the person).
DELEGATION AND EMPOWERMENT
Delegation and empowerment are important, but structuring must not be too loose. Projects must be mapped and operating boundaries established; that is leadership and delegation. Chiefs/officers do not have to be experts in everything, but they must expect quality work that leads toward the negotiated objective/end result.
I like to use as an example the concept of empowerment applied to the task of ventilating a structure during a fire. Command does not have to explain the ventilation process, but command does expect the ventilation team to know how to use the equipment and open up over the fire. Team members are “empowered” to reposition themselves in the building if the fire is moving on them. Command does not have to “order” that move with an empowered work team.
If we are receptive to new ideas and flexible in our approach, then we will be better managers of our most important resource–our people.
F. C. (FRED) WINDISCH is a senior safety specialist for the Shell Development Company, Westhollow Technology Center, where he is chief of the fire brigade and manager of the facility`s fire, EMS, haz-mat, and rescue teams. A member of the volunteer fire service since 1972, he is chief of the Ponderosa Volunteer Fire Department, located north of Houston, Texas. He is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and serves on the Volunteer Fire Service Section executive board.
