Follow-up

I’m writing a follow-up to my post, Time For Change

I am humbled by the response from the post from Facebook, email and face to face. I am actually quite surprised by the number of people that actually read the post.

Almost everyone has been very supportive. There are a few people that didn’t really understand why I would request to step back to a Captains position. I wasn’t exactly clear in the post, mostly because I didn’t want to air dirty laundry or sound like a whining cry baby.

The Fire Service is a MERITOCRACY! The truth is that I know merit is more important than fairness. I believe that those that are performing and putting out the most effort deserve the choice assignments, and the benefits that go with effort and performance. There is always someone making excuses why they don’t know something or can’t do something. Excuses are like a-------s  oh you get the point.

I think training and working on the craft of firefighting is the most important thing we can do during our shift. I believe that we should seek opportunities on and off duty to improve our knowledge, skills and abilities. In our area of Nebraska, there are ample opportunities for FREE and low cost high quality training.

I believe that the traditions of the fire service are important. I believe that people should have pride in the fact that they are lucky enough to be firefighters. I believe that we should be willing to maintain and clean our fire apparatus and our fire stations, so that the people we are protecting can see that we are proud of what we do for them.

So you wonder why I stepped aside. It had nothing to do with me wanting less responsibility. It had everything to do with me not agreeing with my Chief’s on what is important.

Now I’m back to being a Captain, and loving every minute of it. I am feeling recharged again. The crew and I are making plans for more company level training. Back to basics type stuff.  

For those that have asked me to call them, please be patient. I will get you all called in the next couple of weeks. For those of you going to the 2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference, we can get together there.

http://www.nsfsi.com/

Speaking of the 2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference, I am looking forward to attending this year as a student. Hopefully I will see a lot of you there. If you are attending, Friday night is the Nebraska Society of Fire Service Instructors membership meeting. Please plan on attending this meeting, as this will be election of President and Vice President for a 2 year term.

2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference

You still have time to sign-up for the 2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference. This is an excellent training opportunity. Cheif Ed Hadfield will be the keynote speaker at the leadership banquest.

Is there a difference?

When you are presenting a training class, do you approach the material differently if the class is for certification verses continuing education classes?

Speaking for myself, I want to make sure that I am the subject matter expert in the room when I am presenting a class. If the class is for certification, such as Firefighter 1 or Driver Operator, we as instructors neeed to make sure that we are presenting all of the information in a manner that the students are prepared for the examination. Of course we want to make the class an enjoyable learning environment. The biggest challenge for me is making sure that all of the learning objectives are covered well enough that I give the students the greatest chance for success when performing the certification exams.

When teaching continuing education classes, I feel like I have more latitude to explore the subject matter, and have more fun in class.

What are your thoughts?

Great Quote I saw today.

IF IT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU, YOU WILL FIND A WAY.
IF NOT, YOU'LL FIND AN EXCUSE

Time for change!

I once saw a quote somewhere that has stuck with me. It was something along the lines of; If you don't like the direction you are going, Change directions. Well I made a decision to change directions.  I decided to turn in my white shirts and white helmet, and step back into a red helmet.

This was not a decision made out of anger or without thought. It was made after considerable thought.

I am a huge believer in bringing solutions to the "bosses" when I see problems. When I realised that the solutions I was bringing did not align with the overall culture of the organization, I couldn't continue to compromise my principals.

"When you have to start compromising yourself and your morals for the people around you, it’s probably time to change the people around you."

After a year of frustration over the direction of my department and shift, I decided that I could no longer meet the expectations of my supervisors. After what turned out to be a very private but ugly disagreement on what is important for a fire department, I requested a reassignment back to Captain.

I discussed the request with the Deputy Chief and the Fire Chief, whom were reluctant to make the change. I pressed hard, and made a formal written request about a week later. It has taken about 3 months for a selection of a replacement to take place, and finally the switch.

So, last Sunday, January 13, 2013, the change was made effective. I immediately had a sense of renewed purpose. My new crew seems excited for the opportunity to work together. I feel a reduction in stress.

For those of you that want to discuss this privately, I would be more than happy to do so.

I will be at the 2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference next month. This will be the first time in several years that I will be attending as a student, and I am really looking forward to picking up some new information, or at least new ways of seeing things.

For more information on Nebraska Society of Fire Service Instructors and the Les Lukert Winter Conference go the their website. http://www.nsfsi.com/default.asp

Goal Setting...

Cowboy Logic: "If you’re doing what everyone else is doing, you will never be better than average.”

I think it is natural to start the new year with resolutions, which are nothing more than goals. Some set resolutions to loose weight, quit something, etc. Many of these resolutions are quit before we ever get started, or within a week. I wonder why we give up so easy on these resolutions. It makes me think about other things in our life that we do that involve goal setting.

When we respond to an incident, we set a goal. We typically call it a strategy. Do we abandon our strategy and pack up our gear when the incident gets difficult or things aren't going our way? NO! We make adjustments, evaluate our priorities and keep on working to mitigate the incident.

So as the Cowboy Logic states, we can keep doing what everyone else is doing, or begin to do what others won't do.

Some of my goals for this year:
Complete 100 Push-ups ( I haven't done this since 1998)
Complete 5 Pull-ups ( I've never done this)
Lose 4 Inches off my waist
Write meaningful articles for this blog
Seek out others that want to do something meaningful this year