Contents

Personal Characteristics 1 Leadership Characteristics 1 Search and Rescue Topics Practice Makes Perfect 3 DRAFT 0.1 March 2016 Task Switching and Multitasking 6 Task Switching 6 Keith Conover, M.D., FACEP Multitasking 6 Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference Decision-Making 7 Leadership and Department of Emergency Medicine, Sources of Power 7 University of Pittsburgh Mind Traps 9 Followership Situational Awareness 12 Search and Rescue The Gorilla in the Room 14 Topics Human Nature 16 are educational essays on Artes Liberales 16 backcountry ground search The Bard 16 and rescue in the mid- The Prince 16 Appalachian mountains The Selfish Gene 17 of North America, though Sociobiology 18 the principles should be Classical Greece 19 applicable globally. They Personality 19 draw on the experiences Contentiousness 20 of the members and Emergency Services Workers 22 Groups of the Appalachian Personality Typing 23 Search and Rescue The Mandate of Heaven 26 Conference (ASRC). A Pair of Coveys 26 They are less formal Power Vacuum 29 than traditional textbook Whacker Management 30 chapters. Sometimes they Heroic Efforts 30 digress, but always for an Whackers Are Expected 32 educational purpose. Confidence 32 SAR Topics provide the Pride Goeth Before a Fall 34 knowledge needed to meet Embrace your Inner Whacker 36 the training standards Leading Volunteers 36 of the ASRC (www.asrc. Ulysses S. Grant Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon, starting a civil war Free the Peasants 36 net). They cover all levels Management Consultants 37 from Field Team Member Rhetoric 39 Personal Characteristics to Search Manager. Leadership Styles 42 SAR Topics are freely Charisma 42 There is no such thing as leadership. management. available online in PDF. Task-Oriented Leadership 43 That is, there is no one character or personal- They are covered by a The Sun King 45 ity trait, there is no one skill, that is “leadership.” Leadership Characteristics Creative Commons license Change and Transformation 46 The ability to lead effectively requires a com- (see last page) so you can Psychological Safety 47 bination of aptitudes, character traits, skills, Ulysses S. Grant was a very highly regarded. print and hand out to your Memes and Meaning 48 experience. and luck. And the particular com- general in the Civil War. An aggressive and SAR team or share with The Rules 49 bination of those things depends on the setting. competent military leader, he won the cru- friends without fear of Authority and Power 50 In order to approach this large, ill-defined cial battles of Shiloh and Vicksburg. Abraham copyright violation. When Followership 54 subject, we will look at it from many different Lincoln then gave him overall command of all Topics are completed, Competing Roles 54 but complementary aspects. I hope that, after the Union Army which, heretofore struggling, they will form a complete Adult Education 56 reading this chapter, you’ll find yourself, not quickly won the war for the Union. His strat- textbook for Ground Search Mentoring 58 in a confused slumber, but with at least a basic egies are still studied in military academies and Rescue as practiced in The Socratic Method 59 grasp of this complex and vitally-important across the world. the central Appalachians The Right Attitude 60 topic. He became President in 1869, and in this and surrounding areas. Yet Another Graph 64 Note that in this chapter we are discussing role was not highly regarded. His ratings have Closing 64 leadership more than management; manage- crept up in recent decades, based mostly on his Specific SAR Tasks 64 ment will be discussed in more detail in the strong support for civil rights. But his ratings Words of Wisdom 65 chapter on search tactic and team manage- started from a very low point: in 1948, Arthur ment, and the chapter on search and incident Schlesinger Sr., writing in Life magazine, rated

Leadership ♦ Personal Characteristics ♦ Leadership Characteristics 1 Educational Objectives

Field Team Member (FTM)

Demonstrate the following abilities in Act effectively and efficiently as litter cap- Act effectively and efficiently as litter team the field: tain in a non-technical evacuation, includ- member on a semi-technical evacuation (1) Function as a member of a grid team, ing the proper use of toenailing, laddering, and describe the personal equipment sweep team, and hasty team, and and rotation of litter bearers. required for the rescuer’s safety. understand his/her role and duties in each type of search pattern; (2) Accompany a dog handler on a simple search task.

Field Team Leader (FTL)

Field Team Leader standards define the c. Describe the manpower and equip- Demonstrate the ability to direct a six per- minimum requirements necessary to lead ment requirements and the team son litter team safely in rigging a Z-haul an organized search team for missing organizational structure necessary system (3:1 system), a 4:1 hauling system, person search, ground portion of missing to accomplish an advanced semi- a “brute force” hauling system, and, using aircraft search, and non-technical and technical rescue operation. the systems, to move a litter a minimum semi-technical rescue. of 100 feet up a 45 degree slope. Demonstrate the ability to properly brief a Search Tactics field team before a task, including: Serve competently in all positions on a a. List and explain in detail five respon- … semi-technical rescue, including: sibilities of the Field Team Leader (2) Obtaining information from the (1) Serving as rope team leader with when carrying out a field task. team members, such as team mem- tree-wrap brakes, Figure-8, and brake ber medical problems, and other bar rack Rescue Operations relevant input; and . a. Describe how to formulate a rescue (3) Adequately evaluating team mem- plan. bers’ abilities to do the task. b. List and describe four major factors (4) Demonstrate the ability to debrief a team leader must consider once a properly a field team after a task, subject is located.

Search Manager IV (SM-IV)

Search a. Brief a field team leader properly d. Debrief a field team leader properly f. Handle the media in an appropriate before a task after a task manner … …

Search Manager III (SM-III)

SAR Operations f. Describe the role of the Search staff positions … … Manager in relation to the Legal c. Demonstrate the ability to com- e. Demonstrate an understanding Responsible Agent (RA) in the follow- municate with the staff by means of the individuals or groups listed ing situations: of briefings, meetings, and written below including how they impact a (1) When the RA is uncooperative communications. SAR incident, what their concerns (2) When the mission involves or d. Describe the internal staff informa- are, how to interact with them, when expands into other jurisdictions tion flow system, including verbal, and how to effectively use them, and written and electronic communi- how to mitigate against inappropri- Search Management cations, required to insure that ate external influences. … information is properly collected, (1) Psychics b. Demonstrate the ability to develop evaluated, disseminated, utilized, (2) Media and manage a staff and describe and stored throughout the incident. (3) Family and friends of the subject(s) when, where, and why various func- e. Demonstrate the ability to work tions should be assigned to which within a unified command system.

These objectives are taken from the Training Standards of the Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference (v7.1, 5/12).

2 Leadership ♦ Personal Characteristics ♦ Leadership Characteristics Warning

There are 10,000 published works on leadership. By Sturgeon’s Law, 90% is crap, but the remaining 10% has insights from humanity’s best and brightest.

There’s a parable found in Jain religious/philosophi- cal texts from two thousand years ago, and in many other traditions as well. Six blind monks were asked to tell what an elephant looked like by feeling differ- ent parts of the elephant’s body. The blind monk who feels a leg says “the elephant is like a pillar!”; the one who feels the tail says “the elephant is like a rope!”; the one who feels the trunk says “the elephant is like a tree branch!”; the one who feels the ear says “the elephant is like a hand fan!”; the one who feels the belly says “the elephant is like a wall!”; and the one who feels the tusk says “the elephant is like a solid pipe!”

As you read, you will encounter different views of leadership. I hope you can combine them to reach some appreciation of the beast as a whole. Blind Monks Examining an Elephant, an 1888 ukiyo-e print by Hanabusa Itcho

him as #28 of 29 presidents. proposed that only great men,¶ such as We can look back further, to Rome’s Gaius Napoleon, who was defeated by Wellington at Julius Caesar, widely regarded as one of the Waterloo just a few years prior (1815), could greatest generals of all time: Veni, vedi, vici.* shift the powerful currents of history. Due to But when he returned his army from Gaul† their charisma, intelligence, wisdom or politi- to Rome, he decided to continue across the cal skill, they can make lasting changes to his- Rubicon River despite the edicts of the Roman tory. And certainly Napoleon, though finally Senate.‡ This precipitated a civil war that he defeated, made major changes to the political won. But he ended up getting assassinated for geography of Europe that persist today. his excesses as a ruler. (Et tu, Brute?§) But in the 1860s, Herbert Spencer, an English You can argue that if he wasn’t assassinated philosopher, challenged this. He posited that he would have been a great civil leader, but part such “great men” were a product of their times, of being a great leader is making sure you don’t and that if Napoleon had never existed, some get killed by your erstwhile allies. other person would have filled his role. Today, If we wish to draw direct parallels to search more historians believe Spencer. and rescue, we might suspect that someone who is a great Field Team Leader might not nec- Practice Makes Perfect essarily do as well as the administrative head of a SAR group. Malcolm Gladwell has authored multiple But a more general parallel is: leadership in popular books, including 11-week #1 bestselling one role or domain doesn’t necessarily translate Outliers: The Story of Success, which posits that into another role or domain. “genius” is really just experience. As the popular After considering Grant and Julius Caesar, joke goes: A man walking on West 59th Street we should review Scottish philosopher Thomas in New York, bordering Central Park, asked Carlyle’s theory of history. In the 1840s, he another man on the street, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The man answered, “Practice.” And Gladwell, after his research, contended * “I came, I saw, I conquered.” that great musicians were great simply because † Roughly, today’s France. ‡ The Rubicon was the traditional boundary of Rome proper, as opposed to they practiced so much; if you just practice the provinces of the Empire, and armies weren’t allowed in Rome proper. They the violin 10,000 hours, you, too can solo at should have put up a marker; today nobody knows what river corresponds with the Romans’ Rubicon. § “and you, too, Brutus?” Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger was one of the ¶ Sorry, no great women; this was 1840s Europe. Perhaps this is an example of group that assassinated Caeser. The words come from Shakespeare’s play Julius confirmation bias, to be discussed later; they ignored examples such as Boudicca, Caesar, but there is no evidence Caesar actually said this. Queen Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, and Empress We Zetian.

Leadership ♦ Personal Characteristics ♦ Practice Makes Perfect 3 Carnegie Hall. But Gladwell’s con- there are other people who, rather than lacking tention has been called into ques- the essential physical or mental characteristics tion. Steven Pinker, in the New for a skill, have them in excess. York Times wrote, “The reason- To continue with the violin-playing analogy ing in ‘Outliers,’ which consists (about as far from SAR as you can get, but none- of cherry-picked anecdotes, post- theless useful), let us consider the case of Tartini, hoc sophistry and false dichoto- a rockstar-level violinist of the 1700s. His level mies, had me gnawing on my of playing was so far beyond others that it was Kindle.” rumored – nay, bruited about widely – that he was in league with the Devil himself. Tartini “How do you get to Carnegie himself supported this contention by relating a Hall?” “Practice!” dream, a story which became embedded in the popular culture of the time: But there is more to it than that. One night, in the year 1713 I dreamed I Statue of Tartini in Piran, Slovenia The Declaration of Independence had made a pact with the devil for my soul. says “All men are Everything went as I wished: my new ser- created equal…” vant anticipated my every desire. Among but the found- other things, I gave him my violin to see if ing fathers were he could play. How great was my astonish- thinking about ment on hearing a sonata so wonderful and equality before so beautiful, played with such great art and the law, not equal- intelligence, as I had never even conceived in ity in the sense of my boldest flights of fantasy. I felt enraptured, equal abilities. transported, enchanted: my breath failed me, If you were and - I awoke. I immediately grasped my in an industrial violin in order to retain, in part at least, the accident, and impression of my dream. In vain! The music Le Songe de Tartini par Louis-Léopold Boilly 1824 lost both hands, which I at this time composed is indeed the it is unlikely that best that I ever wrote, and I still call it the 10,000 hours of trying to the play the “Devil’s Trill”, but the difference between violin would lead to a solo appearance it and that which so moved me is so great at Carnegie* Hall. Perhaps, in 50 years, that I would have destroyed my instrument prosthetics will advance and prove this and have said farewell to music forever if it wrong, but for right now, we can all had been possible for me to live without the probably accept this statement. More enjoyment it affords me. subtle physical disabilities may lead to Another violinist of the next century was the same result: if you have cerebral such a great violin player that, still today, his palsy and weak hands, you won’t be name is almost a synonym for “virtuoso”: able to make it all the way through the Niccolo Paganini. Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Paganini gives us no story of a dream-like And it’s not just physical disabilities meeting with the devil. He is not today con- that bar you from Carnegie Hall. If you sidered as being in the first rank of composers. have Alzheimer’s dementia, you may However, one of his works, the Caprice No. 24 not be able to remember the notes. Or, in A minor, is considered the most difficult ever what if you’re tone deaf? written for violin. Not only is it difficult, it has So, to get to Carnegie Hall, you need a haunting quality that has fascinated other 10,000 hours of practice, but also the composers to this day. It lives on in many works underlying physical and mental capabil- by later and more famous composers, many of ities to allow that practice to be effective. which are considered among the composer’s Paganini Tomb, Parma, Italy At the other end of the spectrum, best works. Some contend that this one tune, like his virtuosic skill, resulted from a deal * I didn’t realize this until I moved to the Pittsburgh area, where Andrew Carnegie lived, and where you find Carnegie-Mellon University, and the small with the devil. Wikipedia lists 33 works based borough of Carnegie, just outside the Pittsburgh city limits, where I now live. on Caprice No. 24. Here are a few particularly The correct pronunciation is not CAR-neg-ie, it’s Car-NEG-ie. That’s the way Andrew pronounced his name. worth a listen:

4 Leadership ♦ Personal Characteristics ♦ Practice Makes Perfect Soft Stuff Personal Characteristics

To some, leadership means how to brief and debrief a ▸▸ Leadership expertise in one field may not transfer search team, how to ensure that people hold up their to another field; a great FTL may not make a good end of the litter, and making sure the belays are done team administrative leader, and vice versa. properly. This chapter is not about what that kind of ▸▸ “Practice makes perfect”: In Outliers, Malcom stuff, what I call operational management. You’ll read Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours of practice to about operational management in the other relevant become a “genius” (expert) at whatever you want chapters. to do, for instance, playing the violin. Does this apply to leadership? This chapter is about people skills. Psychology. ▸▸ Some of us have physical or mental abilities or Sociology. Politics. That sort of “soft” but very, very disabilities that make us more or less suited for important stuff. some leadership roles. Nonetheless, practice can make us better at those leadership tasks we must If you don’t think this soft stuff is important, then assume, such as leading a search team of sponta- this chapter is aimed directly at you. neous volunteers.

• Johannes Brahms – Variations on a Theme of strings; break another string, and continue Paganini, Op. 35 playing on the two remaining; and when the • Franz Liszt – the sixth and last of his Études third string broke, finish the piece playing on d’exécution transcendante d’après Paganini one string. Even if you’ve never tried to play the for solo piano, S.140 (1838) – revised and violin, you should appreciate the mastery this republished in 1851 as Six Grandes Études de requires. One also suspects he did quite a bit of Paganini, S.141 preparation for this trick, and there are accusa- • Sergei Rachmaninoff – Rhapsody on a Theme tions he deliberately made small cuts in some of of Paganini, Op. 43 his strings. Nonetheless, showmanship is a skill When we look at the case of Paganini, we find like leadership, and is likely also built from both some evidence of physical characteristics of natural talent and practice. No violinist since Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome or Marfan Syndrome: has been able to reproduce this feat. tall, thin, with long and double-jointed* fingers. In 1986, violinist Midori finished a concert If we accept this – and there is fairly persuasive at Tanglewood after breaking two strings; but evidence – then Paganini had a natural endow- she did so by quickly borrowing others’ violins ment that set him far above other violin play- (check the YouTube video). We should perhaps ers. But in a sense, this really was a deal with forgive her for not continuing to play her dam- the Devil. Those with Ehler-Danlos or Marfan aged violin; she was only 14 at the time. Syndrome tend to suffer from a variety of life- The same principles apply to both violin- shortening illnesses, not the least of which is a playing and search and rescue leadership. Your tendency for the aorta, the main blood vessel particular inborn physical and mental aptitudes coming out of the heart, to rip asunder (“aor- and character traits will condition your SAR tic dissection”). Paganini died in 1840, at age leadership – and followership – capabilities. 57. As of 2012, the cause of his death is still in What does this say for SAR leadership abili- dispute,† but his burial in consecrated ground ties? As George Orwell famously said in Animal was delayed for 36 years due to suspicion that Farm, we are all equal, but some of us are more the Devil had indeed taken his soul. equal than others. If Paganini had certain inborn advantages Let’s not give up on Gladwell entirely though. for a player of the violin, he certainly studied Perhaps 10,000 hours of practice is not suffi- music hard from his earliest childhood – and cient for expertise. But perhaps it is necessary. if you start early, it’s easier to get to the 10,000- And no matter your level of natural talent for hour level. The combination resulted in level of leadership or followership, practice will make virtuosity not seen before. In concert, Paganini you better. famously could break a violin string, and Let’s now take a detour into the cognitive keep playing the piece on the remaining three science that help explain the role of practice in preventing errors, and the implications for * “Double-jointed” is a common term for finger (or other) joints that are quite lax: they are much more flexible than those of the average human. leadership and followership: † Kijewski, H., et al. (2012). “[Illness and death of the violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini--interpretation based on new hair investigations].” Arch Kriminol 229(1-2): 11-24.

Leadership ♦ Personal Characteristics ♦ Practice Makes Perfect 5 Task Switching and Multitasking

Task Switching task switching.§

From cognitive science observations of Multitasking emergency physicians in busy Emergency Departments, we know that being interrupted We also know that humans can only truly makes you more likely to make errors.* Since multitask when one of the processes is prac- the chaos in a busy ED is not that different from ticed so much that it becomes automatic. An that of a busy search base or rescue scene, it’s example is walking and talking at the same reasonable to generalize this to SAR personnel. time. A good example of where true multitask- With rare exceptions for well-practiced tasks, ing doesn’t occur is driving and texting on your humans can’t really multi-task… what we really phone. do is termed task-switching; we switch back and People popularly talk of repeated practice forth rapidly between tasks.† And no matter moving a task such as tying a Figure 8 knot how good you think you are at “multitasking,” to “muscle memory.” Even if the memory isn’t task switching makes you more likely to make a really in the muscle but still in the brain, the mistake, as it involves interruption, even if just phrase is succinct and gets the idea across. self-interruption, although some people are Interestingly, the most likely error during better at task switching than others. task switching, especially late in the task, is to It’s common knowledge in Emergency not complete the last subtask. For example, you Departments that some people are suited for are interrupted as you are tying a Figure 8 knot working there and some aren’t.‡ I find that and you forget to tie the backup. (Which is one the vast majority of interns going into the spe- of the reasons for the best practice of always cialty of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation having someone else check any rigging or tie- (Physiatry) hate their ED rotations, and per- ins.) But once you practice enough to move into form poorly, as they can’t task-switch very well. muscle memory not only the Figure 8 knot. but The practice of physiatry doesn’t require much backing it up as well, you’re much less likely to in the way of task-switching, so the fact that forget to back up your knot, even if you’re inter- they don’t fit well into the ED is not an impedi- rupted while tying it. ment to their career plans. Their time in the ED And practice may not only be required to may just solidify their choice of physiatry as a specialty. § There have been a few exceptions, including one PM+R intern who liked the ED so much he came back for an elective. I suspect if there is a mass shooting at Some people excel at task-switching. I once his office he is likely to be one of the best responders. saw one of my emergency medicine partners sitting at a computer typing one of his ED notes, Task Switching and at the same time as he was listening to a para- Multitasking medic report on a handheld radio, and turn to ▸▸ “Multitasking” is rare; mostly what we do is better the nurse who was standing there waiting to termed task-switching. talk to him: “Well? What do you need?” ▸▸ Interruptions make task-switching necessary, and Not all of us will have such a talent for task- make error more likely. ▸▸ It takes extensive practice to move skills into switching. Only those who have facility with “muscle memory,” but that allows true multitask- task switching enjoy (or at least tolerate) the ing, such as walking while talking, or perhaps busy ED environment, or the busy SAR envi- tying a Figure 8 knot while discussing the evacu- ronment, with their requirements for frequent ation route. ▸▸ Some people have a natural facility for task- switching and are suited for jobs such as working in a busy Emergency Department, helping to * Chisholm CD, Collison EK, Nelson DR, Cordell WH. Emergency department workplace interruptions: are emergency physicians “interrupt-driven” and run things at a busy search base, or managing a “multitasking”? Acad Emerg Med 2000;7:1239-43. complex rescue. Some people don’t. † Skaugset LM, Farrell S, Carney M, et al. Can You Multitask? Evidence and ▸▸ Stressful drills requiring task-switching may Limitations of Task Switching and Multitasking in Emergency Medicine. improve members’ task-switching capabilities. Annals of Emergency Medicine 2015. ‡ Perina DG, Brunett CP, Caro DA, et al. The 2011 model of the clinical practice of emergency medicine. Academic Emergency Medicine 2012;19:e19-e40.

6 Leadership ♦ Task Switching and Multitasking ♦ Task Switching make perfect, it may also make automatic, raise consciousness of What Makes a Leader? meaning task-switching and multitasking are the need for drill, and easier, especially in stressful environments make members more When someone says “search and rescue leader” you get a mental image of a very buff, muscular guy. (It’s with many interruptions. Given the forgoing aware of the risks of always a guy.) Based on movie portrayals, this guy discussion of the psychology of task-switching, task-switching. has serious emotional issues, but can climb 5.11 (very consider an educational strategy that supports As a leader, try to hard) cliffs with one hand tied behind his back. He’s learning task-switching. Have trainees prac- minimize the amount crabby but can order people around very well, occa- sionally punching out an obstreperous team member. tice tying Figure 8s and backing them up (or of task switching you other skills) in a nice, comfortable environ- have to do. Part of But real life is not like the movies. Good SAR team ment with no distractions. Drill both trainees leadership is delegating leaders may be assertive… but most SAR team and older members in their skills with gradu- tasks to others; while members are that way. Instead of punching out obstreperous members, good leaders work around the ally increasing environmental distractions of this increases your problems and gently redirect members, getting them weather, noise and interruptions until the skills span of control, it also to contribute to the group effort. What sets good SAR move into “muscle memory.” Drill not only frees your mind and leaders apart is their ability to get respect and trust simple psychomotor skills like Figure 8 knots, decreases your need for from SAR team members, to encourage them to do their best, and to be cool, calm and collected when the but more complex psychomotor skills such as task switching, making shit hits the fan. We call this people skills. belaying, and cognitive skills such as land navi- you less likely to make gation or leadership decisions, in progressively an error. more stressful situations. And perhaps, if a PM+R intern joins your After a drill with interruptions and stress- team and is obviously flailing, it might be best ors, discuss multitasking and task switching to point this person at other opportunities for and have members reflect on their experience public service in the outdoors, such as trail with this during the drill. This may not make maintenance. members better multitaskers in itself, but it may

Decision-Making

Once you get beyond movie stereotypes and Sources of Power you start thinking deeply about SAR leadership, you probably get quickly to a simple proposi- Until recently, the scientific study of such tion: How do I avoid making bad mistakes? decision making was quite bogus:† empty the- There are few things that can do more to orizing that didn’t fit the facts. Psychologists demolish your self-confidence, and the confi- came up with all sorts of elegant stories about dence of those you are trying to lead, than an how we make decisions, and then each one was obvious blunder. in turn demolished. Abraham Lincoln once said “If the end brings There continues to be lots of literature on me out all right, then what is said against me decision-making, some of which is academic won’t matter. If I’m wrong, ten angels swearing I esoteric work, and some of which is directed was right won’t make a difference.”* at the general public, and most of it bogus. The No bones about it, making the right deci- most interesting recent non-bogus work comes sion under time pressure and in a chaotic envi- from psychologist Gary Klein: his 1998 book ronment is one of the hardest things humans Sources of Power. If you want to be a SAR Field can do. People often join SAR teams to bet- Team Leader or even just a Field Team Member, ter handle emergencies in other parts of their you should read this book. lives, whether at work or at play in the outdoors. Klein rejected the traditional academic While learning self-rescue skills is OK, perhaps ivory-tower methods of bringing subjects into the most valuable thing SAR team members a lab, presenting them with information and learn is how to make good decisions in bad then seeing what decisions they make. Instead, situations. he wanted to study real decision-making in the real world.

† Sometimes, while sitting in the back row at a scientific presentation, attendees * This quote will also appear later in this chapter. It’s on purpose, and the quote will whisper to each other: “The bogons are flying.” This apparently refers to the is worth repeating. elementary particles of bogosity.

Leadership ♦ Decision-Making ♦ Sources of Power 7 Metaphor Starting in 1974, he worked for the Air Force, us draw on our experience by suggesting paral- (metÆÃ fôrÅ, -fÃr), n. studying how pilots develop expertise. In 1985, lels between the current situation and something 1. a figure of speech in he started studying how firefighters make life- else we have come across. The power of storytell- which a term or phrase and-death decisions under extreme time pres- ing helps us consolidate our experiences to make is applied to something sure. That led to others studies, with pilots, them available in the future, either to ourselves to which it is not literally nurses, military leaders, nuclear power plant or to others. applicable in order to operators, chess masters, and experts in a range Klein says Our results seem to hold even when suggest a resemblance, of other domains. This showed that traditional there is not much time pressure so one suspects as in “A mighty fortress decision-making models were quite useless in expert search managers use intuition as much is our God.” Cf. mixed explaining how these people actually made deci- as statistical search data. metaphor, simile (def. 1). sions when stressed, and in particular, how they Here are a few more quotes from the book 2. something used, or usually made the right decisions. For instance, if that will give you a flavor of what this means: regarded as being used, you are commander of an AWACS* plane, how We try to understand how people handle all of to represent something do you make a split-second decision about that the typical confusions and pressures of their envi- else; emblem; symbol. aircraft incoming on radar? Is it hostile and you ronments, such as missing information, time con- [1525–35; < L metaphora < should order your fighters to shoot it down, or straints, vague goals, and changing conditions. Gk metaphorá a transfer, is it a commercial-carrier aircraft full of civil- …be skeptical of courses in formal methods akin to metaphérein ians? He calls this naturalistic decision making. of decision making. They are teaching methods to transfer.] Klein came up with a new decision- people seldom use. making model called Recognition-Primed …we do not make someone an expert through Decisionmaking (RPD), which is much more training in formal methods of analysis. Quite successful at describing real-life decision-mak- the contrary is true, in fact: we run the risk of ing, especially the kind you will have to do in the slowing the development of skills. If the purpose field on search and rescue operations. A better is to train people in time-pressured decision mak- understanding of how we make these decisions ing, we might require that the trainee make rapid well help you learn better, and do a better job responses rather than ponder all the implications. of teaching others, to make the right decisions … when you need to make a critical choice now. The part of intuition that involves pattern Klein identifies traditional decision-making matching and recognition of familiar and typi- sources of power: cal cases can be trained. If you want people to size up situations quickly and accurately, you • deductive logical thinking need to expand their experience base. One way • analysis of probabilities, and is to arrange for a person to receive more difficult • statistical methods. cases. Another approach is to develop a training We certainly use these methods in search program, perhaps with exercises and realistic planning, in Base, or increasingly, via remote scenarios, so the person has a chance to size up planning. numerous situations very quickly. A good simula- But the sources of power that you need in a tion can sometimes provide more training value field search and rescue setting are usually not than direct experience. A good simulation lets analytical at all. Klein identifies these other you stop the action, back up to see what went on, sources of power: and cram many trials together so a person can develop a sense of typicality. Another training • intuition, strategy is to compile stories of difficult cases and • mental simulation, make these the training materials.† • metaphor, and Klein does like after-action debriefs/critiques: • storytelling. Cognitive critiques help the squad leaders reflect on what went well and not so well during an Klein says: the power of intuition enables us to exercise, and to use this reflection to increase how size up a situation quickly. The power of mental much they learned from experience. The critique simulation lets us imagine how a course of action is a simple exercise, consisting of questions about might be carried out. The power of metaphor lets how the squad leader had estimated the situation

† You will note in the other chapters tales from my and others’ experience. This * Airborne early Warning And Control. is a deliberate attempt to follow this advice.

