Back in the 1940s there was this absolutely fantastic pair of ballroom dancers. Their names were Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. In countless shows and in movies galore, the two of them danced to the delight of the audience. Years later someone asked Rogers what it was like being Astaire’s partner. She reportedly responded, “I did everything that he did except I did it going backwards and in high heels.” What Rogers was trying to say was that not only she was equal to Astaire in terms of dance expertise, but that her dance steps actually were more complicated.

Indeed, the Rogers/Astaire duo succeeded so magnificently because they truly were partners. One actually knew what the other was going to do before he or she did it. They were able to synchronize their activities and efforts to make it seem almost magical.

But I think there was another factor behind their success. I am not a ballroom dancer myself, but I instinctively know that to perform well, one of the pair has to lead while the other must be content to follow. Which role is the more difficult to perform?
I thought about this recently while reviewing some classic fire-service conflicts. Examples include the following: labor versus management, volunteer versus paid; urban versus rural; and EMS transport versus non-transport. Take almost any two things that are causing conflict in our profession and ask these questions: who is the leader, who is the follower and who has the tougher row to hoe.

Anything that is divisive within our sphere of influence in the fire service is equally destructive to both parties. Seldom have I seen really serious disputes be resolved without causing residual harm to whoever walked away thinking that they were the winner. Even winners wind up with scar tissue.

The dispute over whether a fire department should operate with volunteers or paid personnel is a classic example of this phenomenon. To the best of my knowledge, whether fire protection is being provided by a volunteer or paid force, it is driven almost entirely by the economic capacity of the community. There are natural forces that cause a volunteer department to transition to a combination department, and then to a full-time department, that have nothing to do with the tasks being performed by the firefighters.

But this debate usually becomes very personalized and polarized, a phenomenon that brings me back to the aforementioned dancing duo. What made Astaire and Rogers look so good was that they both knew the rules but they also knew their roles. They were able to improvise when necessary, but they also knew the principles behind what they were doing so well that innovation looked well practiced.

The word dancers use to describe this phenomenon is “choreography.” Its parallel in our world is responsible management and leadership through coordination. We need to spend a lot more time trying to figure out how leaders and followers can unify than we spend on arguing over ways to be divided.

There are several techniques one could adopt in order to achieve this objective. Among these is to embrace the tenets of the classic text Getting to Yes, which identifies some of the communications building blocks that can be used to create this kind of choreography in an organization. However, for one to take full advantage of this important book, it has to become cultivated into the organizational structure.

Conflict resolution is about more than just compromise. It is a skill set that can continue to be honed as a person climbs the various steps on the promotional ladder. It is a skill set that properly cultivated can become second nature. How one applies this concept depends upon one’s desire to have a reputation as an organization that not only gets things done but, more importantly, gets them done right.

You may have heard the old cliché, “lead, follow or get out of the way.” What I am suggesting here is you can lead sometimes and you can follow sometimes — but in either case, the outcome can be magical.

Ronny J. Coleman has served as fire chief in Fullerton and San Clemente, Calif., and was the fire marshal of the state of California from 1992 to 1999. He is a certified fire chief and a master instructor in the California Fire Service Training and Education System.

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