Combustible

We talk about it A LOT, but we've never really tried to define what we think leadership is. In this episode, we discuss various definitions of leadership; what we like and what we don't like.

Whenever you lose your way as a leader, you can always ask yourself, “What would Ted do?”

In this episode, we dive into how firefighters' decision-making process works, and how critically reliant that process is on experience. So, where are we missing opportunities to build experience and convert it to expertise? We've come up with a new concept called DIFOS that is a series of questions that can be asked to really examine how a decision-making process evolved. It can be used on-scene after a fire or in any situation where an important decision was made.

In Part 3 of our interview we pick up where we left off and get into how we evaluate accidents in the fire service, what we might be able to learn about that process from the airline industry, how to remove dominoes, and we give Bob “The Questions.”

Bob is the first guest we've had to show up to the recording with a powerpoint presentation. And while that gave us a chuckle, it's a presentation filled with concepts that blew us away…and it's a presentation that he threw together the day before. There's a lot here, and we barely scratched the surface on some of it, but we really dig into purposeful non-compliance in Part 2. We also discuss getting everyone dialed in on paying attention on scene, as well as teaching all of our folks to speak up when they see something they think may be important. We also discuss what accident investigation in the airline industry may hold for the fire service, heuristics, and Bob throws in a literal war story from Vietnam about tunnel vision.

Former Birmingham Firefighter George Cowgill posted a very personal account of his time as a firefighter and why he's leaving that behind. If you've read it, you're probably not surprised that it went viral, which is how we came across it. In this episode, we interview George (in Birmingham) by telephone as he discusses how he decided it was time to go.

Like the picture above, psychological contracts can be binding, circular, heavy, old, rusty, and sometimes broken. Before this episode, two of us hadn't ever heard of a psychological contract, but apparently we all have them. What they really are, who you have them with, and whether or not it's okay to break them are questions that aren't so easily answered, but we give it the ol' Combustible try.

Fire is where the glory is. They call us firefighters, not building fighters. But fire isn't really the enemy, is it? How well do you know your enemy?

Murder holes, force multipliers, and obstacles. All of them are components leading to what very well may be a unified theory of firefighters.

Spoiler Alert: we don't really solve the pay problem. That would break a long-standing tradition on our podcast of not solving anything. But there are virtual arms races in some regions as departments raise salaries to compete for what seems to be an ever-shrinking pool of firefighters. Pay is one of those things that we're all talking about, but we haven't talked about. So, we took a stab at it.

What happens when lightning doesn't strike a house, and you don't act like the other firefighters?

And we wrap up our series on The Pathfinder with Part III, which picks up right where we left off at the end of Part II.

We think that the Pathfinder concept is such an important one, that we actually recorded two separate episodes trying to get it right. But each episode went different directions, so they both ended up being valuable to the discussion.

What do a fire recruit, a 70's sitcom, and Walt Disney have to do with regret?

Every organization has those persons who push the organization from the inside. They advocate passionately for change, but while they're doing it they can cause discomfort for those around them. They challenge long-held assumptions. They champion new technologies and strategies. They hold up a beacon and ask everyone else to follow into unchartered territory. It's important work to any successful organization, but it can be exceptionally frustrating for those who are either appointed by the organization, or those that choose all on their own to be a Pathfinder. Beating a path through the wilderness is hard work, and it isn't for just anyone.

This isn't really an outtake; it's just a topic that wasn't really large enough to devote an entire episode to. Bill, all by his lonesome, talks into the mic about the paradox of The Ship of Theseus and what that means for organizational identity…and maybe all of us.

A listener asked us: “At what point is a wrong decision actually worse than no decision at all?” It's a great starting point for a roving conversation that gets into whether results matter in that calculus. We also rehash our earlier debate on the nature of luck in the fire service (Episode 082), what the role of intent is, how Pabel dissects an incident moving forward and Bill goes backwards, and the difference between being wrong and making a mistake.

The National Fire Academy is the home of the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial; hallowed ground for any firefighter. To borrow a phrase from President Lincoln at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, PA (just 12 miles north of the NFA), the memorial on the NFA campus reminds us “that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.” While Bill was at the National Fire Academy for two weeks in Emmitsburg, Maryland this last August, he sat down with Eriks Gabliks, the Superintendent of the National Fire Academy. They talked about what the National Fire Academy is, what it isn't, just how you start out as a volunteer firefighter and end up as superintendent, some of the more popular myths about the campus, why every firefighter should attend a class there at least once, and, of course, we give Eriks The Questions.

On June 6, 2021, Baldwin County Sheriff's Deputy Bill Smith gave his life while saving others who got caught in a rip current off the Alabama shore. Two of our podcast crew (Shane and Bill V.) worked for Bill Smith for years before Bill retired as Deputy Chief of Operations for Dekalb County and went on to his second career in law enforcement. Receiving the news that Bill died while saving others was a shock to both of them, but not a surprise since that was very much who Bill Smith was. Last fall, Bill Smith sent Shane and (Combustible) Bill an article about the former Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel A. Dailey's leadership tips. We've decided for this episode, as a tribute to Bill Smith, that we would discuss each leadership tip one at a time. So, this episode is dedicated to Bill Smith, one of the best firefighters and best leaders Shane and Bill ever knew. And a true “Battle Buddy.”