8 Leadership ♦ Decision-Making ♦ Sources of Power (Was it accurate?), uncertainty (Where was it a up a steep slope. But you didn’t check the uphill heu·ris·tic (hyōō- problem, and how was it handled?), intent and side of the tree where there is a very large hole rǐs’-tǐk ), adj. rationale (What was the focus of the effort?), and with rotten wood inside. This problem was pre- 1. serving to indicate or contingencies (reactions to what-if probes). mature closure. point out; stimulating A bottom line take-home message: we learn A related concept comes from the study of interest as a means of to make the right decisions not so much from human error: the wrong but strong error. Have furthering investigation. lectures, and certainly not from reading chap- you ever entered a room and tried to flip on the 2. encouraging a person ters like this or self-help books. Klein says: One light switch, only to realize that the room light to learn, discover, application of the RPD model is to be skeptical is already on? Maybe not, but how about this understand, or solve of courses or books about powerful methods for one: during the first week of January, have you problems on his or her making effective decisions, thirty days guaran- ever written down the date but written the date own, as by experimenting, teed or your money back. using December’s year instead of the new year? evaluating possible answers Klein would tell us that enough experience or solutions, or by trial Mind Traps would lead you to have the intuition to check and error: a heuristic the other side of that tree. True, but maybe teaching method. Klein rightly emphasizes the roles of intu- there are ways to avoid these errors as you’re 3. of, pertaining to, or ition, pattern-matching and mental simula- working toward that level of experience. Crew based on experimentation, tion to support good decision-making under resource management is a gift to the rest of the evaluation, or trial- pressure. world from the massively-safe aircraft industry, and-error methods. However, a colleague of mine, an emergency will be discussed a bit later. It says you should 4. Computers, Math. physician named Doug McGee, gives a lecture use a checklist, at least a formal checklist in pertaining to a trial-and-error where he talks about the mental traps that can your mind, and one of those checklist items method of problem solving lead an emergency physician to error. The lec- in your mind should be “check the tree anchor used when an algorithmic ture is about emergency physicians and sick* completely.” approach is impractical. patients, but the lessons can be generalized to To avoid premature closure, you need to –n. anyone dealing with critical decisions under cultivate the attitude of “Yes, this is very much 5. a heuristic method time pressure. most likely, but what could I be missing? And of argument. There is a saying “When you hear hoofbeats, what are the consequences if I miss it? What’s 6. the study of heuristic think horses, not zebras.” Most of the time, in the worst thing I could be missing? Is there procedure. the USA, it holds: “common things are com- anything here that doesn’t quite fit?” Cultivate [1815–25; < NL heuristicus, mon.” However, you might be wrong, especially second thoughts. Don’t let them paralyze you equiv. to Gk heur(#skein) if there was a zebra breakout at a nearby animal with “analysis paralysis,” but let them, briefly, to find out, discover park. have their say. + L -isticus -ISTIC] A heuristic is a rule of thumb,† something Another heuristic-type error comes from that you use as a general rule for taking care of attribution bias. common issues in your work or even in your Let’s say you are inspecting a rope as you coil daily life. They make our mental life more effi- it up after a training session. As you learned in cient, which in general a good thing. the Nontechnical and Semi-Tech Evacs chap- But Doug says “heuristics kill.” He gives three ter, you are running it through your hands as examples: premature closure, attribution bias, you coil it up. As it slides through your hand, and confirmation bias. you feel a bump, and stop coiling to look at the You see something that you’ve seen many rope. You see a bit of mud sticking to the rope. times before, and you deal with it the way you Having found the cause, you use your finger to always have. You check the wrap-3-pull-2 web- flick off the lump of mud. You continue coiling bing anchor on a tree, and the angles are right, the rope. However, what you didn’t realize that the knot’s tied correctly, and backed up properly. under that lump of mud was a partial break in The tree is large and well-rooted. The direction the rope’s core and the lump wasn’t just a bit of the belay is fine. You give a thumbs-up to of mud, it was also an effect of the bunched- the relatively-new member who is going to be up core. You attributed it to the lump of mud, using this anchor for belaying a litter coming but it was really from the damage to the core underneath that made the mud stick right there. * Emergency physicians tend to divide emergency department patients into three categories: not-sick, sick, and sick-sick. Another concept that applies in this example † There also is a “rule of two thumbs” in search planning: on a standard USGS of both premature closure and attribution bias topographic map, a good size for a search segment to assign to a field team is the area covered by your two thumbs. is satisfaction of search: once we have found an

Leadership ♦ Decision-Making ♦ Mind Traps 9 answer to whatever confronted us, we are satis- you turn just a little bit right or a sharp right.” fied and don’t dig deeper. “Let me look at the map. It was a sharp turn, I’m Once we have come to a conclusion, we tend pretty sure.” “Have you been going downhill to ignore information that refutes that conclu- since you turned right?” “A little bit, not too sion. We call this confirmation bias. much.” “Are you on a ridge or on a valley?” “Oh, Let’s assume that you’re looking for a hiker I’m definitely on a ridge, it’s sort of breezy up with an injured ankle. The hiker has a map and here.” “How far downhill have you gone since a cellphone but no GPS. And because of all the turn?” “Not very much downhill, mostly the reflections in the mountains, you can’t get level with a bit of downhill.” a location fix from cellphone towers. The hiker You send a hasty team along the Rockytop says “I started at the Appalachian Trail right Trail and find the injured hiker about 2/3 of a next to Skyline Drive, and then turned down mile down that trail. This is an example of con- the Rockytop Trail. I went, I don’t know, maybe firmation bias: you tend to ignore incoming a half mile or a mile and then turned right on information that doesn’t quite jive with what the Big Run trail. I was walking down this for your mental model of the situation predicts. another half mile or mile when I twisted my Some psychologists might point at this also as ankle, heard a pop, and now I can’t walk. I’m an example of anchoring or an anchoring bias: right on the trail.” However, a hasty team has you stick with your initial mental model and hiked the entire Big Run Trail, down to the old are reluctant to move away from it until the evi- shelter then back up the northern half of the dence becomes overwhelming that you must; or Big Run Trail back up to the Appalachian Trail, sometimes not even then. with no sign of the hiker. Another heuristic trap, specific to the out- You contact the hiker again. “That first right doors, has been identified by Ian McCammon turn that you made, did you look at the trail of the National Outdoor Leadership School. In signpost?” “I don’t remember. I think so.” “Did a paper presented at a 2002 conference about

10 Leadership ♦ Decision-Making ♦ Mind Traps snow, he points out the psychological effects to do the Old Rag Ridge Trail, and we’re doing of, among other things, a winter day with deep to do this hike regardless of the weather.” Many powder snow, blue skies and sun.* While he outdoor disasters with multiple deaths have was talking specifically about recreational skiers’ been attributed to this sort of heuristic trap, perception of avalanche danger, it is reasonable which becomes engrained in people’s minds at to extend this insight to any outdoor recreation the subconscious level, and can be very hard to or ground SAR setting. He cites other research even consciously notice, much less to counter. that shows that 83% of avalanche accidents were • Scarcity : if you want to go backcountry pow- caused by decision-making errors (though, as der skiing, you have to do it when the powder discussed later, we may reasonably be con- is fresh. If you want to do the Old Rag circuit cerned that this figure may be influenced by hike on the first warm, sunny day of spring, retrospectoscope/hindsight bias, which we will then when that day arrives, you really, really discuss later). want to take advantage of it. I could say that He specifically identifies four heuristics that this applies to your recreational pursuits and affect our perception of risk in the outdoors: not your SAR pursuits. But if you’re going out • Familiarity : the tendency to believe that our on a search, you do want to find the person behavior is correct to the extent that we have while he or she is still alive, so actually it have done it before. So if you’ve been out applies in spades.† hiking in this general area before, and never Any discussion of decision-making in the had an accident or been forced to bivvy in a outdoor setting, whether outdoor recreation storm, then even on a SAR operation in this or search and rescue, has to mention the clas- same area, you believe you’re not going to sic 1973 book Hazards in Mountaineering.‡ If a have an accident or have to bivvy in a storm. bit dated, and oriented to climbing in the Alps, McCammon found that familiar terrain tended the whole book is worth a read for anyone who to make people discount even known risks, ventures into the great outdoors. more so than unfamiliar terrain. The most important enduring lesson appears • Social proof: the tendency to believe that a in the first pages of the introduction: dividing behavior is correct to the extent that other hazards into objective and subjective hazards. people are engaged in it. I can think of an Objective hazards are those in the environ- example from a Blue Ridge Mountain Rescue ment. Rockfall, avalanches, slippery rocks or Group summer training on Old Rag Mountain ice, swift-running streams, steep slopes and in Shenandoah National Park. We had been on cliffs, stinging nettles and poison ivy, and sharp the summit, which is quite exposed. We saw a branches just waiting to poke out the eye of a summer thunderstorm with lots of lightning nighttime searcher. heading right towards us. We quickly gathered Subjective hazards are those we bring with our gear and headed down the Saddle Trail to us: lower and safer elevations. As we went down These hazards emanate from the moun- the trail, we passed recreational hikers heading taineer and his spiritual and bodily short- up the trail. We pointed out that, if a hard- comings, such as overestimation of his core mountain rescue team was heading away powers of orientation, of his capacity of from the summit, maybe they should follow observation and his knowledge of elemen- us down. “No, there are lots of people who are tary alpine experience, combined with lack doing the circuit hike today, we’ll be fine.” of efficiency and underestimation of difficul- • Commitment : is the tendency to believe that ties or overestimation of his own skill. The a behavior is correct to the extent that it is right choice of a climbing companion is also consistent with a prior commitment we have of supreme importance. made. “We came here to make the summit, Whereas purely objective hazards are the and we’re going to make the summit, no matter same for every mountaineer, subjective haz- how late we get back.” “We drove three hours ards vary according to the individual. They can, however, be reduced to a minimum or * McCammon, I. (2002). Evidence of heuristic traps in recreational avalanche accidents. Proceedings ISSW. Another recent study by Ross Otto shows that † This phrase, from the early 20th century in North America, reflects the craze blue skies and your favorite sports team winning makes you more likely to take then for card game contract bridge, in which cards of the spades suit rank risks, specifically buying Lotto tickets: Otto, A. R., et al. (2016). “Unexpected highest. but Incidental Positive Outcomes Predict Real-World Gambling.” Psychol Sci: ‡ Paulcke, W. and H. Dumler (1973). Hazards in Mountaineering. New York, 0956797615618366. Oxford University Press.

Leadership ♦ Decision-Making ♦ Mind Traps 11 eliminated altogether by resolute self-control. particularly slow, and so you are considering The authors go on to point out that most shortening their task over the radio, and assign- mountaineering disasters require a combina- ing another team to quickly get out and do the tion of not only objective but subjective hazards. second half of their task. If there is a find, you know which teams are strong enough you can Situational Awareness direct to the find, and which teams you should probably get out of the field before tonight’s pre- Situational awareness is a key term in the dicted storm. literature of human error. Doug Mcgee, in his For efficiency and safety, regardless of what “heuristic kill” presentation, talks about three your role might be, your goal, for you and all oth- levels of situational awareness: ers around you, should be Level 3 Situational 1 Perception : If you are leading Filed Team Awareness. To support this, you can Bravo, you know how many members are in • Change the environment: Make sure every your team. You know where they are at all member of team Bravo has a copy of the Task times. This is often called accountability, and Assignment Form, or at least a map with the when you can report that all your team mem- task marked on it, or at least a map of the area. bers are present, you can say “Team Bravo has And maybe a compass and/or GPS or cell- par.”* phone GPS app. If you’re the Ops Chief in Base on a search, Make sure Base has maps and ICS briefing you know how many teams you have out, and forms posted up where anyone can easily read roughly where they are. You know if any are late them. in reporting their status. • Directly improve team member and staff 2 Comprehension: If you’re FTL for Team Bravo, awareness: For your Field Team Members, you you know, at least roughly, members’ capa- can brief them with all that stuff that’s run- bilities and vulnerabilities. If you’re out on a ning through the back of your head, not just search task, you know who you are looking for, the official briefing: “Looking at the map, and and have at least some ideas on why he or she talking with Ginny here who knows the area, might be lost. we have a pretty hard and potentially danger- One team member is lagging. You investigate, ous task. It’s a straight shot down this single and decide he is simply in poor aerobic condi- rocky trail, which goes the length of this small tion after the flu last week, nothing more seri- wilderness area. It’s a long way from one end ous. You decide there is no need to abort the to the other. And once we reach the halfway task, you can just slow the pace a bit. point. the fastest way out is forwards. And we If you’re the Ops Chief in Base, you have a only have – let’s see – 6 hours until sundown. feel for the overall strategy and goals, and how And here [showing everyone the weather map well your teams are likely to accomplish them. on your phone] is this big storm heading this 3 Projection to the Future: For Team Bravo, way, predicted to hit us about 8 PM. So much you’re keeping an eye on the condition of as we want to move fast, I think it’s better if we your team members. Another member who is load up with some extra warm clothing and lagging, on investigation, is recovering from shelter. I know we talk a lot about bivouacs a sprained ankle. You are concerned about and rarely do it, but ever there’s ever a time to getting the task done before dusk and an prepare for a bivvy, this is it. And if we make a approaching storm. When you stop for lunch, find, even if Base decides to to a night evac in a you use your wilderness first aid knowledge storm, I’ll give odds that we’ll have to bivvy for and some duct tape to tape up his ankle, after a fair while until a full evac team can get to us.” which he can keep up with the team without You can also insist, when you are leading difficulty. a combined Teams Bravo, Alfa, Charlie, and As Ops Chief, you are keeping track of the Foxtrot on a mixed semi-technical and non- progress of your teams, and projecting when technical evac, that all belay team and litter they might be done, given the approach dusk rotation calls are shouted quite loudly, and and approaching storm. One team seems echoed loudly, so everyone has better aware- ness of what’s going on from minute to minute. * The term “par” comes from the fire service, but is used in other domains as Most of the members on this combined team well. When a team leader says “Team Bravo has PAR” this means that your Personnel Accountability Report doesn’t have to report anyone missing. are from your SAR group, which makes this

12 Leadership ♦ Decision-Making ♦ Situational Awareness CT scan of the chest: can you find the white cancer nodule?

fairly easy. During group trainings, you’ve kept deterioration: in mind the maxim “old habits die hard,” and • Learn to appreciate subtle signs: if your heart you’ve been a stickler for members calling out rate goes up a bit and it’s not from exertion, or those calls nice and loud, so as to make it an see signs of anxiety in your team members or “old habit.” Base staff, that might indicate that the water In Base, you can make sure that you carefully temperature is increasing. monitor all teams’ progress, provide them with • Value the right data point at the right time: if updated weather forecasts about the storm, and the time for the storm’s arrival moves up from prepare contingency plans in case any of the 8 PM to 7 PM, you might want to start plan- teams need to bivvy. ning in case it moves up to 6 PM or even 5 PM. • Monitor for slow deterioration: Have you • Avoid harmful heuristics: especially as the every heard how to boil a lobster humanely? water gets warmer, start looking at alternate You put it in water, then slowly bring the explanations for things. water to a boil. The lobster never notices the • Consider a “broad dif- gradually increasing heat until it quietly dies ferential”: Differential of heatstroke. Turns out this is totally bogus diagnosis is a medical – actually it seems to make the lobsters suffer term that indicates dif- more – but it’s such a great analogy for a “slow ferent possible causes disaster,” I’m going to use it. I’m not going to for signs or symptoms. give examples for slow deterioration, as the When you are out on stories are too long and complicated for a short a SAR task or in Base teaching story. Talk to me or other long-time and you are “getting in SAR people sometime when you aren’t in a the weeds” (to use a golf hurry. A suggestion, though: as you’re about a metaphor), think about third of a way through your task in the field, or all the different possible 747 cockpit, which is easy to learn compared to SAR leadership. your shift in Base, just ask “lobster?” and see if causes, not just the com- it applies. mon ones. Suggestions for assessing for slow In the airline industry, training called cockpit

Leadership ♦ Decision-Making ♦ Situational Awareness 13 resource management, later called crew resource perform a familiar lung-nodule detection management or simply CRM, is designed to task. A gorilla, 48 times the size of the aver- reduce errors and has been shown to help age nodule, was inserted in the last case that reduce them. This kind of training has been was presented. Eighty-three percent of the used in many other situations to reduce error. radiologists did not see the gorilla. Eye track- Much of this is focused on increasing situ- ing revealed that the majority of those who ational awareness in the 747 cockpit, the nuclear missed the gorilla looked directly at its loca- power station control station, or in our case, in tion. Thus, even expert searchers, operating Base or in the field. in their domain of expertise, are vulnerable Situational awareness is improved by requir- to inattentional blindness.* ing subordinates to speak up, especially when Narrowing of attention and “inattentional from a culture that almost worships authority. blindness” can lead to decreased situational This has been a source of airplane tragedies: awareness, missing important but subtle clues. copilots not speaking up when they perceive a And when people are stressed, their attention hazard because “it’s simply not done.” Think of narrows. North Korea, or other authoritarian societies. Which means that people who are comfort- We will discuss this in more detail later. able in the outdoors, and not stressed by the outdoors, make the best search and rescue The Gorilla in the Room team members. If you’re leading a search team of untrained volunteers who are not comfort- Later work by Gary Klein and others has able in the woods, then you should assume that focused on selective attention. The most famous they might not see as many clues as trained SAR example of this is a psychology experiment car- team members, solely due to the narrowing of ried out by Christopher Chabris and Daniel attention from the stress of being in the great Simons. They asked subjects to watch a short outdoors. They also might not be as safe at res- video in which teams, wearing black and white cue tasks. My favorite story about this (although t-shirts, pass a basketball around. Subjects were I have several) is a cave rescue in southwestern asked to count the number of passes made Pennsylvania years ago. by one of the teams. In one of the videos, a Laurel Caverns is partly commercial and woman in a gorilla suit walks through the room. partly wild. The management offers tours along Subjects were closely focused on the basketball, the lighted and graded paths, but also offers and half of them didn’t even notice the gorilla guided tours into the wilder sections of the in the room. Check out the video on YouTube. cave; visitors can rent gear at the cave entrance Radiologists are really, really good at find- building. ing small cancers and the like. Did you find the The cave is predominantly horizontal, but small cancer nodule at the bottom left of the there’s some scrambling over large rocks and up picture at the top of the previous page? Good. and down steep slopes, and people can and do But did you know that over two thirds of radi- fall. As it relates to the technical aspects of the ologists missed the gorilla at the top right? You rescue, I’ve described this story in the chapter did see it, right? on Nontechnical and Semi-tech Evacs. But now Trafton Drew and his colleagues published a let’s look at it from a different view. study in 2013 that used this image to test radi- A National Cave Rescue Commission ologists. Here’s the abstract of his study: Orientation to Cave Rescue class was going Researchers have shown that people often on in the cave, when a 17 year old girl nearby miss the occurrence of an unexpected yet climbed up and then fell off a rock at a place salient event if they are engaged in a differ- called The Post Office. There was no field phone ent task, a phenomenon known as inatten- wire strung, and the cave rescue paramedic who tional blindness. However, demonstrations responded sent out a note to the surface. The of inattentional blindness have typically note said the patient had fallen onto her head, involved naive observers engaged in an had altered mental status, was bleeding from unfamiliar task. What about expert search- the mouth, had one unresponsive pupil, and ers who have spent years honing their abil- had injured her hip/thigh and right leg. The ity to detect small abnormalities in specific * Drew, T., et al. (2013). “The invisible gorilla strikes again: sustained inatten- types of images? We asked 24 radiologists to tional blindness in expert observers.” Psychol Sci 24(9): 1848-1853.

14 Leadership ♦ Decision-Making ♦ The Gorilla in the Room Decision-Making

▸▸ Rationalistic academic theories of decision-making ▸▸ The commitment heuristic minimizes dangers when are bunk. we are quite committed to the goal, such as finishing ▸▸ “Better decision-making in 30 days or your money the climb, or the hike, or the search task. back” books are bunk, too. ▸▸ The scarcity heuristic makes us minimize dangers ▸▸ Deductive logical thinking, analysis of probabilities when we only have a narrow window of opportunity, and statistic methods have their places (mostly whether it’s the first nice spring day or the rapidly- in Base or for remote planning), but most time- diminishing chance to find someone still alive. pressured decisions are not, and should not be, done ▸▸ When people are stressed, their attention narrows, this way. sometimes to the point of missing the gorilla in the ▸▸ Time-pressured decisions in the field, and even many room. This narrowing of attention is both good and decisions without time pressure in Base, are made bad. The inexperienced may narrow their attention based on intuition, mental simulation, metaphor, so much that they lose situational awareness, miss and storytelling. This is a good thing. important clues, and make bad decisions. ▸▸ Klein argues against training in formal methods of ▸▸ The first level of situational awareness is perception: analysis; instead, he says, train people in what others how many in my team? Where are they now? call “high-fidelity” simulations. He also argues for ▸▸ The second level of situational awareness is compre- good story-telling for training. hension: you know your team member’s capabilities, ▸▸ Hang out with experienced SAR people and get them the general search strategy, and where your team’s to start telling stories. It’s some of the best training task fits in. you’ll ever get. ▸▸ The third level of situational awareness is projection ▸▸ Most of the time, our minds work by heuristics: rules to the future: imagine what things are likely to occur of thumb that usually lead to the right answer quickly. to your team in the near future, and which events are ▸▸ Heuristics kill: heuristics can lead you into traps such unlikely, but serious enough you should still prepare as premature closure or attribution bias (closely linked for them. to satisfaction of search).These and confirmation bias ▸▸ Work to bring all in your team to level 3 situational all can lead to error by not considering alternate awareness through briefings and discussion of “what explanations for what’s going on. ifs.” ▸▸ Consider the heuristic best known as familiarity ▸▸ Maintain situational awareness, and in particular breeds contempt: when we’re in a familiar area, we monitor for slow but important changes in the situa- tend to mentally minimize hazards. tion; don’t be the lobster in the slowly warming water ▸▸ Another dangerous heuristic is social proof: when lots who gets boiled without knowing it. of others dismiss the risk, so do we. above-ground coordinator though it would be “victim” even if you’re a first-aider or just a appropriate to have a physician at the scene, so non-medical rescuer. I and one of my emergency medicine residents Perhaps they had narrowing of attention flew out to the cave on our medical helicopter. because of being in such an unfamiliar environ- Turns out she wasn’t as badly injured as first ment? The cavers on the rescue were not grum- appeared. Quoting directly from Nontechnical bling about the doctors getting in the way, were and Semi-tech Evacs: not rushing, and had no injuries. However, rescuers, mostly from the local In terms of the cognitive biases we discussed fire department, started grumbling about earlier, this could be seen as an example of con- how the doctors were interfering with the firmation bias or anchoring: “No matter what rescue. And despite our entreaties for them those doctors say, we need to get this girl out of to take their time as the urgency was now here ASAP! She’s badly injured!” much lower, the fire department members Bottom line: kept rushing things. And one sprained his • We learn from seeing things happen, good ankle badly enough he had to be helped out or bad, and from hearing stories about other of the cave. And another fell and injured similar situations. Which means you’ll learn himself somehow, not too seriously as I some from reading and from classes, but more remember, but I don’t remember the details. from realistic field practices, and even more Perhaps this was due to some of the res- from sitting around at dinner or at a bar BSing cuer’s narrow mindset: “our job is to get the with experienced SAR people. patient out of the hazardous environment • Initially, learning works best in a less stressful to an ambulance and anything that inter- setting, but practicing in realistically stressful feres with this job is bad.” No real thoughts simulations means better decision-making, that the overall goal is the well-being of less narrowing of attention, and better perfor- the patient. Note, that’s “patient” and not mance on real operations.

Leadership ♦ Decision-Making ♦ The Gorilla in the Room 15 • Inexperienced people may get narrowing postgraduate training in radiology, and are sit- of attention so severe that they miss the big ting in a warm, dry room with no distractions, picture, or even dangers that are right in front just imagine what that means for you, regard- of them. And, if narrowing of attention is a less of your experience, when you’re cold, tired, problem for radiologists who have had years of hungry, thirsty, and sleep-deprived.

Human Nature

If you want to lead SAR team members, it’s forgot everything you learned in undergradu- best if you develop at least a basic understand- ate school? And you want to learn a bit more ing of people in general, and SAR team mem- about human nature? Simple. Attend or read bers in particular. The more you know about Shakespeare’s plays. All of them. human nature, the more likely you’ll avoid Much of the English language we use today mistakes when trying to lead people. Human we owe directly to his plays, and his aphorisms nature changes but slowly over historical time, are some of the most-quoted in any language. and so there is value in looking at modern but also ancient views of human nature. • The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. Artes Liberales • But love is blind, and lovers cannot see. • Having nothing, nothing can he lose. There are many sources of information • Cowards die many times before their deaths; about human nature in world literature. Getting The valiant never taste of death but once. a Bachelor of Arts (BA) college degree is not a • Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t. bad way to get familiar with some of this lit- • Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. erature. The “arts” of a Bachelor of Arts degree • Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. refers to The Liberal Arts – literally, the arts • The better part of valour is discretion. appropriate to a free person, as opposed to a • Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, slave. some achieve greatness and some have greatness The Latin term artes liberales dates to the thrust upon them. Roman Empire, though the concept dates • Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. back to Classical Greece. It means those skills • All the world’s a stage, needed to participate in civic life: serving on And all the men and women merely players; juries, defending yourself in court, and serv- They have their exits and their entrances; ing in the military. Grammar (writing), rheto- And one man in his time plays many parts, ric (which in classical terms included not only His acts being seven ages. public speaking, but understanding human • It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in nature and being able to organize and express ourselves. thoughts) and logic formed the core of the clas- • Better three hours too soon than a minute too sical liberal arts. Interestingly, during Roman late. times, roughly equal numbers of boys and girls • God has given you one face, and you make were educated in the Liberal Arts. Things have yourself another. changed over the past 2500 years or so, but the • Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the core ideas of being able to participate in pub- wing wherewith we fly to heaven. lic life, and the implicit understanding that this • There is nothing either good or bad but thinking will prepare you to be a leader, continues to this makes it so. day. • To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to The Bard any man.

What if you’re not interested in spending The Prince lots of money and four years of your life to get a BA to become a better Field Team Leader? Or Smart people have been pondering human perhaps you already have a BA, and feel like you nature for millennia, and many have set down

16 Leadership ♦ Human Nature ♦ Artes Liberales their ideas in books. If you ask many people (AKA The Discourses) Machiavelli states this is about leadership books, they will come up with only justified in the service of the greater good the 1632 book The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. of your people, and states “... the governments You can’t go wrong reading it. It’s available free of the people are better than those of princes.” online (thanks to Project Gutenberg) in an If you are a SAR team leader, you have to rec- excellent English translation, and it’s an easy, ognize that you have less power than a Italian fast read, so no excuses. Renaissance prince. You also have less power The SAR team environment may not be as than a military general. I have paraphrased part violent as 16th century Renaissance Italy (dog of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War as The Art of Search teams possibly excepted). So some of his advice, (www.pitt.edu/~kconover/the_art_of_search. The Art of War such as assassinating all your rivals immediately htm). However, his advice that you should posi- on taking power, should be taken with a grain of tion your troops ready for battle with no easy salt. Nevertheless, some of Machiavelli’s advice retreat, so that running away is not a viable is worth taking to heart. option, might not apply to your SAR team. As “Machiavellian” is now seen as a synonym a SAR leader, when your members may dis- for being a manipulative leader, an autocrat, a agree and get up and leave, you’re not allowed tyrant. “The end justifies the means.” “It is better to shoot them, so gentler leadership styles may to be feared than loved if you cannot be both.” be your only viable options. However, it is better to see The Prince as a reaction to the moralistic exhortations to lead- The Selfish Gene ers common in Machiavelli’s time and before. If it’s possible to summarize his contention in From literature, let us now move on to sci- a phrase: don’t try to be a saint; for the good ence. Over the past few decades, there are (at of your people, acknowledge the imperfections least) two scientific developments that may help of human nature, and concentrate on being an us understand human nature better. Both are effective leader. Here is just a snippet that will based on the the theory of evolution by natu- give the flavor of Machiavelli’s advice: ral selection, made famous by Charles Darwin’s As for the ways a prince can form an opin- 1859 book On the Origin of Species. One of ion of his servant, there is one test that never the terms that encapsulates the lessons of this fails. When you see the servant thinking foundational book is Herbert Spencer’s phrase more of his own interests than of yours, and “survival of the fittest” from his 1864Principles seeking inwardly his own profit in everything, of Biology. But fittest what? Fittest individual? Leadership Lesson such a man will never make a good servant, Fittest group of individuals? Fittest species? nor will you ever be able to trust him. He Most recently the emphasis has been on the Daring is fine! who has the state of another in his hands fittest genes, which are the individual units of ought never to think of himself, but always inherited characteristics. Reckless impetuosity is stupid! of his prince, and never pay any attention to Gene selection was made famous by Richard matters in which the prince is not concerned. Dawkins’ bestselling 1976 book, The Selfish It is therefore wise to On the other hand, to keep his servant Gene. Dawkins, very persuasively, laid out the discover and learn from honest, the prince ought to study him, hon- concept that selection operates not at the level the experience of others oring him, enriching him, doing him kind- of the species, but at the level of the gene: thus, and to match boldness nesses, sharing with him the honors and the selfish gene. to mature consideration, cares; and at the same time let him see that Dawkins explained altruistic behavior (such ability to good sense. he cannot stand alone, so that many honors as people volunteering for SAR teams) in terms not make him desire more, many riches not of genes. By volunteering to help others, our True courage is shown only make him wish for more, and that many genes are protecting other copies of those same by one who is fully aware cares may make him dread changes. When, genes, and making it more likely that those of all the consequences therefore, servants and princes are this way, genes will survive and prosper, even at the cost of his actions. they can trust each other; but when it is oth- of time and effort, and some risk to our own erwise, the end will always be disastrous for copies of those genes. This may correspond to —Wilhelm Paulcke, from either one or the other. what psychologists refer to as the “need to be Hazards in Mountaineering It is worth mentioning that, despite the ruth- needed.” And in some SAR people (whackers*) lessness advised in The Prince, in his other book * In Emergency Medical Services (EMS), a colleague of mine, Knox Walk, Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy, defined it this way. “A whacker is a volunteer EMT who has one of those

Leadership ♦ Human Nature ♦ The Selfish Gene 17 Human Nature book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, with an emphasis on the evolution of human behavior ▸▸The Liberal Arts in classic and individuals or species, but on genes. from a social perspective. Wilson’s term hasn’t Mediæval civilization were the skills Our genes drive us to help others who needed to participate in civic life: share our genes, in rough proportion. taken root, and the term evolutionary psychol- serving on juries, defending yourself in ▸▸Evolution through natural selection ogy seems more in vogue today. Nonetheless, court, and serving in the military. applies not only to physical charac- his book remains one of the central, though ▸▸The primary liberal arts were three: teristics of species but also to their controversial, pillars of this science, and is cer- Grammar (writing), rhetoric (which behavior. Ethology looks at the behav- in classical terms included not only ior of animals and how it has evolved. tainly the most famous. public speaking, but understanding Sociobiology (more commonly now To relate this to SAR, there has been some human nature and being able to orga- called Evolutionary Psychology) does sociobiological* focus on certain psychological nize and express thoughts) and logic. the same for humans. traits that develop in adolescence and persist ▸▸Much can be learned about human ▸▸The adventurous (and during times nature from literature, good examples of stress, violent) behavior of young through young adulthood and possibly even being the plays of Shakespeare and humans, especially males, is probably further. One of those is risk-taking. Teenagers, Machiavelli’s The Prince. good for their extended gene pool, “everyone knows,” engage in risky behavior: ▸▸Richard Dawkins, in The Selfish Gene, leading them to find new hunting driving too fast, drinking alcohol to excess, and explains altruistic behavior by pointing grounds or better social situations. out that natural selection works not on the like. Or maybe joining a SAR team. Until evolutionary psychology came along, most researchers saw risk-taking by adolescents this gene-driven motivation can become as maladaptive, a bad thing. But the evolution- overwhelming. ary psychologists (evolved psychologists?) have Gene selection also helps explain why indi- had an insight: if this behavior is pervasive, viduals are competitive as well as cooperative, maybe it has adaptive value. Maybe it’s actually the degree of cooperation depending on how a good thing. Indeed, there is increasing evi- many genes you share. Your peers share some of dence to support this contention. For example: your genes, and your family shares even more it turns out that adolescents are actually more of your genes. But none of them share all your averse to known risks than adults. But they are genes, and those few individual genes lead you attracted to the unknown: to explore, in many to assure their survival by driving you to com- meanings of the word “explore.” And kids raised pete. By achieving higher status, you will more in stable, nurturing environments tend to be likely reproduce and pass on all your genes. So more risk-averse, while those raised in poorly- our genes drive us to excel at difficult things supportive environments take more risks. and stand out from our peers. As with the gene- Margo Wilson (no relation to E.O. Wilson) driven “need to be needed,” this gene-driven was a professor in the Department of “need to succeed” is likely strong in SAR team Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at members. McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Her particular interest was investigating the social Sociobiology and psychological basis of murders, particu- larly in nearby Detroit, Michigan. As a result of Another related concept is that of the evo- these investigations, she produced a landmark lution of behavior. If Gregor Mendel could, in paper titled Competitiveness, Risk Taking, and the 1850s, trace the inheritance of the character- Violence: The Young Male Syndrome.† The first istics of pea plants, why can’t we trace the evo- line of the paper’s abstract reads: lution of our own psychological characteristics? Sexual selection theory suggests that will- Indeed, people are trying to do this. ingness to participate in risky or violent We can look back to the study of animal competitive interactions should be observed behavior, and in particular how this behavior primarily in those age-sex classes that have evolved in response to evolutionary pressures. experienced the most intense reproductive Charles Darwin studied animal behavior in the competition (fitness variance) during the late 1800s, but ethology as a science really got species’ evolutionary history, and in those started in the 1930s with Nikolaas Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch. * I am very happy I finally got to use this word in a sentence. † This is not “irritable male syndrome,” which is related to seasonal testoster- In 1975, biologist E.O. Wilson published the one decreases in rams (male sheep). Some have opined this may be seen with human “male menopause” = andropause. Which brings up a question; if we can magnetic rotating lights for the top of his car that’s so big that the car rotates use the term “irritable male syndrome” for human males, should we call PMS around underneath it.” (PreMenstrual Syndrome) “irritable female syndrome”?

