Changing the Culture of Safety in the Fire Service by RONALD J

Continuing Education Course Changing the Culture of Safety in the Fire Service BY RONALD J. SIARNICKI and RICHARD GIST Program supported through an educational grant provided by: TRAINING THE FIRE SERVICE FOR 134 YEARS To earn continuing education credits, you must successfully complete the course examination. The cost for this CE exam is $25.00. For group rates, call (973) 251-5055. Changing the Culture of Safety in the Fire Service Educational Objectives On completion of this course, students will 1. Outline the components of “culture” as it applies to the 4. C onduct a basic “hot wash” following company-level fire service. operations. 2. Discuss the relationship between attitude and behavior. 5. Explain the implications of consistent and systematic After-Action Review (AAR) for promoting a culture of 3. Identify the main components of the Theory of Planned safety. Behavior and apply them to creating cultural change. Cover photo courtesy of Deputy Chief Roy Bingham, Polk City (IA) Fire Department. B Y RONALD J. SIARNICKI instruction and subtle elements of socialization. there’s and RICHARD GIST an entire academic discipline—cultural anthropology— that devotes its work to exploring how cultures can be hat iF there were one Simple thing defined, how they develop, how they change, and what you could do to help turn the corner toward differentiates one from another. W the “culture of safety” we have all been seek- it’s probably fair to say that we do not have a “fire service ing? what if that one simple thing were something you culture” per se—at least, not any one unified culture we can already do almost instinctively more often than not? what call our own. we have many levels and variations. a number if the only thing it would take to make that difference of observers seem to agree that there are regional cultures were to do it every day for everything? that differ in significant ways:t he northeastern fire service, too good to be true? there may not be instant miracles for example, has some clear distinctions from the predomi- and patent panaceas for firefighter safety, but there is in- nant culture of the Southwestern fire service, and both are deed something we can do that is pretty much that simple distinct in certain ways from the fire service culture of the and could easily be the most major shift yet toward that pacificn orthwest or the culture of the fire service in the culture of safety envisioned in Firefighter life Safety Deep South or the midwest. many states talk of differing initiative 1: Define and advocate the need for a cultural cultures from one area to another. even neighboring depart- change within the fire service relating to safety, incorpo- ments boast or bemoan significant cultural differences, and rating leadership, management, supervision, accountabil- in larger departments different cultures are said to reside at ity and personal responsibility.1 different stations or across different shifts. now, that reads like a very complex and seriously Still, though, we have many values, beliefs, traditions, daunting objective—and it is! You are well within your and even rituals that hold us together as a culture. parts wits if you wonder how getting there could be influenced of our working apparel are so widely recognized that the by anything described as “simple.” But even very com- outline of a helmet on an elevator key is sufficient to say plicated things, when you break them down and analyze whose it is to push. even a primitive silhouette of a fire their pieces, are typically built from relatively simple com- truck on a diamond sign communicates that a fire station ponents. So it is with notions like “cultural change.” is just ahead. an ax, a pike pole, a ladder, and a nozzle Culture is a difficult term to define. it centers on col- make a scramble so familiar that it needs no further lective sets of values, beliefs, behaviors, incentives, and description. every october, the assembly of uniformed prohibitions. it involves things as diverse as economics, officers and honor guards at the national memorial in politics, religion, custom, and ritual. it is instilled through emmitsburg, maryland, reminds us of the rituals we share complex processes that typically include both formal and the shared tragedies that they represent. www.FireEngineeringUniversity.com SAfeTY CultuRe ● we have proud traditions and deeply held beliefs. their Compliance represents a more sophisticated route to be- core will never change, nor should they change. we believe havior change. Compliance comes when the legitimacy of and in honor, in courage, in valor, and in self-sacrifice.w e believe rationale for behavioral prescriptions are accepted and the in brotherhood and fraternity. But we are also known to take authority to prescribe the changes is acknowledged. people risks that may not need to be taken that produce consequences are most apt to comply when they accept that a rule or an too dire to be left unquestioned, and we are known, even instruction exists for a reason they see as worthwhile or even among ourselves, to often resist change and intervention. beneficial.t hey also are more likely to comply when they see the source of the instruction as a legitimate authority acting HOW DOeS CuLTuRe COMe TO Be? in a legitimate capacity to attain a legitimate objective. this is if culture is an amalgamation of values, beliefs, and a much more stable equation but one that waxes and wanes behaviors that become engrained in people, communities, with the perceived legitimacy of information and information and organizations, how do these things arise, how are they sources—in other words, compliance rises and falls as people transmitted from one generation to the next, and—most and ideas come in and out of favor around the firehouse importantly—how can we change the parts that work table. we all know how quickly such things can change. against us? to get to that point, we must first understand Conformity takes over only when an idea becomes so how it is that people come to do the things they do. basic, so fundamental, and so widely practiced that it seems the most tenacious aspects of culture are those driven almost absurd to question it. it has to be a part of what by conformity. they are seen in behaviors and beliefs that everybody does every day. You’d think that safety would by are often described as norms. norms are so fundamental now have reached that stature in a high-risk enterprise such that we don’t think about them; we don’t know how or as ours. But culture is a very dynamic balance that often when we learned them because they seem to have always involves competing norms. been a part of our world and our movement within it. the very essence of firefighting pits personal safety against Since social norms are so deeply engrained, they’re typi- perceived need. every tribute to firefighters begins with cally quite difficult to change. willingness to risk one’s life to protect another. we laud those For example, the odds are that nobody ever told you ex- who have made the ultimate sacrifice and reserve our most actly how to behave in an elevator. there aren’t written rules solemn rituals—the ones that most define for us who we are about it. Still, you know exactly what to do—walk in; turn to as a culture—to recognize their passing. For generations, se- face the door; look up, down, or forward. if you know some- nior firefighters have regaled the new kids with tales of close one, you will probably say hello, but any conversation that calls and risks survived. terms like “courage” and “valor” are follows is usually kept to short, quiet, low-key exchanges. implicitly connected to peril and risk. Despite the lip service let’s now try an experiment: Step into the elevator and wait we give to risk appraisal and measured reactions, the terms for the doors to close. this time, though, don’t turn around. typically used to describe “cautious” and “analytical” aren’t instead, stand facing the crowd and ask how everyone is nearly as flattering to the ego and are sometimes downright doing. tell them a little bit about yourself; maybe share a few harsh. it’s the classic example of a mixed message. things about your views on current events and politics. You could even follow up with a brief display of talent such as ATTITuDe VS. BeHAVIOR singing, dancing, or telling a few jokes. Security will be wait- we’ve spent a lot of time and given a lot of effort to ing for you somewhere before you get to the top floor. changing firefighters’ attitudes toward safety.t here are Conformity to social norms is not the same as obedi- good indicators at many levels suggesting that we’ve had ence or compliance. obedience is following an order or some success in progressively changing the dominant atti- an instruction because it comes from a source that has the tude of the industry. But changing attitude is only a part of power to enforce it. Obedience carries the possibility of the process—what really matters is changing behavior. coercion—sometimes it is implied, sometimes it is explicit, it’s neither difficult nor uncommon to hold attitudes that but it always lurks somewhere in the interaction. it’s like are inconsistent with what we actually do, especially in that “big stick” that theodore roosevelt spoke of carrying. areas related to health and safety. one need only consider the bigger the stick, the more complete and consistent the how many firefighters still doff the high-tech self-contained obedience it is likely to evoke.

Load more