Fostering Innovation in the Fire Department

What separates a fire department that is static and unchanging from one that is continually growing, reinventing and progressing?

According to Tom Jenkins, chief of the Rogers (Ark.) Fire Department, the key is in “restless” management–leaders who aren’t satisfied with the status quo; rather, they’re constantly asking how they can improve the department. “There are plenty of examples of really innovative fire departments that at some time became satisfied with their success and stopped changing,” Jenkins says. “Complacency is kryptonite to innovation.”

Innovation–and how officers at all levels can foster it–was the topic of today’s Fire-Rescue International seminar (“Planting the Seed: How to Grow Innovation in Your Department”) led by Jenkins and his co-presenter, Jake Rhoades, chief of the Edmond (Okla.) Fire Department. I caught up with Jenkins before the show to talk more about the pursuit of innovation.

What do you say to those who feel that innovation threatens fire service tradition?
I think we have to stop feeling so special, that we’re the only people who fear change. I don’t know that we’re so different from healthcare, law enforcement, any industry that has a hierarchy of leadership. But innovation never threatens our tradition.

The fact of the matter is, we have evolved. The fire service of 1930 wasn’t a whole lot different from 1950, and 1970 wasn’t a whole lot different from 1950. But when you compare the fire service of 2013 to 2003, or 2003 to 1993, there’s a huge amount of change. In 1993, most fire departments weren’t using incident command; some firefighters were still riding the tailboard.

The amount of change coming into our organizations is exponential. For the fire service tradition to survive, we have to be innovative. Fires are becoming a smaller and smaller fraction of our business, so we’re going to have to embrace other things to maintain traditional staffing and the good things that the fire service has. Tradition won’t survive if you don’t innovate.  

What are some of the obstacles to innovation?
Obstacle #1 is linking innovation to money. A lot of core fire departments say, we can’t be innovative because we don’t have money. Conversely, some affluent fire departments say, we are a well-funded department, thus we are progressive, thus we are innovative. Innovation at its core isn’t about financial wherewithal. So we try to identify things like communication, policy and processes, which can be innovative without costing a dime.

Obstacle #2 is communication. Brain power is the most important commodity at the fire department–there are a lot of good ideas floating around out there. But oftentimes, we lack the processes to get input from others and share it in such a way that can produce innovation. You have to have ways to get ideas from the guys and gals on the companies. Innovation isn’t going to come out of the chief’s office, and it probably shouldn’t.

You talk about “ingredients” for innovation. What do you mean?
You have a bunch of things you need and you’re stirring them up to create something. These “ingredients,” again, aren’t “money” things–they’re education, knowledge, processes. We refer to the Magic 7 things that you need for innovation. One of them is to identify the power players in your organization, to make sure they have a way of contributing ideas.

Another one of the Magic 7 is “knowing the dollars.” Most fire chiefs receive only very limited financial preparation. Even chiefs who are solid financial managers often only know about expenditures; they understand their budget but have a poor understanding of where the fire department fits into the city budget, and they don’t understand revenue. If you have a small fire protection district, that’s pretty easy. If you have a city with 20 to 30 different departments, different funding structures and revenue streams, it’s more complicated. And if you’re a fire chief in a municipality, it becomes even more complicated to understand where that revenue comes from.

We don’t spend a lot of time in the fire service talking about financial management. Even the curriculum in the EFO program, as good as it is, doesn’t address it in depth. But understanding dollars is a step to innovation. When you understand the revenue stream, you understand opportunities to make additional revenues.

How should fire chiefs become better at financial management?
A lot of the time we rely on fire service manuals that have a financial management chapter. That’s inadequate if you’re the fire chief; you need a much more holistic view of your organization. So you need to educate yourself. Take a public finance class or a budgeting class, or read some of the books about public financial management published by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).

Also, reach out–become a friend to the bean counters. The fire service too often lives in a silo. It’s rare for fire chiefs to be located inside city hall. We’ve got to get inside the city finance manager’s office, the treasurer’s office, and understand how that works.

So it’s a combination of networking and education from books that don’t have a Maltese cross on the cover.

What role can company officers play in innovation?
Company officers probably play a more important role to the day-to-day innovation than anyone else. The best ideas are at the company officer level. The problem is that you get a lot of ideas that come from that level, and you need to find a way to absorb them. Company officers have to take information from their supervisor and get it to their men and women, and in turn, take feedback and information back up to the chiefs. Innovative organizations have figured out how to master this communication process.

The company officer also has to understand the need for innovation because they’re the future chiefs. For the best company officers, we hope the rank is just temporary. As they move up, they need the skills to make processes better, more involved, more transparent. The bottom line: Company officers are by far the most crucial human resources to innovation in the fire service.


Editor’s note: If you’re at Fire-Rescue International, don’t miss another seminar by Chief Tom Jenkins, “Calm Not Calamity: Be Ready for These Tough Questions from Your Mayor or City Manager,” offered on Thursday, Aug. 15 at 10:30 a.m.