18 Leadership ♦ Human Nature ♦ Sociobiology individuals whose present circumstances are Classical Greece predictive of reproductive failure. An evolutionary explanation goes something Both selfish-gene-ology and evolutionary like this. Groups of humans that had adoles- psychology scientifically support what classical cents who were eager to explore found more Romans and Greeks could have told you mil- and better foraging and hunting grounds, so lennia ago: adolescents and young adults, espe- more of them survived. And groups that had cially in times of stress, are willing to take big adolescents who, when the group was under risks but usually in anticipation of a big payoff higher stress, became more adventurous, also in the end. survived better. And when the tribe was in An ancient Greek teacher tells us, as an particularly bad straits, aggressive young males example of this, about a kid he tutored, named would adventure farther and kill the competi- Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μέγας. At age 8 this kid saw a tors, providing an evolutionary benefit to the horse that his father’s trainers had given up on tribe and their selfish genes. The same may as too wild; he dove right in, and in the end, apply in inner-city gang-ridden areas. managed to tame that horse. When this “adult male syndrome” occurs Starting at age 20, this kid and his horse to excess in an individual, though, it can be Bucephalus conquered the known civilized maladaptive, at least for a search and rescue world. We call him Alexander the Great. The team. The popular term for this is “testosterone teacher was Aristotle. poisoning.”

Personality

Sometimes we talk about a “cult of person- The modern use of the term charisma can ality” for someone with great charisma, that is, be traced to sociologist Max Weber, who in his the ability to highly-motivate many followers. 1925 book Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Economy Examples abound. An Indian man, inspired and Society) said (translated from the German): by British ideals he likely learned in law school Charisma is a certain quality of an indi- in London, led India to independence from vidual personality by virtue of which he is the British Empire through peaceful means. set apart from ordinary men and treated as A German man, reacting to the humiliating endowed with supernatural, superhuman, terms of the Congress of Vienna at the end of or at least specifically exceptional powers or World War I, led poverty-stricken Germany to qualities. These are such as are not accessible greatness, and then to ruin, through decidedly to the ordinary person, but are regarded as non-peaceful means. Both were noted for their of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the charisma. basis of them the individual concerned is Charisma As brought to us by Shakespeare, on Friday, treated as a leader. 25 October 1415, King Henry V of England gave Weber distinguished charisma, which had The greatest of all faults his St. Crispin’s Day speech, probably the most definite religious overtones, from legal author- in a politician, and in any famous motivational speech in English, where- ity in a bureaucracy or command structure, or leader, is the failure to upon his highly-motivated men went out to win a leadership role steeped in tradition, as in a recognize that charisma has the Battle of Agincourt. primitive tribe. nothing to do with ability, For a more recent example, think of Ronald There have been attempts to analyze charisma, excellence, or goodness. In Reagan acting in the 1940 film Knute Rockne, and to reproduce it. None are all that persuasive. fact, charisma enables far All American urging the Notre Dame football In the 2007 book It, Joseph Roach, a profes- more the evils of the universe team to “win one for the Gipper” as he is dying. sor of English and theatre at Yale, notes that than great and worthy Or of Reverend Jim Jones and his Peoples Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (Quintilian), the accomplishments. Give me Temple religion, who moved en masse to Roman rhetorician from Hispania, thought pedestrian accomplishment Jonestown, Guyana. In 1978 he shot and killed a “It was ethos, the compellingly singular char- over charisma any day. U.S. Senator and then poisoned a thousand fol- acter of the great orator,” and for Baldassare lowers, including three hundred children. This Castiglione, author of the best-selling 1528 —L. E. Modesitt Jr., left us the doubtful legacy of the phrase “drink book Il Cortegiano (The Book of the Courtier) Solar Express the Kool-Aid.” “It was sprezzatura, the courtly possessor of

Leadership ♦ Personality ♦ Classical Greece 19 Mohandas Karamchand (“Mahatma”) Adolph Hitler, speaking before the Bundestag, declares Gandhi during the Salt March, 1930 war on the United States, 11 December 1941

which turned every head when he, and he alone, Contentiousness

Aristotle suavely entered a room.” The phrase “stage presence” comes to mind, but while this ability Contentiousness: (\kEn-'ten(t)-shEs-nes\), to rivet attention may be necessary to highly- adj. motivate masses of people, it is probably not 1 tending to argument or strife; quarrelsome: a sufficient. contentious crew. Some say that charismatic speakers tend to 2 causing, involving, or characterized by argu- use a lot of metaphors and use words to create ment or controversy: contentious issues. images, but is this cause or effect? Others say 3 Law. pertaining to causes between contending that the charismatic use nonverbal communica- parties. tion to exude their charisma, and cite the need [1400–50; late ME contenciose < L contentiōsus, for good posture, a smile that touches the eyes, equiv. to contenti(ō) CONTENTION + -ōsus and physically touching people. -OUS] I’m not sure that charisma is required to be —con·ten’·tious·ly, adv. a good SAR leader, except in small amounts. If —con·ten’·tious·ness, n. Alexander you want to increase your charisma quotient, —Syn. 1. disputatious, argumentative. taking a public-speaking or acting course will Slime molds are interesting creatures. They help. Maybe. But if charisma is just good people usually consist of microscopic individual cells skills taken to the nth degree, perhaps just read- in amoeba form, which go their separate ways. ing this chapter will help. But when food or water become scarce, they

20 Leadership ♦ Personality ♦ Contentiousness WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here aggregate together But one ten thousand of those men in England as a visible organ- That do no work to-day! ism. This syncy- KING. What’s he that wishes so? tium (many cells My cousin, Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin; joined together; If we are mark’d to die, we are enow basically a large To do our country loss; and if to live, bag of cytoplasm The fewer men, the greater share of honour. with many nuclei) God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. is better at finding By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, food, and can, if Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; conditions are bad It yearns me not if men my garments wear; enough, produce Such outward things dwell not in my desires. spores that can But if it be a sin to covet honour, survive prolonged I am the most offending soul alive. drought or food No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England. scarcity. God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour Some (includ- As one man more methinks would share from me ing dog handlers I For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more! know) have com- Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, pared SAR dog That he which hath no stomach to this fight, teams to slime Let him depart; his passport shall be made, molds. They say And crowns for convoy put into his purse; that, given their We would not die in that man’s company druthers,* dog That fears his fellowship to die with us. handlers, like the This day is call’d the feast of Crispian. individual cells He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, of a slime mold, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d, would tend to go And rouse him at the name of Crispian. their own way. But under pressure from out- He that shall live this day, and see old age, side sources that want to see teams rather than Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, individual handlers, they temporarily join into And say “To-morrow is Saint Crispian.” teams, the half-life of which is just a few years. Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, Perhaps this is unfair to dog handlers. After And say “These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.” all, the same is true of non-dog SAR teams, if Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, not to the same degree. Indeed, But he’ll remember, with advantages, voluntary associations of whatever What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, type tend to grow and prosper but Familiar in his mouth as household words- many of them go on to wither and Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, die, although the problem seems a Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester- bit more acute for SAR teams. Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red. Why is this? This story shall the good man teach his son; Perhaps because of And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, contentiousness. From this day to the ending of the world, Russ Sarver, one of the dog han- But we in it shall be remembered- dlers with my Allegheny Mountain We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; Rescue Group once told me “If For he to-day that sheds his blood with me you have three dog handlers in a Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, room, the only thing you’ll be able This day shall gentle his condition; to get two of them to agree to is And gentlemen in England now-a-bed that the third one is wrong.” There Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here, seems to be something about SAR And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks team members, particularly dog That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day. * “druthers” comes from the phrase “I’d rather do this Fruiting bodies of slime molds than that.”

Leadership ♦ Personality ♦ Contentiousness 21 handlers, that makes them prone to start growl- If you are a clinical psychologist, this list is ing at each other. intimidating. Jeff developed techniques to deal When you are having a group discussion and with these kind of people, not the least of which one person keeps speaking up, hitting the same is to use “peers” to provide some psychological point over and over, it may be necessary to cut intervention. Peers in this context means peo- this person off. But not at the knees. The nice ple with street cred: other emergency services way to do this is to spend a couple of minutes workers, people who have “been there, done summarizing this person’s points, and then say t h at .” something like “and now I’d like to hear from Those personality traits are not necessarily a some other people.” A more formal way to deal bad thing, unless you’re a clinical psychologist. with this is to note that, given limited time and They are probably essential for SAR team mem- the need to hear different points, you’ll now bers: without them, people might not survive. follow at least the spirit of parliamentary pro- Think of them as SAR survival traits. If you cedure as set forth in Robert’s Rules of Order. aren’t willing to accept some element of risk, This means people get to speak once on the you won’t be able to handle the vertical rescue issue, and for no more than three minutes (or portion of your training. If you aren’t at least a whatever). bit obsessive-compulsive, you’ll forget to back up that knot and you will go splat and die. Emergency Services Workers However, these personality traits also present issues for the cohesiveness of groups. Imagine a Jeff Mitchell is largely responsible for room full of people who all “need to be needed” bringing the idea of critical incident stress to the and are really, really dedicated to the group; emergency services world. Those of us in emer- who are all “I’m in charge” control freaks who gency services who deal with really bad stuff, insist on things being their way; who are very like the death of children, or multiple deaths action-oriented and not hesitant to speak their with dismemberment, get hit really hard, emo- minds… actually, you probably don’t need to tionally. An acute stress reaction from this stress imagine this, you can probably just remember can be as disabling as a broken leg. But we don’t the last meeting of your SAR group. In such a talk about our emotional stress. It’s just not done. room, the opportunities for conflict are rife.* So the emotional stress just festers. Until some- Stress management is a topic for another thing gives. You might quit your SAR team as a chapter. But Jeff’s insight into the personalities result (I know some ASRC members who dealt of emergency services workers, including SAR with a bad plane crash and then quit right after- team members, can be useful in other ways. wards.) Or, it might result in symptoms of chest Given his insights, what can we do to pre- pain that lead you into a long series of medical vent conflict, and allow such groups to work tests. Or it might lead to marital stress leading smoothly, despite the confrontational person- to divorce. Or even suicide. When it gets that alities of the members? There’s an old saying bad we call it post-traumatic stress disorder. that you can catch more flies with honey than Being a firefighter and a clinical psychologist vinegar, so we can work, both at the group and gave Jeff a unique perspective on this. He real- individual level, to interact better with others.† ized that many standard psychotherapy meth- Team leaders can learn techniques for man- ods would not work with emergency services aging by consensus and developing trust, dis- workers. (Police officer: “This is bullshit.” [exits cussed later in this chapter. room]) He put together a list of psychological As an individual member, you can learn characteristics of emergency services workers to temper your inner whacker. Working to to help figure out interventions that might actu- become a kinder, gentler and less-assertive (at ally work. According to Jeff, emergency services least less overtly assertive) SAR person makes workers: you a better asset to the team. Learning more • have obsessive/compulsive personality traits about effective interpersonal relationships will • need to be in control also help. • are risk oriented • are action-oriented * If you didn’t have a good feeling for the meaning of “rife” perhaps now you do. • need to be needed † Actually, vinegar works better than honey for catching fruit flies. Add a drop of dish detergent to a saucer of vinegar, so the flies get stuck in the vinegar • are dedicated and drown.

22 Leadership ♦ Personality ♦ Emergency Services Workers There are many ways to improve yourself in sauce.§ this way. Reading the Jefferson Bible is a good The DISC theory is that people’s personalities place to start. It’s Thomas Jefferson’s excerpts can be measured along four different axes (D, I, from the New Testament with Jesus’s moral S and C) and that the results can then be used to teachings, without what he regarded as reli- classify you into personality types based on how gious superstition. Reading (or seeing on stage) you score on each of the axes. all of Shakespeare’s plays can give you an excel- DISC theory was invented by William lent overview of human nature. Moulton Marston, a Renaissance man who was Another way to deal with this is to learn a bit a psychologist, invented the modern lie detec- about more detailed: tor, and was an artist for DC Comics; he created the character Wonder Woman. Personality Typing Marston, in his 1928 book Emotions of Normal People, called the four axes There’s that old adage “know thyself.” On • Dominance : produces activity in an antagonis- the Internet, you can find many (too many) ways tic environment to test yourself and learn what kind of personal- • Inducement : produces activity in a favorable ity you have. There are multiple well-accepted environment personality-assessment tools. There are the • Submission : produces passivity in a favorable Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory environment (MMPI), the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the • Compliance : produces passivity in an antago- Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, the nistic environment. Keirsey Temperament Sorter and the Hartman Today, with a somewhat more positive slant, Personality Profile. Just to name a few. we call these dominance, influence, steadi- One of the most popular personality typing ness, and compliance; in this case, unlike many method is called DISC.* I had to do it for our Bowdlerized and politically-correct terms,¶ this Department of Emergency Medicine Retreat as is probably a justifiable change. I was writing this chapter, so that’s why I picked Lest we think this is something new under it for a more detailed look. As far as I can tell, the sun, we should note that the classical Greeks the Myers-Briggs is the other most popular also used a 4-axis system, but also came up with one, though there are more criticisms of Myers- more poetic names for the axes: sanguine (opti- Briggs than DISC. mistic and social), choleric (short-tempered or All of these methods have their proponents irritable), melancholic (analytical and quiet), and detractors. My take is there is probably and phlegmatic (relaxed and peaceful). some truth in all of them, and none are com- The Greek physician Hippocrates (c. 460 – c. pletely true. (Sounds a little bit like an ecumeni- 370 BC wrote about these four axes, and sus- cal/interfaith† view of religion, which is a good pected they related to four main types of body analogy.) fluids, which gave us their names: Some insist that the four-element DISC • Yellow bile (Greek: χολή, chole): choleric model is just plain wrong, and that the only • Black bile (Greek: µέλαινα χολή, melaina one that really fits the observed data is a five- chole): melancholic axis system, The Big Five personality traits, also known as the five factor model (FFM).‡ On the § Americans know this as gyro sauce, but any proper Greek (and Aristotle was the proper Greek) know’s it’s tzatziki sauce. other hand, there are also those who insist that ¶ I’m sure you can think of many examples. One of my favorites, from a street Aristotle originally categorized the world into near my house: the yellow diamond-shaped warning sign used to say “DEAF CHILD” which is perfect for quick recognition by a passing motorist. The five elements: earth, air, water, fire and tzatziki sign now says “HEARING IMPAIRED CHILD.” Sigh. Perhaps if we want to be even more precise, the sign could say “MILDLY-TO-MODERATELY HEARING IMPAIRED CHILD.” There is a parallel with a problem in science and engineering when precision gets confused with accuracy. For an EMS/medi- * If you spell it with a small i, thus: DiSC® it’s a registered trademark of a com- cal example, let’s consider blood pressure. A blood pressure of 119/81 is more pany marketing this testing, one which is used by many companies, and indeed precise than a blood pressure of 120/80. Is it more accurate? Probably not. BP this is the version I had to complete. cuffs wrap slightly differently each time, a BP changes depending on whether † The adjective ecumenical refers to interdenominational initiatives that you’re leaning to the left or to the right, and how your arm is twisted. Does the encourage greater cooperation among Christian churches and their members, difference matter clinically (which means in terms of patient care, as opposed generally saying that “we all worship the same God in slightly different ways.” to research)? Probably not. There’s also a question here of information design: Interfaith refers to the same reconciliation between different religions. This is which is easier to comprehend? Especially when you’re driving by at 35 miles sometimes contrasted to the alternative “YOU ARE ALL HERETICS AND per hour? MILDLY-TO-MODERATELY HEARING IMPAIRED CHILD or YOU WILL BURN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY!” The dialogue between DEAF CHILD? Which is easier to read and comprehend when you’re cold, tired, proponents of these different personality theories is, unfortunately, still at the and slightly hypothermic, 119/81 or 120/80? As Sir Francis Bacon observed back “you are all infidels” stage. his 1620 Novum Organon (Book II), We are more likely to reach the truth through ‡ For a parallel example in religion, read up on Monophysitism. error than through confusion (translated from the Latin).

Leadership ♦ Personality ♦ Personality Typing 23 • Phlegm (Greek: φλέγμα, phlegma): phleg- For a later concert, he wrote: matic, and The four movements of the symphony • Blood (Greek: αἷμα, haima): sanguine. are built on the concept of the four human We’ve moved on from this biochemical the- character types: the Impetuous (Allegro col- ory, but we really haven’t moved on from the lerico), the Indolent (Allegro flemmatico), four-axis theory of personalities, and these four the Melancholy (Andante malincolico) and terms for describing people are still current. the Cheerful or naïve (Allegro sanguineo). – Here are the equivalencies: But the impetuous man can have his milder moments, the melancholy man his impetu- Dominance: Choleric ous or brighter ones and the boisterous, Influence:Sanguine cheerful man can become contemplative, Steadiness: Melancholic even quite serious; but only for a little while. Compliance: Phlegmatic The lazy, indolent man, on the other hand, only emerges from his phlegmatic state with The four classical temperaments have fig- the greatest of difficulty, so this movement ured in art and literature for thousands of years. is both brief (he can’t be bothered) and uni- Continuing our musical sub-theme, the Danish form in its progress. composer Carl Nielsen wrote of his It is said that our personality types really Symphony #2, Op. 16, composed in don’t change much if at all over our lives, unless 1902: we experience some sort of life-altering experi- The idea for the symphony The ence. I suspect that being a SAR team member Four Temperaments came to me is a good way to collect life-altering experi- many years ago in a village hostelry ences; if you are reading this, your personality in Zealand. In the parlour where is probably more likely to change than the aver- I was having some beer with my age person. wife and some friends there hung a Most proponents of this method insist that most comical picture; it was divided they are not measuring personality types, but into four parts, representing the our behaviors at work. Indeed, if you look at the four temperaments and provided questions you have to answer on a DISC test, with titles: “the Choleric”, “the most tests ask something like In my work envi- Phlegmatic” “the Melancholic” and ronment, it is most important to me… and In my “the Sanguine.” The choleric man was on work environment, it is least important to me… horseback; he had a sword in his hand with or When you are at work, which of the following which he was fencing fiercely at the empty air, four words best and least describe you? his eyes were nearly rolling out of his head, A fair number of people say this is bunk and his hair was flowing wildly round his face, DISC really is a good test of your personality. which was so full of fury and devilish hate In our emergency physician and advanced that I involuntarily burst into laughter. The practitioner* group, we had a variety of per- other three pictures were in the same style sonality type. The leaders tended to have high and my friends and I were greatly amused scores on the D axis (duh); most of our staff had at their naïvety, their exaggerated expres- high C ratings, and I had a high I rating which sions and their comic gravity. But how oddly is probably why I’m writing this chapter. things can often turn out! I who had laughed I suspect that earlier in my life, like when so loudly and derisively at these pictures I and three others founded the Appalachian found my thoughts constantly returning to Search and Rescue Conference, or back when them and one fine day it became clear to I started the Pennsylvania Search and Rescue me that these humble pictures had a sort of Council, the Blue Ridge Mountain Rescue essence or idea and - mark well - even some Group, the Shenandoah Mountain Rescue musical potential into the bargain! A little Group, and the Allegheny Mountain Rescue later I began to work out the first movement Group, my D scores would have been higher. of the symphony, but I had to be careful that * For a long time, Physician Assistants (PA-C) and Nurse Practitioners (CRNP) it didn’t fence at empty air, and I naturally were jointly referred to, at least informally, as midlevel providers or just midlev- hoped that my listeners wouldn’t turn the els. Now, the politically correct term seems to be Advanced Providers, Advanced Practice Practitioners, Advanced Practitioners, or since we’re talking slang here, tables and laugh at me… just APs. This leaves unanswered the question of “What is a Basic Practitioner?”

24 Leadership ♦ Personality ♦ Personality Typing At least I think others would have ascribed me This sounds like a lot of SAR people, right? higher D scores. Now that I’m an old fart I try to Does that mean that SAR teams tend to have temper my D-ness, emphasizing more teaching too many chiefs? Perhaps so, and perhaps learn- and mentoring and supporting. And writing ing to control one’s D-ness/choleric tempera- textbook chapters. ment is one of the keys to long-term success for Adrian, an emergency physician who ran your SAR team. the retreat session discussing our DISC results, If you buy into the DISC concept, though, pointed out that there is no correlation what- high-D people may also be distinguished by the soever between DISC scores and how fast we amount of I, S and C that they have. saw patients in the ED. That’s a big deal these It is worthwhile to know that leaders tend days: rating ER docs on their efficiency at see- to have high D scores. It is also worthwhile for ing patients. It’s probably reasonable to extend leaders to know that their members have dif- this to SAR in general, so there is no reason to ferent personality types, and that different per- assume that high or low scores on one of these sonality types respond differently to different axes means anything about your abilities at leadership tactics. common SAR tasks, though high D types tend People who are high-D tend to end up in to seek out leadership positions. administrative positions with SAR teams, but I He pointed out the advantage of knowing suspect you have to have a high score in more people’s personality type: if you go to Mike, the than D to tolerate all the administrivia involved head of physician and AP staff at my Emergency in helping to run a SAR team. Department who is a high D person, and he’s Some have tried to map these axes to an x,y short with you, don’t take it personally, that’s plot on a graph; others assign a score on each just the way he is. (He’s a very personable and axis and then match them with one of the fif- likeable guy, even if, as he says, he slams the teen classic patterns, identified by those who phone down a lot.*) turned Marston’s theory into practical testing A few of the things said of a high D (choleric) instruments. These are: person: Achiever Developer Persuader • an extrovert Agent Inspirational Practitioner • a doer Appraiser Investigator Promoter • an optimist • a born leader Counselor Objective Thinker Result-oriented • dynamic and active Creative Perfectionist Specialist • compulsive need for change • must correct wrongs My profile fits the Practitioner type. Given • strong-willed and decisive this is an assessment of my behavior while • unemotional working in the Emergency Department as an • not easily discouraged emergency physician, I guess that’s OK. I sus- • independent and self-sufficient pect if I answered the questions related to what • exudes confidence I do in SAR and disaster work, my profile might but also have matched a different type. • little tolerance for mistakes Details of these personality types are beyond • doesn’t analyze details the scope of this chapter, but for those who are • bored by trivia interested, a Web search for “DISC fifteen pat- • may make rash decisions terns” will quickly provide the characteristics of • may be rude or tactless each of these personality types. • manipulates people Doing so is probably a worthwhile home- • demanding of others study project, but trying to memorize this • end justifies the means material seems to be a lot of work for not • team may become his or her religion much benefit. As we learned in the section • demands loyalty in the ranks Sources of Power, book learning on this scale probably doesn’t make you a better leader. But recognizing that there are different personali- * I did see him once punch a computer monitor. But this was in the early days of speech recognition, and I agreed that the computer was asking for it. ties, and what works with one personality type

Leadership ♦ Personality ♦ Personality Typing 25 sometimes doesn’t work with a different per- his obligations as emperor, then he loses the sonality type, is an important lesson. Mandate and thus the right to be emperor.” In emergency services training, we tend to Fukuyama points out that the mandate was group training and certification into several a nebulous approbation of society, and that ascending levels: there was no Pope or Grand Mufti or Caliph • Awareness to award this distinction. It was based on the • Operations Confucian ideal of Rectification of Names: if • Technician you’re the Emperor, you have to act like other • Specialist good Emperors or you really aren’t an emperor Reading here about different personality and you no longer have the Mandate of Heaven. types, and perhaps browsing a website that If you’re leading a field team, or a SAR team, explains some about the DISC personality types, then you, too, need the Mandate of Heaven. It is gets you to the Awareness level. You can’t go given to you by your team members. beyond this from book- or Web-learning; you’ll For those who live in the USA rather than have to interact with people on training or real China, it’s probably better to talk about the operations. consent of the governed, which is found in Lest this DISC stuff seem a worthless aca- Article 21 of the United Nation’s 1948 Universal Rectification demic exercise, it’s worth noting that many Declaration of Human Rights: “The will of the of Names large companies, rightly or wrongly, use DISC people shall be the basis of the authority of profiles to screen applicants for suitability for government.” Perhaps more importantly for A superior man, in regard to various jobs. US residents, the Declaration of Independence what he does not know, shows states: a cautious reserve. If names The Mandate of Heaven We hold these truths to be self-evident, be not correct, language is not that all men are created equal, that they in accordance with the truth Francis Fukuyama is a well-known American are endowed by their Creator with certain of things. If language be not historian and political and economic theorist. unalienable Rights, that among these are in accordance with the truth His politics are hard to classify; he was consid- Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. of things, affairs cannot be ered a neoconservative and was associated with That to secure these rights, Governments carried on to success. When the Reagan administration, but more recently are instituted among Men, deriving their just affairs cannot be carried on was critical of the Bush administration’s aggres- powers from the consent of the governed, to success, proprieties and sive military policies. He also believes that That whenever any Form of Government music do not flourish. When unequal distribution of wealth is what has becomes destructive of these ends, it is the proprieties and music do not caused South America to lag behind North Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, flourish, punishments will not America in development. and to institute new Government, laying its be properly awarded. When From our viewpoint, what matters more is foundation on such principles and organiz- punishments are not properly his historical analysis of government in general, ing its powers in such form, as to them shall awarded, the people do not presented in two widely-acclaimed books, The seem most likely to effect their Safety and know how to move hand or Origins of Political Order in 2011, and Political Happiness. foot. Therefore a superior man Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolutions do occur in SAR teams from considers it necessary that the Revolution to the Present Day in 2014. time to time. But, unlike residents of an auto- names he uses may be spoken Anyone who wants to be in charge of a SAR cratic country, SAR team members can leave appropriately, and also that team should read both of these books, as gov- their team without having to leave their homes what he speaks may be carried erning a SAR team is not unlike governing a and travel to a foreign country. A more com- out appropriately. What small country. One particular concept that mon reaction for SAR teams is for lots of mem- the superior man requires is Fukuyama details comes from classical China: bers to leave and then form a new team that just that in his words there the Mandate of Heaven. This concept originated eventually supersedes the original team. I have may be nothing incorrect. over 3000 years ago and has guided Chinese been through this before. ‘Tis a consummation, —Confucius, Analects, Book society ever since. Devoutly not to be wished. XIII, Chapter 3, verses 4-7, The emperor or empress could only rule as translated by James Legge. long as he or she had this mandate. Although A Pair of Coveys it sounds religious, it was more cultural and philosophical. Wikipedia says “The Mandate of In 1989, Stephen R. Covey published the book Heaven depends on whether an emperor is suf- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful ficiently virtuous to rule; if he does not fulfill Lessons in Personal Change. We have used this

26 Leadership ♦ Personality ♦ The Mandate of Heaven as required reading for leadership sessions for caused by unethical behavior or by ethical our emergency medicine residents. The ama- but incompetent behavior (because even zon.com blurb for it notes that it has sold over good intentions can never take the place of 25 million copies in 40 languages, but even bad judgment). more impressive is that on amazon.com the … as Stephen points out, the greatest trust- 25th anniversary edition has 3,408 reviews and a building key is “results.” Results build brand 4.5-star rating, on one of the few websites where loyalty. Results inspire and fire up a winning you can trust those star ratings. If you’re look- culture. The consistent production of results ing to move up in the corporate world, this is not only causes customers to increase their pretty much required reading. I hate to provide reorders, it also compels them to consistently spoilers, but here are the seven habits. recommend you to others. Thus, your cus- The first three habits, Covey tells us, move us tomers become your key promoters, your from dependence to independence through a key sales and marketing people. In addi- process of self-mastery. tion, results win the confidence of practical- • Habit 1: Be Proactive minded executives and workforces. • Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind … • Habit 3: Put First Things First Trust is like the aquifer – the huge water The next three habits are those that help you pool under the earth that feeds all of the sub- interact well with others. surface wells. In business and in life, these • Habit 4: Think Win/Win wells are often called innovation, comple- • Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be mentary teams, collaboration, empower- Understood ment, Six Sigma, and other expressions of • Habit 6: Synergize Total Quality Management, brand loyalty, The final habit is to continuously re-invent or other strategic initiatives. yourself; analyze your behavior and your team’s At the very beginning of the book, Covey fils performance and improve. Invest in yourself says: and your team. Don’t be the person who killed While corporate scandals, terrorist threats, the goose that laid the golden eggs. office politics, and broken relationships have • Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw created low trust on almost every front, I Read the book. It’s not that long, used copies contend that the ability to establish, grow, are cheap, and electronic versions are available. extend, and restore trust is not only vital to Perhaps even more relevant to the current our personal and interpersonal well-being; it discussion about leadership of volunteer SAR is the key leadership competency of the new teams is a book by his son, Stephen M.R. Covey: global economy. The Speed of Trust: the One Thing That Changes Covey points out that ethics and trust should Everything. It’s aimed at businesses, but the les- be a big deal for business people: MBA students sons apply quite well to SAR leaders as well. and convicts in a minimum-security prison In the Foreword, Covey père* writes: score the same on an ethical dilemma test. One This book shows that while ethics is [sic]† would hope that SAR team members score a bit fundamentally important and necessary, it higher. is absolutely insufficient. Covey gives numerous anecdotes that illus- … trate how trust can decrease cost and increase Financial success comes from success in speed of business operations, or on the other the marketplace, and success in the market- hand, distrust can slow things and make them place comes from success in the workplace. more expensive. For example, consider how, The heart and soul of all of this is trust. since 9/11, the speed of air travel has decreased … due to distrust of airplane passengers. The air- Low trust causes friction, whether it is planes go at the same speed, but the TSA screen- ing process slows everything down. And, we * Père is a high-falutin’ way to impress people with your knowledge of French. It just means “father”; it’s often paired with fils, meaning son. pay an extra security tax on every airline ticket. † [sic] in a quote means that you’re quoting the author precisely, even if you Covey gives a positive example: know your high school English teacher would not approve of the original word- ing. In this case, ethics is considered singular when referring to a field of study, Consider the example of Warren Buffett – but plural for a person’s or company’s moral standards. If he had written while CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (and generally ethics are fundamentally important and necessary, they are absolutely insufficient he would have not been downgraded by the English teacher. considered one of the most trusted leaders

Leadership ♦ Personality ♦ A Pair of Coveys 27 Show kindness in the little things. Don’t fake car- Personality ing. Don’t attempt to be “efficient” with people. 3 Create Transparency. Tell the truth in a way ▸▸Charisma is something we can’t Learning a bit about this may help you people can verify. Get real and genuine. Be open explain, but in the immortal words of understand and lead people better. U.S. Supreme Justice Potter Stewart, ▸▸Economic and political theorist and authentic. Err on the side of disclosure. “I know it when I see it.” (He was Francis Fukuyama, talks about Operate on the premise of, “What you see is actually talking about pornography.) how rulers cannot rule without the what you get.” Don’t have hidden agendas. Don’t Unless you want to turn your SAR Mandate of Heaven, which is an hide information. team into an evangelistic religious ancient Chinese term roughly mean- order, or take over the known world, ing “consent of the people.” 4 Right Wrongs. Make things right when you’re you can probably do OK without loads ▸▸The Stephen Coveys, both father wrong. Apologize quickly. Make restitution of it. and son, are well-known for their where possible. Practice “service recoveries.” ▸▸ SAR team members tend to be out- analysis of leadership styles and how Demonstrate personal humility. Don’t cover spoken and contentious. Deal with it. to improve them. In The 7 Habits See the rest of the chapter for how. of Highly Effective People, the elder things up. Don’t let personal pride get in the way ▸▸Critical Incident Stress Management Covey gives advice for leaders and of doing the right thing. teaches us that emergency services managers, firstly about internal 5 Show Loyalty. Give credit to others. Speak workers, including SAR team mem- personal discipline, secondly as about people as if they were present. Represent bers, tend to: (a) have obsessive/com- regards interpersonal relations. In The pulsive personality traits, (b) need Speed of Trust, Covey the Younger tells others who aren’t there to speak for themselves. to be in control, (c) are risk oriented, us how trust is good for business, Don’t badmouth others behind their backs. Don’t (d) are action-oriented, (e) need to be whether you’re leading a multinational disclose others’ private information. needed, and (f) are dedicated. corporation or a SAR team. Trust Next are five competence behaviors: ▸▸There are many schools of personal- makes/saves money, and trust makes ity typing; like religious sects, they all everything work better and faster. 6 Deliver Results. Establish a track record of say they have the one true answer. ▸▸High-D/choleric leaders tend to drive results. Get the right things done. Make things The ancient four personality types away (or kill) rival claimants to the happen. Accomplish what you’re hired to do. Be find precise echoes in some modern throne. Resist this. Assure a line of on time and within budget. Don’t overpromise methods of personality typing. The succession, whether on a Field Team DISC method compares nicely with or in a SAR team as a whole. Have a and underdeliver. Don’t make excuses for not the ancient types: designated replacement for essential delivering. Dominance = Choleric, positions. 7 Get Better. Continuously improve. Increase your Influence = Sanguine, capabilities. Be a constant learner. Develop feed- Steadiness = Melancholic, and Compliance = Phlegmatic. back systems – both formal and informal. Act upon the feedback you receive. Thank people for feedback. Don’t consider yourself above feedback. in the world)—who recently completed a Don’t assume your knowledge and skills will be major acquisition of McLane Distribution sufficient for tomorrow’s challenges. (a $23 billion company) from Wal-Mart. 8 Confront Reality. Take issues head on, even the Warren Buffett wrote: “We did no ‘due dili- “undiscussables.” Address the tough stuff directly. gence.’ We knew everything would be exactly Acknowledge the unsaid. Lead out courageously as Wal-Mart said it would be – and it was.” in conversation. Remove the “sword from their Imagine – less than one month (instead of hands.” Don’t skirt the real issues. Don’t bury six months or longer), and no “due diligence” your head in the sand. costs (instead of the millions typically spent)! 9 Clarify Expectations. Disclose and reveal High trust, high speed, low cost. expectations. Discuss them. Validate them. Most of the book is devoted to techniques to Renegotiate them if needed and possible. Don’t create and maintain trust. violate expectations. Don’t assume that expecta- Covey identifies 13 behaviors that engender tions are clear or shared. trust. First are five character behaviors: 10 Practice Accountability. Hold yourself 1 Talk Straight. Be honest. Tell the truth. Let peo- accountable. Hold others accountable. Take ple know where you stand. Use simple language. responsibility for results. Be clear on how you’ll Call things what they are. Demonstrate integrity. communicate how you’re doing –and how others Don’t manipulate people nor distort facts. Don’t are doing. Don’t avoid or shirk responsibility. spin the truth. Don’t leave false impressions. Don’t blame others or point fingers when things 2 Demonstrate Respect. Genuinely care for others. go wrong. Show you care. Respect the dignity of every per- Finally, three behaviors that partake of both son and every role. Treat everyone with respect, character and competence: especially those who can’t do anything for you. 11 Listen First. Listen before you speak.