As is the case with many of our episodes, we didn't set out to make an episode about this. It actually was just a spirited conversation that we were having when we realized we should hit the record button. Is it better to be liked or respected? What is the relationship between the two? And what are the advantages of being liked, respected, or even both? Can you truly be both?

How do we as firefighters deal with luck? How honest are we about what part luck plays in our successes? More specifically, how much do we count on the same luck at our next fire? That's where we start anyway, and we don't exactly see eye to eye about it in the beginning. But that discussion moves to a very open conversation about how we evaluate our performance on fire scenes, and the process by which each of us thinks we should be judging ourselves.

You make the case that you’re the best person for the next step up; only you don’t get chosen. What do you do then? When does a natural amount of disappointment turn into an unhealthy perception of being slighted? How hard is it to get behind the person who got promoted instead of you? And what about those folks who choose to burn the organization down when they aren’t promoted? In this episode, we discuss what we each personally have done after not getting chosen, what we wish we did better after past promotional disappointments, and how we each hope to process disappointments that are in our futures.

For this episode, we talk with “backstep” Firefighter Austin Kohler, who is only a few years into his career in the fire service. We ask him what he enjoys about the job, and what he didn’t expect about it. And about halfway through, we give Austin the upper-hand and let him ask us questions like: How do you perfect your craft in a position without the upper echelon thinking you're a “turd” for not wanting to move up? Who was the best Driver Operator you ever worked with? And what’s the difference between a good Driver and a great Driver? How much talking on the radio is too much? How do you motivate older firefighters with a bad case of “Don’t-give-a-damns”? And What is Blue Card? (from a previous episode)

The book Leadership On The Line says a plan “is no more than today’s best guess.” So why do some in our profession get so attached to their plan that they can’t see when their plan has lost all chance to succeed? In this episode, we sit down with Louie Bruno to talk about planning and preparation. Louie’s experiences in Technical Rescue for the last eight years have given him some valuable insight into the merits of planning, as well as the benefits of knowing when to pivot and rely on your preparation instead.

What you’re about to hear wasn’t really ever intended to be an episode. It was a side conversation that took place during a recording session in December 2019 that we just happened to record. We sat on it for over a year, but we’ve decided it’s something others should hear. It’s about what to do with a great idea before you try to implement it, and how your “great” idea can be even better. It first has to be exposed to the crucible of “The Tenth Man” -- a process like forging iron that will subject your idea to enormous heat, pounding from all different directions, bending, re-heating, more pounding, quenching, and tempering so you end up with an idea that can withstand daily use and just might change the world.

We’re issuing all of our listeners a challenge in 2021. It’s only nine minutes long, but the effects could last for many years to come if you’re willing to take us up on it.

We’ll wager there isn’t a firefighter in the fire service who isn’t an advocate of training. But when you call that training “higher education” you start to get somewhat mixed reactions. Make higher education a prerequisite for some promotions, and now you’ve probably got some real disagreement. What’s the correct balance between experience, training, and formal education? How do you measure experience against the other two? Which of them, if any, are indispensable? And if you’ve got formal education, what are you doing with it? This episode had to be recorded remotely, so forgive some deficiencies with the sound quality. But it did mean that we have video to accompany our recording, so check us out on YouTube as well as all of the podcast listening platforms.

How do you figure out if someone is good for your team? Good for the organization? Good for you as a leader? What does it mean to build a diverse team, and how can different skillsets, talents, and perspectives be beneficial? Can they fill in the gaps that the team has, or that you don’t fill yourself? And when does it become unhealthy? When do differing opinions, or goals, or approaches become an obstacle to success? In this episode, we attempt to answer all of those questions. Then Pabel proposes a system for evaluating risks and benefits, and we spend some time debating the challenges inherent in using it. In other words, what are the risks/benefits of using Pabel’s risk/benefit tool? Like the title of this episode says, you should surround yourself with people who will challenge you. We’re just practicing what we preach.

When you don’t agree with a decision made above you, is it wrong to let people know you don’t agree? For this Ten Rounds we discuss whether telling those you are supervising that you don’t agree with something undermines authority or whether it actually helps you get that thing done. Then, as is the nature of these Ten Rounds episodes, Pabel takes us in a completely different direction to talk about why turnout gear should be better designed for the individual.

