June 2007

Leadership in Cinema Adds North Country

The Leadership in Cinema lesson plan library continues to grow. The latest installment recounts the events of the nation’s first class action suit for sexual harassment in the film North Country.

This particular lesson plan focuses sexual harassment in the workplace with emphasis on doing what is right regardless of policy. Facilitators are encouraged to merge Leadership in Cinema with the Professional Reading Program by incorporating the book Class Action (written by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler regarding the actual events of the case).

The lesson plan can be found at: http://www.fireleadership.gov/toolbox/documents/lead_in_cinema.htm

May 2007

Southwest Area Staff Ride Development Workshop

The Southwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service recently sponsored a National Interagency Staff Ride Development Workshop which was held March 13-15, 2007 in Payson, Arizona. The three day workshop addressed staff ride development and implementation techniques and then moved into the specific circumstances surrounding the 1990 Dude Fire with the intent of developing a formal package for inclusion into the National Staff Ride library

Participants for the workshop came from all agencies and management levels - engine crew member to assistant director. Future plans are to have the staff ride package completed in late Fall 2007 for an official ‘roll-out’ of the Dude Fire Staff Ride in early spring of 2008.

April 2007

2006 Paul Gleason Lead by Example Awards

Three groups and three individuals from the wildland fire service were chosen to receive the fourth national Paul Gleason Lead by Example Award. The recipients were selected for demonstrating valued leadership traits during or in support of wildland fire operations.

The annual award, sponsored by the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Committee under the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, was created to honor Paul Gleason, a wildland firefighter whose career spanned several decades before he succumbed to cancer in 2003. The Gleason Award is based on three categories: motivation and vision; mentoring and teamwork; and innovation or initiative. Individuals and groups from federal, state, local and tribal agencies are eligible for the award.

2006 Award Winners

Motivation and Vision:
Chris Wilcox, FMO and Winnemucca Field Office Fire Management Division

Mentoring and Teamwork:
Tom Boatner, NIFC and Texas Forest Service

Initiative and Innovation:
BDF Engine 57 Family Support Branch and Jack Kirkendall, FMO

March 2007

Paul Gleason Award Selection Process

The NWCG Leadership Committee relies on the wildland fire service for support in many of its endeavors. One of these is the Paul Gleason Lead by Example Award. We look to the wildland fire service to submit nominations for the examples of leadership they witness and to staff the selection process that chooses the award candidates. The wildland fire service was well represented with a strong applicant pool this past year. The strong pool proved challenging to the selection panel when making the 2006 award selections. The Leadership Committee would like to extend its thanks and appreciation to the members of the 2006 Paul Gleason Lead by Example Award selection panel for their help with this award remembering Paul Gleason and his contribution to the wildland fire service. The 2006 selection panel participants include:

• Nick Chavira, apprentice from the Lassen National Forest on the Hat Creek Ranger District.
• Jeremy Strait, Captain of Engine 3231 from the Susanville District of the Bureau of Land Management.
• Paul Swenson, Station Manager at the Columbi National Wildlife Refuge. Paul's station covers the north half of the newly formed Columbia Basin Fire Management Zone.
• Bob Bente, Training Foreman for the Redding Smokejumper Base. Bob has been jumping out of Redding for 20 years. In addition to his recent help with the selection panel, Bob helped with the development of the L-280 course.
• Brit Rosso, Superintendent of the Arrowhead Hotshots, which is one of two hotshot crews for the National Park Service. Brit won the Paul Gleason Lead by Example Award in 2005 for mentoring and teamwork.

February 2007

Upcoming TDGS Library Workshop

The Tactical Decision Games (TDGS) Library was conceptualized as a web-based tool where individuals could go and download TDGS by topic. These TDGS can be used for training at home units. This low-tech simulation technique provides training opportunities for making decisions and communicating those decisions to others.

In the Fall of 2005, fire mangers and firefighters from various geographic areas and diverse backgrounds in fire management met at Fire Use Training Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the first TDGS workshop. The intent of the workshop was to develop TDGS, play them out, and post them on the TDGS Library website. Within a three day period, more than 35 TDGS were developed for the website.

