When new fire chiefs pin the five bugles on for the first time, they are likely to tell subordinates, “I'm interested in your ideas and suggestions for making our department world class. I promise to personally review and evaluate every single idea you bring me. I'm receptive to anything that makes sense, so please give me your ideas and suggestions.”

Unfortunately, these kinds of suggestion solicitations can result in a suggestion avalanche, overwhelming even truly devoted chiefs.

“It's a delicate balancing act of encouraging suggestions from employees, but not creating dissatisfaction and indifference by administration's inability to provide feedback for every employee idea,” says Jack Krakeel, Fayette County (Ga.) director of public safety and Fire Chief's 2000 Career Fire Chief of the Year.

Fire chiefs should recognize that requesting open-ended suggestions potentially can be a frustrating activity unless suggestion submission and evaluation processes are developed first. Firefighters possess the memory, passion and free time to hold fire chiefs accountable for both their explicit and implied commitments.

Even before the chief's words have left the room, firefighters and officers are mentally developing their wide-ranging concepts of how complex and interrelated departmental processes need to be changed. As reams of paper start descending on the fire chief's desk, the reality is that there's limited time and money to objectively evaluate feedback and suggestions.

Get the ball rolling

Some of the most challenging suggestions are those requiring a chief to take a long view of the horizon. The pressure and tension overcoming today's organizational issues can limit a chief's interest or desire to address next year's or even next week's emerging issues. However, issues addressed early may save enormous aggravation and expense if solutions can be developed proactively.

Suggestions require a comprehensive risk assessment of what happens if the department does nothing, does a little or does a whole lot. What are the consequences if the department does it now, later, a lot later or never? One critical part of the suggestion process is gathering information and assessing the answers to these questions.

Despite the best planning to diminish the impact on employees, suggestion implementation usually involves resistance. Inevitably, employees are going to have to start doing something new, stop doing something they prefer doing, or determine if their current skills are inadequate for the new agenda. An important benchmark for evaluating suggestions is making a resistance assessment and then developing steps to minimize the pain and anxiety. Change is a natural process, but the pain of change can be managed successfully to reinforce and validate the suggestion process.

Suggestions must be customer-driven and fiscally efficient. Making a commitment to evaluate suggestions requires time and resources, but it's an effort that is worthwhile and can pay enormous dividends. Consequently, suggestions should enhance the delivery of emergency services by streamlining the processes of leading, training, equipping, preparing and dispatching personnel. Ideally, processes that can be done better can be done less expensively as well. Citizens and elected officials are generally happiest when they get premier service at a reasonable cost.

Many of the fire service's best innovations can be linked to resourceful firefighters with the skill and vision for identifying easier, faster, safer or cheaper solutions. These solutions were offered to resolve what were otherwise dysfunctional processes developed by well-intentioned, but overworked, administrative staff. It's key for leaders who entrust subordinates with executing a mission to be responsible for designing the mission's action steps, sequences and evaluation process. The Commission on Fire Accreditation International Category VII Human Resources Criterion 7D.4 requires a program for employee member input and suggestions.

Seasoned firefighters can recall innumerable programs and gimmicks their chiefs have used to motivate employees to offer suggestions. A weakness with such programs is that employees contribute broad conceptual suggestions but leave the research, development and implementation efforts to staff officers. Often this results in the person with the suggested vision being left out of the planning and communication process.

The SOPPADA approach

As in most departments, Honolulu employees have the tremendous knowledge, skills and abilities to provide premier public safety services. During the course of their busy shifts, employees have many opportunities to identify ways to streamline and improve how the department delivers its services.

However, while employees always have been encouraged and recognized for offering their suggestions, the realities of asking already overextended administrative staff officers to manage more responsibilities is just not feasible. One of the challenges in the past was in making the initial evaluation of what was doable and what was not.

During the previous suggestion program there were simply too many employees offering too many suggestions with too few administrative staff officers to evaluate, research and implement their ideas. After months of reviewing suggestions under the old system, four conclusions were established:

1. All firefighters have ideas but only a few firefighters have excellent ideas consistent with Honolulu's mission and budget restrictions.

