I’ve spent a lot of time studying successful fire-rescue and EMS organizations. One of the things I look for is how they establish their organizational structures and how those structures contribute to the organization’s overall success. One organizational structure element is present so consistently that I developed a simple model to explain it. The model is “Looking out the window”. In this model, the Chief and the Deputy Chief stand back-to-back at a picture window. The window represents the separation between the fire department and the outside world. The Chief looks out the window while the Deputy Chief looks in at the organization.

How does this work, and why? Why can’t a good Chief just run everything his (or her) way and make it work? The answer is that no matter how good a Chief the individual is, sooner or later that individual will become overwhelmed by the amount of organizational detail that is inherent in our business. If that individual doesn’t have a mechanism for delegating details and trusting the delegate, then that Chief will start to be less effective or even get so overwhelmed that he or she fails as a leader.

The senior leadership at the National Fire Academy frequently tells the students that the highest rank that you can achieve and still maintain membership in the fire department is the rank of Deputy Chief. In many ways, they’re correct. After you promote to the rank of Chief, you’ve left the inner workings of the fire department and joined the local community management team. That means that a good Chief must spend a lot of time looking outside the window. Have you ever seen the local weatherman who frequently gets the weather forecast wrong? Some of those weathermen are very proud of the title “meteorologist”, and can describe - in terms usually reserved for cult members - the inner workings of their computer models, Doppler weather radar, and…then can’t tell you whether it’s raining right now or not, because they don’t take a look outside the window. Do you know any fire or EMS Chiefs who are like that? The best Chiefs spend a lot of time looking out the window and checking on the local weather.

If the Chief never looks out the window, then he or she creates an organizational blind spot. In today’s political, social, and economic climate, that blind spot can create havoc within the fire department, EMS agency, and within the entire community.

Likewise, if the Chief doesn’t have the Deputy Chief looking in from the window, the Chief will quickly lose touch with the rest of the organization. No one is as ineffective as a Chief who has lost touch with his or her firefighters.

The Window Model implies some additional things about the relationship between the Chief and the Deputy Chief. One of the most important of these is trust. The Chief and Deputy Chief stand back-to-back, which literally says “I’ve got your back.”

Another implication is that since they’re both standing, they can lean on each other for mutual support when necessary. Still another important part of the relationship is transparency. Both the firefighters inside the organization and the citizens and leaders outside can see both the Chief and the Deputy Chief and what they’re doing. When running a fire-rescue department, the leaders must realize that they are always under both inside and outside scrutiny, and that they must always avoid even the appearance of impropriety. How many times do we hear about a Chief or other fire-rescue official getting caught with his or her hand in the till? We hear this all too often, but the underlying message is that if you abuse a position of trust, sooner or later, you’re going to get caught.

There is a downside to the Window Model, too. Most fire-rescue organizations don’t have room for three or four people to crowd together at the window. That tends to stifle some potential candidates for Deputy Chief. In a few cases, #3 may be the best candidate for one of the window positions, but may not get the opportunity due to the Chief and Deputy Chief having the window view locked up. In that case, #3 may move on and find another window.

To bring the Window Model concept full circle, the Deputy Chief must be the Chief’s link to the rest of the organization. The Chief will necessarily spend a lot of time linking the organization to the community’s needs, finances, utility infrastructure, and other emergency services agencies. The Deputy Chief must stay in close communication to the Chief to ensure that the Chief stays linked to the fire-rescue department. The Deputy Chief has to make sure that he looks at the ceiling inside the window to make sure that there are sprinkler heads there. In other words, the Deputy Chief is generally the one that ensures that the department practices what it preaches.
One other thing about the Window Model is that sometimes the window gets broken. It is difficult to prevent all of the outsiders from throwing stones. Hopefully, the Chief and Deputy Chief will be an effective and united team that will prevent the window from catching stones thrown from the inside. If not, the Chief and Deputy Chief may be replaced by window installers. There are some pretty high-profile window installers out there looking for the right broken window, too.