In early April of 2007, another TDGS workshop will be held at the McClellan Wildland Fire Training Center in Sacramento, California. This workshop will bring a group of state and federal fire managers and firefighters together to develop more TDGS to further populate and enhance the various categories that make up the library. The goal of this workshop is to add more TDGS that deal with all-risk, prescribed fire, wildland fire use (WFU), and logistics missions. Other additional TDGS will also be developed for specific geographic areas.

January 2007

Leading in the Wildland Fire Service

A new book is being added into the Publication Management System. Leading in the Wildland Fire Service is concise (less than 70 pages) and portable (8”x 5” size) in order to make it firefighter-friendly. It is organized around our leadership values and principles as a means of communicating what right looks like and illustrating effective leadership in action. It provides a good read for self-development purposes and will be a valuable reference for those involved as L-course instructors.

The book will be available through the NWCG Publication Management System in March 2007 as PMS 494-2 / NFES 2889. It is currently posted on the NWCG Publication website at: http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/pubs/pubs.htm

This book does not state policy. Instead this book simply outlines the broad concepts of leadership in the wildland fire service—fundamental concepts by which expectations of leaders may be established and performance of leaders may be judged. The concepts in this book are universal to every person in the wildland fire service—from first year employee to senior manager. It is intended to make better leaders of us all.

September 2006

Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program's 5 Year Report
Learning from history...Preparing for the future.

The mission of the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program is to promote cultural change in the work force and to emphasize the vital importance of leadership concepts in the wildland fire service by providing educational and leadership development opportunities.

Since the start of the program in 2001, the majority of the recommended actions were implemented. The program has also made a noticeable impact within the wildland fire service.

This 5 Year Report is divided into five sections: Role of the Leadership Committee, Training and Education, Self-development Opportunities, Organizational Integration, and Lessons Learned and Eyes Forward. Click on the link to read the report and learn about the evolution of the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program over the past five years.
http://www.fireleadership.gov/committee/reports/5_year_report.doc

 

June 2006

Gleason Awards for 2005

One group and five individuals from the wildland fire service were chosen to receive the third annual Paul Gleason Lead by Example Award. The award is sponsored by the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Committee under the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. The recipients were selected for demonstrating valued leadership traits during or in support of wildland fire operations based on three categories: motivation and vision; mentoring and teamwork; and innovation and initiative.

The annual award was created to honor Paul Gleason, a wildland firefighter whose career spanned several decades before he succumbed to cancer in 2003. Gleason is best known for developing the LCES (Lookout, Communication, Escape Routes, Safety Zones) concept that became the foundation of wildland firefighter safety. Throughout his career, Gleason led and mentored firefighters, studied and taught wildland fire, and worked to improve firefighter safety. The awards highlight Gleason’s influence on and contribution to wildland fire management, while honoring those who demonstrate the spirit of leadership for which he was known.

Motivation and Vision award recipients:

• LJ Brown, Worland BLM District
• Pete Gordon, Coronado National Forest

Mentoring and Teamwork award recipients:

• Brit Rosso, Arrowhead IHC Superintendent
• Fire Operations Staff, Vale BLM District

Initiative and Innovation award recipients:

• Pam McDonald, BLM Training Unit, NIFC
• Bill Waln, Mid Plains Type 2 Handcrew

More award recipient information can be found at: http://www.fireleadership.gov/toolbox/documents/Gleason_Award_2005.doc

May 2006

Staff Rides and Refresher Training

The South Zone of the Boise National Forest in Idaho decided to do something a little different for the incident commander (IC) refresher this year. Instead of having students sit through lectures, view slide shows, or watch videos, Zone FMO Evans Quo and his staff of Russ Long, Mike Black, and Jason Butler decided to challenge their ICs with a staff ride to the Gregory Fire. Quo said "This is just another way to meet agency IC refresher requirements."

In the summer of 2005, the Gregory Fire took four days to march down Warm Springs Ridge and into Idaho City. The Gregory fire burned over 1,100 acres, went through three IC transitions and finally ended up with a Type 2 Incident Management Team, no structures were lost, and no major injuries were sustained.