28 Leadership ♦ Personality ♦ A Pair of Coveys Understand. Diagnose. Listen with your ears… Game of Thrones is based fairly closely on The Lines of Succession and your eyes and heart. Find out what the most Wars of the Roses for the Plantagenet throne of important behaviors are to the people you’re England, held in the 1400s between the House ··War of the Succession of working with. Don’t assume you know what of Lancaster, whose symbol was the red rose, Champagne (1216–1222) matters most to others. Don’t presume you have and the House of York, whose symbol was the ··War of the Flemish all the answers – or all the questions. white rose. Succession (1244–1257) 12 Keep Commitments. Say what you’re going A less-famous but still famous war was the ··War of the Thuringian to do. Then do what you say you’re going to do. War of the Spanish Succession in the 1700s; but Succession (1247–1264) Make commitments carefully and keep them at if you search Wikipedia for “war of succession” ··War of the Euboeote all costs. Make keeping commitments the symbol you get a list of twenty-three (23) wars of the Succession (1256–1258) of your honor. Don’t break confidences. Don’t xxxx succession, and a list of another thirteen ··War of the Limburg attempt to “PR” your way out of a commitment (13) wars of succession that have a name other Succession (1283-1289) you’ve broken. than “war of succession.” One of the reasons ··Wars of the Rügen 13 Extend Trust. Demonstrate a propensity to primogeniture (succession of the eldest male Succession (1326– trust. Extend trust abundantly to those who child) took hold in Europe was that it cut down 1328, 1342–1354) have earned your trust. Extend trust condition- on those “wars of the xxxx succession.” ··War of the Breton ally to those who are earning your trust. Learn As I write this, there is a war of succession Succession (1341–1364) how to appropriately extend trust to others in Syria. Bashar al-Assad no longer has the ··War of the Brabant based on the situation, risk, and character/ Mandate of Heaven and the consent of the gov- Succession (fr) (1356-1357) competence of the people involved. But have a erned. But it is not at all clear who will succeed ··War of the Lüneburg propensity to trust. Don’t withhold trust because him. Succession (1370–1388) there is risk involved. I have been in SAR long enough that I have ··War of the Guelderian Read the book. It’s not that long, used copies seen several “wars of the xxxx succession.” Succession (1371–1379) are cheap, and electronic versions are available. Many organizations in the USA have an ··War of the Succession elected President rather than a monarch who of Stettin (1464–1472) Power Vacuum believes in the divine right of kings (a few ··War of the Castilian SAR teams excepted). Many of these organi- Succession (1475–1479) One problem with high-D/choleric people is zations have also adopted an elected position ··War of the Burgundian that they can end up in leadership positions and of President-Elect; the President-Elect may Succession (1477-1482) then drive other high-D people out of the tribe/ also serve as Vice-President. At the end of the ··War of the Succession of team/government/whatever. President’s term, the President steps down Landshut (1503–1505) A hypothetical Martian observer would con- and the President-Elect takes over.* This pre- ··War of the Portuguese sider this behavior, and the behavior of rac- vents a “war of the xxxx succession” but also Succession (1580–1583) coons screaming at each other in the night to allows a more gradual transfer of power, with ··War of the Polish see who gets the territory, and deer stags clash- the President-Elect serving what is basically an Succession (1587–88) ing their antlers to see who gets to mate with the apprenticeship for one term. ··War of the Jülich does, and lump them all together. If you’re acting as a Field Team Leader, it’s Succession (1609–1614) However, in human societies, this can cause a good idea to appoint a successor so if you ··War of the Montferrat problems. If the alpha-male leader chases away get disabled, there is no war of succession. To Succession (fr) (1613-1617) all potential competitors and then dies, and has put this in more modern terms, make sure an ··War of the Mantuan not yet produced descendants, who will take Assistant Team Leader is designated before you Succession (1628–1631) over? Who will be sub-leaders? What if there head out. ··War of the Spanish are three potential successors, none of which If you’re a Search Manager in Base, make sure Succession (1701–1714) has an ironclad claim to the throne? you have a relief lined up. If you’re administra- ··War of the Polish The question of succession to power has tively in charge of a SAR team, try to line up Succession (1733–1738) plagued all human societies, and some of a successor or two for each of your leadership ··War of the Austrian our most famous wars were over succession positions. Avoid the War of [Insert Your Team Succession (1740–1748) struggles. The bloody book and video series Name Here] Succession. ··War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–1779)

* In some organizations, the immediate past-President also stays on as an officer for a year.

Leadership ♦ Personality ♦ Power Vacuum 29 Leadership Lesson Whacker Management The moment there is suspicion about a person’s Whackers. I suspect you know the type. and Rescue Team, and how group member’s motives, everything he Someone who has all of those characteristics of emotions are managed by the group’s social does becomes tainted. emergency services workers (need to be needed, dynamics. She probes deeply into the emotional action-oriented, and the others), to the max. management involved in dealing with patients —Mahatma Gandhi Fire departments and EMS services are both and their families; we will focus on these in whacker magnets. I am Chief Medical Officer of other chapters. the Federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team Lois also discusses the motivations that lead (DMAT) in Pittsburgh, and it’s a whacker mag- people to join the group, the different social net, though dealing with Federal bureaucracy classes of members, and the role of the “hero” quickly weeds out most of the bad whackers. in society. But SAR teams – SAR teams are like supercon- A few quotes from the book will put this in ducting whacker magnets. context. So having even the tiniest bit of leadership Peak was an organization that required responsibility in a SAR team, even just being its members to behave heroically. Rescuers a Field Team Member who has to lead search had to sacrifice their own interests in order teams of emergent volunteers, means that to help strangers in need. Because it could you need to know the basic tenets of whacker not offer material incentives, nor could it management. force its members to behave in certain ways, We need to see whacker management in the Peak gained members’ compliance by using context of the social interactions within a team. symbolic rewards. The group tightly guarded So, let’s first look at team dynamics from the its only commodity, the status of “hero,” and viewpoint of a sociologist. used it to entice aspiring members to con- form to the group’s norms. Members who did Heroic Efforts not conform closely enough were made well aware of their peripheral status in the group Once there was a woman who was a soci- and thus were not granted the core mem- ology grad student. She wanted to do an eth- bership that would allow them to claim the nographic study of an interesting society that heroic identity of the group as their own. By had not been well-studied to date. She chose to making heroism an elusive and difficult goal study a search and rescue team. to achieve, Peak ensured members’ compli- She joined the SAR team as a novice, first ance as well as instilled in them a sense of covertly studying the team members and their group dedication. interactions, then later continuing her studies … with the team’s full knowledge and cooperation. Peak’s new members were encouraged She ended up “going native,” becoming an inte- to recognize their own unimportance early gral member of the team, on which she served on and to demonstrate their understand- for six years. She also dated and then married ing that membership was not a means to another team member. self-glorification. The group first socialized Her book makes a great read for anyone them to downplay arrogance and egoism interested in sociology. Reading it will also and to display humility and respect. In this make you a better search and rescue team mem- stage, the norms guided members to focus ber and leader. their attention on themselves in an effort The woman is Jennifer Lois, and her study to eliminate any attitudes of self-interest. was published as the book Heroic Efforts: Successful socialization in this stage moved The Emotional Culture of Search and Rescue them to peripheral status, where they were Volunteers. She’s now a professor in the soci- next socialized to orient themselves toward ology department at Western Washington the group. Norms in the group-oriented University, in the middle of the North Cascade stage encouraged members to focus on group Mountains. goals by being team players and accepting The book focuses on the socialization of new any role assigned to them. Thus, socializa- members into the pseudonymous Peak Search tion to group consciousness comprised two

30 Leadership ♦ Whacker Management ♦ Heroic Efforts stages: first denying the self and then affirm- it is very important to pose safety rules as not ing the group. arbitrary. A few stories about what happened … when people violated a safety rule, and the rea- Members also demonstrated self-denial soning behind the rules, will do much more for through actions or attitudes that not only safety than simply repeating the safety rules. For downplayed but actively avoided self-glo- instance: “We have a rule that everyone who is rification. To fade modestly into the back- rigging for a rappel has someone else check ground after a mission showed willingness their rig before they go over. It might seem to renounce self-serving reasons for partici- mickey-m0use right now, but we want every- pation in Peak. Conversely, members who one to develop good habits, so when you’re talked to the press about their performance sleep-deprived, borderline hypothermic, and on a rescue without authorization from the it’s getting dark, we’ll all follow those ingrained group were sanctioned for using the group as habits. Because that’s when we all tend to make a vehicle for self-aggrandizement. This type stupid mistakes. The kind of stupid mistakes of grandstanding was one of the most basic that have made a number of otherwise smart infractions members could commit, and people go splat and die.” members who did so were formally repri- The first principle is based on simple obser- manded on several occasions: the board of vations: my observations and those of other directors suspended one violator from all elderly experienced SAR team colleagues. Some group activity for one month, and threat- whackers require massive amounts of mentor- ened another with permanent expulsion. ing and supervision (and maybe an occasional Members felt that displays of excessive whack on the head). Dealing with them can be pride endangered the heroic identity of the quite frustrating. But sometimes, a year or two group. … Indeed, our cultural conceptions, later, you find that this whacker-member has as informed by Greek mythology, show that grown up, and now is one of the most valuable hubris destroys heroes. and respected members of your team. This is Rescuers also demonstrated the norm of actually fairly common. If you buy me a beer self-denial by resisting the urge to adver- sometime and nobody else is around I can tise their association with the group. Newer name multiple instances. If we think in terms of members who overemphasized their affilia- the psychological character of SAR team mem- tion with Peak were suspected of being moti- bers, this makes sense. vated by a desire for a status boost in the But there are the other whackers. The ones community: taking advantage of the group’s who, in retrospect, should have been taken out heroic status so that they, as individuals, behind the building and shot. (Just kidding. I might be viewed as heroes. hope.) Or forced to undergo a formal psycho- …some studies have examined how EMTs, logical evaluation before returning to working paramedics, military personnel, and police with the organization. I once was a member of officers seek thrilling experiences and, as a board of inquiry into such a situation, and such, are drawn to the sometimes danger- had to write the letter to the (now ex-) member ous and always unpredictable nature of their informing him of this fact. He never rejoined work. Other research has examined nonoc- the organization. However, quite a while later, cupational settings in which individuals he contacted me and thanked me. He credited undertake risk as part of their leisure activ- my letter with possibly saving his life. He told ity, such as mountaineering, whitewater me he had been diagnosed as bipolar, started rafting, and high-ropes courses. These thrill on medication, and was a whole new man after seekers carefully calculate the dangers and this. I guess we have to count this as a loss, as he rewards of pursuing high-risk activity… never returned to SAR, but it certainly helped What are the implications of all of this for you him. as a SAR leader? Most of the young adults in a There have been other situations, though, SAR team (women as well as men) are still at where members end up leaving the organization least in part adolescents, with a strong drive to under a cloud and never return. Some of these learn new things and explore their limits. They people spend the rest of their lives badmouth- tend to be good students. But given their pen- ing the organization. That indeed is a problem, chant to try things “just to see what happens” but likely not as bad as having such a person

Leadership ♦ Whacker Management ♦ Heroic Efforts 31 still inside the organization causing disruption. to have attended the National Inland SAR I make it a rule to at least try to contact some- School, but his or her name is not on the roster one who left like this and thank them for their for that year, or claims to have taken ICS up to time with the organization. Sometimes I even ICS-400, but can produce no certificates, those send them a little memento of the organization. are danger signs. It costs me little time or money. Most often it’s So is there any quick and dirty way to tell wasted, but every now and then I get a thank- how smart someone is, in these terms? Well, a you from the person. This probably benefits the person’s self-esteem and confidence are defi- person who left and the organization both. nitely not useful in this regard. Let’s now talk So how do you figure out whether to invest more about: a lot of time and effort in mentoring, or simply take the member out behind the building, or Confidence require a formal psychological evaluation? It’s not easy and it may take a long time and the Have you ever heard of the Dunning-Kruger input of multiple experienced team members. effect? It’s named after two Cornell University But the following sections offer some ideas that professors. It basically states that some people may help you along the way. who have no idea what they are talking about are nonetheless quite confident in what they are Whackers Are Expected doing. Whereas experts on the topic are much less sure about their expertise. To some degree, whackers are normal. At cer- Advice from millennia past encapsulates this. tain ages. As discussed in the prior section on Confucius: “Real knowledge is to know the evolutionary psychology, we know that, when extent of one’s ignorance.” Socrates: “I know we are adolescents and young adults, human that I know nothing.” Bertrand Russell: “One males and to a lesser (but not insignificant) of the painful things about our time is that extent females are supposed to be whackers. those who feel certainty are stupid, and those To known risks, adolescents are actually with any imagination and understanding are more averse than adults. But adolescents are filled with doubt and indecision.” Dunning and fascinated by the unknown, which may expose Kruger quoted Charles Darwin in their 1999 them to danger. In earlier millennia, this served paper: “ignorance more frequently begets con- a survival purpose: young adults would have fidence than does knowledge.” the urge to go out and explore, and maybe find Shakespeare, in As You Like It, tells us “The new areas with better food. So it’s basically good, Foole doth thinke he is wise, but the wiseman and it’s our best source of recruits. But some- knowes himselfe to be a Foole.” But perhaps times it gets out of hand: whackers gone bad. the most apropos quote for SAR team fools Stupid whackers seldom turn out well. Smart is Alexander Pope’s 1709 poem An Essay on whackers sometime, even usually, turn out well. Criticism in which we find the oft-quoted “fools But there are different kinds of smart. The kind rush in where angels fear to tread.” Sounds like of smart that you need to overcome whacker- a recipe for a splat. (That’s a technical rope-res- ness is the ability to learn from your mistakes cue term.) both at intellectual and interpersonal levels. David Dunning says, “What’s curious is that, You will have to evaluate whackers who want in many cases, incompetence does not leave to join your team, or people who hid their people disoriented, perplexed, or cautious. whackerness until they joined. Instead, the incompetent are often blessed To try to determine if the whacker in ques- with an inappropriate confidence, buoyed by tion is smart or stupid, one thing you can do, something that feels to them like knowledge.” over time, is compare the whacker’s statements Dunning goes on: “A whole battery of studies against reality. If a whacker keeps loudly stating conducted by myself and others have confirmed things that are just plain wrong, the whacker’s that people who don’t know much about a given probably stupid. You can also check a whacker’s set of cognitive, technical, or social skills tend credentials, for instance on application for team to grossly overestimate their prowess and per- membership. Now, nobody remembers 100% of formance, whether it’s grammar, emotional what they’ve done, so a couple of errors are no intelligence, logical reasoning, firearm care big deal. But if the whacker in question claims and safety, debating, or financial knowledge.

32 Leadership ♦ Whacker Management ♦ Whackers Are Expected College students who hand in exams that will There is also evidence that people trust doc- Retrospectoscope earn them Ds and Fs tend to think their efforts tors and other professional figures who appear (re-trE-'spek-tE- will be worthy of far higher grades; low-per- confident regardless of their actual competence. skop), n. Optics. forming chess players, bridge players, and medi- Scary. an imaginary optical device cal students, and elderly people applying for a How do you deal with this need to display for looking at bad things renewed driver’s license, similarly overestimate confidence? Well, develop confidence by prac- that happened in the past. their competence by a long shot.” tice, and making mistakes in a supervised set- Distorts the view such that This doesn’t apply to everyone, but certainly ting where your mistakes don’t hurt you or one can always pin the to a small subset of people, most of who try join others. Ask any business consultant: failure is blame on one at least one SAR teams. (Or so it seems to those of us who now “in.” Some may say this is just a remnant person, even if the real have been a Group Training Officer.) of all the business failures of the Internet Bubble, problem is a system issue. Some young people exude confidence, have but most say that we need to accept that failure the energy of a 2-month-old puppy, and don’t is one of the best learning experiences. One issue occurs seem to know what they are doing. But they Projecting confidence is important. How do with every after-action are smart, eager to learn, and do indeed learn you do it without being judged a whacker? The critique. In medicine, the quickly. Just like with a puppy, people tend to get obvious answer, though it may be difficult to informal term for this is tired of them and when they do something bad, achieve. is to never be wrong. “retrospectoscope bias.” whack them on the nose with a rolled-up news- Even if you’re right, but something bad hap- paper. This is probably not the best approach. pens despite your picking the right option in a When we look at the past, Why? Because with lots of mentoring (more on bad situation, it’s all over. As the Lincoln say- it seems as if it could not that in a subsequent section) these people turn ing we considered in the Decision-Making sec- have happened any other out quite well. It may be frustrating to deal with tion goes, “If the end brings me out all right, way. We’re hard-wired such a high-energy person as they simply suck then what is said against me won’t matter. If I’m to see the past this way, up all your time. But in the end it will probably wrong, ten angels swearing I was right won’t and no amount of trying be worth it. make a difference.” You have to accept that you to avoid it will work. But to be useful, such people have to grow up. will feel bad about this “failure” for a while, and And by that I mean that they have to, just like then get over it; then you have to “get back on If something bad happens, a puppy, learn not only technical skills such as the horse again.” an action that seemed not pooping in the house, but also interpersonal As a physician, and particularly as an emer- the best option at the skills. They key here is figuring out whether this gency physician in an academic setting, I have time, will be later seen as person can indeed learn interpersonal skills as this same problem. I have to project confidence. a terrible mistake in our well as technical skills. This may require some It’s an essential part of my job. mind’s retrospectoscope. one-on-one mentoring about interpersonal What do you do when you when you’re an skills (more on that later, too). This mentoring emergency medicine doctor (or a SAR team The only way around it is not only helps the person develop, but also pro- member) and don’t know the answer? You have to have a critique by people vides an assessment of whether this person is to be confident that you don’t know the answer. blinded to the outcome. salvageable as a SAR team member. But you also need to be confident in your abil- There are indeed arguments to marshall ity to do the best you can do choose a course of Be not the first to cast a stone. against this. What about the old military maxim action. You can let others know that you don’t “It is better to be wrong than to be indecisive”? have a definitive answer, and solicit input from It takes a thousand Against this one can muster that other military others while still rapidly choosing the best good words to offset a phrase we have discussed twice before: “He is course possible, given your level of knowledge. single bad word. seldom wrong but never uncertain.” You can call this being uncertain but decisive. I have actually said this (“seldom wrong”) When you run across a problem that’s urgent about some of the emergency medicine resi- but not emergent – you’ve got a little time – you dents I helped train. All of them grew out of their say “I want to check an app on my phone to be whackerism, and a great many of them are now sure that I have the latest updates on how to take among the most prominent physicians in emer- care of this.” Or: “I have some ideas about what’s gency medicine, and some in medicine in gen- going on but I want to get one of my colleagues eral, nationwide. Yes, our #7-ranked emergency involved as well.” And you sound confident and medicine residency* is a major whacker magnet. decisive as you say this, because you are. You are I can’t seem to get away from it. confident that this is the best way to deal with this particular problem. Yes, it might be a bit of * Doximity/U.S. News and World Report, 2014. showmanship, but it’s also the best thing to do

Leadership ♦ Whacker Management ♦ Confidence 33 Whacker Management around for several thousand years. The ancient Greeks called it hubris (υβρις), and Aristotle ▸▸“A whacker is a volunteer EMT who turn out OK. defined it as shaming and humiliating someone has one of those magnetic rotating ▸▸Confidence is good, to instill trust. lights for the top of his car that’s so But unwarranted confidence is bad. solely for your own gratification and pleasure. It big that the car rotates around under- Witness: “The Foole doth thinke he is is also paraphrased in the Biblical saying Pride neath it.” wise, but the wiseman knowes him- goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit ▸▸Volunteer emergency services orga- selfe to be a Foole” from Shakespeare, before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18). nizations are whacker magnets. SAR As You Like It. We now call this the teams are superconducting whacker Dunning-Kruger effect. Although not found in the various versions of magnets. ▸▸Reconcile “It is better to be wrong the Bible, a western Christian tradition names ▸▸SAR leaders must be expert whacker than to be indecisive” with “He is sel- the seven deadly sins,† and pride gets pride of managers. dom wrong but never uncertain.” Do place as the first of them. They are pride, greed, ▸▸Whackers tend to be thrill-seekers; so by confidently letting people know good whackers carefully evaluate risks. you don’t have the best answer, and lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. ▸▸SAR teams can socialize whackers to solicit input. Make the best decision Hubris is usually defined in English as over- be self-effacing and to subsume their you can, and be confident that you’ve weening pride. Modern descriptions also gener- whackerness to the needs of the team. done the best you can with available ally refer to overconfidence and arrogance and Whackers who do this successfully information and your knowledge and may get to be heros. experience. a lack of humility. Protagonists brought low ▸▸Some whackers require massive ▸▸Hubris is a sin, not because of some by their hubris in English literature include amounts of mentoring and supervi- religious proscription, but because Lucifer in Milton’s Paradise Lost, Victor in Mary sion (and maybe an occasional whack overweening pride with overconfi- Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Okonkwe in Chinua on the head), but eventually turn dence and arrogance and a lack of out to be the team’s most valuable humility sets you up for a big fall. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. members. (Perhaps literally.) Most (but not all) Christian theological ▸▸Some whackers are seriously damaged ▸▸Beware of arguments from author- thinkers cast the sin of pride in terms reflect- materials, and need to be eased out of ity, including this one. Pretend you’re ing the Greek idea of hubris. They argue that a the team, with or without a psychiatric a Fellow of the Royal Society, and referral, but in a way that doesn’t hurt consider a variety of evidence before justified but humble pride in good accomplish- the individual or the team. coming to a tentative conclusion. ments is appropriate, when not attended by ▸▸Whackers who will turn out OK are ▸▸If you are a high-D/choleric person, or overconfidence, arrogance or a lack of humility. usually those who are smart enough even if not, get and read How to Win So: practice your decisiveness, but with humil- to learn from their mistakes; this Friends and Influence Peopleby Dale includes emotional smarts as well as Carnegie. Do everything he says. ity. (Nobody said this was going to be easy.) intellectual smarts. ▸▸Temper but celebrate the whackerness A classic theme of ancient Greek tragedy is a ▸▸Whackers who lie a lot probably won’t of yourself and your teammates. great leader struck down by the Olympian gods due to hubris. As you get better and better with SAR leadership, keep looking over your shoul- for the patient (or the SAR situation.) der for an angry Zeus ready to cast a lightning One thing every intern learns is that nobody bolt. is perfect. And nobody is perfect. Everyone And now for something completely differ- makes mistakes, or what in a retrospectoscope ent: science against pride and authoritarianism. seem to be mistakes.* But it is better to do A book about the development of the calculus the best you can to help others, knowing that of infinitesimals might seem a strange place sometimes it won’t work, than to give up and to look for advice for leading a volunteer SAR do nothing. And people die, and sometimes team, but it is what it is.‡ there is nothing anyone can do to keep it from One can say that the Royal Society of London happening. was the first organization devoted to the pursuit of Science with a capital S. They observed that Pride Goeth Before a Fall the experimental method was pluralistic and democratic: once you publish the method of a Just a bit ago, we considered the left-handed scientific experiment, anyone can repeat it and military compliment: “He is seldom wrong but see if it gets the same results. The Royal Society never uncertain.” It’s for officers who are pretty had a keen interest in applying science to soci- good at what they do, but their confidence ety as well, and recommended a pluralistic basis exceeds their expertise. This idea has been † There are also, from ancient Greek tradition, four cardinal virtues: prudence, * “Seen in the retrospectoscope” is an informal medical term for what is known justice, temperance (meaning restriction or restraint), and courage (or forti- more formally in the psychology literature as hindsight bias. See Fischhoff, B. tude). Later Christian writers, notably Paul of Taursus, add faith, hope and char- and R. Beyth (1975). “I knew it would happen: Remembered probabilities of ity to get to seven. which balances the seven deadly sins. once—future things.” Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 13(1): ‡ Amir Alexander, Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped 1-16. the Modern World, pp 251-3.

