Making Mrs. Smith a Priority

Throughout our careers, we train for countless hours on how to manage our resources and how to apply the right strategies and tactics to incidents of varying complexities. At the same time, we spend thousands of dollars to train and educate our company and chief officers on how to make quick, consistent and effective decisions during high-stress situations. Yet not a single one of us has ever been to the “perfect” fire; errors in decision-making are made each and every time. In many cases, these errors are small in nature and have little or no effect on the eventual outcome. But sometimes these errors have fatal results.

In the 1970s, philosophers Samuel Gorovitz and Alasdair MacIntyre published an essay on the nature of human fallibility. Their essay described the two reasons why we commonly fail: ignorance (science has only given us a partial understanding of how the world works) and ineptitude (the knowledge exists, but we fail to apply it correctly). In his book, “The Checklist Manifesto,” Atul Gawande uses the findings of this essay to introduce a simple yet incredibly effective solution to reducing human error in decision-making: the checklist.

The successful use and application of checklists has become the hallmark of safety in many industries–aviation, healthcare, military services, etc. We’ve embraced them in the fire service, too–think of tactical worksheets, incident action plans and field guides, all of which guide our decisions on the fireground. But are we applying the same rigor to our management and leadership decision-making processes?

Considering the devastating losses we’ve suffered over the years, it’s painfully obvious why we would advocate the use of fireground checklists. They help remove the emotions and inconsistencies from decisions that can otherwise be influenced by stress or personal bias. Checklists standardize our decisions by providing a specific direction in accordance with an established plan (using a decision-tree model–if this, then that) based on a known set of circumstances, regardless of who’s in charge. Put simply: Checklists give us an advantage, a way of organizing and using our collective knowledge, when fighting fire’s destructive force.
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But today, far removed from the fireground, fire service professionals are faced with a much different, yet equally destructive force. Some of the decisions we’ve made (and continue to make) go against the grain of what our customers would rightfully approve, and they’re beginning to undermine our most precious asset–public trust.

The longstanding public trust and support we enjoy are the product of the efforts of countless generations of firefighters that have filled our ranks in years past. Every day, we have the opportunity to strengthen that trust and support–or to undermine it and lose it forever–based on the decisions we make.

Consider the decisions you’ve made over the course of your career. Did you make those decisions for yourself (as a firefighter) or for Mrs. Smith (the customer)?

Did you race to the last house fire or vehicle entrapment for you (to beat Engine 2 in on their first-due), or for Mrs. Smith? Did you approve or recommend the chrome wheels, custom paint scheme and gold leaf striping on the new apparatus for you, or for Mrs. Smith? Did you vote to change your shift schedule, your leave policies or your work uniform for you, or for Mrs. Smith?

Sadly, when we review these lists side by side, in far too many cases the list of decisions we’ve made to benefit ourselves far exceeds the list of decisions we’ve made to benefit  Mrs. Smith.

In the best of times and the worst of times, our job, our duty, our mission, is to look out for Mrs. Smith, the customer in need of our services. The more we look out for Mrs. Smith, the greater her support will be–and the greater the opportunity we will have to expand our list.

So maybe it’s time to create a checklist for non-emergency decision-making. Depending on the situation, there are many things to consider including on such a checklist. But one thing is certain: Asking ourselves, “Will this benefit Mrs. Smith?” should be first on the list.