Staff rides are divided into three parts a preliminary study; the field visit; and then a final integration. The preliminary study was a five page overview of the Gregory Fire with maps that participants were given to review prior to the staff ride. The field visit portion of the staff ride was tailored to three levels in the incident command system Type 4 and 5 ICs; Task Force and Strike Team Leaders; and Duty Officers. The groups were taken to several "stands" that were placed at different areas of the fire. At each stand participants were put in a real life situation from this fire and then asked to perform tactical decision games on sand tables that were targeted at their qualification level. At the conclusion of the sand table exercise students performed an After Action Review (AAR) and then they were briefed on what really happened at that location by firefighters who were actually on the fire. The integration phase began when participants started talking about what they learned this day and ended by having each group present lessons learned in front of the other participants. Presentations demonstrated a depth of engagement that you only find when you are placed in the boots of a firefighter and are then asked to step up and engage.

This is the first staff ride that this cadre has put together. They delivered the staff ride twice prior to the 2006 fire season with over 150 firefighters taking part. Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive. Quo reported that this staff ride took about the same amount of time to prepare for as compared to previous IC refreshers they have hosted. Quo also said that all the information he needed to put together this staff ride was found in Staff Ride Library feature on the fireleadership.gov website at http://www.fireleadership.gov/toolbox/staffride/index.html

April 2006

AAR Training Package Hits the Streets

An After Action Review training package is now available. This product has been developed as a cooperative effort between the NWCG Leadership Committee and the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center. This training is designed to explain the intent and facilitation techniques for the After Action Review (AAR) process. The material is delivered through PowerPoint presentation and video. The target audience is anyone participating in, or desiring to facilitate an After Action Review. Instructors should have experience in conducting basic After Action Reviews. The time required to present this package is 1 to 2 hours.

The package consists of a PowerPoint presentation on a CD and two videos segments on a single DVD. The components which comprise the package are designed so that they may be utilized as separate stand-alone items or presented together for an integrated lesson. The complete Conducting Effective After Action Reviews training package costs approximately $15. Ordering information can be found in the Leadership Toolbox at http://www.fireleadership.gov/toolbox/documents/AAR_training_package.htm

March 2006

STEX for Pre-season Preparedness

The San Juan Public Lands Center is located in the Four Corners Region of Southern Colorado. With a high fire load and dynamic interagency cooperation between the BLM San Juan Field Office, Mesa Verde National Park, the San Juan National Forest, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as state and county cooperators, pre-season training and planning is essential. This interagency group has developed a Leadership Team Simulation Exercise centered around the three local interagency zones and includes players from all the involved agencies. The primary audience is the local Agency Administrators and the local Fire Management Officers. There is one overall simulation director and three people facilitating three Sandtable Exercises (STEX), one for each zone. The tables are set up with Tactical Decision Games for an extended attack incident involving an IC Type 3 and sometimes a transition from an IC Type 4. This activity is concurrent with a strategic discussion facilitated for the Agency Administrators to address questions that may include financial obligations, resource allocation, risk management decisions, handling an incident within incident, cost share agreements, etc. The simulation runs for approximately four hours which includes orientation to the Sandtable Exercise format, running the simulation, and conducting an After Action Review. The simulation has received positive feedback in that it allows not only the field FMOs and Type 3 ICs to collaborate and prepare for fire season, but has also facilitated improved communication up and down the chain of command and between the interagency zones.

