Company drills should be a part of the daily activities on every fire department - including all stations and all workgroups - but they're not!
For whatever reason, and there's a bunch, company training doesn't happen as often as it should. More importantly, when it does happen the main objective is to get it over with as quick as possible. The objective should be to learn, or refresh, the material being covered.
Training isn't punishment. Most of the time company training is conducted as a reaction to a bad experience - not to learn from the experience but to point out how the company messed up.
It's kind of funny that every firefighter in every department uses the same descriptive term to describe the first few minutes of every major incident. What's even more amusing is that most of the incidents aren't major they're just small incidents that seem big because they don't happen that often. Here's a simple solution - do more training so that things go smoother when the next incident occurs!
Recharging Company Training
We're all in it together! Sure, the company officer is ultimately responsible for the way the company performs but it can't be done alone. Every member of the company has a stake in how the company operates and should have an equal share of how the company trains.
A simple and effective company training program begins with a daily training session conducted by a member of the company. It's simple, develop a rotation based on the number of people in the company, on-duty, or however else the department divides the personnel up, and make them responsible for conducting a training session on their assigned day. To ensure success, don't allow any excuses when it's their turn to provide the training!
The Instructor Thing
