Higher Education: Building an Officer Development Program

Have you noticed the changes in the fire service over the last few years? New research suggests that changes in strategy and tactics as well as improved decision-making during emergency incidents and advances in technology are protecting firefighters and providing advantages never before imagined on the fireground.

Evidence also suggests that departments are investing necessary resources in fire prevention. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) states that there were more than 1.2 million fires in 2013—a 21.6 percent decrease in the number of fires since 2004. Comparatively, NFPA numbers show a similar decrease, with 723,500 home fires in 1977 compared to 369,500 in 2014.

Regardless of which number you reference, it is obvious that, overall, our prevention efforts are strong. However, not everyone is excited about this reduction from the standpoint of reduced experience and decision-making practice for our officers. In short, the lack of working structure fires reduces the “on-the-job” experience upon which so many of our leadership principles are founded.

From an officer standpoint, though, the fireground is actually a small percentage of what our officers deal with. Our officers are the voice of the fire chief in the firehouse and serve as the frontline against the liability that comes with firefighters making poor decisions, both on and off the job. We expect them to be savvy in social media dilemmas, SOP experts, training officers, human resource experts and risk managers, all the while ensuring that every document and written report will stand up in a court of law. Many of us know what is expected because we have been there and struggled through it, frequently learning lessons the hard way.

This prompts many questions: If we have been through some learning experiences or know what needs to be done, why aren’t more leaders in the fire service working to ensure that these lessons are passed along so that others do not have to experience these difficulties or even fail in their pursuit of leadership positions? What are we doing to prepare the next generation of officers and leaders in our departments let alone the fire service? Why would we want anyone to go through some of the things that we experienced as new officers? With the decrease in “on-the-job” experience and increased expectations in the firehouse to protect not only the individual but also the department from a variety of liabilities, why are we not investing serious attention, time and effort in our current and future officers so they can deal with the fire service evolution and your expectations?

This is becoming an increasingly eye-opening—and oftentimes a face-slapping—topic as we consider “who is next?” Current leaders have been talking about the transition of leadership for years, either with beaming eagerness or dreadful anticipation. The retirement of a generation of experienced and hard-knock fire service leadership creates a leadership transition to a generation that must prepare differently than ever before for the roles they will fill and the expectations associated with being a fire officer in today’s society.

The reality is that the time is here and the transition is occurring across the country. This has left many departments unprepared, as the development of department members to assume the roles of company officers and chiefs has been inadequate or is not specific to their organization. For many departments, what was once considered something that they needed to prepare for is suddenly here. The future is now.

So whether you already have a program in place or are starting from scratch, here we’ll demonstrate the elements of a comprehensive officer development program, including the necessity for higher education, and how you can prepare your personnel and department for the future—now! 

Build a team

Many of us need to acknowledge that we are not alone in this dilemma or in our need to develop our most precious commodity—our people. But where do you start? You start with conflict! I know that sounds like something you want to avoid; however, the first step starts with putting together a team to develop your professional development program and then having some difficult conversations.

Developing an officer development program is not something that you would want to take on by yourself, nor should you. There are going to be some feelings hurt (probably yours) during the process of group development, which, according to Bruce Tuckman, follows this inevitable order: forming, storming, norming and performing⁽¹⁾. But as you know, firefighters in a room are going to argue, they’re going to compete for their interests, they are going to be opinionated, and they are going to be vocal. But in the end, they are going to finish the mission and develop a successful officer development program.

You have many resources within your department, including many individuals who are very intelligent and who can provide perspective on the needs of your future leaders, as well as informal leaders and subject-matter experts. All together, you have an opportunity to use several ingredients to build your program. Bringing together such a diverse group of firefighters is not easy and may not be smooth. That is why I mentioned conflict earlier, as your team will not—and should not—agree on everything. By avoiding groupthink, this team challenges one another to meet the established expectation—prepare officers for the future.

Taking this approach to the team, you bring together significant expertise and experience. You can also more easily achieve buy-in from not only your committee members but also the entire department. Morale increases with members knowing that they are represented and their needs and interests are being brought to the table by their peers; it’s not just a “chief” project. Further, the team can address items that may have eluded your perspective. Remember, this is not a one-person project, and the team concept provides a really great starting point.