February 2006

 2005 Gleason Award Selection Committee

Selections for the 2005 Paul Gleason Lead by Example Award are complete. The Selection Committee was challenged again with a strong pool of candidates. After much debate and discussion the final selections were made. The Selection Committee members diligently upheld the high standards of the award, dedicated to Paul Gleason an icon of leadership in the wildland fire community. The 2005 Gleason Award Selection Committee members were: Christine Keavy. Christine works in NIFC’s Distance Learning Unit as a Training Specialist on detail from the Lower Snake River District Bureau of Land Management. Christine is currently working to bring some of the S-courses to the web by making them available as an online course and by providing easy access and tracking of course pre-work on the web. Todd Schmidt is a Prescribed Fire Specialist at the Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge and a past winner of the Paul Gleason Lead by Example Award. The fire program at Medicine Lake NWR is an important land management tool for the refuge, which helps keep it an important resource in the Central Flyway. Paul Head is the Northeast Region Fire management Officer for the National Park Service. The region is responsible for managing many historic sites and provides many challenges to Paul, who also represents the National Park Service on the NWCG Leadership Committee. Rob Rossetti, a squad leader for the Redmond Smoke Jumpers. Robs knowledge and experience proved to be a valuable asset to the Selection Committee. Rob Holt, Superintendent of the Redding Interagency Hotshot Crew, one of three training crews in the country. Rob has worked to focus the training experience of the Redding crewmembers around leadership.

The NWCG Leadership Committee extends their thanks and gratitude to the members of the 2005 Selection Committee for showing their support to the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program.

January 2006

L Courses at State Wildfire Academies

In 2006 the NWCG Leadership Committee initiated an effort to partner with various state wildfire academies so that every wildland fire organization has the opportunity to participate in a leadership development process designed for future fireground leaders.

The Leadership Committee has offered assistance to help wildfire academies integrate the foundational components of the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program. This involves recommendations on leadership training courses that are appropriate for the academy audiences and help to secure quality cadres for those recommended courses…L-180 Human Factors on the Fireline; L-280 Followership to Leadership; Conducting Effective After Action Reviews; and Sandtable Exercise Train-the-trainer.

Another potential aspect of this of this effort will be cooperation from the state wildfire academies in providing exposure and information to thousands of front-line firefighters regarding the Paul Gleason Lead By Example award program.

December 2005

Leadership in Cinema Continues to Grow

The Leadership in Cinema feature is one of the most popular tools found in the Leadership Toolbox. This feature is consistently one of the top 10 pages visited in the website.

A new lesson plan—We Were Soldiers—has been created for the Leadership in Cinema program. Facilitators are encouraged to merge the elements of the Leadership in Cinema and the Professional Reading programs; the authors of We Were Soldiers Once . . .And Young, Lt. General Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway, were advisors during the production of the movie. Wildland fire students of reading and film can come together for lively group discussions.

The lesson plan includes links to the movie and book websites. Facilitators are encouraged to visit both sites to determine if items ( AAR, maps, timelines, etc.) will be helpful during group discussions.

November 2005

New L-380 Resource

A new twist on the L-380 training! Working with Wyoming BLM and the NWCG Leadership Committee, the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) has been approved as a provider for L-380 training. NOLS Professional Training department provides principle-centered, judgment-based, situational leadership training to NASA astronauts, the Naval Academy students, and now, wildland firefighters. NOLS teaches leadership in real-life situations in the field, where critical decisions happen.

The NOLS L-380 course can be delivered in the same or similar terrain that your organization currently manages for wildfires--virtually any wilderness location in the United States. NOLS courses maintain a low student-to-instructor ratio with individualized coaching and detailed evaluations. All meals and tent-based lodging for the duration of the 6-day field course are included in the tuition.

To access NOLS L-380 training or learn more about it, visit www.nols.edu/nolspro or call Darran Wells at (307) 335-2214.

October 2005

Senior Leader Training Courses Take Shape

The National Fire Institute (NAFRI) hosted the alpha test course offering of L-480 Incident Management Team (IMT) Leadership at their new NAFRI training center in March 2005. For this initial course, L-480 and the Southwest Geographic Area S-420 were held back-to-back over two weeks with a number of students attending both courses. The L-480 test course was evaluated by an interagency team and was recommended for NWCG approval pending some minor revisions.

For 2006, NAFRI is hosting two L-480 courses in cooperation with the Northwest and the Northern Rockies Geographic Areas. Session #2006-01 is offered March 13-17, 2006 in Missoula, Montana and Session #2006-02 is offered May 22-26, 2006 in Portland, Oregon. The target audience is current Unit Leaders and IC Type 3 personnel who desire to become qualified as Type 2 Command and General Staff. Visit the NAFRI website or the National Fire Training schedule for more information.

