Fire today ManagementVolume 68 • No. 2 • Spring 2008 MMANAGINGANAGING THE THE UUNEXPECTEDNEXPECTED United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Coming Next… In the next issue of Fire Management Today (68[3] Summer 2008), visit countries around the world and learn from international experts about the challenges of firefighting globally. Visit our familiar friends in Australia and Canada, then jet across the world to the Mediterranean and introduce yourself to five countries that call themselves the “Fire club.” [Excerpt] “Fire is a global phenomenon. Worldwide, fire can play a role in either maintaining or threatening natural habitats and human soci­ eties. In any case, we must consider the global context for our actions, as well as the best role each nation can play in managing fire for both people and nature.” Fire Management Today is published by the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. The Secretary of Agriculture has determined that the publication of this periodical is necessary in the transaction of the public business required by law of this Department. Fire Management Today is for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, at: Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: 202-512-1800 Fax: 202-512-2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001 Fire Management Today is available on the World Wide Web at <http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/fmt/index.html>. Ed Schafer, Secretary Melissa Frey U.S. Department of Agriculture General Manager Abigail R. Kimbell, Chief Cindy White Forest Service Managing Editor Tom Harbour, Director Madelyn Dillon Fire and Aviation Management Editor The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audio­ tape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimi­ nation, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Trade Names (FMT) The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement of any product or service by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Individual authors are responsible for the technical accuracy of the material presented in Fire Management Today. Fire Management Today 2 Fire Volume 68 • No. 2 • Spring 2008 Management today CO N T E N T S On the Cover: Anchor Point—Adapting to Change . 4 Tom Harbour Building the Foundation for a Learning Culture . 5 . Paula Nasiatka Making Sense of Organizing for High Reliability and Learning . 8 . Jim Saveland The Genesis and Evolution of High Reliability Organizing . .12 . Michael DeGrosky Organizing for Higher Reliability: Lessons Learned . 14 . From Wildland Firefighters On the Cover: Firefighters take a look Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe back to see that their handline is holding on the West Hunter Prescribed Fire in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National The Cerro Grande Prescribed Fire Escape Meets . .20 . Forest in Washington State. Photo: Eli the First “Managing the Unexpected” Workshop Lehmann, Forest Service, Mount Baker– Paul Keller Snoqualmie National Forest, Concrete, WA, 2004. Opening the Darkest Chapter of My Professional Career . 26 . Matt Snider The spring issue of Fire Management Today will feature an indepth examination of how a High Reliability Organization Case Study: Is High Reliability Organizing . 28 (HRO) provides a foundation for how we the Next Best Thing? You Decide all should be operating in wildland fire Brett Fay management. Case Study: The High Reliability Organizing Field Study . 30 . The issue also highlights how the Wild- land Fire Lessons Learned Center is of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge encouraging firefighter safety by pro­ Paul Keller moting organizational learning and the center’s ongoing efforts to make the entire Case Study: High Reliability Organizing and Prescribed Fire . .32 . wildland fire community a healthier learning culture. on the Boise National Forest David Olson and Deirdre Dether The Forest Service’s Fire and Aviation Management Staff has adopted a logo Spreading the Word on High Reliability Organizing . .35 . reflecting three central principles of wildland Paul Keller fire management: Understanding Mindfulness . 38 • Innovation: We will respect and value thinking minds, voices, and thoughts of Dave Thomas those that challenge the status quo while focusing on the greater good. A Personal Account of Resilience and Prescribed Fire . 42 . Riva Duncan • Execution: We will do what we say we will do. Achieving program objectives, Assessing High Reliability Practices . 45 improving diversity, and accomplishing targets are essential to our credibility. in the Wildland Fire Community Anne Black • Discipline: What we do, we will do well. Fiscal, managerial, and operational Proceedings of the Wildland Fire Safety Summits . .49 . discipline are at the core of our ability to fulfill our mission. Martin E. Alexander and Bret W. Butler SHORT FE A T U R E S Coming Next . .InsideFrontCover Web Sites on Fire . 11 Firefighter and public safety is our first priority. Guidelines for Contributors . 51 Volume 68 • No. 2• Spring 2008 3 Anchor by Tom Harbor Director, Fire and Aviation Management Point USDA Forest Service AD A P T I N G T O CH A N G e ire and aviation manage­ ment is increasingly complex. Actually implementing a wide variety of responses F Interagency and social expec­ and becoming a flexible, innovative, learning tations for interoperability, along organization are key linchpins to our future. ­ with enhanced risk management and improved efficiency, provide a basis for an energetic program. Our Fire management professionals, It’s harder than some people might fire and aviation program in the line officers, and communicators all think. We lined out the manage­ Forest Service is working hard to worked together to temper expecta­ ment action points where we could “stay ahead of the game.” tions about what we can do with a fight the fire safely and actually wildland fire that is exceeding all have some effect on its progress. Our more vibrant implementa­ our measurements and is very dan­ tion of appropriate management gerous. Through written analyses The Forest Service workforce response (AMR) is an example and shared information, we were steeped in a tradition of hard work of strategic and cultural change. more creative in approaching wild- and service and we are proud of it. While “appropriate” is a value- land fires that we knew would resist By being smarter and more patient, laden term, as used in the Federal our best traditional control efforts. we are maintaining that service Wildland Fire Management Policy, We learned from each other and, ethic every day, whether we are dig­ the term is meant to encompass a where we could, implemented dif­ ging line or digging in and prepar­ wide variety of response to wildland ferent suppression strategies than ing to fight the fire on our terms. fire. in years past. We are more effective when we put The future is described not only the right resources in the right by AMR but by High Reliability place at the right time. Organizations (HRO). HROs con­ We are more effective stantly adapt to change. Change is when we put the right Actually implementing a wide vari­ happening with us; in some places, resources in the right ety of responses and becoming a 2007 brought about dramatic place at the right time. flexible, innovative, learning orga­ change. nization are key linchpins to our future. Fire Management Today 4 BUILDING THE FO U N D A T I O n F O R A LE A R N I N G CU L T U R e Paula Nasiatka he acknowledged need for an interagency Wildland Fire A necessary link and Six Tasks T Lessons Learned Center to obvious relationship Critical to serve the country was rooted in the Tridata Firefighter Safety Awareness exists between these Organizational Study, conducted after 14 firefight­ two processes: High Learning ers perished in Colorado’s 1994 Reliability Organizing and South Canyon Fire. Organizational Learning. According to David A. Garvin of Harvard Business School, six Although originally proposed as a specific tasks are critical to orga­ center to focus on firefighter safety, a continuing and productive rela­ nizational learning. By engag­ early firefighter community surveys tionship between the wildland fire ing in these tasks, a unit can indicated that a desire existed for community and Harvard Business significantly improve both its such a wildland fire lessons learned School. programs and its learning. These center to take a more holistic six critical tasks can be directly approach by looking at organiza­ The Lessons Learned Center devel­ applied to all wildland fire man­ tional learning in wildland fire and oped a road map for its work that agement programs: its organizational culture. centered on organizational learn­ ing and the six critical tasks of a 1. Continually collect intelli­ As the Wildland Fire Lessons learning organization (see sidebar). gence about the environment, Learned Center organized in 2002, Center staff believed that if they, 2. Learn from the best practices it began to benchmark other les­ as a knowledge resource center, of other organizations, sons learned centers to ascertain were going to help the wildland fire 3.