Establish objectives

Fire Marshal Mark Wallace, author of Fire Department Strategic Planning: Creating Future Excellence, describes “proactive futuring” as a process that involves actively creating the future rather than simply reacting to it. This entails confirming the direction of the department, as compared to its vision, and working to understand what will occur in your department in the future, and how that will impact the department’s outcomes. Building a comprehensive professional development program is an opportunity to research exactly what your department needs, what the current and future leaders of the department need, and what exactly is required of these future leaders.

With that in mind, once your team is formed, it is time to establish the objectives. What knowledge, skills and abilities do your new officers need to have, and what are the needs of your future leaders? This is going to be a comprehensive process and should resemble a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) of your current officers’ strengths and weaknesses as well as future officer threats and opportunities. This sounds a lot like strategic planning—and it should. We are truly talking about the future successes and failures of individuals within your department, which ultimately affects your organization and the safety of its members.

Conduct a needs assessment

Once the objectives are established, it’s time to conduct a needs assessment. This involves researching the necessary components of your officer development program to ensure that it fits YOUR department. I will never tell anyone to start a program from scratch, as there are so many resources that exist and departments that have great programs; however, they must be tailored to meet your organization’s needs. So while it’s important to see what other departments are doing, it’s also important to then bring all of the ideas back to the table to see how they may be used.

Team members should be tasked with looking at other departments’ programs, policies, job descriptions and promotional processes. This allows the team to see what is out there and what is working. Another critical task is to determine what is required of officers and leaders in your department. This can be a challenge, but looking at standards is a good place to start. Research your state training agency, ISO, OSHA, state legislation, as well as local ordinances with which your current and future generations of officers must comply. NFPA 1021 is a great foundation for building an outline based upon a nationally recognized standard designed to provide progressive levels of performance at various levels of responsibility. From human resource management and administration to emergency services delivery, NFPA 1021 provides a blueprint for any professional development program.

There are resources that can be utilized as a framework or even inserted into your program after it begins to take shape. One starting resource is the National Fire Academy (NFA) Professional Development Model, which demonstrates the pathway from firefighter to fire chief by combining the requirements of education, training and experience along the course of an individual’s career. After all, we are preparing our personnel as they move into new roles—and this involves not setting them up for failure. Many departments base hiring and promotional decisions on employees’ past experience and reward them by giving them an entirely different role within the organization. Research has shown that at least 80 percent of the time, this methodology backfires. So developing a career development plan for members based on training, education and experience provides the balance necessary for future success.

The IAFC Officer Development Handbook defines professional development as the planned, progressive lifelong process of education, training, self-development and experience. Similar to the NFA Professional Development Model, the goal is to develop a well-rounded fire officer, and the IAFC handbook provides a career path that you can mimic in your program.

In addition, any opportunity to inject credentialing through the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) into a program brings credibility to the individual and the department’s officer development program, as it measures an individual’s career development and professional growth.

These are all great resources but, sometimes, you need to start with basics—the nuts and bolts of officer development—or you simply need to start. With that in mind, I recommend the following components for any officer development program regardless of department size or type.

Select mentors

As noted, you have many great resources available, including some very good individuals in your organization, to help guide individuals on their journey. Not every officer is a mentor, and selection and assignment of mentors should be a discerning process. The selected mentors are the ambassadors of the professional development program and the future of your department. Their role can be as simple as teaching the daily tasks associated with the officer role. To ensure consistency with this, I recommend the use of task books. The tasks that are contained within a task book should be comprehensive of the requirements contained within NFPA 1021, in addition to the knowledge, skills and abilities the professional development team feels are necessary. These task books can be completed by the individual, but they also provide a great outline for the mentors to complete to ensure consistency throughout the program.

Completing the task book and mentoring process prior to promotion allows the members the opportunity to shadow officers and vice versa. Having individuals shadow their mentor so they can see tasks completed and then turn around and perform the tasks while the mentor is shadowing them provides a process for individuals to perform all of the roles and responsibilities of an officer in a low-stress environment and with a “protective net.”