The NAFRI L-580 Steering Committee is currently working on the development of L-580 Advanced Leadership Seminar. L-580 will be designed to provide a venue to address a variety of challenges and current issues that IMT’s face. The focus will be on the leadership in the context of emergency management situations commonly encountered by personnel in the wildland fire service.

September 2005

IQCS and the Leadership Curriculum

As implementation of the wildland fire leadership curriculum has progressed, the Incident Qualifications and Certification System has provided recognition of the formal L-courses. Four of the six L-courses are now available to the field (L-180, L-280, L-380, and L-381). The L-480 Incident Management Team Leadership course is currently in the beta course testing phase under the direction of the National Advanced Fire Resource Institute. The course IDs have been established in IQCS using the L-course numbers just the same as with the S-courses. Development for the sixth and final course, L-580 Advanced Leadership Seminar, will begin in 2006.

Over the past year, two informal products from the leadership program have become training program mainstays. In June 2005, the Leadership Committee requested and the IQCS Board approved recognition of Staff Rides and Tactical Decision Games using Sandtables. The official course names and IDs are:
Wildland Fire Staff Ride – N9024
TDGS/STEX Train-the-trainer – N9026

August 2005

Learning in the Thick of It

There is an excellent article in the Harvard Business Review on how the US Army’s Opposing Force (OPFOR) makes use of after-action reviews, Learning in the Thick of It. The article has good information for those already doing AAR’s, such as our fire crews, but also makes the case of why this learning practice should be adopted more widely, and the pitfalls to watch out for. “Corporate AARs are often convened around failed projects. The patient is pronounced dead, and everyone weighs in on the mistakes that contributed to his demise. The word ‘accountability’ comes up a lot – generally it means ‘blame,’ which participants expend considerable energy trying to avoid. There is a sense of finality to these sessions. The team is putting a bad experience behind it. ‘Accountability’ comes up a lot during OPFOR’s AARs as well, but in that context it is forward-looking rather than backward-looking. Units are accountable for learning their own lessons. And OPFOR’s leaders are accountable for taking lessons from one situation and applying them to others-for forging explicit links between past experience and future performance.” For those of you not familiar with an AAR: “It is common for OPFOR’s AARs to be facilitated by the unit leader’s executive officer. Virtually all formal AAR meetings begin with a reiteration of the house rules, even if everyone present has already heard them a hundred times: Participate. No thin skins. Leave your stripes at the door. Take notes. Focus on our issues, not the issues of those above us. (The participants’ commanders hold their own AARs to address issues at their level.) Absolute candor is critical. To promote a sense of safety, senior leaders stay focused on improving performance, not on placing blame, and are the first to acknowledge their own mistakes.” For those curious about the emerging “fire doctrine,” there is a nice sidebar explaining doctrine and tactics in the article.

July 2005

Leadership in the Fire Service

For the last two years, the Training Division of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group has been working to integrate the leadership values and principles into various S-courses and Position Task Books as they come up for revision. During the research process for one of these course revision efforts, the project team found a short leadership assessment tool. It came from an International Fire Service Training Association manual titled Leadership in the Fire Service. It was originally published in 1967 and written by Robert F. Hamm. Here it is:

Do you want to be a successful leader in the fire department? Do you have the basis for this? Here are six questions. Can you answer each of them in the affirmative? If so, you are ready to proceed.

1) Do you like people…that is, do you actually like to work with them?

2) Do you look for, and accept, improved methods and techniques in order to increase or improve your abilities, skills, and knowledge?

3) Do you seek and accept the responsibilities that accompany the job of leadership?

4) Are you willing, and even anxious, to learn?

5) Do you accept criticism courageously?

6) Are you optimistic?

If you have made a good score on your quiz, then you are ready to become a successful leader in the fire department.

This was a unit quiz at the end of a chapter called “The Successful Leader Today.” Amazing how it is just as relevant today as it was in 1967.

June 2005

Wildland Fire Book on Books

The 2005 version of the Professional Reading Program is also available as a hardcopy product entitled Wildland Fire Book on Books. Users of this reference now have three options for viewing or downloading the publication—the html website page, a print-ready pdf version, or an interactive pdf version. New features include a section on How to Implement a Reading Program on Local Units, the Fire Directors recommended reading list, and two indexes—author and title.