34 Leadership ♦ Whacker Management ♦ Pride Goeth Before a Fall for states. They were opposed to the dogmatic, important, instead of sedition and How to Win Friends autocratic philosophy of Thomas Hobbes (of subversion, “the influence of experi- and Influence People Dale Carnegie Leviathan fame) and René Descartes, ments is Obedience to the Civil 1936, revised 1981 In his book Infinitesimal, Amir Alexander Government.” Unlike the rational- Contents traces the influence of the method of infinitesi- ist philosopher, the experimentalist mals (in modern terms: “calculus”) on modern never claims he has discovered the Part 1 - Fundamental Techniques In Handling People society, including the musings of Thomas Sprat, only true system or that his results 1 “If You Want to Gather Honey, the Royal Society’s Historian: are absolutely and irrefutably true. Don’t Kick Over the Beehive” In his writings, Descartes purported to Instead, making no assumptions 2 The Big Secret of Dealing with dismantle all unsubstantiated presupposi- about what he will find, he hum- People 3 “He Who Can Do This Has the tions, reducing all knowledge to a single bly proceeds from experiment to Whole World with Him. He Who unshakeable truth: “I think, therefore I am.” experiment, trying to make sense Cannot, Walks a Lonely Way” From this rock of certainty he then recreated of what he finds. His conclusions the world through rigorous step-by-step rea- are always the best that he can sup- Part 2 - Six Ways To Make People Like You soning, accepting the validity of only clear ply at the moment, but can always 1 Do This and You’ll Be Welcome and distinct ideas. And since his reasoning be overturned by the next experi- Anywhere was flawless, Descartes {and his followers) ment. Not for him are Hobbes’s 2 A Simple Way to Make a Good argued, his conclusions must inevitably be bold pronouncements about matter, Impression 3 If You Don’t Do This, You Are true. human nature, and the only viable Headed for Trouble The problem with dogmatic philosophy, commonwealth: To the contrary he 4 An Easy Way to Become a Good Sprat explained in his History of the Royal proceeds slowly, conducting many Conversationalist Society, “is thar it commonly inclines such different experiments many times 5 How to Interest People 6 How To Make People Like You men, who think themselves already resolv’d, over, and only then will he venture, Instantly and immovable in their opinions, to be more carefully and somewhat reluctantly, imperious, and impatient of contradiction.” to provide a provisional interpreta- Part 3 - How To Win People To Your Way Such an attitude is detrimental to science tion of the results. Of Thinking 1 You Can’t Win an Argument because “it makes them prone to undervalue As with anything, practicing con- 2 A Sure Way of Making Enemies— other men’s labours, and to neglect the real trolling your hubris (or in terms and How to Avoid It advantage that may be gotten by their assis- of prior sections, your choleric 3 If You’re Wrong, Admit It tance. Least they should seem to darken their or high-D nature) leads to better 4 A Drop of Honey 5 The Secret of Socrates own glory.” It “is a Temper of mind, of all performance. 6 The Safety Valve in Handling others the most pernicious,” Sprat continued, Perhaps the best-known self-help Complaints and one to which he attributes the ‘slowness book along these lines is by Dale 7 How to Get Co-operation of the increase of knowledge amongst men.” Carnegie, the classic How to Win 8 A Formula That Will Work Wonders for You Even worse, this kind of arrogance easily Friends and Influence People. Dale 9 What Everybody Wants leads to the subversion of the state: “The Carnegie wrote this in 1936, but it is 10 An Appeal That Everybody Likes reason of men’s contemning all Jurisdiction appropriate today as the day it was 11 The Movies Do It. TV Does It. Why and Power proceeds from their idoliz1ng of written. Having sold 15 million cop- Don’t You Do It? 12 When Nothing Else Works, Try This their own Wit ... they suppose themselves ies, it is one of the best-selling self- infallible.” This leads inevitably to sedition, help book ever written. A slightly Part 4 - Be a Leader: How To Change because “the most fruitful parent of Sedition updated version was published People Without Giving Offence is Pride, and a lofty conceit of men’s own in 1981. Our emergency medicine Or Arousing Resentment 1 If You Must Find Fault, This Is the wisdom; whereby they presently imagine residency program has used this as Way to Begin themselves sufficient to direct and censure required reading for residents (doc- 2 How to Criticize—and Not Be all the Actions of their Governors. tors in postgraduate training) in their Hated for It … second year of training. This was 3 Talk About Your Own Mistakes First The alternative to the dogmatic rational- with an evening dinner discussion 4 No One Likes to Take Orders ism of Descartes and Hobbes, the founders of how to apply it in the Emergency 5 Let the Other Person Save Face of the Royal Society believed, was experi- Department. 6 How to Spur People on to Success mental philosophy. Instead of pride, experi- When puzzling out how to get 7 Give the Dog a Good Name 8 Make the Fault Seem Easy to mentalism bred humility, and whereas the across the vision and importance Correct rationalist philosophies led to pettiness and of this book, I finally realized that 9 Making People Glad to Do What envy of rival philosophers, experimentalism simply laying out the contents of You Want fostered cooperation and mutual trust. Most the chapters, due to Carnegie’s lucid

Leadership ♦ Whacker Management ♦ Pride Goeth Before a Fall 35 organization, would do a perfect job. See the psychological characteristics Jeff Mitchell sidebar. The book’s a small paperback of 288 identified in the section on Emergency Services pages (also a Kindle eBook), and sells for just a Workers. It’s just that some of us grew up a bit few dollars used. It won’t take long to read. Do and hide it better than others. So the title of this it. section, Whacker Management, applies to your inner whacker as well. Embrace your Inner Whacker And in a sort of reversal, sometimes SAR team members, even non-medical types, call One final note about whackerness. To one someone “a real whacker” in an admiring sort degree or another, all SAR team members are of tone. Sometimes it’s good to be a whacker. whackers. We all share at least most of those

Leading Volunteers

Have you seen the YouTube video of herding than sticks, or your peasants will leave. cats? If not, take a look at it before you read this There is a difference between leaders and section. supervisors/managers. If you’re a supervisor or mid-level manager, then you’re responsible to Free the Peasants your superiors for the performance of your infe- riors. Classic examples of these sort of “leaders” In western Europe, the Mediæval period were the bureaucrats of the Chinese, Byzantine gradually shaded into the early Modern period. and Ottoman Empires and the US government The next thing you know, there’s the Industrial civil service. These people seldom meet our ide- Revolution, and then western Europe takes over als of a “leader”; yes, you might have the power the entire world. to have your inferiors executed for non-perfor- One of the things that shaped that western mance, but your job is to ensure performance, European transition was that peasants were no not to be a charismatic motivational leader. longer tied to the land. If the baron next door offered more or better land, or lower taxation, Those who cannot remember history you were free to move. It was hundreds of years are doomed to repeat the 10th grade.* more before peasants were freed from the land in eastern Europe, and as a result, there were Assume you are a mid-level manager in a no Polish or Ukrainian colonies in Africa, the factory. Assume further that you have been Americas, or the Far East. directed to decrease the failure rate of your This isn’t a perfect analogy to SAR, but it’s assembly line. There will be no increase in pay educational and let’s continue. or benefits. You develop a program with post- If you’re a baron in eastern Europe, you can ers in the lunch room, and weekly meetings tax your peasants until they starve. If you’re a with your workers, review progress, and speak traditional non-union employer in the USA, loudly and passionately about the importance you can keep making demands of your employ- of this new corporate goal. ees, and, other than complaining or quitting This probably won’t go over that well. In the and losing their livelihood, there’s nothing they meetings, there may be soft mutters of “mickey- can do. There is no penalty for employer hubris. mouse bullshit.” If this is not in the US, but in If you’re a baron in western Europe, and you China during the Cultural Revolution, then tax your peasants too much, they just move over those who mutter you will send to a reeduca- to your more-inviting neighbor baron. If you’re tion camp, never to return. If you try this in a leader of a volunteer SAR team and you hassle volunteer group, they won’t be soft mutters, and your officers and members too much, they people will simply stand up and leave. leave and join another SAR team. There is a big penalty for hubris. You’ll need to care for your * The original was from American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known as George Santayana peasants. (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952). (Yes, he was from Spain but he Bottom line: as a volunteer SAR team leader, lived in the USA and wrote in English.) His aphorism was ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” But after this much history I you need to be a baron who uses more carrots figured we needed some comic relief.

36 Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Embrace your Inner Whacker On May 20, 1756, the French and British leaders, you will have to read about Frederick navies battled near the island of Minorca. The Winslow Taylor, M.E., Sc.D., and his 1911 French won. After this, the British lost their book The Principles of Scientific Management. garrison on Minorca. The British then executed They call him the “The Father of Scientific Admiral John Byng for “failure to do his utmost” Management.” Indeed, scientific management to relieve the garrison on Minorca. In the play is also sometimes called “Taylorism.” Candide, Voltaire had a character speak admir- He made his point by documenting increased ingly of the British tendency to kill an admiral efficiency moving pig iron at Bethlehem Steel from time to time pour encourager les autres after they followed his advice. He did point out, (“to encourage the others.”) however, that the principles of scientific man- But this is just the wrong model for volunteer agement also applied to other organizations, SAR teams. Executing your admirals, or having including philanthropic ones (such as SAR your members leave to join another SAR team, teams). are failures of leadership. His guiding principle was to maximize the If this happens, it may be time to demand prosperity of both managers and workers. He the team leadership consciously adopt a kinder, noted that factory workers tended to “soldier” gentler approach to team leadership, provid- or work minimally, as there was no incentive to ing understanding and support to those whose work harder. He argued to incentivize workers. temporary personal or work life interferes with In SAR, as discussed in the section on Heroic their volunteer commitments. Or perhaps suf- Efforts, we pay people in intangibles, but those fer the fate of Captain Bligh.* are still incentives we pay members, and we should always be conscious of that and pay our Management Consultants workers promptly and fully. Taylor established four principles for Management consultants probably vied to managers: advise the manager supervising the construc- 1 They should develop a science for each element tion of the pyramids in Giza. None of the scrolls of a member’s work, which replaces the old expounding their theories have survived, likely rule-of-thumb method. due to the Great Fire at the Library of Alexandria, 2 They should scientifically select and then train, so you can relax, you won’t have to read about teach, and develop the members, whereas in them here. But since SAR leaders are expected the past he or she chose his own work and to be managers as well as somewhat charismatic trained himself as best he could.

* Watch the 1984 movie The Bounty, starring Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson, 3 They should heartily cooperate with the Laurence Olivier, Liam Neeson and Daniel Day-Lewis. In 1789, Acting members so as to ensure all of the work being Lieutenant Fletcher Christian and the crew set captain William Bligh and 18 of his officers adrift in the ship’s boat in the middle of the South Pacific.

European Colonies, 1914. Note that Central and South America were, prior to this date, Spanish and Portuguese colonies, and the USA was a British colony.

Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Management Consultants 37 done in accordance with the principles of the Move toward a single supplier for any one item, science which has been developed. on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust. 4 There is an almost equal division of the work 5. Improve constantly and forever the system and the responsibility between the manage- of production and service, to improve quality ment and the members. The management take and productivity, and thus constantly decrease over all work for which they are better fitted costs. than the members, while in the past almost all 6. Institute training on the job. of the work and the greater part of the respon- 7. Institute leadership (see Point 12). The aim sibility were thrown upon the members. of supervision should be to help people and Reading this, especially after I substituted machines and gadgets to do a better job. “members” for “workmen,” certainly makes me Supervision of management is in need of feel better thinking back on all the time I’ve overhaul, as well as supervision of production put in on developing and implementing ASRC, workers. ASTM and other SAR standards over the past 8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work 40+ years. effectively for the company. If we’re talking about famous management 9. Break down barriers between departments. consultants, we have to mention the husband- People in research, design, sales, and produc- and-wife team of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, tion must work as a team, to foresee problems who dual-handedly originated the term “effi- of production and in use that may be encoun- ciency expert.” They famously invented the tered with the product or service. time-and-motion study of assembly-line work- 10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets ers by filming them; some of there movies are for the work force asking for zero defects posted on Wikipedia. They even applied such and new levels of productivity. Such exhorta- studies to their family life including their kids, tions only create adversarial relationships, as resulting in the 1948 book, the 1950 movie the bulk of the causes of low quality and low Cheaper by the Dozen, and the 2003 Steve productivity belong to the system and thus lie Martin remake. Not much application to SAR, beyond the power of the work force. Eliminate but if we’re mentioning famous management work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. consultants, we have to mention the Gilbreths. Substitute leadership. Eliminate management And my wife loves the movie. by objective. Eliminate management by num- One of the most famous management con- bers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership. sultants of more recent times was W. Edwards 11. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker Deming, an engineer and management con- of his right to pride of workmanship. The sultant. His famous Fourteen Points for responsibility of supervisors must be changed Management first appeared in his 1982 book from sheer numbers to quality. Out of the Crisis. These are principles for sig- 12. Remove barriers that rob people in man- nificantly improving the effectiveness of a busi- agement and in engineering of their right to ness. Below is a condensation of the 14 Points pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia,* for Management as they appeared in the book. abolishment of the annual or merit rating and 1. Create constancy of purpose toward improve- of management by objective. ment of product and service, with the aim to 13. Institute a vigorous program of education become competitive and to stay in business, and self-improvement. and to provide jobs. 14. Put everybody in the company to work to 2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new accomplish the transformation. The transfor- economic age. Western management must mation is everybody’s job. awaken to the challenge, must learn their There are many other theories about how to responsibilities, and take on leadership for do management right. Here are some of the change. currently-famous buzzwords: 3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve • Theory of Constraints quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a • Management by Objectives (or Management mass basis by building quality into the product by Objectives and Results) in the first place. • Re-engineering 4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. * To show off your knowledge of Latin. Means “among other things.”

38 Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Management Consultants • Six Sigma since humans started using language. But if we Authority vs • Agile software development look to the written historical record, we first Responsibility • Toyota method see discussion of rhetoric in that shining (but • Lean slightly tarnished) example of democracy: This is not only about • Disney ancient Athens. terminology. It applies Look them up if you wish. I think we’ve cov- The Greek city-states of the classical period mostly to rigidly-structured ered enough management-speak for now, and used different styles of government, including organizations, which we are going to move on to: absolute dictatorship. But Athens was a democ- SAR teams may aspire racy, and those who were adult, male, not a to but certainly aren’t. Rhetoric slave, who had completed their military train- ing as ephebes, and owned land (in other words, If you have responsibility For the past century or two, the word about 10% of the Athenian population) were for something, your rhetoric has had a bad name. People speak of able to attend meetings at the Pnyx and liter- superior will hold you politician’s speeches as “empty rhetoric.” Indeed, ally cast their votes via casting different-colored accountable for getting the speech of politicians is famous for twisting shards of pottery into amphorae.§ And at the it done. Your superior the truth.* peak of Athens’ power in Greece, Pericles rose has the power to compel But the study of rhetoric is neither good nor to power. Perhaps the most famous rhetorician you to do something. evil. It’s just the study of how public speech of all time, he persuaded the voters to support works (and doesn’t). It’s basically applied psy- his policies for years. Indeed, we call this period If you have authority for chology. And traditional education in rhetoric Periclean Greece in his honor. something, your superior teaches not only how to persuade others, but Pericles seems to have mastered tricks of has delegated the power to how not to be swayed by politicians’ fallacious speaking to, persuading and leading a large compel those beneath you arguments. multitude, without the aid of a wireless mike or to do what you tell them. You may be getting the impression that a sound system. Does that sound like a useful knowing a bit about public speaking (even if skill for SAR operations? The worst situation is it’s called “rhetoric”) might make you a better You can certainly spend lots of money on a to have responsibility leader. True, but if you have a feeling that you’re voice coach, and if you’re considering a run for but no authority. going to learn something a bit sleazy, get that public office, you probably should. If you’re not idea out of your head right now. independently wealthy with lots of time on your If you delegate responsibility, Rhetoric is inextricably intertwined with hands, a reasonable alternative might be to read also delegate the democracy and democratic principles. Yes, rhet- on, pick up a few tips, and then practice a bit.¶ authority to go with it. oric and charisma were tools Hitler used; but One of Pericles’ problems was projecting his dictator Josef Stalin needed neither charisma voice to be heard, even at the back of the crowd. nor rhetoric to dominate the Soviet Union and Everyone said he had a powerful and pleasant wipe out millions of innocent people. voice, but I’m sure even he had to work to be But rhetoric is essential for democracy. heard. Over the millennia since then (Pericles Democracy involves not only voting, but listen- was at his peak from 461 to 429 BCE) a few ing to others trying to persuade you how you simple principles (“tricks” if you will) have been should vote and casting that vote appropriately. distilled down for you. Even volunteer SAR groups sometimes have When addressing a crowd, make eye contact contested votes.† Those speakers knowledg- with someone at the back of the crowd. Eye able in the principles of rhetoric know they are contact is good, and moving your eye contact more likely to succeed, which is their motiva- around the crowd is tion for studying rhetoric. Those interested in good. But first, pick out the public good want every voter to understand someone in the back the principles.‡ and talk to that person. Some of the principles of rhetoric have likely It makes you uncon- been known and passed down by oral tradition sciously speak loud enough to reach that * For a short, entertaining, twisted and yet philosophically rigorous look at polit- ical speech, read Aristotle and an Aardvark go to Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak through Philosophy and Jokes, by Thomas Cathcart and § Big pottery bottles with handles on the Daniel Klein. top. † Though more common is to elect people to a positions when they are nnot ¶ Try speaking to a group of dogs or cats, present to defencd themselves. they aren’t usually very critical. A mixed ‡ Motivated now? Read Aristotle and an Aardvark, at least all the cartoons and group of dogs and cats is probably best, Detail, Bust of Pericles of Athens jokes. so you have opposing viewpoints.

Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Rhetoric 39 person at the back of the crowd. of democracy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle When stressed, or trying to address a large opposed the teachings of the sophists who, at group, we tend to tighten up our vocal cords, least according to this high-test trio of philoso- and the pitch of our voice rises. No. Keep those phers, taught how to persuade others through vocal cords relaxed.* Keep your pitch low. To the emotions while ignoring inconvenient facts. increase the volume of your speech, take deep They argued for a rhetoric grounded in phi- breaths often. This way you can force more air losophy and the pursuit of enlightenment, and through your vocal cords. Practice pushing out argued for training in rhetoric as a defense lots of air with each phrase. against the empty persuasive techniques of the Pause early and often. When we get excited or sophists. (So: instead of complaining about stressed, we tend to speak more quickly. I tend politicians’ “empty rhetoric” we should really to speak quickly all the time – I suppose being accuse them of “empty sophistry.”) an emergency physician in a busy urban ter- Aristotle famously defines rhetoric as the tiary care Level I Trauma/Burn/Stroke/Cardiac ability, in any particular case, to see the available teaching hospital has something to do with it. means of persuasion. I have had to spend a lifetime learning to Aristotle teaches there are three genres slow down when I’m teaching and speaking in of rhetoric, corresponding to three types of public. Maybe you don’t have this problem, but audience: if you do, start practicing slowing down now. • Deliberative rhetoric: dealing with finance, Aristotle famously wrote the textbook of rhet- war and peace, national defense, imports and oric (called, simply enough, Rhetoric) that is exports, and the framing of laws. studied to this day. It is said that all subsequent • Forensic rhetoric: dealing with issues of praise rhetorical theory is but a series of responses to or blame; a lawyer’s argument before a court issues raised by Aristotle’s Rhetoric. that will determine guilt or innocence is a Socrates (at least according to Plato) famously good example, which Aristotle examines in derided Athenian sophists (teachers for hire) some detail. However, it could apply to prais- who professed to teach their students how to ing or dissing a plan someone proposed for persuade others that white is black and black your SAR team. is white. But Socrates never denied that proper • Epideictic rhetoric: rhetoric for ceremonial public speaking was important to the success occasions, such as the opening and closing of the Olympics. If you don’t think this is impor- * There are exercises online at pittsburghese.com that will help you develop a more relaxed speaking style. It will help with your orations, and if you spend tant, read up on the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, a while on the website, you will be better able to speak the local dialect if you and the roles of Jesse Owens, Adolph Hitler, come visit Allegheny Mountain Rescue Group in Pittsburgh. Albert Speer and Leni Riefenstahl; this was epideictic rhetoric as spectacle, developed by the Roman Empire and now further expanding into the new media world of television.† The Rhetoric describes three different meth- ods of persuasion (Aristotle liked threes): • credibility (ethos) • the emotions and psychology of the audience (pathos), and • patterns of reasoning (logos) I told you that Aristotle likes things in three; here’s another trio: when you’re playing with people’s emotions (via ethos), you should do so with wisdom (phronesis), virtue (arete), and good will (eunoia). Aristotle goes on to advise on how to arouse emotions in general, then how to address dif- ferent audiences: young, old, wealthy and

The Pnyx with the speaker’s platform, the meeting place of the people of Athens. † For more, see the book Performing the Nation in Interwar Germany: Sport, Spectacle and Political Symbolism, 1926-36, by N. Rossol; it’s expensive to buy but you can get it through inter-library loan from your local library.

40 Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Rhetoric The School of Athens, with Plato and Aristotle in the center, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Raphael), 1511, wall mural in the Apostolic Palace, the Vatican.

powerful or less-wealthy. He goes on to address • Choosing the right language-words and sym- the two paradigms: comparisons to the past, bols – to make it motivating and inspiring and creating fables; and then, developing max- • Using inclusive language that links people to ims: succinct, clever statements about actions. the vision and makes them feel part of the The final part of the Rhetoric gives specific process “how-to” examples of the proper use of style and This short section just serves to give you that grammar. first awareness level about rhetoric; you’ll have People say the new (1991) translation of the to read some by yourself, or take a course, to Rhetoric by 1991 George A. Kennedy is the best; learn enough to get to the operations level. I had to study an earlier and not-so-good trans- In the Middle Ages, rhetoric became one lation in college, so count yourself lucky if this of The Liberal Arts, those skills that experts is the first time you’re going to read it. And if thought were required for anyone taking part you plan to be an administrative team leader, in the discourse of a civilized society. The three you should probably read this book. main Liberal Arts are: In Iszatt-White’s Leadership, she gives rheto- • Grammar ric short shrift compared to Aristotle, but in her • Logic discussion of charismatic or transformational • Rhetoric leadership, she give four examples of good And secondary Liberal Arts include rhetorical techniques to support these styles of • Arithmetic leadership: • Geometry • Communicating the vision by adapting the • Music content to suit the audience • Astronomy • Highlighting the intrinsic value of the vision This is reflected in our colleges and uni- by emphasizing how it represents ideals worth versities today, which offer a BA: Bachelor of pursuing Arts, Arts in this case meaning Liberal Arts.

Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Rhetoric 41 The Peter Principle Surprisingly and disappointingly, you can now ineffective method to reduce error. Instead, the get a BA without ever taking a course in rheto- experts say, you need to do a root-cause analy- In 1969, Laurence J. ric; many liberal arts programs don’t even offer sis, looking for failures in the system and mak- Peter and Raymond Hull courses in rhetoric. Deans of mediæval univer- ing changes in the system to make such errors published a book entitled sities, if they were alive today, would be appalled, less likely. It’s a great way to piss off all your sub- The Peter Principle: Why and rightly so. ordinates if the only time they hear from you Things Always Go Wrong. it’s about something bad: “Being called to the The basic idea is that Leadership Styles principal’s office.” And “they” say that, for every employees only stop being unkind word you say, it takes a thousand kind promoted once they can no There are many different styles of lead- words to make up for it.† longer perform effectively, ership, management, or command, whichever It is true that some managers are so strapped and “managers rise to the you want to call it. Regardless of which of those for time that they only have time to “put out level of their incompetence.” four temperaments or 15 DISC personality types fires”: deal with problems as they occur, which apply to you, you can adopt different styles to fit means lots of negativity and not much positiv- In time, every post tends to different leadership situations. ity, at least as seen by subordinates. Even if it be occupied by an employee If you are inciting a mob of peasants isn’t primarily the manager’s fault, and it’s more who is incompetent to with torches and pitchforks to go after Dr. the manager’s manager’s fault, it’s still a major carry out its duties Frankenstein’s monster, you might adopt one leadership failure. … style of leadership. If you are trying to get Iszatt-White also gives us: work is accomplished together a small group to sneak into the castle Laissez-faire leadership – effectively the by those employees who and put a wooden stake in Dracula’s heart, you absence of leadership, representing behav- have not yet reached their might adopt a somewhat different style. iours that are non-transactional such as level of incompetence. As with personality analysis, there are many abdicating responsibility, delaying decisions, different competing scholarly theories about giving no feedback, and so on. The name Alessandro Pluchino, leadership styles, each with its own proponents, comes from the French phrase meaning Andrea Rapisarda, and some of whom view those with other views as ‘hands off’ or to let things ride, and hence Cesare Garofalo created heretics. We will look at a few of these leader- this kind of approach is unlikely to result a computer-based model ship-style theories, those that seem to offer use- in the meeting of organizational goals or where the Peter Principle ful insights. the development of individuals within the was an invariable rule. First, let’s look at a couple of leadership styles, organization. They found that one of no, let’s call them management styles, no, let’s the two best ways around call them non-management styles. Iszatt-White Charisma the Peter Principle was to gives these in her book Leadership: promote people randomly. Management by exception – this type of We need to also consider the issue of pure The other best method leadership involves corrective criticism, neg- charismatic leadership, not backed up by other was to promote the best ative feedback, and negative reinforcement adequate leadership skills. A great example is and the worst members. activities by the leader in response to follower the recent government of Venezuela. In 1998, activities. It can take two forms: active and Hugo Chavez, a very charismatic leader who For this work, they won one passive. Active management by exception had the support of most of the population, took of the 2010 Ig Nobel Prizes. requires the leader to watch followers closely control after an election in 1998. He stayed in for mistakes, rule violations, and other control until his death in 2013. His massive Google it and then draw shortcomings and to take corrective action reforms did attack concentrations of wealth your own conclusions. on each occasion. Passive management by and worked to better the lives of the poor, but exception occurs when the leader intervenes his programs were economically unsustain- only after certain standards have not been able. After his death, the much-less charismatic met or certain goals have been missed, with Nicolás Maduro took over. He had less charisma smaller or less significant contraventions and much less popular support. The results of being allowed to pass uncorrected. Chavez’s economic mismanagement combined I should note that this method of dealing with the drop in oil prices (the country’s main with error is known in the literature on human source of wealth) plunged Venezuela into eco- error as blame and train or blaming the person nomic and political chaos. on the sharp end.* It is universally decried as an Even charisma backed up by performance

* See, for example, James Reason’s book Human Error for more about this. † really, 1,000 ± 12 according to unnamed scientific experts.

42 Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Leadership Styles may not hold things together past the charis- could trace this back to Roman times and fur- matic leader’s death. After Alexander the Great ther to the Greek empire of Alexander the Great. died, his generals took over different parts of his (“General, if you don’t capture that city within empire and then warred with each other. three days, then you will lose your head!”) Some claim that Steve Jobs of Apple was such The current buzzwords for this debate include a leader. The term “cult of personality” comes • Task-oriented leadership to mind, but that term in my mind applies • Task-focused leadership better to Reverend Jim Jones who could per- • Relationship-oriented leadership suade hundreds of followers to go with him to • Relationship-focused leadership a steaming jungle and then commit suicide via In the main, this is an attempt to classify dif- grape Kool-Aid. ferent types of leadership styles along a spec- Lest this seem empty historical detail, can trum from pure relationship-oriented leaders to you think of any SAR teams that might have pure task-oriented leaders. Or perhaps different had similar occurrences? I can. Well, not the strategies adopted by leaders at different times. grape Kool-Aid, but falling apart after the loss It might be worthwhile to consider some of a charismatic leader. examples, to get a better feeling for this dimen- Iszatt-White in her Leadership suggests two sion of leadership. The examples in the litera- ways to for the organization to survive loss of a ture are terribly boring so I decided to make up charismatic leader: my own. 1. By transferring charisma to a designated Examples of people who I would expect to be successor through rites and ceremonies. The task-oriented leaders include: problems here are that it is seldom possible • A mid-level official in the Chinese Zhou to find an equally extraordinary successor dynasty imperial bureaucracy in 500 BCE for an extraordinary leader and that the (which bureaucracy some say invented the idea existing leader may be unwilling to identify of the Mandate of Heaven). a strong successor early enough to ensure a • A mid-level official in Constantinople during smooth transition. the Byzantine (later Roman) empire in 964 AD 2. By creating administrative structures (where else do you think the phrase “Byzantine that will continue to implement the leader’s bureaucracy” originated?) vision. This can be difficult to sustain when • A supervisor of auditors in the U.S. Internal a vibrant, living vision is replaced by a bland, Revenue Service who is looking at your tax bureaucratic set of rules. It can also strangle return right now. the organization as the vision becomes tired These sound like caricature-ish unfeeling, through lack of personal renewal. fussy, OCD*-ish middle-manager characters 3. By perpetuating the leader’s vision by from fiction, don’t they? But those archetypes,† embedding it in the organizational culture. even if exaggerated, do come from real life. This requires followers to be persuaded to Here’s another task-oriented leader internalize the vision and feel empowered caricature: to implement it. Of the three, this approach • The owner of a small Internet startup company. is probably the most likely to be success- Drives himself (or herself) and the five other ful, though it is not without its pitfalls and partners/subordinates to the point of illness limitations, not least of which is the fact that with too much work, not enough sleep, and a sooner or later a new leader with ideas of diet of nothing but Jolt Cola, pizza and very their own is likely to be required. large chocolate chip cookies. For more, read the book Accidental Empires: How the Boys Task-Oriented Leadership of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can’t Get a Date Every couple of decades there seems to be a * Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: an example is the compulsive need to read renewed interest in looking at leadership from a all the footnotes in a document. task-oriented viewpoint instead of, or compared † Archetype = original pattern from which copies are made. First entered English in ~1540. From the Latin noun archetypum, latinisation of the Greek noun to, a people-oriented viewpoint. In the English ἀρχέτυπον, Can refer to (1) a Platonic philosophical idea (just can’t get away from those Greek philosophers) referring to pure forms which embody the fun- literature, you can easily trace this back to the damental characteristics of a thing; (2) for those believe in Carl Jung’s bizarre but 1950s. I suspect if you were really interested you attractive idea of a collective unconscious, a collectively-inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought or image that is universally present in individual psyches; or (3) a constantly recurring symbol or motif in literature, painting, or mythology.

Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Task-Oriented Leadership 43 Pournelle’s Iron by the pseudonymous Robert X. Cringely. neighborhood. Law of Bureaucracy • An academic involved in cut-throat competi- • The owner of a family business struggling tion for the prestige of being appointed the with competition from big-box retailers. In any bureaucracy, the endowed Chair of Philogenetic Semiotics at Both value relationships with “their people” people devoted to the benefit the University of Lower Slobbovia. If you don’t over regulations of the Church or the city gov- of the bureaucracy itself think that academic competition can be as bad ernment. They will break the law if they need to, always get in control and as competition for money, read the literature to protect “their people.” those dedicated to the goals on it, both real-life stories and fiction. My One example of such a two-axis leader- the bureaucracy is supposed favorite is from Jack Vance, back in the Golden ship/management model is that of Robert R. to accomplish have less and Age of science fiction. In 1954, he wrote a short Blake and Jane Mouton, published in 1964 in less influence, and sometimes story called First Star I See Tonight, a chilling The Managerial Grid: The Key to Leadership are eliminated entirely. academic murder mystery. Excellence. The basic model analyzes leadership • An MBA student. As previously noted, his styles along an x,y graph, with the x axis being …in any bureaucratic scores on an ethical dilemma test are the same concern for production (for SAR, perhaps sub- organization there will be two as convicts in a minimum-security prison. stitute mission performance) and the y axis kinds of people: those who Task: “He who dies with the most toys wins!” being concern for subordinates. This sounds work to further the actual Collateral damage to any and all others entirely very like the linear-spectrum task-oriented vs. goals of the organization, acceptable. Thinks Warren Buffet of Berkshire- people-oriented discussion we just had, but and those who work for Hathaway (fifth largest public company in the now in a two-dimensional x.y grid. the organization itself. world, respected investment guru) is a wimp. As you can see from the graph reproduced on Examples in education would Jeffrey Skilling of Enron* and Martin Shkreli of the next page, they give names to the extreme be teachers who work and Turing Pharmaceuticals† would be his heroes cases. There are some value judgments here, as sacrifice to teach children, except they got caught. Recognizes his need the “team style” (high on both axes) is almost vs. union representatives for a more well-rounded personality, so has always described with positive terms. who work to protect any started studying history. Particularly inter- Kim Jong-il, the dictator of North Korea teacher including the most ested in efforts in Mongolia to rehabilitate the points out that he is a good example of a “team incompetent. The Iron Law reputation of Temüjin, who created the greatest style” leader. If you disagree you will be sum- states that in all cases, the contiguous empire of all time. While acknowl- marily executed, which leaves only “team play- second type of person will edging how Temüjin (Genghis Khan) unified ers,” and which proves his point. always gain control of the his empire by promoting religious toleration Some extend this model noting that oppor- organization, and will always and a uniform written language, was particu- tunistic managers may switch among the strat- write the rules under which larly interested in how Genghis used to slaugh- egies as needed for personal gain. Others note the organization functions. ter an entire city and make a vast pyramid of that, when stressed, managers may switch severed heads, bringing the art of intimidation models. Proponents of this management model —Jerry Pournelle to its highest point, ever. (and most of the others) seem to be cast from Here are a couple of almost-pure relation- the “my way is the one TRUE way!” mold, or ship-oriented leaders: perhaps the “buy ALL my books!” mold. Or, as • A pastor or parish priest in a poor inner city perhaps with most things in life, a little bit of both. * Enron was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It employed 20,000 people and claimed revenues of nearly There are other leadership grid models with $111 billion during 2000. Fortune magazine called it “America’s Most Innovative Company” for six consecutive years (thanks, guys). Due to cheating, lying and different leadership characteristics on the x and stealing by top leadership, most notably Jeffrey Skilling and Andrew Fastow, the y axes. Some have said that creating an x,y grid company went bankrupt in 2001, taking their auditor, “Big 5” accounting firm Arthur Anderson, down with them. Tens of thousands of people lost their jobs, with new axes is a rite of passage‡ for new lead- and investors lost gobs of money. Skilling is scheduled to get out of Federal prison in 2020. Fastow forfeited $23.8 million in family assets and was released ership researchers. from Federal prison in 2011. He now lectures on corporate ethics; he charges Later work building on this model has added $10,000-$20,000 per lecture per an online booking agent. Not mentioned are any extra fees for audience members throwing rotten fruit. an additional motivation axis to form a three- † Martin Shkreli founded Turing Pharmaceuticals in February 2015. The com- dimensional grid. Some others add even more pany bought the rights to Daraprim (pyrimethamine)to the main drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, a relatively rare infection that affects those with HIV axes to form n-dimensional grids. This, like infection but also some who are not immunosuppressed. He jacked up the price 5000%, and was very surprised when people complained; after all, he was some of those personality theories, makes my just socking it to rich insurance companies. He’d forgotten about those without brain hurt but doesn’t seem to make me appre- insurance. Despite his attempts to deal with this after the fact, it brought him more unwanted attention than quick profits. On December 17, 2015, Shkreli was ciably more knowledgable, wiser or a better arrested by the FBI on charges of securities fraud and released on bail. He was brought to testify to a House of Representative panel to which he basically said “screw you, I’m not telling you anything” and afterwards Tweeted “Hard to accept ‡ A rite of passage is a celebration of the passage which occurs when an indi- that these imbeciles represent the people in our government.” I keep waiting for vidual leaves one group to enter another, such as moving from childhood to him to be hit by a lightning bolt from Zeus. adulthood.

