Every fire organization would agree on the critical importance of communications. The 21st century has afforded people with every known electronics device to do so faster than ever. Communicating faster and in larger volumes means that we have created a greater potential and capacity for error.

We aren't immune to this condition in the business of wildland firefighting. It's apparent to everyone that a whole lot of messaging is going, but in fact a great deal of understanding is still missing in the delivery.

Fire organizations claim that effective communication is an essential element in the business of wildland fire management. Proof of this exists in fire organizations' policies, standard operating procedures and situational awareness models. These are built-in systems to hopefully guarantee the presence of effective communications in every aspect of operations.

DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO

Legislation, policy and situational models such as the 10 Fire Orders are public declarations on how fire agencies do business. These orders represent the corporate values of our agencies. The challenge is converting the theory in principle — the talk — into the theory in use — the walk.

The following extracts from the 10 Fire Orders illustrate the emphasis on communications:

• Give clear instructions and be sure they are understood.
• Be alert, keep calm, think clearly, act decisively.
• Maintain control at all time.
• Remain in communication with your crew members, supervisors and adjoining forces.

The following extract from the 17 Watch Out Situations is particularly crucial because of the critical communications bridge, and therefore, gap that could potentially put people in harm's way: “The management of the fire is transitioning.”

We insist that effective communications are extremely important if not essential to wildland fire agencies, yet fatalities and injuries continue to plague wildland fire operations. What is increasingly remarkable is the continuing reluctance for wildland fire agencies to take a rigorously honest look at the contributing human factors with respect to accidents and incidents.

With the high price that comes with accidents and incidents on the fireline it behooves every wildland fire agency to invest time and resources into implementing effective communications into practice. These declarations can be viewed as an agency's values and would imply that members of an organization express these values on the job. Some suggest that these values have a tendency of staying in the office to be viewed only in manuals and on wall plaques in the coffee room. If these values aren't able to be expressed in a consistent fashion by all staff members, an assumption could be made that a misalignment exists between corporate values and the behavior of front-line staff.

If firefighters aren't able to express the values of the organization through appropriate behavior during wildland firefighting operations, a misalignment of values between the organization and the workers will continue to exist. Issues like safety and effective operations will continue to exist as theory, putting firefighters and organizations at risk.

RATES OF RETURN

Just look at a wildland fire agency's policy manual if you want to track the history of problems associated with communications and decision-making. Solutions often can become the problem.

Training is the automatic default reaction of organizations in search of solutions for imparting knowledge to workers. Workplace training is a multi-billion-dollar industry in North America. Business is booming and organizations can't resist the lure of what training programs promise to deliver. Experts are suggesting that up to 90% of training dollars are wasted due to the inability of trainees to transfer the knowledge back into the workplace.

Managers would get a better return on their training dollars if follow-up sessions were designed as part of the overall training program. Due to the pressure of current workloads and expectations, managers expect staff to come back from training sessions out-of-the-box and ready to hit the road running with their newfound knowledge. Without follow-up sessions such as workplace coaching, training dollar investments wither away along with the knowledge delivered by a training provider. Follow up sessions should be a maintenance feature of any training program.

Trainees failing to transfer working knowledge usually can be traced to a lack of assigning coaching responsibilities to key people within the organizations. Sometimes this occurs because management fails to attend the same training as their subordinates, creating a language barrier among team members.

Training must be built into the organization as opposed to being bolted on as an afterthought. An alignment of goals and values of the organization must occur with any training that it undertakes, otherwise the training will feel awkward and have no meaning or value to people in the workplace.

Most wildland firefighters will inevitably experience training or workshops in leadership or effective communications. They will receive a variety of information in skills and techniques to better equip themselves when supervising crew members on the fireline. Unfortunately this is only half of the equation in building better leaders and communicators for wildland firefighting operations.

The other half is what we're here to talk about: the human-caused factor. As humans, how we engage and inter-relate makes a difference. If we as firefighters cannot figure out how to work together — because it is a team sport — then we need to be in another business. We can't understate this reality.

Effective communication implies that mutual understanding exists between people. Better relationships build trust and in turn create fertile ground for mutual understanding. Obviously there's a great need to integrate interpersonal skills training into the wildland firefighting curriculum, but interpersonal skill sets alone can't build better wildland firefighting organizations. Without taking these skills to heart in the hopes that we will act and behave appropriately in the heat of battle, firefighters will continue to receive only half of the package. A toolbox with the ability to identify appropriate situational behavior will allow firefighters to put theory into practice at a moment's notice when dealing with people during the chaos of wildland fire operations.

MIRROR, MIRROR

The original sycophant yes-man must have been the magic mirror in the fairy tale of Snow White. No matter how ugly the wicked queen, the magic mirror continued to spew kind words about who was the fairest in the land. Can you blame the mirror? The queen might have been ugly, but she held all the cards of power.

Organizations sometimes suffer from this syndrome when it's time to take that hard honest look at current business practices, especially after a major wildfire. Who really has the guts to say it like it really is?

Wildland fire organizations can begin the process of putting theory into practice by taking a hard and honest look at themselves. Noticing and telling the truth is a guiding value and is the first step in awareness. Engaging in “good” dialogue is extremely important yet so rarely experienced in today's workplace. Equality, empathy and openness are essential to engaging in good dialogue. So why is good dialogue absent in the workplace, especially in wildland fire operations?

