Three Core Training Components
Written by Gordon on May 5th, 2008
And hello again to all my friends in and associated with the fire service. Gordon Graham here with my monthly opportunity to talk to you regarding your profession and what is going on. In my last piece I talked about the value of “systems” – processes, procedures and structured approaches to doing a given task. And the bottom line for that piece was that when systems are properly designed, kept up to date, and fully implemented – things go right and we stay out of trouble. And also I did tell you that too many of our problems come from a lack of implementation – and that three of the reasons that systems were not taken seriously were “arrogance, ignorance and complacency”.
Arrogance and complacency are personal traits that need to be addressed by and for the person who possesses that trait. For those of you who are supervisors and managers in your organizations (or for the co-workers that really want to make things right) you need to address these attitudes in advance – and hopefully assure that “systems” are being implemented.
I would like to focus this piece on the importance of training with the goal of attacking the “ignorance” issue. Not just training but rather “constant and rigorous training”. If you have been to any of my live lectures over the years, you know that I am a fan of “every day must be a training day”. And if training is going to really work, there are three core components.
First – training has got to be “job description specific”. Too many times I see people attending training days and programs that have nothing – nothing at all – to do with their current job. I am always a fan of cross-training – to make sure that people will know how to do someone else’s job if that becomes necessary – and I think that is important. But all too often I see people attending programs that are completely and totally unrelated to anything having to do with the attending employee’s job. So knock that nonsense off. Training has got to be job description specific.
Second, training has got to focus on the “core critical tasks” specific to that job. After your good people go through initial training – whether it be at a formal academy or on site at point of hire – there must be a process to assure that people really know how to do their job – prior to getting involved in any specific task, incident or event. And the tasks, incidents and events that have the highest probability of causing us grief are the “core critical tasks” – the “high risk, low frequency, non-discretionary time tasks”. Every job description has them. Things that are very risky, done very rarely, with no time to think prior to acting require this “constant and rigorous training”.
For a firefighter, an example of a “core critical task” would be the RIT activities that may someday have to performed. I was recently in Indianapolis and I had several hundred fire service professionals in the audience and I posed the following RIT question. “How many of you have actually had to participate in RIT activities?” And not one hand went up – not one in two days with several hundred of your peers. It is akin to the “shoot-don’t-shoot” scenario that cops face. While it is a big deal if it ever does happen, indeed it is very rare. Regardless, you have to be prepared to do this type of event every day you suit up – and this requires the “constant and rigorous training”.
And finally, the whole goal of training is pre-incident verification of level of knowledge. This is fancy talk for let’s really make sure that the trainee fully understands how to do this given task, incident or event, and that we verify that through actual performance of the task.
So why I am rambling on about this training issue? Well, for two reasons primarily. In an earlier piece, I mentioned the foundation of real Risk Management – RPM. You must recognize the risks you face. Then you must prioritize them in terms of frequency, severity, and available time to think. And then you must mobilize (act) to address the identified and prioritized risks. Summarizing this, you must recognize and prioritize the risks involved in the aforementioned “core critical tasks” and then you must mobilize. And then you must mobilize – you must act to address the “recognized and prioritized” risks.
Some of you (perhaps many of you) are familiar with the firefighter safety website FFCC (www.firefighterclosecalls.com). If you have never visited this site – take the time to do so and put on your “favorite” list. Chief Goldfeder (out of Ohio) provides the content (sometime some hilarious stuff) for this site as he scours the globe (and around America too) for things that are going on in your profession that you need to know about. The initial premise for the site was to provide an open forum for firefighters to share their “close calls” so that other firefighters could learn and share this new knowledge with their peers to prevent future problems. The site has grown substantially since it started in 2002, and now an important part of this site is the “training” section.
My earlier comments regarding “every day must be a training day” are fully implemented on this portion of the site. There are hundreds of “training drills” and other bits of training materials that you can peruse, pick and choose, download, modify, adjust or otherwise screw with to make them work for your department. And if you note the topics on this portion of the site – most of them fall into that area of “core critical tasks” that was talked about earlier in this piece.
Now if you think that I am trying to steer you to a site where somehow I benefit personally, you are wrong. This site is entirely free, with no pop-ups, no advertisements and no junk – just the facts about your profession with the goal of allowing you to “learn and share” – learn something new every day and then have the ability to share it with all those you work with, again with the goal of better assuring that things get done right the first time which is the goal on every task, incident and event in which you get involved.
So do me a favor, please. Take a look at the site. Download some of the material. And if you have a “close call” of your own – where you did something incredibly stupid that darn near killed you and you said I will never do that again – ever, then share this “close call” with complete anonymity and no fear of reprisal, embarrassment or discipline.
You do have an obligation to take care of your peers, and I cannot think of a better way to do this than to make every day a training day, and focus the training on the stuff that counts. Anyhow, I was going to close this piece by reminding you of the importance of “everyone goes home” but I am acutely aware of the ongoing litigation between FETN and NFFF regarding this statement, so I will not use that phrase for fear of getting sucked into unnecessary litigation. So instead I will say “Everyone must go home everyday” and according to my lawyer (who went to day school) that is sufficiently different than “everyone goes home” so I am in the clear. And what better way to assure that “everyone must go home everyday” than to eliminate the “ignorance” that is oftentimes caused by the failure to adequately and fully train personnel.
Anyhow, that is my nickels worth for this month. Thanks for the responses to my piece and if you ever need to get to me directly, you can do so through ggraham@lexipol.com Until I see you next month, please take the time to work safely.
Gordon Graham