Consider academies

Officer development academies are a great way to teach beyond the textbooks. As most departments have promotional requirements of Fire Officer I or II, instructor courses, and various other specialty and leadership courses necessary to establish the promotional foundation for members, many of these courses do little for “real-world” events and application. It’s easy to put together classes for personnel evaluations, risk management, social media and really any other topics that are affecting the fire service today. Bringing these courses into an officer development academy provides yet another level of preparation for current and future officers. This is also a good place to start thinking about strategy and tactics, which is seemingly becoming a lost art among the new generation of fire officers.

Remember, the reduction in fires discussed earlier ensures that many fire officers do not get hands-on experience or street credibility for decision-making on fire scenes, and it is our job to manufacture that experience as best we can. Management consultant Peter Drucker once stated, “No executive has ever suffered because his subordinates were strong and effective.”

Officer academies are a great place to teach modern fire behavior, building construction and other community-specific information so the foundation is consistent on all department levels, thus allowing us to apply the information into decision-making, which is exactly what we are trying to do. This can begin in a controlled setting using a slideshow of a scenario and covering everything from initial size-ups, on-scene reports, strategies, reading smoke and other factors. This is so easy to repeat that it can become second nature in a short amount of time.

The next level should allow for impromptu drills that simulate real-life situations for personnel to demonstrate decision-making in the first 2–3 minutes, which is perhaps the most critical time in any incident.

These are just a couple of ways to focus specifically on strategy and tactics as well as command and control, but we have to be creative, as we must remember that we are producing experience and it does not come any other way but by challenging scenarios and repetition—lots and lots of repetition.

Higher education

Many departments have implemented requirements for higher education in some form or another for years. However, many are still struggling with misperceptions, some being that it will not help their officer or is not worth the effort. To that I ask, “Why be good when you can be great?” and, yes, higher education can make that difference.

Besides meeting the established requirements for higher education, attaining a degree also produces soft skills that are just as—if not more—important than the degree itself. For example, attaining a degree at any age teaches time management. Managing the responsibilities and obligations associated with the fire department and family, while working toward a degree, can certainly be a balancing act, but many come out the other end with the discipline to manage time more effectively and remained disciplined at the same time.

Higher education also provides an increased level of critical thinking. Being able to understand a topic, analyze it and, most importantly, apply it to a situation is something that we do during the course of everyday business in emergency and non-emergency situations.

More tangible benefits include the ability to write clearer and more effectively, organize data, conduct research, and even make presentations more effectively. All of these skills are critical elements for any fire officer, and their ability to perform in these areas—or their failure to perform—reflects on the department.

There are numerous articles and research regarding the benefits of higher education and the attainment of degrees, but one focus for your organization may be the availability to members. While many departments may offer certification pay once a degree is achieved, this certainly does not help members pay for tuition, books and other fees. Establishing a tuition reimbursement program is an easy example, but funding is usually limited and really does not go far among members. Partnerships with universities can provide a reduction in tuition fees, free textbooks and other incentives that lessen the cost burden for the individual.

Have you ever thought of the city or department providing a student loan that can be paid back over a member’s career? Even helping members apply for academic scholarships and grants may be enough to help members take the necessary step to attain their degree.

Who’s next?

So the question is, “Who is next?” Which members comprise your next generation of fire officers, and what do they need to be successful? Remember, your time is temporary, and if you are already in a position of leadership, make a lasting difference and prepare the next generation by using your experience and knowledge to ensure that they do not experience the hard lessons you did in your career. If your department does not have an officer development program in place, begin by forming a professional development team. The benefits and the need are all too evident. The time is now, the fire service is demanding change, our communities expect it, and we know what needs to happen. The time is now to get ahead of the evolution and provide the change that is necessary for success in tomorrow’s fire service.

References

Wilson, C. Bruce Tuckman’s Forming, Storming, Norming & Performing Team Development Model. 2010. http://www.sst7.org/media/BruceTuckman_Team_Development_Model.pdf