Tag Archives: management

So how can we in the Fire & EMS profession more proactively “capture” such knowledge before it “walks out the door” with the next retiree? Let’s take a closer look at some of our “old and reliable” information management tools: policy, procedure, and processes.

For young people who've not previously had this degree of structure in their lives, becoming a member of a Fire and EMS organization can be a daunting challenge. We owe it to this next generation of firefighters--and to our organizations--to become better managers who effectively develop and maintain the three sides of the triangle.

Not so fast! Are you still telling your stakeholders what YOU need or are you telling them what THEY need? In his best seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the late Stephen Covey calls this “seeing the issue from the other person’s frame of reference and crafting your message so that it comes back to them through their frame of reference.”

Many time as managers and supervisors we tend to use the terms responsibility, authority, and accountability interchangeably. These words are not synonyms, however, and when we use them as such we can create disharmony for ourselves and the people we work with. Read this piece and learn the power of these three words!

While there are certainly many aspects of this shift that Fire & EMS leaders need to address, I believe one of the most critical is the communication of organizational knowledge from one generation of members to another.