FIREFIGHTING 360
Means to an End: Effective communication leads to action
By Billy Schmidt

Engine 1 approaches the scene and sees a woman frantically waving in the street. The engine turns the corner and discovers why she’s so excited. Before them is a moderate size home with a significant amount of smoke pushing from it. Engine 1 comes to a stop just past the house, providing the officer with a view of three sides of the house. The officer visually absorbs what’s there: the house, the smoke, the woman outside waving her arms, the car in the driveway and the hydrant on the corner. He presses the button on his radio and begins his arrival report, verbally “painting a picture” for himself, his crew and the other responding units. Dispatch and the other units hear, “Dispatch, Engine 1 on scene of a one-story house, fire venting from one window on the Bravo side, smoke pushing from the eves on all sides, unknown if occupied. Engine 1 will be offensive from side Alpha. Engine 1 is Command.”


Briefly, and to the point, the officer has communicated a “picture action-plan” for everyone to follow.

Communication is vital for the success of any emergency operation. It is essential for firefighter safety. It reinforces visual observations, sets the stage for the entire incident and provides valuable information for everyone involved in the operation. Complete and effective communication is a must! Without it, information, events, conditions, situations or questions remain unknown. Read any case study and somewhere you will find that one of the “causes” involved in the mistake, incident or accident was poor communication.

Communication is the act of sharing information with others to cause an action or understanding. It’s the process of directing, informing, questioning or persuading an individual or group to act. This is the first in a series of FF-360 columns that will address the characteristics of effective communication and the barriers that prevent it. In this first column, we will define the purpose of communication. Following columns will continue our discovery for better understanding and action by reviewing the communication loop, frictions in communication, techniques for effective communication, “knock-it-off/time-out” scenarios, active listening, the basic fundamentals of communication, effective communication under stressful conditions, and written communication skills.

An Inherent Need
We depend upon communications every day. Following is a passage from author Steven Covey’s foreword in the book Crucial Conversations. It relates easily to the complex nature of our profession, or even human nature in general, and the strong demand that we communicate effectively.

“Many … defining moments (that make all the difference) come from ‘crucial’ or ‘breakthrough’ conversations with important people in emotionally charged situations where the decisions made take us down one of several roads, each of which leads to an entirely different destination.”

Our fundamental purpose for communicating is to cause change. That purpose begins with an idea, a thought or plan we want to send or convey to others. We transfer those ideas in the form of directing, persuading, informing or questioning. The information we deliver and how we deliver it depends on the purpose of the idea that we want to communicate. It can be as simple as talking about the weather or as critical as ordering an emergency evacuation. Let’s look at examples of each form of conveying an idea.

Directing
Our chain of command in the fire service, combined with the incident command system (ICS), provides a clear path for communication flow during complex and dynamic operations. One idea common to firefighters is to give direction on the fireground. A company officer at the scene of a house fire might give direction to his crew like this: “Stretch a hoseline to the front door and prepare for entry.”

In this example, the company officer has verbally sent his idea for carrying out an activity to his crew. The officer will also exhibit some kind of visual communication—either a calming and commanding look or the appearance of someone confused and out of control. Depending on the firefighters’ experience and their crew cohesion, this simple direction from the officer may be enough to relay the action he wants completed: to make a hoseline ready at the front door, ensure that everyone is in full personal protective gear, force the door and stand ready to move in and attack the fire. A less-experienced or cohesive crew may require more specific direction.

Successful communication depends, then, on the officer’s knowledge of their crew’s skill, will and teamwork, and also, their skill and ability to deliver the right message.

Persuading
Persuasion takes a different approach. It’s the process of moving others to a belief or course of action either by appealing, requesting, pleading or urging. I use persuasion in all of my columns as I try to appeal to readers about the benefits of crew resource management, urging them to study and practice it. Persuasion is very difficult as it relies on compelling information and shared beliefs. I hope that I have crafted my messages to at least convince readers to think more critically about our profession and to explore ways to be safer and more effective.

Informing
Information is at the heart of all knowledge and decision-making. When we inform, we impart information, or facts, to make someone aware of something. A fireground example: The safety officer informs the incident commander (IC) that fire is venting from a window and impinging on a liquid propane tank. This knowledge makes the IC, and other crews operating in the area, aware of a safety concern while helping her formulate an action plan for attacking the fire.

An educational, or training, environment, where an instructor lectures their students on the history and development of crew resource management, is another example of informing. Informing transfers knowledge that increases awareness.

Questioning
Questioning is a major part of all human thought and interpersonal communication, and it plays a central role in all learning. Questioning can be important during emergency operations to ensure clear and concise communication flow throughout the chain of command. A company officer might question, or be skeptical of, a tactical direction that he receives from the IC that has conflicting instructions, vague directions or dual meanings. Any one of these “frictions” (we will discuss communication frictions in the next column) can affect everyone and every stage in the operation.

How the company officer responds to that direction is the difference between blindly following orders and performing a tactic that can have a dramatically negative affect or using good inquiry and advocacy skills (we’ll also cover this later) to question the IC by expressing his concerns respectfully and accurately.

In a more stable environment, such as an officer staff meeting, someone may question the purpose of a policy or the process for implementing a training program. Again, using good inquiry and advocacy skills will help create high-quality dialogue between the members at the meeting, leading to better solutions and outcomes for the organization.

The Goal: Action
Communication begins with an idea, a thought or belief to cause action or change. The main reason we communicate is to share those ideas with others. As emergency professionals, effective communication is vital to the success of our operations. I’ll end this column with a historical example of an idea communicated by one of our country’s great thinkers and innovators, Benjamin Franklin—an idea that created change in the way communities viewed house fires. What follows is a piece from Franklin’s autobiography where he recommends the formation of a firefighting “club” that would respond should a fire breakout or threaten the community.

About this time I wrote a paper, (first to be read in Junto but it was afterwards publish’d) on the different Accidents and Carelessness by which Houses were set on fire, with Cautions against them, and Means proposed of avoiding them. This was much spoken of as a useful Piece, and gave rise to a Project, which soon followed it, of forming a Company for the more ready Extinguishing of Fires, and mutual Assistance in Removing and Securing of Goods when in Danger. Associates in this Scheme were presently found amounting to Thirty. Out Articles of Agreement oblig’d every Member to keep always in good Order and fit for Use, certain Number of Leather Buckets, with strong Bags and Baskets (for packing and transporting of Goods) which were to be brought to every Fire; and we agreed to meet once a Month and spend a Social evening together, in discoursing and communicating such Ideas as occur’d to us upon the Subject of Fires as might be useful in our Conduct on such Occasions.

And the action that resulted? The Union Fire Company was incorporated in 1736.

Billy Schmidt is a district chief assigned to the 3rd battalion with Palm Beach (Fla.) County Fire Rescue. An adjunct instructor for the department’s Training and Safety Division, he has a master’s degree in organizational leadership, a bachelor’s degree in human resource management and an associate’s degree in fire science. He’s a member of FireRescue magazine’s Editorial Board.


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