The folks at FireRescue asked me to write an article about my experience as a training officer, so I decided to reflect on some of the things I learned during my time in the Ontario (Calif.) Fire Department (OFD) Training Division. Most of the following lessons I learned the hard way, but I wouldn’t trade my experiences for anything.
1. Stop Complaining, Start Doing
Historically, the OFD’s training captain position has been filled by probationary captains. Why? Most non-probationary captains would rather ride around on shiny, red fire trucks, play with all the cool fire service toys and enjoy their time off.
The same is probably true for the rest of us; we just aren’t programmed to sit in an office. When I decided the fire service was right up my alley, I certainly didn’t say to myself, “I can’t wait to get in that office and start pounding my head into a wall.” Trust me, being a training officer never crossed my little pea brain when I was 19 years old.
Since I’ve been at the OFD, we’ve had only a few veteran captains rise to the challenge of being a training captain; Captain Dennis Pattie is one of them. Captain Pattie was always passionate about training (and he managed to sidestep all the paperwork involved). One day, after he became a training captain, I paid a visit to his office and asked him why the hell he decided to leave the good life of an engine company and go into training. He said something that sticks in my mind to this day: He was tired of being one of the people who always complained about training, so he decided to put his money where his mouth was.
His attitude made quite an impression on me because, unlike many others, he was willing to step up to plate and play some ball on the training ground. He went into training because he had ideas and issues pertaining to the training division that he wanted to address, and he realized that all the complaining in the world wouldn’t solve a single thing. So he stopped complaining and started doing.
2. Follow the “Golden Rule”
Like I mentioned before, the OFD generally fills all of its “40-Hour Captain” positions with probationary officers. (Some affectionately call it “doing your time.”) Other departments fill their training officer positions in different ways, but the bottom line is to remember that you’re in an office-you’re not on a company. So however you wound up in the training division, you must follow the training officer’s golden rule: Do your best, and take advantage of the opportunity presented to you.
Do Your Best
“Doing your best” can be interpreted many different ways because it means different things to different people. To me, doing your best is making the effort to get the job done right. My dad always taught me if something was worth doing, it was worth doing right. And I can’t recall ever seeing my dad doing anything half-assed. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for myself, but I can say that whenever I did give less than my best, I always regretted it in the end.
When I started my stint in the training division, I tried to follow my dad’s advice. I still failed, made an idiot of myself and made mistakes, but no one could say I didn’t put my best foot forward. But just because you try your hardest doesn’t mean you won’t get a healthy dose of criticism. After teaching a training course, the best you can hope for is to hear someone say, “That didn’t suck that bad.”
Take Advantage of the Opportunity
I knew when I was promoted that I was going to the training division for a while, but I didn’t look at it as a death sentence or jail time. Instead I took advantage of the opportunity and did some things I had only talked about before: I started engineer and captain mentor programs, developed an OSHA-compliant training program and resurrected our audio/visual division. I had a number of ideas going into training, some good and some-not so much. But I did see some of my ideas through to the end.
Training not only gave me an outlet for some of my crazy ideas, it also opened doors I never knew existed. The reason I’m writing this article is because of training. The reason I met and worked with some of the finest fire service instructors in the United States is because of training. The reason I’ll die 10 years sooner is because of training-just kidding. The point: You don’t get the same opportunities to do some really fun and challenging things when you spend your entire career sitting on a fire engine.
Another opportunity that stems from taking a training position: Your department gets a look at you in an administrative role. If you ever hope to become a battalion chief or achieve any other rank, your time in any administrative role is crucial because it shows the people who will be in charge of promoting you how well you can handle different types of responsibilities. Note: If you blow this opportunity, it’s hard to regain your department’s trust. Your chief will definitely remember who did well and who squandered their time.
3. Put Your Critics to Work for You
Fire service members are notorious for giving their “humble” opinions and ideas on how they think things should be done and letting you know why they think things are so jacked up. Throwing out your opinion is much easier than getting off your butt and actually doing something, and training divisions certainly aren’t protected from the daily barrage of how-I’d-do-its.
As a training officer, I’d routinely hear how I should be doing something different, better or not at all. Initially, this frustrated me, and I took it personally until I learned a fairly solid strategy: Whenever someone started an “I’ll tell you what you need to do” rant, I’d listen for about 10 seconds and then say, “That sounds great. Why don’t you write up a lesson plan, submit it for review and if it looks good, we’ll put it on the training calendar so you can teach the class.”
Most people don’t have the desire to stand up in front of all their peers and teach a class, so as soon as you ask for something on paper and a time commitment, one of two things will happen: 1) Those willing to put the time and effort into developing a class don’t want to be embarrassed, so they accept the challenge and try their best; or 2) the rambling mouth stops for a moment, reassesses the situation and quickly comes to the realization that this could snowball into some actual work. Suddenly their idea doesn’t seem so great, and they return to doing a whole lot of nothing.
This tactic is truly a win-win because you will either get a good class or successfully shut down the “better idea” guy.
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help
Some fire departments have a seemingly endless supply of manpower in their training divisions. That’s not the case in Ontario, so we must rely on a number of people who want to be involved in training. I learned this lesson during my second week as a training officer, when the weight of my duties and responsibilities began to soak in.
I felt overwhelmed when I put everything on paper and began to organize what was on my plate. I quickly realized I needed help if I wanted to succeed. The first thing I did: establish lead instructors. Our probationary testing process was already broken up into five major areas, so I simply assigned one person to each area as a lead instructor. I allowed each instructor to totally control their section, make changes to their probationary section when needed and assign as many assistant instructors as needed. In return, I asked for two things: consistency in the way instructors taught and evaluated trainees, and help when I needed it.
Allowing other people to help me by giving them the opportunity to lead and participate proved to be a great idea. When you don’t have enough personnel to formally assign to training, you must assign them informally. During this time, all the lead instructors felt a sense of ownership in training, which showed in their dedication and hard work. I overheard several of them at different times refer to themselves as a part of the training division.
5. Make a Positive Impact
If/when you get the opportunity to become a training officer, keep in mind that this is your chance to make a positive impact on the fire service. In this position, you can affect many people, and nothing will be more rewarding than the impact you make on young firefighters. I loved watching the transition of new firefighters from their first day on the job with me to the completion of their probation. A tremendous sense of pride comes over you when a high-quality employee emerges from training-and you had a hand in it.
Conclusion
To be honest, I probably learned more during my time as a training officer than any other time in my career. If I hadn’t taken advantage of my opportunity in training, I never would’ve met certain people or worked on certain projects that ultimately made me a better firefighter.
If you want a challenge and an opportunity to make a difference within your department, then step up and play some ball on the training ground.
Author’s Note: This will be the last Company Officer Development article I write for a while (but don’t worry, I’ll be back!) so I’d like to thank a few people for helping me during my feeble attempt at writing.
First and foremost I want to thank (or beat over the head) Chase Sargent for giving me the chance to take over for him when he retired. Writing this column has been an honor and a privilege, and I hope I didn’t disappoint.
I’d also like to thank Chief Chris Hughes and the entire OFD for allowing me to be truthful when sharing some of the stories from our great department. Hopefully I’ll be given the opportunity to write again, because although it was a tremendous challenge, getting people all fired up is pretty fun.
