![]() ![]() HR says, "What did everybody else say?".The fire chief says, "Let's talk to HR.".Battalion chief says, "Sounds interesting.They bring the idea to their lieutenant.A lowly firefighter formulates an idea.Unfortunately, a bottom-up, or decentralized, system is the opposite of how decisions get made in the fire service.Īllow this sequence of events to describe the process: Thriving economies, businesses, governments, fire departments, etc., need a bottom-up system that allows for rapid trial and error to be effective. I wouldn't say I like comparing the fire service to the Soviet Union, but you'd think we would have learned our lesson about extreme centralization: It doesn't work. You are removing the frontline leaders’ responsibility for even the most arbitrary of decisions and demeaning their capabilities. If you are leading a department of that size, just trying to manage the 20-30 battalion chiefs is impractical, nevermind deciding what T-shirts individual stations can wear.Īnd if you’re the fire chief who’s deciding what T-shirt a company can wear, then you either aren't empowering your station leaders to make decisions, or you promoted the wrong people. ![]() ![]() So a fire chief managing 1,000 folks is an impossible task. The span of control, in a nutshell, says you can't effectively manage more than 3-7 people. And, I assume, every firefighter has heard the term span of control. The problem with centralized fire department systemsĮvery fire department, big or small, has a hierarchical structure. And, I believe that the main contributor is the centralized command of our fire departments. Unfortunately, the fire service is sitting in purgatory, at least from a decision-making standpoint. How fire chiefs can make better decisions ![]()
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