Those users who wish to print their own 5½” x 8½” booklet(s) now have the ability to do so by downloading the print-ready pdf. The document has been formatted to be printed using most copier duplex functions. The first two pages can be printed (duplex) on cardstock to create the cover.

May 2005

Seeing the Future in the Past

Eleven years measured in the life of a person can be a long time. Eleven years measured in the life of an institution can be very short. This year, eleven years after the tragic South Canyon fatalities, the profession of wildland fire management will have measured change at the 2005 International Association of Wildland Fire safety conference titled “Human Factors – 10 Years Later.” The concept of human factors was introduced to firefighters ten years ago, one year after the South Canyon Fire through the 1995 Wildland Firefighters Human Factors Workshop. The workshop’s organizer Ted Putnam understood the need to take a new approach to firefighter safety. His search led him to look outside the wildland fire service as well as looking within. The experts came from academic research institutes, the aviation industry, and land management agencies. Curt Braun, Karl E. Weick, Dave Hart, Lark McDonald, Paul Gleason and Dave Pierce, theorists, practitioners and students of their professions came together with others in their fields to apply their knowledge and experience to the problems that compromise firefighter safety.

The 1995 Human Factors Workshop demonstrated to the wildland fire service how the attitudes of crews, overhead, managers and the public affect the decisions firefighters make. Firefighters are now beginning to demonstrate their understanding of the values uncovered in that workshop, by shedding past perceptions of people management and incorporating some of the ideas developed ten years ago. Within the past ten years there has been significant transformation in the wildland fire service. Change is common to firefighters, from the environment they work in; to the tactics they apply; to their ability to adapt to changing policy. Firefighters need to be able to quickly recognize the need to change, and choose an effective new course of action. The leadership displayed by Ted Putnam when he refused to sign the investigation report of the South Canyon fire and in organizing the first Human Factors workshop are examples of recognizing the need to change.

When Wag Dodge lit his escape fire at Mann Gulch in 1949, there was no communication, no understanding of this new technique from his men, no reason for them to believe that he was taking a rational action to try to provide them safety and probably, he did not understand why they did not join him in his escape fire. Today, firefighters communicate with new effectiveness and in new terms and have an understanding of new techniques in managing human factors effectively. As a result of initiatives suggested at the1995 Human Factors Workshop the wildland fire service is leading itself toward a culture of greater safety awareness.

For more information on human factors please review the links of the Fireleadership.gov web page, try one of the links below or search the web and find your own.

http://www.fireleadership.gov/toolbox/documents/human_factors.htm
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Human_Factors_Workshop_2005_Safety_Summit_Summary_rev1.doc
http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/group/HelmreichLAB/
https://wwwnt.cnet.navy.mil/crm/
http://firechief.com/
http://www.hqda.army.mil/ari/

April 2005

Staff Rides Come of Age in the Wildland Fire Service

A National Wildland Fire Staff Ride Workshop was conducted in January 2005. It was sponsored by the NWCG Leadership Committee and hosted at the Don Biedebach Regional Training Center on the Angeles National Forest. This workshop united a variety of interagency personnel who support wildland fire training activities, including: Fire Staff Officers, Safety Officers, Training Officers, District FMOs and AFMOs, Engine Captains, Helicopter Managers, Fire Use Module leads, Hotshot Crew overhead, Smokejumper trainers, as well as staff from the National Outdoor Leadership School.

The workshop’s special guest speakers included: Dr. Michael Useem, Director of the Wharton Business School’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, who discussed how Staff Rides are effective learning tools for business and academia; Lt. Colonel Eric Carlson (USMC retired), former Director of Operations for the Marine Corps University, who explained how the Marines implement Staff Rides; General Keith Holcomb (USMC retired), who presented an introduction to military Tactical Decision Games; and Dr. William G. “Glenn” Robertson, Deputy Director of the U.S. Army’s Combat Studies Institute, the Army’s Staff Ride expert and author of “The Staff Ride”—considered the handbook on this valuable learning process.

