Over the past few years, we have endured economic hardships that have eaten into the fabric of our society. As a consequence, the fire service is under a kind of scrutiny it has rarely seen.
The fire service may have considered itself immune from severe budget cuts and decreases in entitlements, but in reality this has rarely been the case. We are long overdue in addressing the need for a paradigm shift in the way we do business by understanding who we are, who we really serve and why. Most would agree we can muster our intent. That is to bring a kind of focus that lets firefighters marshal and leverage their energy, concentrate their attention, resist distraction and concentrate as long as necessary to achieve their goals. But, which goals, how to achieve them and, the most important, why?
Strategic thinking focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value by enabling a provocative and creative conversation among firefighters and officers at every level, affecting each department’s direction. Strategic thinking is now as critical for us as the development and perpetuation of our existence as a public service instead of a private one. This means rigorously understanding the new and present drivers of departmental effectiveness for our citizens; and challenging conventional thinking about them to create excellence.
Marketing is one of those disciplines that span a broad range of opportunities for any organization, and the fire service is no exception. It lets each member contribute in a way that brings the passion of the profession to the department and to the citizens we protect. Very few firefighters arrive in the profession “by accident.” They had to pass batteries of mental and physical tests just to get on the eligibility list.
I have been around marketing most of my adult life. I have seen every kind of corporate, public service, national and international organization embrace the marketing platform. And I have found very few “brands” with more potential to gain public and personal loyalty than the fire department and the firefighter, yet we are not leveraging that brand in a way that can support us as we protect our citizens.
There is intent and determined effort to be the best one can in making one’s crew and department the best in the world. The profession of firefighting has always welcomed ingenuity and innovation in solving problems. Yes, the fire service has been built on tradition, but that tradition sets the stage for us to use our brains and physical prowess to solve some of the most perplexing problems our citizens face daily to ensure their safety. Now, we need to use that problem-solving attitude and approach in solving our own. And let’s not delude ourselves with such small thinking not to understand that this is a national and global marketing job. You represent the global fire protection brotherhood and sisterhood in every action you take. This is especially true with the split-second immediacy of communications.
It seems as though interest in marketing the fire service increases in proportion to the external threats we perceive to doing “business as usual.” Guess what – “business as usual” is over. The fact is, for great fire departments it probably never existed. And good marketing is a 24/7 function. In fact, those departments with an ongoing marketing plan are in a much better position to deal with this chaotic environment.
Marketing is the long-term maintenance and perpetuation of your department. If you need to sell the department, you are firefighting. Firefighting is making the best of a situation that is already out of control. We do enough of that daily in keeping people safe.
I recently had a conversation with Chief Mark Wallace, the newly appointed fire marshal for Oregon. We discussed his newly updated book, Fire Department Strategic Planning: Creating Future Excellence, and I wanted to understand how he sees marketing’s role in strategic planning. Naturally, he emphasized the importance of marketing, especially in today’s environment. He also noted that the strategic-planning process is every bit as much about strategic thinking and discussing possible futures of a department’s direction as it is about specific operational planning.
I have always believed that every department should have a strategic plan; and that a marketing plan should be a subset of that plan. However, I have discovered that strategic thinking is really the very purpose for the discussion of planning in the first place. I have also come to believe that strategic plans for a fire department must be dynamic and flexible. The time horizons for change are too short, so there is a need for constant adaptation. One key difference between strategic thinking and strategic planning is that strategic planning is very concrete. It assumes that the future is predictable and specific in detail. Then, the plan details the necessary steps for achieving these goals and objectives. Strategic planning’s role is to realize and support strategies developed through the strategic thinking process and integrate these back into the organization. [For more information about this concept, see Liedtka, J.M. (1998), “Linking Strategic Thinking with Strategic Planning,” Strategy and Leadership, 26 (4), 30-35.]
There are plenty of definitions for this discipline despite that fact that it is a fairly new concept. Strategic thinking is the way in which all members of the department think about, assess, view and create the future for themselves and the department. This, of course, includes how the department creates a safe future for the community it protects. Strategic thinking is proactive, not reactive, as it creates tomorrow from what it sees today and what changes it sees coming.
Strategic thinking often requires a change in your present paradigm and your way of thinking, relating and performing. This begins with the citizens’ safety and works back into the department. Strategic thinking has a systems perspective. This means end-to-end value creation, the role of the firefighter in this system of value and an understanding of the competencies the system needs. Bottom line, strategic thinking always has a large dose of listening to every need and potential safety need of the customer.
Now, citizens probably don’t think too much about safety, so you must lead them as you determine their present and potential needs. One key competency of strategic thinking is thinking in time. This means being able to hold past, present and future in mind simultaneously to come up with better decision-making and speed implementation. This means being able to focus on one small piece of a problem while keeping in mind the departmental vision and how this problem could contribute to departmental opportunity. Strategy is the gap between today’s reality and intent for a future vision of the department. Strategic thinking involves every member of the department without compartmentalization and focus on just one area of expertise. The other big factor that is now so important in fire department strategic thinking is the need to create a safety movement all interwoven with the brand: fire department. We do this by using every marketing tool we have, especially social media. (More about this in my series next year: “Strategic Marketing Leadership for a Noble Calling.”)
Strategic thinking always involves change, and often profound personal change. Every firefighter has a stake in creating the future. As difficult as it is to become a firefighter, the real challenge is using the brain that passes all of those tests to be able to “swing the bat.” Finally, and most important, in my opinion, it revolves around one central thought and desire: “What can I contribute to my crew, my department and the global fire service to protect our citizens so I can continue to be a firefighter.” And that, my friends, is what is now at stake. Think about it – “strategically.”
