Before they ever set foot in Nashville, TN, dozens of Firehouse Expo attendees were given readings to prepare them for a two-day Company Officer Development Program. The program was put on by the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI), lead by Chief Jim Moore, the program director for Leadership, Development and Decision Making at ISFI.
Moore said the attendees had to read about the leadership and decision-making program before attending the class so that they could engage in the group discussions that are the core of the program.
“That’s the key to being a leader," Moore said. "You have to show up prepared.”
The workshop included several themes that created discussions amongst the fire officers gathered from around the country. Discussions included two firefighters attending a public function who took a knee during the National Anthem, inappropriate use of social media, an officer who needs to confront a fire chief about a potentially dangerous situation with firefighters and an apparatus, and a scenario where a doctored photo of a fire chief got posted in public.
Moore said the class uses the Socratic teaching methods where answers aren’t given, but determined by thinking and analyzing the incident.
After each scenario is presented to the class, students are asked a series of questions and use their smartphones to send their answers to the group’s instructors.
“This helps the instructors engage the students based on their feedback,” Moore said. He added that while firefighters are known as problem solvers, they don’t always think their actions through.
“The thing is, we have them get to the final answer,” Moore said about the structure of the class.” “Many times, the students challenge each other, or they help guide each other and that’s the beauty of the program."
A retired Washington D.C. Fire and EMS lieutenant, James Carter is also a volunteer firefighter in Ocean City, MD, and called this workshop a refresher for many of the leadership lessons he’s learned over the years. Carter’s goal is to take the discussions he sat in on and share them with his all-volunteer department.
“These situations can happen anywhere, and it doesn’t matter what the staffing or department is,” Carter said.
Wayne Twp., IN, Division Chief Mark Staggs said every officer runs into variations of the discussions brought up in the workshop.
“Humans have made the same mistakes over and over again and how we respond to those changes is by the experience and the training in how to handle them,” Staggs said. “This class forced me to take a look into myself. They told us they are not here to fix people, but that I’m here to fix me.”
He said the instructors stressed the importance of firefighters knowing their own leadership principles and decision-making skills to resolve the problems.
“The approach they use here is the difference between right and wrong and the difference between two rights and to try to act in a manner that’s appropriate, Staggs said. “Some of the scenarios we discussed here I’m going to take back home to my troops."
Moore summed it up by saying, “The beauty of the program is taking people out of their comfort zones, so they learn to manage the stress and pressure and the adrenaline that’s released.”