The payoff from the workshop is evident in the many staff rides that have been initiated during the 2005 training season. Some of the notable efforts include the Great Basin Training Center staff ride embedded in their S-300 course; the Fire Use Training Academy staff ride to the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire; the southern Idaho Bureau of Land Management districts combined staff ride to the 1995 Point Fire as a pre-season refresher opportunity; several U.S. Forest Service and California Department of Forestry staff rides to both the 1977 Spanish Ranch Fire and the 1953 Rattlesnake Fire; the U.S. Forest Service Hotshot Training Crews (Redding and Redmond) staff ride to the 1994 South Canyon Fire; the U.S. Forest Service Fire Safety Council staff ride to the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire; and the U.S. Forest Service Region 4 prescribed fire staff ride on the Dixie National Forest.

March 2005

Self-study Leadership Courses

Self-study leadership courses are available through the National Fire Academy (NFA) and the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) free of charge. These courses provide a means by which students of fire may begin or enhance their leadership development skills in a self-paced environment. Four courses—Fire Service Supervision, Effective Communication, Decision Making and Problem Solving, and Leadership and Influence—have been identified that complement the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program. Descriptions of, and URLs for, the courses are available through the Toolbox.

These courses are not intended to take the place of the leadership curriculum, but do provide refresher activities for those who have completed courses through the L-380 level. As well as a refresher, the NFA and EMI courses allow those who have not had the opportunity to participate in the wildland fire leadership curriculum to gain a basic understanding of many leadership concepts.

Sandtables for S-courses

The 2005 Arizona Wildfire Academy requested a group of facilitators to lead several S-courses through Tactical Decision Games (TDGS) delivered as Sandtable Exercises (STEX). A total of seven tables were utilized along with four outdoor terrain models to facilitate nearly 300 students in the hot seat over a six-day period.

The STEX facilitators were all experienced, well-respected firefighters from various wildland fire agencies in the Southwest Geographic Area. The core group of four facilitators was ramped up to seven facilitators during peak times when as many as three S-courses were being delivered during the same day. During the busiest days a STEX Group Coordinator was also required due to last minute changes, academy staff observers, and an influx of local and state-wide media crews (click to read Prescott Daily Courier article by Joanna Dodder).

Students were given a preliminary introduction to the TDGS concept and then put into a rotation for 30 minutes per table. This set-up allowed 30 people, in six groups of five students each, to rotate through six scenarios completely engaged in the STEX room for four hours. The STEX Coordinator or S-course Lead Instructor managed the clock and the rotation sequence. The Arizona Wildfire Academy S-courses that were supported included S-131, S-200, S-230, S-234, S-300, S330, and S-336.

February 2005

2004 Gleason Award Selection Panel

The Pacific Northwest Coordination Center, in Portland Oregon, hosted the selection panel for the Paul Gleason Lead by Example Award this past January. Five members from across the wildland fire service came together to make the selections for the 2004 award.

The selection panel was made up the following individuals: Bill Miller, a past recipient of the Paul Gleason Lead by Example Award. Bill is a Missoula Smokejumper who saw an opportunity to mentor and train new firefighters in safe effective fire fighting as the supervisor of the Great Northern Crew. He detailed into the position, in 2001, and has been working with the Region 1 Forest Service training crew since, developing new leaders in the wildland fire service. Deon Steinle, from Region 6 of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Fire program in Kansas. Deon supervises the fire program at Marais des Cygnes (mare-de-sane) National Wildlife Refuge, helping to keep fire a part of the ecosystem in the Great Plains maintaining threatened habitat. Christine Keavy, on detail to the NIFC Distance Learning Unit, from the Boise District BLM where she is an Engine Module Supervisor. Christine brings her field experience and knowledge from pursuing a Masters degree in education to the Distance Learning Unit, focusing her efforts on making some of the S courses available on the internet as on-line courses. Dennis Baldridge, from the Laguna Hotshots located in southern California on the Descanso Ranger District of the Cleveland National Forest. Dennis is an experienced and respected superintendent in the Hotshot community and is the outgoing Chair of the National Interagency Hotshot Steering Committee. The final member of the selection panel was Steve Dickenson, the Emergency Operations Manager of the Pacific Northwest Coordination Center. Steve brought important insight to the selection committee both from the span of his career and his knowledge of Paul Gleason as a hotshot and as a friend.