44 Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Task-Oriented Leadership leader. Other terms used in the leadership/manage- ment literature are collective leadership, shared The Sun King leadership, collaborative leadership, and partici- pative leadership. There are other ways of classifying leader- One of the more extreme versions of this kind ship styles. of distributed leadership in the business com- One style of leadership is sometimes termed munity is the online shoe n ’at† retailer Zappos. autocratic or command and control, and this is A brief excerpt from Wikipedia will explain: often referenced as the military model. However, On average, Zappos employees answer in its purer form, think of the divine right of 5,000 calls a month, and 1,200 e-mails a kings in early modern Europe, culminating in week (except in the holiday season, when Louis XIV of France, “The Sun King.” At the call frequency increases significantly). Call time of his reign in the late 1600s and early 1700s, center employees don’t have scripts, and France was by far the most powerful nation in there are no limit on call times. The longest Europe, and Louis famously said “L’État, c’est call reported is 10 hours 29 minutes. moi.” (The state, that is me.) Louis had absolute Zappos employees are encouraged to go power, and his word was law. Literally. above and beyond traditional customer ser- It was only later, particularly in England, that vice. In particular, after a late night of bar- the idea of a parliamentary monarchy really hopping and closed room service, Hsieh bet took hold, which required a different style of a Skechers rep that if he called the Zappos leadership. hotline, the employee would be able to locate After his military victory over Napoleon at the nearest late-night pizza delivery. The call Waterloo in 1815, Arthur Wellesley received the center employee, although initially confused, title of Duke of Wellington. In 1828, he became returned two minutes later with a list of Prime Minister. After his first Cabinet meeting, † A contraction of “and that.” Commonly used in the Pittsburghese dialect of he was reported to say “Extraordinary! I gave English (see pittsburghese.com). True Pittsburghers also liberally sprinkle this them their orders and they wanted to sit there throughout their conversation, where those from other areas might say “um.” Also sometimes spelled an’ ‘at. discussing them.” As far as the military/“command and control” model, we might consult military historians – who will talk your ear off about this given half a chance – about the different leadership styles of the German and Russian armies during World War II. Although the Russian army eventually won, historians say this was solely because the Russians had more resources. Considered as individual units, the German army essentially always outfought the Russian army. Most ascribe this to different “command and control” models. The Russians followed the “my word is law” Louis XIV model: commanders were supposed to simply carry out their orders and not exercise any independent judgment: do or die. Quite often they died in massive numbers. The German military, however, expected commanders to exercise judgment in carry- ing out their orders, and to adapt tactics and even sometimes strategy as needed to deal with changing situations in the field. This is also sometimes called distributed decision-making.*

* Yes, Adolph Hitler gave some really stupid orders which contributed to the German defeat. Nonetheless, the generalization about leadership styles still A graphical representation of the managerial grid model stands.

Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ The Sun King 45 the five closest late night pizza restaurants. of a defense in a court of law. Inc. Magazine notes another example when A whacker or simply a very contentious a woman called Zappos to return a pair of member can mess up distributed leadership by boots for her husband because he died in a trying to dominate the discussion by being the car accident. The next day, she received a loudest, or at least the most repetitive, in the flower delivery, which the call center rep had room (or forest, or cliff, or cave). However, an billed to the company without checking with experienced leader can usually at least contain her supervisor. such a member so he or she doesn’t cause any With volunteer SAR teams, the Louis XIV major harm to the operation. Cave rescue peo- “my word is law” variant of the “command and ple sometimes (jokingly?) say to “flat rock” him: control” leadership method is unlikely to be tol- hit him in the head with a flat rock. Pointy rocks erated, except briefly in certain field situations cause too much bleeding. where rapid unquestioning action is essential. One of the goals of any field team leader should Change and Transformation be to never get into such a situation, but as the saying goes, shit happens. One big topic in corporate leadership-speak The German-army variation, where there is a over the last several decades has been “change.” hierarchical leadership structure, but sub-lead- Chapter 9 in Iszatt-White’s Leadership is entitled ers are expected to exercise broad judgment in Leading change: Leadership’s natural habitat? carrying out their orders, is much more com- Corporate leaders, according to this empha- mon for SAR teams, and this is as it should be. sis, are responsible for guiding “change.” As with Indeed, unless you’re a soldier in North other management fads that come and go, this Korea, soldiers are expected to exercise some leads to corporate managers talking a lot about judgment in carrying out orders from above. how they need to lead the organization through Even in the military, it is a crime to carry out “change.” While organizations that don’t change criminal orders. Wikipedia states: with the times wither and die, this emphasis Superior orders, often known as the on “change” seems to me to be a bit overdone. Nuremberg defense, lawful orders or by Corporate mangers feel they aren’t doing their the German phrase Befehl ist Befehl (“only jobs unless they find things to change, some- following orders”, literally “an order is an times for change’s sake, not in response to real order”), is a plea in a court of law that a per- pressures on the organization. Sometimes, peo- son, whether a member of the armed forces ple call this transformation or transformational or a civilian, not be held guilty for actions leadership as if this means something differ- which were ordered by a superior officer or ent than change. It doesn’t. I prefer the shorter a public official. word just because it’s shorter. But people like One of the most noted uses of this plea, or the word “transformation,” as it implies change “defense”, was by the accused in the 1945–46 for the better, almost a religious rebirth, and Nuremberg Trials, such that it is also called this helps justify an outrageous CEO salary. the “Nuremberg defense”. The Nuremberg However, the effect on the worker-bees, espe- Trials were a series of military tribunals, cially minimum-wage employees who take out held by the main victorious Allied forces the trash, may be negligible. Even on employee- after World War II, most notable for the doctors, the effects of this “transformation” may prosecution of prominent members of the be minimal compared to incremental changes political, military, and economic leadership brought about through Toyota-like efforts from of the defeated Nazi Germany. It was during the bottom of the hierarchy. these trials, under the London Charter of the As I write this, it is Presidential primary International Military Tribunal which set season in the USA, and every candidate talks them up, that the defense of superior orders about “change.” I take all this talk with a grain was no longer considered enough to escape of salt, as I do announcements of change from punishment; but merely enough to lessen new corporate leaders. Sometimes, corporate punishment. leaders are satisfied with giving new names to Given this is a matter of international law, it old things and calling it “change.” This causes gets much more complicated. The take-home minor confusion to people, and wastes time and lesson is that “I was ordered to do it” isn’t much money, but the real harm is that this attention

46 Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Change and Transformation to superficial “change” can distract from actual Psychological Safety changes that need to be made. Rather than changing names, it’s better to tweak the existing In the February 25, 2016 edition of The New organization in ways that make it more adap- York Times, Charles Duhigg provides an article tive to evolutionary pressures. “What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build Do I seem cynical about this? Am I belabor- the Perfect Team: New research reveals surpris- ing the point. Several times top leadership for ing truths about why some work groups thrive an organization for which I worked talked about and others falter.” The article goes on in some “transformation” and “change.” As far as I can detail about Google’s Project Aristotle (there tell, the only benefits accrued to the top lead- he is again), which looked at factors that made ership who seem to be DOING SOMETHING some work groups, teams, or whatever you call BIG as opposed to the incremental change them, work better than others. The reported and transformation that is the lifeblood of any research is quite interesting, but we will skip to organization. the bottom line. Perhaps this is a good place to talk about the …on the good teams, members spoke in Toyota Method. This is sometimes mistakenly roughly the same proportion, a phenomenon taken to mean Lean but it is reamore tan that. the researchers referred to as ‘‘equality in dis- A maverick engineer named Ohno Taiichi (last- tribution of conversational turn-taking.’’ On name, firstname in the Japanese style) came up some teams, everyone spoke during each with a bunch of ideas that transformed Toyota task; on others, leadership shifted among from a fourth-rate also-ran company to one of teammates from assignment to assignment. the biggest, and in some ways best, companies But in each case, by the end of the day, every- in the world. The story is told in the book The one had spoken roughly the same amount. Machine That Changed the World: The Story of ‘‘As long as everyone got a chance to talk, the Lean Production: Toyota’s Secret Weapon in the team did well,’’ Woolley said. ‘‘But if only one Global Car Wars That Is Now Revolutionizing person or a small group spoke all the time, World Industry,* which I recommend to you. the collective intelligence declined.’’ Although most of the Toyota method focuses Second, the good teams all had high ‘‘aver- on industrial production… and the “lean” is age social sensitivity’’ – a fancy way of saying very tightly focused on that… one of the other they were skilled at intuiting how others felt innovations of Ohno sometimes gets lost in the based on their tone of voice, their expres- shuffle: short feedback loops. Any repetitive sions and other nonverbal cues. One of the process – searching is a good example – works easiest ways to gauge social sensitivity is to better if everyone, at every level, is encour- show someone photos of people’s eyes and aged to keep an eye out for how to make things ask him or her to describe what the people better: improve the Task Assignment Form, are thinking or feeling – an exam known as improve dispatch procedures, whatever. And the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test. People leaders at all levels need to make the time to on the more successful teams … scored solicit these ideas, and then when appropri- above average on the Reading the Mind in ate, act on them. Those who are being briefed the Eyes test. They seemed to know when and sent out into the field on a regular basis are someone was feeling upset or left out. People actually better experts on search tactics than on the ineffective teams, in contrast, scored the Base weenies (that’s a technical SAR term), below average. They seemed, as a group, to and are more likely to come up with ideas for have less sensitivity toward their colleagues. improving things. That’s the essential element of One lesson here, perhaps, is to simply have the Toyota method, to my mind. people sitting so they can all see each other’s eyes. Psychologists refer to these features as con-

* My family’s cars all have names, and my used 2006 Scion xA (Scion is a Toyota versational turn-taking and social sensitivity. brand) is named Taiichi. It’s my city car, it gets 37 MPG on the open road. I These in turn create an atmosphere of psycho- picked his first name because the car is small and friendly and we seem to be on a first-name basis with it. My SAR truck is a 2011 Toyota Land Cruiser Series logical safety. In an oft-cited 1999 article,† Amy 200; we call it Shingo after Shingo Shigeo (lastname, firstname; we use his last name just because this kind of truck is more dignified and should go by his last Edmondson defines psychological safety as name) who brought the Toyota Method to the USA. It gets 16 mpg on the open road if I’m lucky, but I can drive comfortably at highway speeds to a SAR opera- † Edmondson, A. (1999). “Psychological safety and learning behavior in work tion then just keep going off-road if I need to. teams.” Administrative science quarterly 44(2): 350-383.

Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Psychological Safety 47 shared belief held by members of a team that the improved the performance of his team by dis- team is safe for interpersonal risk taking. She closing some personal health data: he had Stage specifically says: IV cancer and didn’t have all that much longer …learning behavior consists of activities to live. You probably don’t have to be dying of carried out by team members through which cancer to be willing to discuss at least some a team obtains and processes data that allow personal struggles and vulnerabilities. This may it to adapt and improve. Examples of learn- help create that feeling of psychological safety ing behavior include seeking feedback, shar- that leads to trust and better team performance. ing information, asking for help, talking On the other hand, I suppose it can get the about errors, and experimenting. other high-D/choleric people in the room to …those in a position to initiate learning dismiss you as a total wimp. Naaah, won’t hap- behavior may believe they are placing them- pen. Probably. selves at risk; for example, by admitting an This echoes some of the comments about the error or asking for help, an individual may effects of trust by Stephen Covey fils that we dis- appear incompetent and thus suffer a blow cussed earlier. And maybe, if we’re getting this to his or her image. In addition, such indi- from two such different sources, Stephen Covey vidualism may incur more tangible costs if and Google, we should pay serious attention. their actions create unfavorable impressions on people who influence decisions about pro- Memes and Meaning motions, raises, or project assignments. …in some environments, people perceive A final and quite meaningful analysis of the career and interpersonal threat as suf- leadership styles focuses on leaders as managers ficiently low that they do ask for help, admit of meaning or thought leaders. This is the rule errors, and discuss problems. in politics; if you can get other people to accept … Team psychological safety is not the same the labels you put on things, half the battle’s as group cohesiveness, as research has shown won. Pro-life. Pro-choice. (It’s never good to be that cohesiveness can reduce willingness to “anti-” as that’s such a negative word.) The War disagree and challenge others’ views, such as on Terrorism. Of course, with any definition in the phenomenon of groupthink, implying like this, people’s definition of such vague terms a lack of interpersonal risk taking. The term may reasonably differ. As I type this, a cease-fire is meant to suggest neither a careless sense of is due to go into place in the Syrian civil war, permissiveness, nor an unrelentingly positive except for attacks on “terrorists” – and the US affect but, rather, a sense of confidence that and Russia disagree on who are the “terrorists.” the team will We considered Richard Dawkins’ idea of the not embarrass, selfish gene before, which is a powerful idea reject, or pun- that has really caught on. Speaking of ideas, ish someone Dawkins also posits the idea of selfish memes. for speaking up. Genes are the elements of genetic herdity; Going back memes are elements of thought; ideas that can to the New York spread through a society. Have you ever had a Times article, song you couldn’t get out of your head? That’s a Duhigg writes strong meme. So is “the selfish gene.” “Google’s data Unlike the idea of thought leaders, memes indicated that exist separately from people, and can spread psychological among large swathes of the population. Have safety, more you heard of a YouTube video going viral? than anything How about the spread of Christianity across else, was criti- the Roman Empire* and beyond? Yes, the

cal to making a * Some, for example Gibbon in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, hold team work.” He that Christianity weakened the Roman Empire and caused its fall. However, even after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, traditionally dated to 476 AD, goes on to tell (a) nobody at the time thought it had fallen, and (b) the Eastern Roman Empire, headquartered in Constantinople, previously Byzantium and subsequently a story about a Istanbul lasted for about another thousand years. Some also consider that the Spread of Christianity to AD 325 colored in team leader who spread of Christianity, and saving ancient Latin and Greek texts in far-flung orange, to 600 colored in yellow. monasteries, preserved Roman and Greek ideas that later became the basis of things like the Renaissance in Europe from the 1300s to the 1600s. See, for

48 Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Memes and Meaning meme mutated as do genes, which is why we reasonable degree of efficiency. So people start Delegation have Catholic and Orthodox and all flavors skimping on the rules to get their work done, of Protestant Christianity. Or what about the because they’re also being pressured to be effi- A leader must: spread of Islam out of Arabia some 500-600 cient. In the extreme case, you get what error ··Possess authority years later, also now with various flavors of theorists call an n-tuple bind.* This is when you ··Assume responsibility Sunni and Shia? are presented with enough rules that it is sim- ··Account for his or These memes had charismatic leaders ply impossible to observe them all. This is also her actions to start with, but then the memes became known by the term a set of mutually incompos- self-propagating. sible rules. Authority can and should, The final meme we should consider is of vol- This is not to say that we should have no when appropriate, unteer SAR teams. It probably is a mutation safety rules. It’s hard to argue that those who be delegated. of volunteer fire companies, but with its own work next to high-speed traffic on a highway unique story. In some areas, the Sheriff’s dep- don’t really need high-visibility clothing. Responsibility means “liable uties do SAR as part of their job, but even in Once upon a time, in a place far, far away, a to be called on to answer.” these area, the meme of the volunteer SAR team SAR team member fell in a raging river without Responsibility cannot be sometimes springs up. It would be a fascinating a flotation vest and drowned. Therefore your delegated. Even if you research project to try to figure out where this team now has a rigid rule that “During a search demand responsibility meme began. or rescue task, no team member may go within of your subordinates, it 10 feet of a body of water unless wearing a flo- is still ultimately your The Rules tation vest.” However, the team also has a rule responsibility to make “All assigned search segments shall be searched sure they do their jobs. One of the rules is that leaders and managers completely, no exceptions.” make the rules. So you are an FTL of a team out searching in Accountability means you But making a long list of “thou shalt” and an area you know well from prior searches and must bear the consequences “thou shalt not” rules might not be the best idea. your own hiking. There are no rushing streams if you do not accomplish Do you know how big-rig truck drivers do a or large bodies of water so you are not carrying tasks for which you are work slowdown when they are not allowed to flotation vests. You come to a foot-wide stream responsible. “Called to strike? They follow the rules. All of the rules. All that the trail crosses. Can you permit your team account” implies possible of the time. They never exceed the speed limit. to go across it without their vests on? punitive actions for They come to a complete stop for a couple of It’s time for a rest stop and for some hydra- failure. You can hold your seconds at every stop sign. They follow driv- tion. One of your team members pulls out a subordinates responsible ing time rules to the second. Efficiency drops Nalgene water bottle and opens it to drink. Is and accountable, and can drastically. she allowed near this “body of water” without a discipline them, but still From the human error literature, we know vest on? (The term for this rhetorical technique, you are accountable for that the response to bad things is, first of all, to BTW, is reductio ad absurdum: following the their actions and inaction. blame it on “human error” rather than a sys- reasoning until you get an absurd result, dis- tem failure, as we talked about with critiques proving the original argument.) and retrospectoscope (hindsight) bias. We You come across a small pond a few feet off discussed the maladaptive “blame and train” the trail. You’d like to search the edges for foot- “blaming those on the sharp end” response to prints, but then there’s that rule. You know that this as part of a management by exception lead- this pond is no more than three feet deep in the ership (or anti-leadership) style. middle, because you’ve found that wading into But the response to “human error” can be it in the summer can be refreshing. Do you have to set up more and more “safety rules” as a your team search the edge of the pond? response, and the human error literature quite You make a careful calculation of the risk clearly classes this as, for the most part, mal- vs benefit of allowing your team to search the adaptive. Why? edges of the pond. As would any reasonable Broad “safety” rules made in response to a FTL, you think “screw the rule” and have your single unusual incident tend to be over-broad. team search the edge. You find multiple foot- And you get more and more of these “safety” prints matching the unique sole pattern of the rules, so many that it’s impossible to observe subject, heading away to the east. You call this them all and get anything done with any in, the LKP (Last Known Point) is updated,

* I would think that the term “multiple bind” might make more sense, but then example, the book How the Irish Saved Civilization. I’m not an academic error theorist.

Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ The Rules 49 Delegation Part II and a dog team is sent out to the east of your specialized knowledge, experience, and judg- task. The dog team quickly finds the subject on ment to become a good sergeant. A newly On 2/22/16, National another trail with a broken ankle, dehydrated promoted sergeant might immediately be Public Radio interviewed and hypothermic but still alive. Your team joins put in charge, but, because of the wealth of Michael Hayden, who was the dog team and starts treating the patient; refined skills it took to reach that rank, it US National Security Agency soon a litter arrives from base, and you get the could easily be justified. head during the Iraq war, the patient out. The patient survives, and your field … September 11 attacks, and team is, by unofficial acclamation of the rest of General George Patton was probably a dif- the NSA scooping up phone the SAR team’s members, credited with a save. ficult person to work for, but he would have metadata. He has a new However, at the next business meeting, the been an excellent SAR manager. He clearly memoir out, Playing to the head of your SAR team, who is an authoritarian understood his limitations as a manager Edge. He said to blame the “command and control” management by excep- when he said, “Never tell people how to do intelligence community for tion Louis XIV style leader, starts a disciplinary things. Tell them what to do and they will these failures of intelligence, hearing against you for violating team safety surprise you with their ingenuity.” (Theodore not the White House. rules. I made up this scenario but I know of very Roosevelt was a little more explicit when he similar ones I can’t ethically relate here. said, “The best executive is one who has If you are head of a SAR It’s attractive to make up a long list of “thou sense enough to pick good people to do what team, you can delegate shalt” and “though shalt not” safety rules. But he wants done, and self restraint enough to authority for information- do you really think you are smart enough, and keep from meddling with them while they do gathering to others; that imaginative enough, to think of all the times i t .” ) is, provided you don’t and places where these rules might actually I recommend this pamphlet to anyone aspir- tell them to violate the might have to applied? Including situations ing to be a FTL; it contains much wisdom. As Fourth Amendment of the where those rules might be incompossible, or far as leadership styles, Daughenbaugh says Constitution, or to use actually make things less safe? It seems to be generally accepted that, to interrogation techniques that Don’t be guilty of rule-making hubris. be consistent, a leader must adopt one, and violate international treaties Bottom line: rigid rules are in general bad. only one, of the available leadership styles. In to which the US is signatory. Best practices are good. A best practice is a rec- SAR, this is patently untrue and unwise. All ommendation as to the generally best way to aspects of SAR leadership activities, includ- You still must have do something, with the proviso that when and ing leadership styles, are driven by the pre- responsibility for making where to apply this best practice depends on senting situation. sure the information is the situation. A system that uses best practices He goes on to discuss different leadership accurate, and whatever rather than rigid rules requires education of styles, focusing closely on the dangers of group- you do based on this members about these best practices, and inde- think, which is defined by Wikipedia thus: information, you are pendent judgment by members. But the gains Groupthink is a psychological phenom- still accountable to in efficiency and safety (not to mention morale) enon that occurs within a group of people, in the team for it. can be impressive. which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dys- This ties in with the Authority and Power functional decision-making outcome. Group political idea of plausible members try to minimize conflict and reach deniability: the top leader On the website of the Mountain Rescue a consensus decision without critical evalu- being able to say “I didn’t Association (mra.org), you can find a 2002 ation of alternative viewpoints, by actively know anything about it.” PDF pamphlet titled Field Team Leadership in suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by Search and Rescue Operations, by Leonard R. isolating themselves from outside influences. And the idea of a Daughenbaugh. He says Daughenbaugh, writing with what sounds subordinate “taking one for In a military hierarchy or chain of com- like the voice of experience, says the team,” or in an earlier mand, FTLs would be the sergeants. It becomes groupthink at its worst if a era, falling on your sword … cohesive in-group is combined with an to protect your liege-lord. once troops get into the field and the bul- authoritarian, charismatic leader who is lets start flying, sergeants must carry out the not impartial or amenable to having his/her plan, make alterations, etc., which gener- point of view challenged, and is not willing ally involves making life or death decisions to voluntarily accept accountability for his/ under extreme time and situational pressure her actions or inactions. The most identi- for both themselves and their people. As with fiable characteristic of this type of leader SAR FTLs, it takes years to accumulate the is that he/she will bring up an issue, then

50 Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Authority and Power How to Influence People (But Not Necessarily Win Friends) adapted from Iszatt-White, M. (2014). Leadership. New York, NY, Oxford University Press. Proactive lnfluencing Description Tactic Rational Persuasion Use facts, evidence and logic to argue that a plan or proposal will work. Apprising Focus on how achieving a goal will personally benefit your subordinates (or superiors) in terms of their career, skills or profile. Inspirational Appeals Get a person’s emotional commitment to a task or plan: appeal to the person’s values, ethics, hopes or ideals. Consultation Have a subordinate develop the plan or task, so he or she is invested in it. You pick what the broad task will be, but you consult on some details. Exchange Offer something of value in return for support for your plan, or for work on a task. Often called quid pro quo,1 or normal politics. Collaboration Offer resources and help, in return for a willingness to carry out a plan or task. Personal Appeals Base your appeal on friendship or personal loyalty. “We’ve worked together for a long time, and I’d like your help…” Ingratiation Complimenting and praising someone in order to get their help or support. Could be seen as manipulative. In fact, hard to do unless you’re really sincere; over the millennia humans, have evolved special invisible antennae that immediately detect false praise. Legitimating Tactics Using position, policy, organisational2 rules or norms to make a request appear legitimate. Pressure3 AKA coercion. Use threatening words and behaviour, such as intimidating body language and invading people’s personal space; micro- manage and keep demanding a response. Works most effectively if authorization to use this technique is delegated to others such as Gestapo or NKVD agents. Coalition Tactics Building a coalition of colleagues in order to influence a specific person. AKA gang warfare.

1 Quid pro quo: more Latin to impress your friends. “Something for something,” “this for that,” “give and take”, “tit for tat”, or “you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours”. 2 Note the British English spellings of organisational and behaviour; not surprising in a book from Oxford University. I have retained these simply because Americans think they’re cool. But Noah Webster would be appalled. He wanted to rescue “our native tongue” from “the clamour of pedantry” and develop uniquely American spellings to separate us from the grammatical tyranny of George III of England and his ilk, as published in his 1786 The American Spelling Book. My how things have changed. 3 I also considered adding in a line for sexual and physical harassment but finally decided these are already included under “pressure.”

immediately express a personal opinion Maintaining unanimity (or at least the concerning it.[emphasis added] At that appearance of unanimity), along with point, any argument tends to revolve around amicable (no arguing), congenial (be nice) whether or not the leader is right, rather relationships with fellow group members than whether the leader’s preferred alterna- becomes consciously or subconsciously more tive is the best one. Effective decision-mak- important than arriving at good decisions. ing procedures go by the wayside. The group Therefore, group members begin to “self cen- experiences “tunnel vision.” Other alterna- sor.” A group member may initially exhibit tives will not be explored, or will only be skepticism, resistance, disagreement, etc., superficially evaluated. The search for infor- but, when confronted with opposition from mation will be cursory and incomplete, and the group leader and/or a significant num- the only information gathered will support ber of others, he/she will be expected to the leader’s preferred decision(s). Hazards, conform. Conformity is measured either by consequences, costs, etc will be minimized, agreement or silence. Individuals who per- or maybe not even mentioned. The possibil- sistently express a different view from that ity of positive outcomes will be overstated. of leadership and/or a majority of the group The goal of concurrence will supersede the will be labeled as uncooperative and made to pragmatic evaluation of alternative courses feel at least uncomfortable. It becomes easier of action. Further, if the group is operating to conform to the group and then complain in a stressful situation, such as under time to individuals both in and outside the group pressure, the leader’s solution will usually be afterward rather than continue the fight. adopted more quickly because group mem- Perhaps the solution to this kind of problem bers will want to minimize their stress by is to have more whackers in the group? Naaah. having the decision made as soon as possible. That just results in chaos. Since the solution was technically the leader’s The solution is to have members who are idea, the group will then transfer account- willing to go along with authority, but who are ability to the leader. But, since the decision willing to speak up and maintain their opinions was “ratified” by the group, the leader will despite authority or peer pressure, at least when usually consider the group accountable. life-or-death decisions must be made. In a word,

Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Authority and Power 51 Leading Volunteers

▸▸As the Medieval shaded into the early Modern this to Kim Jung-il of North Korea. period of history, western European lords freed their ▸▸ Distributed decision-making, also known as collective peasants, which led to the Industrial Revolution and leadership, shared leadership, collaborative leadership, thence to the western European domination of the and participative leadership all refer to the idea that world. Lords had to stop being autocratic and had to those down the chain should be expected to exercise understand and support their peasants. If you want a fairly high degree of independent judgment. to succeed as a SAR leader, care for your peasants. Zappos.com made it work impressively well. ▸▸Executing your admirals will get famous French ▸▸ Transformational leadership, AKA known as change authors to make fun of you in public; driving away leadership, is a way to shake up an organization and team members who disagree with you may destroy make a big name for the leader (even if only known your SAR team. It’s the same thing. for destroying the organization). Occasionally it is ▸▸Management consultants have many theories about needed, but usually in smaller doses than the leader how to better run a business or a SAR team. Some thinks. Think of the primary campaigns of those are worth listening to. running for President, all of whom are “all about ▸▸Relevant to SAR, Frederick Winslow Taylor says that change.” setting standards, and using them to establish an ▸▸ The Toyota method of Taiichi Ohno incorporates efficient training program, will make your team more many different management techniques. The one effective. most appropriate to SAR is of short feedback loops: ▸▸Watch the 1950 movie Cheaper by the Dozen. listen to all your members, especially the newest, and ▸▸Read W. Edwards Deming’s Fourteen Points for get their ideas on how to improve things. Management and figure out which portions of them ▸▸ The best teams have psychological safety: shared apply to SAR teams. belief held by members of a team that the team is ▸▸Learn how to project your voice to a group, and to safe for interpersonal risk taking. Google found this speak effectively. was the most important factor in creating high-per- ▸▸Rhetoric should used for good rather than evil, and formance teams. Stephen Covey fils agrees. should not be empty sophistry, but full of good rea- ▸▸ Leaders may be managers of meaning AKA thought soning and effective persuasion. Learn rhetoric. leaders. Leaders may create memes (the mind ▸▸Academics have named different leadership styles; equivalent of the selfish gene) that may assume an there are probably no examples of someone using independent existence and spread. Like a religion. solely one type of leadership, as we use a mixture, Volunteer SAR is such a meme. and change our styles to suit the situation. But it’s ▸▸ Rigid “safety rules” can destroy both efficiency and still useful to consider different styles. safety; best practices are better. A best practice is a ▸▸Management by exception is like being a nun-teacher recommendation, not a rule. Rigid rules do make it with a ruler, and not being afraid to use it. easier to find someone to blame after the fact if that’s ▸▸Laissez-fair leadership means not having to worry. your goal. About anything. ▸▸ Groupthink is when the members of the group are ▸▸Charismatic leadership can lead to the empire of willing to go along with others, especially authorita- Alexander, the destruction of Germany, or the free- tive-seeming others, and not voice their concerns. dom of India from the British Empire. This is bad. ▸▸Task-focused leadership and relationship-focused leader- ▸▸ Authority and power are very similar concepts. ship are two ends of a spectrum, or two coordinates They can come from your position in the chain of on an x,y graph called “the management grid.” command, from your expertise, or from your prior ▸▸Autocratic, “command-and-control,” military, and Louis personal relations with others. Legitimate authority or XIV are terms applied to a very top-down hierarchical power means those under you accept your authority, approach to leadership. Useful in very bad SAR situa- for whatever combination of the above reasons. tions that you should never get into, otherwise leave

good followers. The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484–425 Daughenbaugh suggests that, when a leader BC) pointed out that the Persians used to recon- is soliciting input on a decision, that he or she sider their major decisions after getting drunk should not voice his or her opinion until the together. Perhaps this is not a good model for member’s opinions have been heard, so as not SAR team decision-making, at least in the field. to sway opinion, and so as not in intimidate Daughenbaugh discusses analytical methods members into not speaking. And an experi- for field team decision-making, but this should enced leader speaking an opinion, no matter be taken with a grain of salt. The earlier section how softly or tentatively, can be intimidating in this chapter, Sources of Power, discusses how even if there is no intent to intimidate. He also this is probably not the best decision-making points out that sometimes it’s wise to postpone a method, at least under time and other pressures. decision for a while, if you can; second thoughts In their book Leadership in Land Search can be useful. and Rescue, available free in PDF form at www.

