Life is complicated. Shouldn't training strive to make things simpler? The fire service is ready for straightforward ideas packaged in a friendly, affordable format. It would seem to me that these ideas should be about common sense, but in today's world “uncommon sense” may be a better descriptor.

Training program developers should keep a few tenets in mind. First, less is more. Increasingly, we are inundated by information. Our capacity for new ideas and techniques is strained. We need to break learning into bite-size chunks and offer information in multiple versions to accommodate individual learning styles. One or two basic concepts that can be applied are worth more than an overload of information that is promptly forgotten. Volume does not mean learning has taken place that will change habits.

Second, trust yourself. Most instructors I've met are lifelong learners. The really good instructors trust their instincts and avoid fads that don't deliver observable and measurable results. The two keys to high-quality and useful training with excellent content are “observable” and “measurable.” These are not just two words on a page; they are action words. Asking a student to sit in a class while the instructor is exercising his or her jaw without much to say doesn't give the student a reason to stay. When you are developing a class, trust your instincts.

Third, it's about time. Time is the most precious commodity we have: our time, our learners' time, time on the job or away from it. A concise, well-organized presentation, whether it is a course, a book or a tape, is always appealing to those who value time. Adopt shorter, simpler, more straightforward ideas and methods. Spend time on the must-know, not the nice-to-know. There is a huge difference.

If training is so simple, why do the post-incident reviews of all disasters include statements about the lack of training and how it was a large part of the problem or all of the problem? Training can fail when trainers fall into traps that disable the people being trained. There are eight pitfalls in the development and management of training:

1. Failing to take training seriously

   You're reading this because you are a leader and you want to be sure that the people who work for you are competent in the skills necessary to perform the tasks. Poor training kills people, ruins careers, costs megabucks, and makes our society question our ability to manage and compete. Scheduling people into a class just to get their quarterly requirements out of the way isn't good enough. Neither is training people to a level of blind confidence without ensuring competency. To be successful you must adopt an attitude that says “training is serious business.”

   Training is serious business for each individual, too. It's been a long time since a person could take one job and make it a career. Job change is a way of life, and training is the way to job change or promotion.

   Failing to take training seriously is an easy trap. Remember one thing: No matter how bad or good things are at any given point, you can make things better. You have to help others remember the importance of training. Sometimes they forget or deny its importance, too.

2. Allowing decision-makers to discount training

   How can you make the case for training? In general, there are four ways to get people to do what you believe should be done in an organization: authority, power, persuasion and training. Certainly you have no authority over upper management, unless you have a strong charter approved by the AHJ, training mandated by law or maybe the impetus of an organization in Washington, D.C. It could happen, but it's not likely. Authority is what you have over people who work for you.

   Power falls into about the same category. Although you have power over someone who works for you who resists compliance, it's hard to fire your boss. You might threaten to go over the person's head, call the media or put a letter in the files, but such power plays really aren't recommended. A letter to the file and notes in the office calendar might be helpful at some future time, but overall this strategy is not productive.

   Persuasion is the most common method of trying to get management to come around. What type of logical argument would you present to them? How would you present your case to compete for funds? “Training is good. We need more training. New people aren't trained. We have a new piece of hardware and need training.” You can try simple persuasion, but don't count on a high success rate.

   You must educate senior decision-makers on the complexities, difficulties, costs and contributions of training. You're a trainer. Do what you do best.

3. Deciding training starts and stops at the fire station door

   Training doesn't always have to be formal and done in a classroom. Fire service tailboard training may be the best type of training provided to a firefighter. This is where experience and skills can be shared.

4. Electing to teach adults like children

   Trainees don't come into programs with blank spaces in their minds like grade-school students. They have been through a screening and testing process, and most have previous experience, training and education. They may have been in the business longer than you. Ask any 100 adults how good they are at their work, and 90 of them will put themselves in the upper quartile of competency.

   Adults don't learn, they relearn and relate. They come to training with an idea of what you are going to teach. And they believe in what they know; it's their reality. Don't teach adults with a standard lecture. Challenge their reality, what they think they know. Assuming you are teaching them something they need to know, don't treat experienced adults like kids in a classroom.

5. Evaluating trainees too timidly

   Taking something simple and making it hard doesn't make it good; neither does taking something hard and making it simple. Both are criminal. Whenever possible, make the trainees show they can perform. Unless you see their performance, you don't know if you've taught them something, changed them. Performance evaluations are insurance. If you can't do it for real, do it in simulation. Performance evaluations are a part — but only a part — of the technology of training.

6. Ignoring the technology of training

   The only people who knew the training wasn't going right were the trainees. No one ever asked them. No key to training exists. There aren't any formulas or secrets, at least no single secret. Although there may be something called the one-minute manager, there can never be a one-minute trainer. Anyone who thinks there is a shortcut to high-risk training will be going to some funerals.

7. Concentrating on things rather than people

   Technology consists of people, processes and things. All are important. Concentrate only on things or processes, and failure occurs automatically. Concentrate on people, and there is a potential for success.

8. Defending the perimeter

   Enter Capt. Strong, the second most-decorated firefighter on active duty to take over the fire academy. Strong knows exactly what each firefighter needs to know, do and look like. He rips apart the existing curriculum and bulldozes his curriculum into place. Whenever anyone inside the academy questions the curriculum, he looks patiently at the student and explains that he's been there and done that. When officers outside the academy make suggestions or complain about the quality of the graduates, he shouts about his prowess as a firefighter.

   The academy was no longer the fire department's, it was Strong's. It didn't take long for each station to establish its own training program. Efficiency for the department went down because the operating units had to invest in initial training.

   Strong looked at himself as a firefighter, not a trainer. He didn't see the academy as a service support unit for the department. He froze out those who could help, and everyone suffered. No one would want Strong to forget he was an experienced firefighter, but he needed to remember that he was a trainer.

   Training has to be as close a replication of what you expect the firefighter to do at an emergency scene as possible. Training in context is the term used to describe this training technique. The theory of training in context is to put the firefighter into a situation that is in context with the real world of firefighting/rescue operations. The application of the theory in training is such that the setup is based on an evolution and critical factors, not based on chapters in a book.

John M. Buckman III has served German Township (Ind.) Volunteer Fire Department for 33 years, 25 of those as chief. He's a course developer and resident instructor in the leadership and administration course at the National Fire Academy. Buckman is co-author of Recruiting, Training, and Maintaining Volunteer Firefighters, Third Edition. Buckman is a past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.