The NWCG Leadership Committee would like to recognize the members of the selection panel for their commitment and support of the leadership program. In addition, the Leadership Committee would like to thank all of the folks who work at the Pacific Northwest Coordination Center for hosting the panel , with special thanks going to Blanche France for her help with computer support and Gerry Day, the Center Manager, for providing a great facility.

January 2005

Changes in Leadership Committee

They say change is the only constant, and nowhere is that more true than the Leadership Committee. We welcome two new members in 2005 and bid adieu to three former members. Incoming committee member Mark Stanford from the Texas Forest Service brings a wealth of experience, connections and enthusiasm to the group. Mark is the Chief of Fire Operations for the Texas Forest Service. We look forward to his representation of state and local fire departments. Jennifer Smith, an employee with NIFC External Affairs, also joins the Committee in 2005 in a support role. For some time, Jennifer has been exercising her talents on the www.fireleadership.gov web page, and we look forward to continued access to her web and graphic design skills.

Nancy Lull, a big committee contributor over the past couple of years, has taken a new job. Formerly with External Affairs at NIFC, Nancy is moving to Kemmerer, Wyoming as the Associate BLM Field Manager. We wish Nancy the best in her new endeavor and thank her for all her contributions and service. Departing committee members J.T. Reynolds and Steve Thomas are getting back to their regular jobs. J.T., as superintendent of Death Valley National Monument, is an incredibly busy person, as is Steve with his Oregon Department of Forestry duties. The Committee thanks them for their participation.

December 2004

Leadership in Cinema Addition

A new resource has been added to the Leadership in Cinema program. Scott Graham, Jo Ackermann, and Kristi Maxwell—from Wright State University—have developed a sequel to Reel Leadership: Hollywood Takes the Leadership Challenge titled Reel Leadership II: Getting Emotional at the Movies.

The article appears in the Journal of Leadership Education and is available at http://www.fhsu.edu/jole/issues/JOLE_3_3.pdf. In the section titled Action! Using Movies to Develop Emotional Intelligence, the authors provide facilitators with tools for Guided Viewing (definition and purpose, process, method, and benefits), Selection of Movies and Scenes (movie genres and range of selections, audience, criteria for scene selection and copyright considerations), and Technological Realities; also included is the Movie Guide Showing EI Competencies.

If you have used movies or scenes to teach wildland fire leadership, you are encouraged to submit your work for consideration/inclusion in the Leadership in Cinema library. Submit to leadership_feedback@nifc.blm.gov.

November 2004

Tactical Decision Games Library

A new tool has been added to the Leadership Toolbox – the Tactical Decision Games Library. Tactical Decision Games (TDGS) delivered as Sand Table Exercises (STEX) provide effective training for all levels of firefighters by creating a fire ground atmosphere in the classroom. TDGS/STEX are becoming familiar sight in many fire stations and due to the demand for more realistic and cost-effective training. One of the most frequently heard questions by those starting to use TDGS and Sand Tables is “Where can I find more TDGS scenarios to use with my firefighters?”

In November 2004, the NWCG Leadership Committee in conjunction with the Southwest Fire Use Training Academy hosted a workshop in Albuquerque, New Mexico to develop a library of TDGS. The workshop was comprised of 25 firefighters from different geographic areas with extensive backgrounds as hotshots, engine captains, smokejumpers, and fire management officers. The intent of the library workshop was to capture the experience of this group in order to develop an assortment of TDGS scenarios. The TDGS were developed into a standard format and can now be accessed from the on-line library by anyone wishing to use them. This workshop was just intended to be a jump start effort to get the library up and running. The long-term vision for the library is to enable individuals to submit their own TDGS to archive on the web for others to use. Just follow the downloadable format found at: http://www.fireleadership.gov/toolbox/TDG_Library/submittdg.htm