52 Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Authority and Power eri-intl.com, Tony Jones, Rick LaValla and continues even without future supervision or Power Chris Long write: intervention. It is appropriate to draw clear distinc- Reward power and coercive power Some want power to compel tions between leadership, command and are both said to lead to socially dependent others to do what they want. management. All three are significant and change. This is due to the dependence on the interrelated but without effective leadership ability to reward (in terms of pay, promo- Some want the prestige command and management will fail to pro- tion, extra leave, etc.) or to threaten (with that comes from being an vide a quality of service required of any SAR disciplinary action, dismissal, etc.). Raven acknowledged leader. operations. Ultimately the safety of all may argues that where this type of power is used, be compromised. the target is only compliant if they think the Some believe that a higher We can perhaps equate relationship-based influencing agent is watching them, measur- power has designated leadership with their “leadership” and task- ing them and so having evidence from which them to lead people. oriented leadership with their command and to reward/punish them. Hence, surveillance management. Or perhaps we can use the x,y is necessary if a leader chooses to use this Some believe strongly in “management grid” approach and equate their form of power. More recently Raven updated a goal, and believe the “leadership” with “Concern for People” and their the Reward and Coercive Power idea to go best way to accomplish “command and management” with “Concern for beyond the obvious, tangible elements to this goal is to get others Production.” more intangible ones, such as approval or to follow them. Jones, LaValla and Long talk about authority. rejection from a well liked boss. By this they mean the power to get others to do Legitimate, expert, and referent power Some don’t want to be what you say and follow your lead. They distin- are all also classed as leading to socially leaders but find it thrust guish four sources of authority: dependent change, but Raven argues that upon them, as they are best • Authority from a leader’s position in the this change would not require surveillance. qualified to help others. chain of command. They call this “legitimate” Legitimate power means the person being authority. But I suspect everyone reading this influenced accepting that the influencer has Think about has at least heard of someone in a position of the right to direct, request, or demand a King Solomon, command who is not “legitimate” in terms of change. This right is usually associated with Confucius, subordinates’ trust, or perceived competence. the position of a person in the hierarchy, or Lao Tze, In combat, this can lead to subordinates kill- with the job title that the person possesses. Buddha, ing their superior officers; the term “fragging” Expert power is where the agent possesses, or Jesus, (from fragmentation grenade) evolved to is believed to possess, knowledge or insights Muhammed, describe this practice during the Vietnam War. that are accepted as superior and therefore George Washington, • Expert authority. This comes from compe- influence the target to change behaviour. Thomas Jefferson, tence, as judged by subordinates: the leader Finally, referent power is where the target Joseph Smith, has the requisite knowledge, experience and holds the agent in high regard, admiring Genghis Khan, judgment. their behaviour and trusting their judge- Adolf Hitler, • Personal authority. This comes from prior ment, and so is happy to emulate them. Joseph Stalin, interpersonal relations with members, and It is clear to anyone who has served under Jim Jones, from charisma. more than one leader/manager/commander/ Mahatma Gandhi, • Referent authority. They state this is the boss, that there are different styles of leadership. Jeffrey Skilling of Enron, leader’s acceptance by other team or party Despite all of the academic attempts to classify Martin Winterkorn members. Seems to me that this is the product leadership styles, the most prominent of which of Volkswagen, and of the first three types of authority. we have discussed in this chapter, leaders don’t Martin Shkreli of Turing Iszatt-White’s book Leadership lists several see themselves in these terms. Leaders use a bit Pharmaceuticals. types (or perhaps views) of leadership power in of this, a bit of that, and that they change their similar but slightly different terms, and using leadership styles over times with experience Think of the old maxim the word “power” instead of “authority”: and observing other leaders, and may change Power corrupts, and absolute Informational power is the ability to pro- them to suit different situations. power corrupts absolutely. vide information about a subject or task in Iszatt-White’s book Leadership recommends such a way that the recipient will accept that seeing the 1998 movie Saving Private Ryan, information and behave in the way the influ- nominated for 11 Academy Awards, to appre- encing agent is suggesting. Raven argues that ciate different styles of leadership by the same this type of power can create socially inde- person: pendent change, change in a behaviour that In the film Saving Private Ryan, after

Leadership ♦ Leading Volunteers ♦ Authority and Power 53 storming the beaches of Normandy in the it the degree of relationship-focus needed by Second World War, Captain John Miller the leader. and his unit are sent on a mission behind Research on this topic, and 40+ years of enemy lines to find and extract an American search and rescue experience both as a leader soldier, Private Ryan. On their journey they a follower, leads me to think SAR team leaders encounter a machine gun emplacement, and do a really, really good job for no pay except for this becomes the backdrop for Miller to dem- recognition from their peers and a feeling of onstrate an ability to adapt his leadership to doing good for others. different situations. First the need to storm If there is any trend for which SAR leaders the emplacement is contested by the troops, should try to avoid, it’s the tendency to resort and Miller uses his positional power, and his to the Louis XIV authoritarian “command and communication skills to force the completion control” mode when it’s not needed. If you find of the task. During the action a member of yourself wanting to use this mode, analyze the the team is killed, leading to arguments after cause of your stress, and make a conscious the event between the soldiers, first on what effort to be a kinder, gentler leader. Bend over to do with a German prisoner they capture, backwards to listen to others, validate their con- and secondly on whether they will follow cerns, and then move on. Miller again after he decides to release the I would hope that even experienced lead- prisoner. In an emotionally charged scene, ers learned a bit from the forgoing discussion Miller appeals to the troops in a relational of different styles. Mix this with your observa- way, describing his job before the war, and tions of other leaders, perhaps colored by what how he wants to return there knowing he you learned here, and keep updating your own has done the right thing. The difference from unique leadership style, which is fitted to your the first task-focused approach to the second personality type and the needs of those you lead. relationship-focused approach is stark. The task itself can be seen to change, and with

Followership

We have covered the field of leadership to go to medical school, and to become a spe- in detail. Even if you’re still not entirely clear on cialist in Emergency Medicine, which wasn’t what leadership is, more material in this chapter even a recognized specialty yet. Up until then, will not help. It’s time to switch to another topic, I had been vigorous in keeping up with the lat- which is how to be a good follower. est in technical rescue, search management and other search and rescue disciplines. Competing Roles But my commitment to medical school, residency and academic emergency medicine I’ve been doing search and rescue for about practice would take massive amounts of time. 45 years. I’ve acted as Incident Commander on Yes, I’d be a lot better at wilderness first aid. some large searches. I’ve led teams on difficult But I would have to relinquish my position at rescues. But that was a long time ago. I still do the cutting edge of technical rescue and search searches and rescues, and sometime I serve management. I wouldn’t be able to respond to in Base, but as I’m not certified as a Search operations very often. I would have to give up Manager any more, I mostly go into the field. my Incident Commander certification. I’ve done a number of rescues over the more So, despite my long background being a recent decades, but none of them I’d really leader in search and rescue, I needed to learn call difficult. But some time ask me about the followership. It wasn’t easy. I think learning fol- operation on Old Rag mountain in Shenandoah lowership is hard for any SAR team member, National Park where we got an official com- and the more of a whacker you are, the harder mendation from the Director of the National it is. Park Service. Or the Crossroads Cave rescue. A quick bit of side advice to the increasing As I was finishing my undergraduate degree ranks of search and rescue doctors out there: at the University of Virginia, I made the decision you’ll often need to do doctor stuff. That’s what

54 Leadership ♦ Followership ♦ Competing Roles the non-medical SAR people call it. So even if litter is heading out from Base. The Field Team you know lots about other search and rescue Leader who found the subject says the patient disciplines, you need to train up other non- is critically ill and requests that Base send out a doctor leaders who can take charge when you medical kit and the best medical personnel pos- suddenly abandon your leadership role to do sible to care for the patient. doctor stuff. That’s how others in the team see it, Do you go with the team to treat the patient? and how you should see it, too. How can you refuse this request? What if you In addition to search and rescue, I some- refuse to go and the patient dies? How would times respond to disasters. I’m Chief Medical you feel? What would the jury decide? Officer/Team Medical Director (the title seems But if you leave, what happens to the rest of to change from time to time) for the National the teams in the field? What if your abandon- Disaster Medical System’s PA-1 Disaster Medical ment of the Ops position means that a Field Assistance Team (DMAT). And in both disaster Team ends up getting stuck out overnight and and SAR responses, I sometimes find myself in a member dies? a leadership role, based on my experience and I don’t have any magic answers to this non-medical training. For either disaster or dilemma. I will say, however, that each time SAR being a physician and serving as a leader is something similar has happened to me, I have an invitation to problems. I was going to say an responded to the field. invitation to disaster but sometimes this occurs There are (at least) two proactive approaches during disasters. During that Katrina response, to this kind of situation. One is to make sure I suddenly had to transition from leading a you have an assistant Ops Section Chief who is team to doing doctor stuff. The sudden transi- ready to take over when you suddenly run out tion of leadership to the second in command of Base. Perhaps a better approach is for you to was painful for all involved. simply not accept the role of Ops Section Chief. On subsequent disaster deployments I’ve Instead, you pick a trainee as Ops Section Chief deliberately stayed away from leadership roles, and you mentor that person. It makes the tran- except perhaps as the chief of the physicians sition smoother if you suddenly disappear from within a team. This works much better than Base. I’ve done this multiple times in both SAR suddenly having to abandon a leadership role and disaster settings and found it to be both to do doctor stuff. I may sound like a broken rewarding and effective. record here, but physicians and surgeons: heed I used the example of Ops Section Chief, but what I say. I think you can apply this to other positions I’ve been talking about being a physician, such as Field Team Leader. Indeed, this prin- and you may figure this doesn’t apply to you. ciple of having trainees officially in a leadership But this also may apply if you’re an Advanced position, with an experienced person along to Practice Provider (AP is the new “in” term for mentor, is something we should probably do Physician’s Assistants and Nurse Practitioners), more often. If you’re experienced, you should, or a paramedic or a Wilderness EMT. Whenever when someone asks you to assume a leadership you’re in a leadership position and you’ve got role, say “Why don’t you appoint someone else the best first aid or medical credentials around, and let me serve as a mentor?” this applies to you. If we’re talking about a If you’re an experienced leader – especially search with a possible difficult technical rescue, if you’re an experienced leader – it’s important and you’re the best-qualified tech-rescue per- to develop your followership skills. If you don’t son at Base, this might apply to you, too. like the idea of being a “follower,” think about it So let’s assume you’re the best medical per- as “giving less-experienced members a chance son on a large search. You’re acting as Ops to lead while you mentor from the rear.” Or per- Section Chief, as there is nobody else with the haps “developing depth in the team’s leadership right training and experience to do this job bench.” Regardless of how you rationalize it, it’s right now. You also don’t have an assistant to the right thing to do. whom it will be reasonable to turn over the Ops Even if you buy into this idea of followership, Chief job. Suddenly, the search subject is found learning to actually do it right isn’t necessarily a half-mile up the hill from Base. A team with a easy. Practice.

Leadership ♦ Followership ♦ Competing Roles 55 Take me to Adult Education this and a little bit of that. However, appreciat- your Leader ing these different learning styles may help you We have discussed people skills. One impor- broaden your teaching styles. Much literature about tant people-skill followership role is that of As with personality theories and assessment, leadership focuses on the the teacher. I include this under followership there are a variety of theories about different current business world. An because it fits here better than under leader- learning styles, engendering an almost-reli- excellent overview of this ship. If you’re teaching, you’re in a support role, gious sectarian strife. The Wikipedia entry literature is a book from providing people with the information they on Learning Styles lists seven main compet- Oxford University Press, need to go out and do stuff, including leading ing models, all quite inconsistent. You will be called simply Leadership, others. When you’re teaching, you’re supposed relieved to know we will not be reviewing them by Marian Iszatt-White and to be meeting the needs of those who are your all. Christopher Saunders. It is students. Your needs are subservient to their The priests of each of the various learning- the go-to place for anyone needs. And everyone in SAR has to teach. Even style sects insist that people be classed as far wishing to go beyond this if it’s just when you’re an FTM assigned to lead as how they learn, and teaching should be cus- chapter, for instance to learn a team of non-SAR volunteers, your “briefing” tomized for each student. However, (1) this is a more about being a good the team about safety is teaching them. We call hassle, and (2) no studies have shown this actu- administrative leader for a it “just-in-time training.” ally works, so I recommend avoiding these sects’ SAR team. Here is the very There’s a saying that “those who can’t do, evangelistic efforts. first part of the first chapter: teach.” But in SAR it’s usually not true, the peo- But, perhaps, under all this smoke there is ple teaching usually do have SAR street cred. probably a bit of fire. There was a very silly joke Maybe that’s because SAR people have those six Neil Fleming’s VAK/VARK model seems to one of the authors (MIW} Jeff Mitchell emergency services workers char- be popular, can be related to teaching styles, remembers hearing in her acteristics, and won’t tolerate someone who is and might actually help you improve your childhood about a Martian faking it. teaching style. He identifies four different kinds landing on Earth and the first This can be one-on-one in a mentoring rela- of learning: thing he saw was a petrol tionship, or one-to-many, as when teaching • Visual learning station. Mistaking the petrol knots or search tactics to a group of members. • Auditory learning pump for the resident life form There are principles of education that have • Read/write learning of the planet, he went up to been around for millennia, dating to ancient • Kinesthetic learning it and said ‘take your finger Mesopotamia and China. In classical Greece This suggests a shotgun approach: if you want out of your ear, and take me and during the Roman Empire, these were to get something across to people, have them to your leader!’ This childish updated with some understanding of learning read about it (give a reading assignment), have play on the ‘anatomical’ styles, what we would now call psychology. But them hear about it (ideally in group or individ- features a human might over the past fifty years or so, our understand- ual Socratic questioning mode), demonstrate it have ir:1 common with a ing of learning has progressed in parallel with with pictures or diagrams on a screen or in real petrol pump nonetheless our understanding of the psychology of learn- life, and then have people actually do something demonstrates the prominence ing. Rather than delving into the research that hands-on. Hit all those four styles of learning. which leadership as an idea underpins this understanding of adult learn- Actually, the best advice about adult educa- has in our minds, even from ing – a quick web search will provide this to tion is something I found in a fortune cookie: I an early age. Indeed, it is a anyone interested – the following will provide hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and measure of the ubiquity of an awareness-level overview, and perhaps a few I understand. leadership in our lives that critical comments. Though sometimes attributed to Confucius, even the average 5-year-old First, you need to understand the basic prin- this is actually an English approximation of a will have some concept of ciples of “adult education.” Then, you need to statement by Xun Kuang, a 3rd century BC fol- what it is: as children in school understand the personalities of the people you lower of Confucius, a philosopher and teacher, we have all had the experience are going to be teaching, and if you’ve read this known as “Master Xun” (“Xunzi”). It’s from the of lining up for class, in the chapter up to this point, you’ve got a leg up on book Xunzi that is traditionally attributed to playground or on a school that. Then you need to assess your students, and him. It translates more closely as: “Not hearing trip, and so recognize ‘the then tailor your teaching to their motivations, is not as good as hearing, hearing is not as good leader’ as ‘the one in front’. desires and needs. as seeing, seeing is not as good as knowing, We should mention at this point the idea of knowing is not as good as acting; true learning different learning styles. As with personality continues until it is put into action.” The version analysis in terms of The Four Temperaments or from the fortune cookie first appeared, as near DISC axes, people may partake of a little bit of as I can tell, in the English education literature

56 Leadership ♦ Followership ♦ Adult Education in the 1960s. I like the fortune cookie transla- the rules about climbing trees: one tree was OK Leadership Lesson tion much better. for all the kids to climb, but another was only for the upper grades, as the limbs were further My definition of a leader … I hear and I forget. apart. And so I got my daughter her first Swiss is a man who can persuade I see and I remember. Army Knife when she was five. My wife and and people to do what they don’t I do and I understand. I are very definitely not “helicopter parents.” want to do, or do what they’re The supposed principles of adult education too lazy to do, and like it. We can’t talk about “adult education” with- are as follows, per Knowles. Adults tend to be: out talking about Malcolm Shepherd Knowles • Autonomous and self-directed —Harry S. Truman, (August 24, 1913 – November 27, 1997), and in • Have accumulated a foundation of expertise 1884-1972, Thirty- particular his papers and books on adult edu- and knowledge third President of cation, specificallyInformal adult education: a • Are goal oriented the United States guide for administrators, leaders, and teachers • Are relevancy-oriented (1950), and The adult learner: A neglected spe- • Are practical Leadership Lesson cies (1973, revised 1990). Knowles came up with • Need to be shown respect a list of ways that adult learners were different Duh. Applies to kids, too. Kids may be As for the best leaders, the from kids. They became dogma. smarter than you think, and may know more people do not notice their Then it turned out that if kids were edu- than you think. They’re just smaller so they’re existence. The next best, the cated in line with these “adult” principles, they easier to boss around. people honor and praise. enjoyed it and learned better. Part of the reason Speaking of bossing around students, do The next, the people fear; for this was that people thought that the tradi- you remember that list of psychological char- the next, the people hate. tional way of educating kids was the best way, acteristics Jeff Mitchell came up with for emer- and it turned out the difference was that kids gency services workers? It bears repeating here. —Lao Tsu, 604-531 BCE, were powerless to object, and adults did have Emergency services workers: Chinese philosopher that power and did object to the BS that kids • Have obsessive/compulsive personality traits and founder of Taoism couldn’t reject. • Need to be in control I have a special take on this, given that I • Are risk oriented have bought into the Waldorf school model of • Are action-oriented Leadership Lesson early childhood education… my daughter, now • Need to be needed 16 as I write this, went to a Waldorf school in • Are dedicated Leadership is influencing Pittsburgh up through the 8th grade, and I’m Sounds vaguely like that list of six “adult edu- people – by providing glad she did. Many things that are often hailed cation principles” above. Except, from a men- purpose, direction, and as “innovations” in public education, Waldorf tor/teacher standpoint, it’s even worse. “We motivation – while operating schools have been doing for decades, if not the don’t take no BS.”* to accomplish the mission and century they’ve been around. Examples include Which, as long as you’re not going to be dish- improving the organization. looping: having the same teacher through all ing out BS, but delivering good information tai- the grades. Or integrated education, such as lored to the job and the person or people who —U.S. Army Field learning geography and history and art at the will be learning, is just fine. Manual 22-100 same time as you draw a detailed map of the First, you have to tailor the information to Roman Empire. And, in the early grades, of the job at hand. This may sound like common integrating indoor exercise into arithmetic by sense, but if you’ve been assigned to teach a par- Leadership Lesson doing bean-bag tossing games to the chant of ticular topic to members of a SAR team, the first math lessons. When I first went to the Waldorf question is (and pardon my language): do they A genuine leader is not a school to see if I wanted my daughter there, I give a shit? If they don’t give a shit about what searcher for consensus but watched the kindergarten class for a while. One you’re teaching, they will get up and leave. a molder of consensus.” of the toys in the room (all the toys had to be Once upon a time I was in the Civil Air made out of natural materials) was a wicker Patrol, primarily to help the state CAP Wing —Martin Luther King Jr. backet of large rounded river rocks. “Aren’t you develop its Ground Search and Rescue program

worried about them hitting each other with the * If you are having an English-teacher moment and complain about my using rocks?” “Well, that’s part of our jobs as early a double-negative, think again. Shakespeare used double-negatives regularly to emphasize the negative effect of a sentence. He also used “aks” for “ask” childhood educators, to socialize them so they sometimes. In a related note, Sidney Morgenbesser, Columbia University John Dewey Professor of Philosophy, was once sitting in a lecture on the structure don’t do that.” Hmm, OK. And I watched them of language by Oxford philosopher J. L. Austin, who asserted that, though in using sharp knives to cut up apples for snack, English, a double negative can imply a positive meaning (i.e. “I’m not unlike my father…”), there is no language in which a double positive implies a negative. To and baking biscuits in a hot oven. And I heard which Morgenbesser reportedly replied “Yeah, yeah.”

Leadership ♦ Followership ♦ Adult Education 57 based on input from the Appalachian Search Mentoring also means supporting others in and Rescue Conference. I was sent to a CAP becoming teachers. multi-state regional Ground Search and Rescue Part of followership is also being a good stu- Instructor Workshop. That’s what it was called. dent to those you are mentoring. Assume you The first night, we had a fire service instructor are in the audience while another team mem- who gave a class about how to search a building, ber is giving a talk. On a topic about which you with us crawling around in the dark. know much more than the team member talk- Most of us were there thinking that, given the ing. What should you do? title, the session would have something to do Best is for you and the team member giv- with looking for downed aircraft or people lost ing the presentation to get your heads together in a wild area. We didn’t give a shit about crawl- beforehand, at least briefly, to discuss the pre- ing around with the lights out. So a group of us sentation and review the most important points seceded from the class and met in a hangar. The to make. But sometimes that just doesn’t happen. regional leadership was furious. There are competing principles here. First, This revolutionary group then went on to it’s important that team members get the right establish a Ground Search and Rescue program information; for some search and rescue topics, for our CAP state Wing.* With input from this may mean the difference between life and others in the Appalachian Search and Rescue death. So, at times, speaking up is absolutely Conference, I wrote a textbook for the wing, the necessary. But these situations should be few GSAR Manual, in 1979. Mark Pennington took and very far between. over the manual after me and updated it bit, and But you might speak up to bring up an then it morphed into the standard text used by important point. When you are pretty sure the state government’s SAR program. the instructor knows about this point, you can The point being, don’t try to teach adults (or phrase this as a question: “Do you think they even sassy kids) stuff that is irrelevant to the need to know about xxxx?” topic at hand. You can’t do this too often. And you can’t do Not only do you need to tailor the instruction it in a challenging way. You need to do it in a to fit the expected relevant topic, you need to way that supports the speaker; this support is tailor the instruction to the students’ needs and critical to your being a good mentor. Slapping prior training. Sometimes you will know this someone down for an innocent mistake is not ahead of time, sometimes you will not. good mentoring. A quick discussion with the students may Ask questions for those members who might provide you an assessment of their levels of not understand a point, but are afraid to speak expertise. And, you may identify a student who up and ask a question. If someone thinks you’re has expertise who can assist in the instruction stupid for asking such a question, it’s worth it (or a bad whacker who should not assist in the in terms of the benefit for all those people who instruction). Or, you may realize you have a needed to know but were afraid to ask. It also subset of students who are quite unprepared breaks the ice and makes it easier for others to for the planned instruction, and you’ll need to ask questions. split them off with an assistant instructor. With If you are teaching, you may learn something group instruction of adults, especially SAR from someone in your audience who knows people meeting the emergency services worker more about the subject than you do. If this hap- psychological profile, this Semper Gumby† pens, rejoice in it! And keep on asking this per- approach is essential. son questions to guide the discussion to meet the needs of your audience and your plan for Mentoring what you wanted to discuss. Even if you’re new to a team, you bring some If you’re mentoring a single person, the life experience with you, and may know some- principles apply just as well: assess motivation, thing the others on your field team might not desires and needs first, then tailor your mentor- know. So part of being a good follower is to ing accordingly. keep an eye out to do a little good followership- type mentoring even for your superiors, at least * A “Wing” is a state-level CAP organization. in an area where you have some expertise. † Semper Gumby is an unofficial military motto, referring to the animated clay character Gumby, and means “Always Flexible.” And this brings us to perhaps his most

58 Leadership ♦ Followership ♦ Mentoring important contribution to Western thought: deeper motivation, however, is political. Socrates’ dialectic method of inquiry, known as Proper pimping inculcates the intern with a the Socratic method or method or elenchus: profound and abiding respect for his attend- ing physician while ridding the intern of The Socratic Method needless self-esteem. Furthermore, after being pimped, he is drained of the desire It was first described by Plato in the Socratic to ask new questions – questions that his Dialogues. attending may be unable to answer. In the To solve a problem, break it down into a series heat of the pimp, the young intern is ham- of questions; select questions so the answers mered and wrought into the framework of gradually reveal the solution to the problem. the ward team. Pimping welds the hierar- Socratic questioning can also be an effective chy of academics in place, so the edifice of teaching technique, getting students to focus on medicine may be erected securely, genera- the question as well as the answer. tion upon generation. Of course, being ham- Using Socratic questioning in a group also mered, wrought, and welded may, at times, gets students to teach each other, and incite dis- be somewhat unpleasant for the intern. Still, cussion with students of opposing viewpoints, he enjoys the attention and comes to equate into which you can throw tidbits of information, his initial anguish with the aches and pains or ask other questions, to keep the debate going. an athlete suffers during a period of intense Much more interesting than listening to you or conditioning. me drone on. During my medical There is a formal method of “Socratic Circles,” school clinical rotations‡ but usually Socratic questioning is less formal. at George Washington The idea of gathering in a circle, however, is University, there was a neu- a good one, for it promotes the equality of all, rosurgery attending who making it easier for students to speak up. or as was known as a total arro- we discussed earlier, helps provide psychologi- gant asshole.§ He would cal safety. sometimes physically push Socratic questioning has been the technique you up against the wall and of choice in law schools for centuries.* You ask questions until you got question a student, who you pick at random; something wrong, and then or because you like the student, or because you laugh in your face, which don’t like the student, or because the student was unpleasant, especially seems to be falling asleep. since busy neurosurgeons In medical school,† this is referred to as have trouble finding time “pimping the student” and is a time-honored to brush their teeth. We technique. Nobody is sure how this using of the still liked him better than word “pimp” originated. The earliest reference the other and more aloof to pimping is attributed to Dr. William Harvey neurosurgery attendings,¶ Portrait of Socrates. Marble, Roman artwork (1st century), of London, who was first to accurately describe though, as he would perhaps a copy of a lost bronze statue made by Lysippos. blood circulation, in 1628. The two meanings of then deliver an excellent the term may have grown up in parallel. In 1989, Dr. Frederick L. Brancati of the Department ‡ In the US, medical school traditionally requires students to first secure a 4-year undergraduate degree, then complete four years of medical school in of Medicine of the University of Pittsburgh order to obtain their MD or DO degree. The first two years are mostly in the classroom. The third and fourth years are rotating assignments to different wrote an article in the Journal of the American medical and surgical specialties, mostly required ones during the third year, Medical Association, in which he noted: and some electives in the fourth year. Do you know the difference between a third-year medical student and a pile of bullshit? Nobody ever goes out of their On the surface, the aim of pimping way to step on a pile of bullshit. appears to be Socratic instruction. The § Their words, not mine! Really! ¶ In the US, once you finish your post-MD or post-DO residency, you become known as an “attending” or attending physician. That is, unless you really like * Law schools existed in Rome and Beiruit in 450 BC, but did not survive vari- the slave-labor aspects of residency (which was originally named this as you ous disasters; the University of al-Qarawiyyin was established in Fez Morocco had to live in the hospital), and you stay on for additional postgraduate train- in 450 AD, and includes a law school that is still in operation; this is the oldest ing as a fellow. Some attendings also have an academic professorship, but the continually-operating university in the world. address “Doctor” is still used instead of “Professor.” I’ve had a professorship † Medical training used to be by apprenticeship, but in about 850 AD, the Schola appointment for maybe 25 years, and in that time, nobody has ever called me Medica Salernitana opened in Salerno, Italy. I’m not sure what the contempo- “Professor.” Actually, in the ED, almost all the nurses call me “Keith.” If one of rary Italian word for “pimping” was, but I suspect the students complained the nurses calls me “Dr. Conover” I immediately get worried that I’ve done about it all the time. something terribly wrong.

Leadership ♦ Followership ♦ The Socratic Method 59 Leadership Lesson 5-minute overview of the topic that was enlight- have your body comes back using your shield as ening to all. a litter for carrying it.” Don’t let being given a title Socrates would be aghast. Or, maybe he Not that I think SAR people would tolerate make you feel entitled. would approve; Plato implies most of his stu- this, but it is one of the possibilities. But even if dents found his questioning uncomfortable, some people might think it is the right way for —anon. and after all, due to his excessive questioning, a SAR team to operate, there is good evidence the Athenians made him drink poison hemlock. it is not. One of the lessons of Crew Resource As an academic physician, I routinely pimp Management, which we discussed near the all my medical students and residents. As a nod beginning of the chapter, is that this follower- to tradition, I tell them that my pay gets docked ship style kills people. if I don’t make at least one intern* or student cry There are examples where the pilot was prob- during a shift. ably making a mistake, by missing a subtle but I guess I am a failure by that criterion. If a important point. But the copilot, steeped in resident or student can’t answer my question, I the “don’t challenge authority” culture of the either (a) give the answer right away if needed airline, which was also the crew’s national cul- for immediate patient care, or (b) direct them ture, said nothing. And the plane crashed. The to a printed article I provide†, or an online co-pilot’s Catch-22§ is sometimes given as: “You resource. Later we review the topic and I assess are damned if you ignore the Captain’s mistakes and supplement their understanding, so the and you are damned if you do something about students and residents leave at the end of the them.” shift with a solid understanding of at least that A 2010 study of 6,500 nurses and nurse man- one topic. agers in the USA found that 84% of respondents This sort of pimping, if done in the kinder reported >10% of their colleagues taking dan- and gentler way that is more common these gerous shortcuts and 26% said these shortcuts days, is a good way to do teaching in SAR as had actually harmed patients. However, despite well. Those long, boring search tasks are a per- these risks, only 17% shared their concerns with fect time for this, as is downtime in Base. the colleague in question.¶ Now this is about nurses, and nurses work The Right Attitude with physicians. And surgeons. And surgeons are known in the medical field for having what What is the right attitude‡ to take when is called a “surgical personality.” The “surgical you’re a Field Team Member or a subsidiary personality” is a set of behaviors, not exhibited Base dweeb in Base? by most surgeons, but up until the past few You could follow the Louis XIV, World War II decades, exhibited by enough surgeons (and Russian Army, autocratic, “command and con- cardiologists, and other medical physicians) trol” model and simply carry out your orders that the term “surgical personality” is still without questioning them. Do or die. Return widely-understood in the medical field. Anyone with your shield or on it. That’s an ancient who has had kids and have had to deal with the Greek phrase from Sparta, which was a com- “terrible twos” (which is actually the “terrible pletely military polis (city). Women would say 1-4s peaking about 3”) know what it is. Think this to their husbands when they left for a battle. “continuous temper tantrum.” It translates to “Either come back alive and well Here’s one example from my personal direct enough to carry your shield, or die so that you knowledge. Once upon a time, a surgeon in the operating room got upset over something most * “Intern” is an old term for the first postgraduate year (after medical school and the MD or DO degree) of residency training, but it’s still used every day. “First- of us would think trivial, and picked up the tray year resident” and“R-1” are the politically-correct terms these days. of surgical instruments and threw it across the † I keep a website at http://www.conovers.org/ftp/ where I keep things I can rapidly print from any computer attached to the Internet and to a printer. That’s room. One of the surgical residents held up his where I keep this and the other chapters of Appalachian Search and Rescue hand to protect himself from the flying instru- Conference, too. ‡ Dut did you see the movie The Right Stuff? “The story of the original Mercury ments. A bloody scalpel went through his hand. 7 astronauts and their macho, seat-of-the-pants approach to the space program” (as IMDB puts it), which won 4 Oscars? As Robert Greenberg points out in § “Catch-22” is the title of a novel by Joseph Heller from 1961. It’s also a mod- one of his Teaching Company podcasts, the most triumphant music celebrat- ern equivalent of the term “double bind.” In the novel, people who were crazy ing these macho American astronauts was stolen directly from Peter Ilyich were not allowed to fly missions; but anyone who requested to stop flying was Tchaikovsky, changing just a few notes so there wouldn’t need to be a credit to considered sane. a Russian. A gay Russian. I’m not sure what this shows, but I just had to put it ¶ Maxfield, D., et al. (2011). “The silent treatment: why safety tools and checklists in here. And if you want to listen to the very best lecturer I know, and pick up aren’t enough to save lives.” VitalSmarts, AORN & AACN, www. silenttreat- some of his techniques, buy some of his podcasts from The Teaching Company. ment study. com/silencekills.