2. A shared vision of the usefulness and practicality of the suggestions was needed.

3. Increased trust, respect and participation are byproducts of a good suggestion process.

4. Free flow of information in all directions is a critical component of a good suggestion program.

With these points in mind, Honolulu Asst. Chief Wayne Nojiri developed the department's SOPPADA model for streamlining the department's suggestion program. SOPPADA is an acronym that breaks down as follows:

Subject

A description of what issue is being addressed.

Objective

If implemented, what will be accomplished?

Problem

What is the problem?

Proposal

A formatted proposal form that is SMART: Specific, a detailed explanation of what you are proposing; Measurable, how can you measure the benefit of the proposal? Attainable, what resources are required and are they available? Results-oriented, what will the end result be? Time-bound, what is the estimated time required to complete the project?

Advantages

List the advantages of the suggestions.

Disadvantages

List the disadvantages of the suggestions

Action

What do you intend to do to move the suggestion forward through the evaluation process?

Implementing the SOPPADA approach requires chiefs and firefighters to dismiss all past assumptions and self-imposed restrictions regarding departmental practices and performance patterns. Instead of saying “That suggestion just won't work,” ask “How can we make the suggestion work?” Resist saying no until a careful exploration of every possible option for the suggestion has been conducted.

Additionally, archiving every suggestion and occasionally reviewing previously rejected suggestions often can help revise or combine unrelated solutions to address a current operational dilemma. As Krakeel says, “Don't bring me a problem without a solution, and preferably two or more suggestions for addressing each problem.”

Since implementing the SOPPADA method, the Honolulu fire department has approved and implemented several worthy employee suggestions, ranging from elaborate to simple. For instance, one member used the method to successfully make a case for the creation of a quarterly department newsletter, documenting the costs and benefits for producing it. Another employee recommended a specialized auto extrication class. While the initial suggestion outlined in the SOPPADA wasn't exactly what the captain had wanted, the department worked to devise a more suitable class.

The method can work for simple suggestions as well. The department adopted one firefighter's suggestion of putting reflective tape on apparatus doors so that they'll be visible to motorists during highway rescues. A pending suggestion is to require Honolulu personnel to wear plastic wristbands to improve accountability at large incidents.

The SOPPADA method establishes a paper trail that attracts more attention from higher-ups than casually mentioned suggestions. Honolulu Chief Attilio Leonardi says the method offers “a structured format to ensure that all pertinent information is submitted when making recommendations for new or improved programs.” While discussing the many benefits of the SOPPADA suggestion program, the method itself was used in presentations to the fire chief when obtaining his approval to implement the process.

SOPPADA empowers employees to be the incident commander for their suggestion. The suggestion incident commander bears the responsibility for collecting data, initiating the preliminary research, completing a cost/benefit analysis, and submitting the suggestion using the department's SOPPADA submission form. As the suggestion advances through an internal review process, suggestion command might be transferred to a higher-ranking officer, or sectors might be established allowing subject-matter experts to refine the suggestion concept.

Firefighters struggle every shift with the realization that our world has changed dramatically since Sept. 11. The sacrifices of our heroic brothers and sisters who gave all that horrible day require that firefighters contribute to their departments' ability to handle tomorrow's alarms better, faster and cheaper.

A fundamental step required to improve emergency operations involves evaluating the many suggestions offered by the men and women who staff the apparatus. Their unique perspectives and status demand that their concerns and suggestions are addressed. Properly designed, a well-structured and employee-supported suggestion program is a fire chief's dream come true.

In Honolulu better service, more active firefighters, lower costs and organizational progress is being achieved one suggestion at a time using the SOPPADA method.

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Bill Lowe is a captain with the Clayton County (Ga.) Fire Department, where he has worked for 24 years. He has a doctorate in human resource management and a post-doctorate in marketing management. Lowe is a university professor of public administration and is pursuing the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer program.

Wayne Nojiri is an assistant chief with the Honolulu Fire Department, where he has worked for 28 years. He has a bachelor's degree of business administration in management, a master's in public administration and is pursuing the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program.

Laurie Mooney is a battalion chief with the Longwood (Fla.) Fire Department, where she has worked for 20 years. She has an associate's degree in fire science technology and is pursuing both a bachelor of science in fire administration and the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program.