People in emergency services are quick-draw artists when it comes to decision-making. If we could draw a side arm as fast as drawing a conclusion, we would be top dog in those old western movies we love to watch on TV. We are the masters when it comes to observation/draw conclusion/take action. In wildland firefighting, our ability to read a situation and take action based on our assessment is highly prized as a skill. Consider it a natural gift handed down to us as ancestral descendants of primitive man. The ability to stay on top of the food chain was based on a keen sense of reaction. The game was simple: React or perish were the rules of the ultimate survivor reality show.

“Shoot first and ask questions later” basically illustrates our predisposition to jump to conclusions in the blink of an eye. Habits run deep and die hard when it comes to human behavior or “habits of the mind” as some call them.

What makes us good in the wildland firefighting business makes us bad in our ability to engage in good dialogue. We usually resort to describing the world we know as opposed to what we actually see.

Doubtful? Just ask police investigators regarding statements taken from a crowd of people who have witnessed a crime in the middle of the day in broad daylight in a busy part of a city. Social experiments have been set up where a video camera recorded a crime being staged. Police took statements from witnesses that widely differed from what actually took place. Witnesses were shocked when allowed to view the video after giving their statements.

Why is this information important to people in the wildland fire business? Understanding that we have a propensity for viewing the world through a distorted lens combined with an ability to draw conclusions at the drop of a hat may help us admit that we have some special challenges regarding how we engage with people. Being aware of our “human condition” or “habits of the mind” is the first step to recognizing where the barriers to good dialogue exist. Speed kills, a slogan used by many highway enforcement agencies, also would seem applicable in the prevention of bad dialogue. Awareness of this tendency gives us the ability to slow down and think about what we are actually seeing and thinking.

LADDER OF INFERENCE

Explaining this tendency to react based on quickly drawn conclusions can simply be explained as the way our minds process information and make judgments. This explanation is further illustrated in a framework referred to as the Ladder of Inference by Chris Argyris, an organizational learning scholar.

The ladder represents how the human mind will process information and arrive at a conclusion. Imagine every rung of the ladder representing stages of our journey to the top. Once at the top of the ladder we base the action that we will take on information and meaning that we have gathered along the way. This process happens as fast as an electrical impulse, and thanks to years of evolution and busy lives we have perfected it to an art form. The only problem is that because we select in some details and select out others, how can we trust the information we have gathered in making our assumptions? Chances are that if the information isn't reliable, our decision to take action is probably incorrect.

Because we do not describe the world we see, or perhaps pieces of the picture are hidden from our view, we have a tendency to gather inaccurate information. In fact, some say that all data viewed by the human eye are distorted based on our personal views of the world. Our cultural and personal experiences create a bias toward what we see resulting in an inaccurate assessment of a situation.

As we travel up the ladder of inference we take this skewed view of the world and we put meaning to it. Again we twist the story so it fits our personal experiences and our predetermined view of the world. Now that we are loaded for bear with this inaccurate assessment of a situation, we drive it all home to the top of the ladder to make our conclusions and assessments, and then take action based on all this information.

The actions usually result in great misunderstanding and frustration, making attempts for good honest dialogue a remote possibility. Sound familiar? If we were sitcom writers, we are hitting pay dirt. Innuendos and misunderstandings leading to hilarious outcomes and embarrassing situations would be a plenty. This is a formula for those “au fromage” sitcoms that have been written over 50 years of TV history. The scenarios are recognizable, and we can't wat to see it all over again on next week's show.

LIFE IMITATING ART

Real life is much the same, as the scenario happens over and over again. Except that it's not funny and relationships are strained, resulting in low trust, hostility and much energy, time and money trying to make amends in rebuilding personal and workplace relationships. Being human is an occupational hazard when it comes to our automatic defaults in how we process information. This doesn't mean that we are bad or evil, it just means that we need to be aware of our own tendencies.

How can you overcome this tendency to jumping to the wrong conclusion or judgment? Awareness as mentioned is a good start. For starters you must be able to recognize when you are moving up the ladder of inference. This will allow yourself to stop, get a reality check and than proceed with caution.

Being able to recognize where you are on the ladder will help you back down to get a true view of the information you're gathering. This is truly an art form that requires a great deal of practice. Being able to help others in backing down the ladder is a powerful tool and a true gift. Good dialogue translates into better decisions, allowing you to become a better leader.

Effective communications rests on us, not the other guy. We need to be aware of how our own assumptions, conclusions and thinking patterns affect our ability to communicate. Mutual understanding is the basis for good decision-making.

Jules Leboeuf is the head of the enforcement section of the Department of Sustainable Resource Development's Forestry Division.

Good Dialogue Tips

Take a course and/or read about the ladder of inference.

Start noticing what you are noticing at work or at home and do a reality check.

Ask questions of yourself regarding why and how you have come to a conclusion Ask others for clarification on things they have said or done.

Remember that we describe the world we know (and not what we see).

Double check your source of information before telling the story of what you are seeing or thinking.

Develop training curriculum that matches the values of your organization with the desired behavior of your staff.

Ensure that management attends the same training programs that subordinates attend.