60 Leadership ♦ Followership ♦ The Right Attitude Here’s another. At a hospital near me, the hos- collateral damage. Leadership Myths pital developed a program to deal with out-of- He never apologized to me, but he’s been nice control surgeons in the OR. There was a special to me ever since, even calling me for advice ··Some people are code they called over the overhead speakers in from time to time. I think that if you have a born leaders. the OR – I wish I could remember what it was surgical personality this is the equivalent of an ··Leaders defeat enemies. called –which meant “every free person in the apology. ··Leadership is a operating suite” (usually some 10-20 people) go Now we were talking about nurses, so you person, some have it to the designated room and stare at the asshole can imagine what it’s like for a nurse to work and some do not. surgeon.” This was back about 1990; by 2000 or under a surgeon who has a surgical personality. ··Leadership is no more so, they discontinued it, as this kind of surgical But who also brings hundreds of thousands of than getting others to do behavior, at least in its severest form, had died dollars to the hospital, so the hospital adminis- what you want them to do. out. I wonder if surgeons in ancient Greece and trators will bend over backwards to forgive him ··Leadership always Rome acted the same way? Maybe we’re making for even the most outrageous behavior. (Almost involves action. progress. Finally. but always it’s a “him,” though I do know a Lest it seem that I’m just dissing surgeons, couple of female surgeons who have similar Leadership Truths let me give you another true story. Once when personalities.) working overnight in the ED, I got a paramedic So the nurses, who are a lot worse off than ··Leadership is learned. call about a patient with crushing substernal SAR team members, have come up with sugges- ··Leaders help others chest pain radiating to the left arm associated tions how to deal with such problems, or better, accomplish group with shortness of breath and diaphoresis. (To to deal with someone with a surgical personal- goals, which need not you nonmedical types, diaphoresis is just sweat- ity who’s about to make a bad mistake. involve an enemy. ing. Remember that academic doctors get paid There are a variety of suggestions for how to ··Anyone can be a by the syllable, with extra credit for Latin and speak up when you’re a subordinate of someone leader, at any time, if Greek roots.) The EKG they sent to the in the with a surgical or flight-captain or just high-D/ that person helps the ED looked like an acute anterior myocardial choleric personality. The basic idea is called group meet its goals. infarction (“MI,” “heart attack”; the other thing “graded assertiveness.”* A 2003 publication of ··Manipulative leaders that’s often called “heart attack” is sudden car- the International Association of Fire Chiefs, eventually arouse diac arrest, which is a good argument for using Crew Resource Management: A positive change opposition. those extra syllables). I called in the cardiolo- for the fire service, provides a five-step approach: ··Sometimes leadership gist on call for urgent cardiac catheterization in • Opening or attention getter: Address the indi- involves not taking action. accordance with our formal policies. It was in vidual. “Hey Chief,” or “Captain Smith,” or “Bob,” the middle of the night, so the cardiologist was or however the name or title that will get the —from training materials pretty grumpy. person’s attention. of the ASRC’s Shenandoah He did the cardiac cath, which turned out to • State your concern: Express your analysis of the Mountain Rescue Group be normal despite the classic MI presentation. situation in a direct manner while owning your He came down to the ED, pulled me into an emotions about it. “I’m concerned that we may empty patient room, grabbed the front of my not have enough fuel to fly around this storm shirt, pushed me up against the wall, and spent system,” or “I’m worried that the roof might a couple of minutes cussing me out for calling c o l l a p s e .” him in for a normal cardiac cath. (Despite the • State the problem as you see it: “We’re showing fact that he had agreed that we should always only 40 minutes of fuel left,” or “This building call in the doc on call for cardiac cath whenever has a lightweight steel truss roof, and we may we see this presentation.) have fire extension into the roof structure.” I was good. I didn’t kill him. I didn’t even take • State a solution: “Let’s divert to another airport him down and cuff him. (Years ago I worked and refuel,” or “I think we should pull some as a National Park Service Ranger and I still tiles and take a look with the thermal imaging always carry a pair of disposable cable-tie style camera before we commit crews inside.” handcuffs just in case.) I did my best to calm • Obtain agreement (or buy-in): “Does that him down. He finally stomped out without sound good to you, Captain?” physical harm to either of us. I formally com- The most common summary of graded plained to the administration about this, and assertiveness I have found uses the PACE the answer was “well, he’s better than he used to be.” I guess if you bring lots of money to the * Lewis, G. H., et al. (2011). “Counterheroism, common knowledge, and ergo- nomics: concepts from aviation that could improve patient safety.” Milbank Q hospital, the administration doesn’t care about 89(1): 4-38.Besco, R. (1999).

Leadership ♦ Followership ♦ The Right Attitude 61 Followership

▸▸Even if you’re the most experienced leader, but you method of questioning. If you need a backgrounder have special expertise, such as medical or technical on Socratic questioning, watch a few episodes of the rescue, it may be better for someone else to act as a old TV series Columbo on YouTube. Field Team Leader. This frees you to use your special ▸▸ If you are just serving as a peon (a FTM or low- expertise. You can still mentor and support the level base weenie), you should still exercise a bit of “apprentice” FTL. independent judgment. Don’t just say befehl ist befehl ▸▸Being a good follower, even if you’re a leader-type, (“orders are orders”) and unquestioningly do what may mean mentoring and teaching others. you’re told. If you see a safety concern, or even a ▸▸When mentoring and teaching, consider different better way to do something, you should (respectfully) types of learning styles: visual, auditory, read/write, speak up. and kinesthetic. Address all four, and remember what ▸▸ If a leader ignores or dismisses your safety concerns, the fortune cookie said: I hear and I forget, I see and I CRM (crew resource management) says you should, remember, I do and I understand. nay you must, use increasing grades of assertiveness ▸▸Remember that the other learners in the group to bring up your concern again. are already know quite a bit, are self-directed and ▸▸ When you’re on an operation, you should always goal- and relevancy-oriented, and need to be shown try to call people by their first names (except on the respect. radio where the ICS says to use last names or posi- ▸▸If you are in a class, and you know more about the tions). This improves safety. topic than the speaker, don’t cut him or her off at the ▸▸ You can graph members on an x,y graph with com- knees. Be supportive. petence along one axis and commitment along the ▸▸If you are in a class, and you are worried others have other. Where do you fit? Where do the others fit? questions but are afraid to ask them, be brave. Ask ▸▸ As a follower, you are responsible, jointly with your the question even if you already know the answer. fellow-followers, for bestowing The Mandate of ▸▸If you are mentoring others, or even just work- Heaven on leaders. And, if necessary, withdrawing ing together with others to learn, use the Socratic that mandate.

mnemonic:* leveling effect), and feel free to question my • Probe : “I don’t understand why we’re not using orders. And my choice of food for lunch. I think a separate belay line to a second anchor when this has made me much less prone to medical this slope is so steep.” error, though as far as lunch we have had to • Alert : “I’m concerned that, if there is a shock agree to disagree. load, this anchor might fail.” And indeed, CRM insists that teams like our • Challenge : “This is really questionable as a ED medical team, a flight team, or a SAR team single anchor.” should operate on a first name basis, as the • Emergency : “STOP. There is a major life safety social leveling effect tends to break down bar- problem. This anchor is unsafe and we should riers and allow junior personnel more latitude not continue until it is changed or backed up.” to voice their concerns, improving overall safety. As a good follower, if you start along this path, In certain cities – London and Boston come and the leader repeatedly refuses to listen to to mind – physicians expect to be addressed by your concerns or discounts them unreasonably, their title “Dr. This” or “Professor That,” and get then your leader is a defective part and should peeved if they aren’t accorded to this token of be replaced by whatever means are needed to respect. This is exactly what CRM wants to get assure the safety of the team. Perhaps simply away from. I find that relations with my patients saying “you have lost the Mandate of Heaven” also are better, and they are more willing to will be enough to confuse and distract the voice their concerns, due to the way I introduce leader so you can take appropriate corrective myself: “Hi, my name is Keith Conover, I’m one action directly. of the supervising doctors, emergency medi- It’s good that Pittsburgh is pretty much a cine specialist.”† In this case, I’m encouraging first-name sort of place. Seems to me I’m also them to call me by my first name, and some lucky to work in an Emergency Department indeed do. I prefer to rely on authority from the where nurses mostly call me by my first name fact that I’m doing a brilliant job of diagnosing (which CRM insists on, as opposed to “Chief” and treating their problems as opposed to any or “Captain” or “Doctor” to provide a social titles or degrees I might have. So, if you have a concern about safety, you * “PACE: Probe, Alert, Challenge, and Emergency Action.” Business and com- mercial aviation 84(6): 72-74. This not a peer-reviewed scientific publication, it’s † In medical school, I was taught to say “My name is Doctor Conover.” That is a free “throwaway” magazine. Surprising where you can find good ideas. just so wrong.

62 Leadership ♦ Followership ♦ The Right Attitude have to speak up. And, if you have a suggestion Faust, in which Mephistopheles (another name for how to do the job better, I think you still for Satan or the devil) is a somewhat sympa- need to speak up. As long as you observe the thetic character, and Faust, though he sells his above principles, you are unlikely to get you “in soul to obtain knowledge, uses that knowledge trouble” unless maybe you’re in North Korea. for the betterment of humanity. And besides, if we’re telling you this is the right But real life is a bit more like the StarKid thing to do, you should still do it even if you “get sendup of the Disney film Aladdin. It’s called in trouble.” Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier (note I have to close this section with the idea of the similarity of the title to the multiple Tony Leadership Lesson “The Power Behind the Throne.” This is reflected and Grammy award-winning musical Wicked: in the history of political handlers, from Boss The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz). In Twisted, If you don’t have anything Tweed (William M. Tweed) in 1800s New York we hear the story from the point of view of Ja’far, nice to say, don’t say anything. City, who basically invented “machine politics,”* the Royal Vizier, who saves the kingdom from –Your Mother to Carl Rove, regarded as the late-20th-century the evil Aladdin. At the end, Ja’far learns that Republican “kingmaker.” And who could leave Aladdin became old and fat, and sold second- this topic without considering that archetypal hand goods until he was killed by a thief for a Leadership Lesson figure, the Evil Vizier?† I suspect much of this loaf of bread at age 55.†† character has to do with good political spin by I don’t know about other search and rescue It’s fine to celebrate success reigning monarchs, who after all had to have organizations, but in the Appalachian Search but it is more important to someone to blame for the occasional bad thing and Rescue Conference and its Groups, lead- heed the lessons of failure. that happened. The term “scapegoat” comes to ers sometimes die but many of them just fade –Bill Gates mind.‡ away slightly, sticking around to assist here and My favorite source for learning the character there and guide their teams and the Conference of the Evil Vizier is the 2000 Disney film The for years after they have completed their formal Leadership Lesson Emperor’s New Groove. The emperor’s advisor leadership roles. I’m not sure what to call these from the Tao Te Ching Yzma,§ while she is indubitably evil and loses people. The Loyal Opposition? The collective in the end, gets all the best lines. If you’re got subconscious of the organization? Whatever Sometimes you lead, to be the evil advisor, at least you deserve some you call it, these leaders who stick around still sometimes you follow. good lines. provide leadership or followership or a com- Speaking of getting all the best lines, one of bination of both. A most valuable resource. In If you want to lead them, you the tropes¶ that appears in Western literature primitive societies, these “elders” would have a must place yourself behind. is that the devil gets the best lines. Perhaps the standard role; in SAR teams, this is not so clear- most important example of this is Goethe’s** cut. Allegheny Mountain Rescue Group has Accomplish but don’t boast. instituted a Fellowship status to recognize such * Read Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics by Terry Golway to get a better picture of this ultimately tragic figure status. We may consider these people mentors- Accomplish without who actually did much to create today’s political world, and in the eyes of this show, arrogance, author, saved us from having a more oligarchic republic than we would oth- at-large, or perhaps we should call them coaches. erwise have. I am one such. And even if some see us as Evil grabbing, or forcing. † Vizier is a term that originated in the Abbasid Caliphate in about 800 AD, and continued to be used by its successor empires up until the dissolution of the Viziers, we still get the best lines. Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s. “Top advisor to the President” is an equiva- Then, when the work lent term in American English and politics. The Evil Vizier character features in Arabic and Persian literature for the past thousand years or more. And, as with is complete and the many things in modern Western culture and science (algebra, algorithms), as a job is finished, result of interaction between the West and the great Islamic empires of the past 1500 years or so, this trope of the Evil Vizier has come into Western literature. For example, Die Entführung aus dem Serail or The Abuction from the Seraglio, over the past 50 years. Thus holding your own in an academic conversation an opera by Mozart, features the evil vizier Osmin, whose evil is finally stopped may be important to you. I remember walking into an ASRC Board meeting at Everybody says: “We did it!” by the wise and generous Turkish leader (Pasha) Selim. Shenandoah National Park and finding those who had already arrived chanting Beowulf together. Another time, while sitting at the top of a cliff eating lunch ‡ From Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible, the third of the five books during a vertical training session, several of us had a spirited conversation about of the Torah (or Pentateuch), and the third book of the Old Testament of the —Lao Tzu whether Justinian’s actions were good or bad for the later Roman empire. You Christian Bible. In Leviticus 16:8, a goat is designated to be cast into the des- don’t need to hold multiple Ph.D.s in different disciplines to hold your own, ert with the sins of the community. More modern methods involve casting the though. For example, just drop a comment like “Well, as William says, non sunt blame on a convenient person who is then driven out of the company, leaving multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem” (Occams Razor: the simplest explana- the company pure and unadulterated with the evil that had heretofore spread its tion is likely the best) implying that you and the English philosopher William tentacles throughout the entire leadership structure. of Ockham (1287–1347) are friends on Facebook and text each other all the § Pronounced EASE-ma. time. That’s the literary equivalent of cutting the others off at the knees. Or ¶ Trope: a commonly recurring literary or rhetorical device, motif, or cliché. saying “Just last week I was thinking about the subtext of knowledge leading to ** Goethe set out to prove that German was a language of world-class litera- environmental degradation in Goethe’s Faust.” But to pull this off you have to ture and science. He succeeded so well, not only have no German writers or learn how to pronounce Goethe’s name. It contains two vowel sounds that are scientists been able to truly match his contributions, but also those of us who not normally found in English unless you’ve just been punched in the stomach. speak other languages have to consider him right up there with the best in There is a link in Wikipedia to the pronunciation. Practice. This is the literary our native language, for instance, in English, Shakespeare. Many SAR teams equivalent of slaughtering everyone and the room and piling up their severed are in college towns or cities (my own Pittsburgh metro area has some 27 four- heads in a pyramid, just so. year colleges or universities), and colleges and universities have proliferated †† Thanks to my teenage daughter Laurel for the great popular-culture references.

Leadership ♦ Followership ♦ The Right Attitude 63 Yet Another Graph style for each of these archetypes. If you’re a fol- lower, you can use it for to analyze yourself and I will resist the temptation to show another figure out what you need to be a better follower. x,y graph in the margin; perhaps you can create If you’re a follower, you can also use it to ana- it in your mind or draw it out on a bit of paper lyze your fell0w-followers (say that fifteen times yourself. quickly, it’s good public speaking practice) and As with the task-oriented vs. relation​ship-ori- figure out how best to support their becoming ented aspects of leadership, would could graph better followers and leaders. two dimensions of followership: competence One final and critically important point and commitment. Blanchard* describes four about good followership: you are responsible for interesting places on this x,y graph: bestowing The Mandate of Heaven, and when • Low competence, high commitment: the necessary, withdrawing that mandate. Iszatt- enthusiastic beginner. White in Leadership sees followers as “construc- • Moderate competence, low commitment: the tors of leadership,” but Mandate of Heaven is disillusioned learner. much more poetic. • High competence, low commitment: the reluctant contributor. we call these x/y plots The Cartesian Plane in his honor, and it has contributed • High competence, high commitment: the massively to understanding of algebraic relations by those who are visual learn- ers, and sleepless nights before math tests for those who were not. The power of peak performer. this method of analysis is shown by its use for graphing two variables that may If you’re a leader, you could use this or not exist, and certainly can’t be measured with anything approaching scien- tific certainty. We also have to mention that Mssr. Descartes is most famous for Cartesian† analysis to tailor your leadership something he said in his 1637 Discourse on the Method: Cogito, ergo sum: “I think, therefore I am.” (Sometimes this is mistranslated from the Latin as “I * Blanchard, K. H., et al. (2005). Self-leadership and the one minute manager : think, therefore, I am hungry for Chinese Dim Sum.”) He built a philosophi- discover the magic of no excuses! : increasing effectiveness through situational cal house of cards based on this (given his name, this was expected) but later self leadership. New York, W. Morrow. empirical scientists, notably those in The Royal Society that we discussed earlier, † Plotting things on x,y graphs was a favorite pastime of René Descartes; indeed knocked it over.

Closing

Specific SAR Tasks Teams assigned tactics effectively and safely. • Communicate effectively with Field Teams It is said that good generals are masters of and with the IC. tactics, better generals are masters of strategy, • Analyze the Field Team’s findings and adjust and great generals are masters of logistics. Let’s the strategy accordingly. try applying this to search and rescue. Serving as Plans Section Chief, or as IC or Leading a Field Team on a search task is tac- as an Agency Representative surrogate-IC is tical. Your tasks as a Field Team Leader might logistics. Not logistics in the sense of the ICS include: Logistics Section, but in a broader sense. Typical • Manage a small group of people, who are not things you might need to consider, including: themselves supervising other people. • How likely will we need to keep going • Execute the Field Team’s assigned tactics tomorrow? effectively and safely, both search tasks and • If so, how many people will be leaving tonight, semi-tech rescue tasks. and how many do we need to replace them? • Communicate effectively with higher • Will we need to expand the operation? management. • If so, how many more people will we need, Serving as Ops Section Chief on a medium- both in Base, and in the field? sized search is strategic. Your tasks as Ops Perhaps we have stretched this analogy far- might include: ther than it will tolerate, and it’s time to switch • Convert the Incident Commander’s goals into gears anyway. a detailed strategic plan. Lest you think that you can be a leader with- • Establish specific tasks to carry out this out worrying too much about these sorts of strategy. tasks – because a good leader delegates, right? • Assign these tasks to Field Teams, then brief the Field – think of what Stalin once said: quantity has a

64 Leadership ♦ Closing ♦ Yet Another Graph quality of its own.* Delegating is indeed a task be, the leadership lessons of this chapter may itself, and being able to delegate lots of tasks help you carry them out more effectively. well is a requirement of a top leader. There is indeed an art to delegating. To quote Words of Wisdom the leading MBA textbook on leadershi:† Task involves telling people what they are supposed to Over the past two or three thousand years, do with great clarity, including how, where, and a lot has been written about leadership, much when to do the task, and whose responsibility the of which is bogus or useless. But we’ve covered task is. The relationship aspect is measured by the some of the best of that literature. way a leader communicates to both individuals There is a saying in medicine: if there are and groups, and how well they listen to and sup- multiple ways to treat a problem, either they all port their people. work or none of them work. In trying to get a Leading a team in the field is one thing, man- handle on “leadership,” they all work, at least in aging an operation at Base is one thing, and terms of helping you understand the slippery administrating a SAR team (or an organization concepts of leadership and followership, and to as large as the Appalachian Search and Rescue improve your ability to lead and follow (usually Conference, with hundreds of members in mul- both at the same time). tiple states) is quite a different kettle of fish. Or We have looked to the past to try to get a perhaps “herd of cats” is a better metaphor. handle on leadership in general. Now it is time As with Grant and Caesar, the fact that to look to the past of SAR for what leadership you are good at leading a team in the field, or wisdom we can find. organizing a large search and rescue opera- In 1970, Paul Williams, of the Seattle-area tion, doesn’t mean that you can succeed as the Mountain Rescue Council, published a pam- President of a search and rescue team or as the phlet entitled Mountain Rescue Leadership. In Emperor of a large assemblage of SAR teams, 1986, this was adopted and became an official such as one of the various state SAR Councils publication of the Mountain Rescue Association. or a multi-state organization such as the ASRC. Rita Cloutier, Ray Cole, Gene Harrison and Or as the Group Training Officer. They’re all I founded the Appalachian Search and Rescue different skill sets. But being good at any one of Conference in the early 1970s. Gene Harrison them probably gives you a leg up on doing one got a copy of Paul’s pamphlet; he photocopied it of the other ones. and distributed it to all of us. We all read it and Thus far, this chapter has mostly focused took it to heart. on leadership in general. But as we saw back It is no longer in print. However, I’ve scanned in Sources of Power, the ability to make rapid, my copy and it’s available at conovers.org/ftp/ good decisions is somewhat specific to the con- MRC-Leadership.pdf. text. We do learn from examples we hear from Most of it is about operational doctrine, others. Which means when old SAR types like and very specific to the Seattle area in the late me tell interminable stories about the “good old 1960s. For you young’uns, this was well before days” you should listen patiently; somewhere cellphones, GPS, EMTs, paramedics, and the in there may be a little nugget of usefulness, a Incident Command System. lesson you can use to improve your leadership For those of a certain age, it brings back styles. memories of the early days in SAR. For SAR And we get better at this with practice, either people of any age, it provides insight into the in real life or in simulations. Practice makes history of mountain rescue. It opens thus: perfect, or at least much better. The role of volunteer rescue leader is most In this chapter, we will not further detail what demanding, requiring great skills, including to do to fulfil the requirements of the various knowledge of rescue procedures and juris- SAR management positions; that will occur in dictions of responsible agencies. But most other chapters. But whatever those tasks might important is a knowledge of psychology, the

* I have heard this attributed to both Napoleon and American policy analysts. ability to deal with volunteers, and a great I suspect someone first said it back in ancient Sumer as the barbarians were sense of tact and diplomacy. overwhelming the defenses of Ur and Sumer, brining on the first of a regular series of Dark Ages. But online I did find a reference to Josef Stalin (just plain Even today, the sections about the politics old Joe Jughashvili back then) saying this before WWII in Полное собрание сочинений - Том 14. and psychology of leadership are as appropriate † Iszatt-White, M. (2014). Leadership. New York, NY, Oxford University Press. as in 1970. They presage lessons to be discussed

Leadership ♦ Closing ♦ Words of Wisdom 65 Acknowledgements in the chapter on Incident Management, and the be used only on projects within his capac- The following reviewed Heroic Efforts and Whacker Management sec- ity. He is an excellent support man, will do drafts of this essay, provided tions earlier in this chapter. Here, in its entirety, a fine job of handling a radio relay point, major help in fixing my is Paul Williams telling us about: and is dedicated and dependable within his egregious mistakes and limitations. made the essay much better: Rescue Psychology and You may also have the problem of the “hot- Matt Benson Personnel Problems shot” who, because of his extreme strength Ralph Brigham Rescue work attracts a strange grab-bag of and his technical ability, is a real addition Trafton Drew personalities. Many rescue leaders are square to any team, but who normally wishes to Michael Holroyd diamonds: people who, because of their expe- participate only in the technical type rescue Rebecca Hostetter rience, background, intelligence and determi- with a live victim. When it comes to a body Andrew Hower nation, have risen to the leadership of their carryout over average terrain, his attitude Ben McCandless units. However, they are likely to have strong is “Don’t call me, I’ll call you.” Your average Alex McLellan opinions as to the right and wrong way to slightly-out-of-shape, getting-toward-middle-​ Powell McLean proceed, and may be quick to criticize. By age, dedicated to the core mountain rescuer Bru Randall the same token, they may be quite unrecep- is going to regard this prima donna with Chris Ruch tive to criticism. Place two square diamonds some hostility. Our experience is that every Don Scelza together and they will begin to bang corners. two or three years we are faced with a highly Carl Solomon This situation is often found in a multi-unit technical problem: i.e., extreme exposure Rob Spieden rescue operation, and is especially prevalent on a high cliff, severe storms, or a critically Betty Thomas in lengthy searches when tempers become injured person in a remote place, demanding Steve Weiss frayed over several days. The square diamond an advance team with great stamina. When may take the form of an experienced dep- these challenges come, it is nice to have a few uty, or an old-time military man in a Civil “hotshots” on call. Try to get them out on a few Defense capacity. One of the important jobs nontechnical operations, so they will under- of the rescue leader is to evaluate the square stand how you operate. diamonds and make certain that they are These challenges bring forth the best in the placed in positions where they do not come in operation leader. It is his job to see that, inso- direct conflict. If you are a square diamond far as possible, he knows his rescue members This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- (as are most rescue leaders) and someone and gives each a job tailored to his abilities Share Alike 3.0 United States arrives at base camp with whom you find and capacities. By the time your unit has License. To view a copy of this it most difficult to work, one possible solu- existed from six to ten years, the bulk of the license, visit http://creativecom- mons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/ or tion is to relinquish your responsibilities to a rescuers will be between 30 and 40, partly send a letter to Creative Commons, replacement and go into the field. Diplomacy out of condition, and somewhat overweight. 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. is an important part of the rescue leader’s These men will not be there to be heroes, but make-up, and you will have to work with to do a small job at considerable personal these same people many times in the future. expense, and without thought of personal You will also find, in this rescue grab-bag, glory. Remember these limitations as you This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work the rescue hero type. He is in it for the glory run your rescues, and keep a few “hotshots” even for commercial purposes, of wearing the patch and impressing the girls around for the more dangerous and difficult as long as they credit you and license their new creations under and his friends. Beware of this man! He may jobs. the identical terms. This license is be unsuccessful in his private life, and in Much of the advice about SAR team leader- often compared to “copyleft” free this public endeavor he tries to create a hero ship is a random list of leadership, command, and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours image which is totally false. Frequently this and management principles, sounding like aph- will carry the same license, so any man is psychologically equipped to misrepre- orisms from Poor Richard’s Almanack* such as derivatives will also allow commer- cial use. This is the license used by sent his abilities and capacities. He may be so Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, Wikipedia, and is recommended unreliable that you will ultimately be forced wealth and wise. Or the Boy Scout Law: A Scout for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from to eject him from the unit. is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, Wikipedia and similarly licensed There are many well-meaning volunteers kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and projects. who over-estimate their abilities. We have * Published by Benjamin Franklin from 1732 to 1758, under the pseudonym Set in Scala Sans and Minion with InDesign one man who comes out jingling with pitons Richard Saunders (thus the “poor Richard,”) the yearly Almanack offered sea- This document may be sonal weather forecasts, household hints, puzzles, aphorisms and sage advice. downloaded from and carabiners, and is only capable of keep- There are no gains without pains. Industry pays debts while despair increases them. www.conovers.org/ftp ing up with his team for four of five miles of Diligence is the mother of good luck. One today is worth two tomorrows. The proud hate pride – in others. Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones. Hear good trail. He is reasonably smart, but must no ill of a friend, nor speak any of an enemy.

66 Leadership ♦ Closing ♦ Words of Wisdom reverent. Or something your father or mother might tell you on turning 18, or something you might hear at a high school or college com- mencement address. However, in Leadership in Land Search and Rescue, Jones, LaValla and Long have a list that is better than most, so I will give it to you verbatim: • Know yourself and seek self improvement. • Be technically and tactically proficient. • Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions. • Make sound and timely decisions. • Set the example. • Know your team members and look out for their well being. • Keep your team members informed. • Develop a sense of responsibility in your team members. • Ensure the task is understood, supervised, and accomplished. • Build the team. • Employ the team in accordance with its capabilities. • Know when the situation is dangerous or beyond your capabilities. • Praise in public, criticize in private. • Know your rescuers, their capabilities and limitations. • Train your rescuers as a team. • Stress safety, balancing the risks with the mission to be accomplished. Let me end with something Paul Williams found in an early issue of the Tacoma Mountain Rescue Unit’s newsletter, The Rescue Rucksack. He used it to bring his Mountain Rescue Leadership to a close, and I will use it similarly here: “Handling people need not be so difficult. All you need is inexhaustible patience, unfail- ing insight, unshakable nervous stability, an unbreakable will, decisive judgment, infran- gible physique, irrepressible spirits and an awful lot of experience.”

g

Leadership ♦ Closing ♦ Words of Wisdom 67 Photo/Diagram Credits

Unless otherwise credited, illustrations are Pericles; By ho visto nina volare (Flickr: public domain. Small images of book covers Berlino) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecom- and cover of Henry V movie are fair use, as mons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia per WikiMedia Commons guidelines. Commons

747 cockpit: Magnus Manske, via WikiMedia Athenian Pnyx: from Commons. Qwqchris~commonswiki via WikiMedia Commons. Fruiting bodies of slime molds. “Haeckel Mycetozoa” by Ernst Haeckel - Kunstformen The School of Athens: public domain. der Natur (1904), plate 93: Mycetozoa. Portrait of Socrates: Original in the Louvre, Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Paris. Picture from Eric Gaba – Wikimedia Commons Commons user: Sting, July 2005.

Alexander: By shakko (Own work) [CC A graphical representation of the manage- BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/ rial grid model: by Khalid A. Al-Abbad for licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Wikipedia

The Art of War Chinese book on bamboo: Map of spread of Christianity: Geuiwogbil via vlasta2, bluefootedbooby on flickr.com via Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons.

Gorilla in Chest: by permission of Trafton Drew, from Drew, T., et al. (2013). “The invis- ible gorilla strikes again: sustained inatten- tional blindness in expert observers.” Psychol Sci 24(9): 1848-1853.

Map of Greek Empire: By Generic Mapping Tools (created by user) [GFDL (http://www. gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Mahatma Gandhi: public domain. Adolph Hitler: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1987- 0703-507 / unbekannt / CC-BY-SA 3.0

The Four Temperaments: Lavater, Johann Caspar. Essays on physiognomy, designed to promote the knowledge and the love of man- kind. ... Illustrated by more than eight hundred engravings ... Executed by, or under the inspec- tion of, Thomas Holloway. Translated from the French by Henry Hunter. Vol. 1. London: Printed for John Murray; H. Hunter; and T. Holloway, 1789-98. Original at Eighteenth Century Collections Online

European Colonies: from Andrew0921 via WikiMedia Commons.

68 Leadership ♦ Closing ♦ Words of Wisdom