No matter how hard we try to avoid them, screw-ups are going to happen. When they happen, we shouldn’t avoid acknowledging them. Don’t wear them like a badge of honor, but own them nonetheless. You’ve already paid the price for the lesson; you might as well get the benefit of learning from it. In this episode, we go over some of our own personal biggest screw-ups (not counting the previous examples in Episodes 22, 25, 26, and 28) and how to really capitalize on the fact that you’re going to screw-up. We also take some time to talk about how to write your letter about your screw-up; what to include, and more importantly what not to put in it.

At the end of our last recording session we only had twenty minutes left to record, which isn’t enough for a full episode. So Hatch suggested we do Ten Rounds. It’s simple: any one of us can talk for two minutes uninterrupted on any topic we want. When the bell ends that round, someone else can either continue on the topic, or start on a different topic. They talk uninterrupted for two minutes, and then the next….well, you get the idea. Ten rounds of two minutes equals a 20 minute podcast. Shane starts this one off talking for two minutes on managing expectations, and we go from there.

We all should be doing a size-up as we approach any scene. And if you’ve got other units responding with you, someone is ultimately going to be required to give some of what you’re seeing and thinking over the radio. So how important is the size-up? How good are you at giving them? How important are the words you choose to describe what you’re seeing to everyone else that’s still enroute? And what’s the most important thing to say about a building on fire?

In this episode, we sit down with Attorney Lance LoRusso to discuss the dangers of something almost all firefighters engage in: social media. And you can’t talk about social media without talking about the legal ramifications of firefighters taking pictures and video on scene. Even if you don’t post the pictures, you might be surprised where those pictures can get you. We also tackle the very prickly topic of the limits of free speech, and answer the question, “When are you speaking for yourself and when are you speaking as a representative of the department?” And that’s something all of us should know, because it’s something that can get all of us in trouble.

There is a central concept that runs throughout Pete Blaber’s The Mission, The Men, and Me: That you should always listen to the boots on the ground. We really like that idea. Colin Powell said something similar when he described his “bias was toward the guys in the field.” But we also recognize some wiggle room within the concept, which prompted us to send out a survey to see where our listeners were on this idea. In this episode, we talk about those survey results, where we think that wiggle room leaves us, the 1986 “boots on the ground movie” Aliens, and what happens when the left boot doesn’t match the right.

This episode is the second part to our conversation with Todd Edwards. We pick back up where we left off last time: with Todd’s view on how to approach the problem of underperforming firefighters in your station. Granted, if you’re good at rehabilitating firefighters, you usually get sent more “projects,” and as Todd explains, it can begin to seem like Groundhog Day. On top of that, you’re not going to succeed every time. We discuss the nature of success and how many times you might fail for every time you succeed. Todd then goes on to tell us about his latest endeavor making better firefighters. His class “Breaking Barriers” is training for responders on how to interact with people who have special needs. You may be asking, “So a bad-ass firefighter isn’t teaching tactics? Instead he’s teaching how to be more understanding and sensitive?” You bet your ass he is, and it’s pretty remarkable. If you’re interested in more information about the class after listening to the episode, Todd can be reached at toddedwards6@yahoo.com.

The illusion of a perfect fire is a tempting one, but it’s also just that: an illusion. In the first part of our discussion with Todd Edwards, we talk about the “perfect fire,” the nature of evaluating our performance at every fire, and Todd’s approach that there are at least three things on every fire that we did well. And when we turn our attention to those things we didn’t do well, Todd explains that we should always start with “Why?” We also talk to Todd about his desire to pass along realistic leadership to the fire service, and what Todd defines as The Leadership Stack Effect. Then we turn our attention to Todd’s ideas about firefighters who aren’t that engaged.

Payton Owens came to the fire service, left, grew an impressive beard, and then came back again. When he left the department, he had some pretty serious stuff going on in his personal life, but he freely admits: he had become pretty disgruntled with the job. Payton got gruntled and came back. His reasons for returning and his perspective are a large part of this episode, but we also discuss “easy decisions” and what part trust plays in decisions that don’t go your way. We pressure Payton to admit that he’s an informal leader and debate what kind of impact the informal leader has on those around them. When he admits a mistake he made managing the gym he owned, the discussion reveals how running a gym and a fire department aren’t that different at times.

A short side discussion from one of our recording sessions about what’s at the nature of success when operating on the fireground: adaptability.

This quick discussion was born out of an article called “Command NOT Control” by Eric Saylors. Not all of us had read the article, and Shane and Pabel (who did read it) aren’t sure if they agree with it or not. Just when the discussion might be getting going, our appointed time to interview Chris Wessels sneaks up on us, and he’s calling in. We might have to pick this topic up again in the future.

When we sat down to talk to Chief Chris Wessels, we had a specific topic in mind that we thought we would cover. But what happens so often with the best conversations happened here; the conversation itself led us to places we didn’t think we were going to go. In this episode, we speak with Chief Wessels about respect inside the firehouse, millennials, mental health, what to do when you don’t get promoted, and a whole lot more. We certainly enjoyed ourselves, and some of what Chris had to say really got us thinking. We think there are some aha moments in there for anyone listening.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.