Welcome to the blog page of the Make the Difference (MTD) Podcast. My name is Chris Stewart co-host of the MTD podcast and a longtime member and active contributor to the American Fire Service. After years of engagement, learning, success, failure, true enjoyment, and gut-burning frustration, I feel it’s time to visit a new medium. This jump is an attempt to contribute to building a better fire service by developing better leaders, better communication, and greater appreciation for being good at our job. This is also a tool to push me outside of my comfort zone and speak about things that matter.
“Speaking up”
I am a far better technical writer than I am storyteller. I’m going to be working on my ability to talk about operational subjects that are far less technical than our standard operating procedures. If I’m successful at this, these posts should feel like the firehouse chow table. At the table, experience and sometimes a little crazy talk are the most effective forms of communication. This is where every firefighter tests their chops in speaking up.
Speaking up in today’s society and in today’s fire service can be a dangerous endeavor. In society, speaking up has created intense polarization between being “great again” and social progress. In the fire service, speaking up can challenge the insecurity of leadership and those who are desperate to maintain control. Speaking up isn’t for the faint of heart.
Why would we speak up?
What’s the value of speaking up?
Who are we speaking up for?
In these times of transactional leadership, no mistake management, so-called accountability, and cancel culture we’ve lost the focus of why a fire department and firefighters exists. We’ve lost sight of who we serve and how we should serve them. We’ve become blinded to who our customers actually are. When we can’t readily identify who we serve, it screws up our ability to maintain our operational magnetic north.
Blinding news flash: firefighters work for their community. We serve all families, individuals, and businesses of our communities, regardless of the social circumstances or level of advantage. Big Red rolls to do the best for the whoever needs it without any forms, credit checks, or a care for who or what you love. (Yes, fire trucks should always be red.)
Firefighters also work for each other. We have a rare interdependence with our coworkers that is critical to our effectiveness and our welfare. Our reliance on our crew and team creates a sense of family. Without it, we would not be able to meet the expectations of our community or survive to live beyond our careers.
We also need to clear up who we don’t work for. We don’t work for politicians, public administrators, fire chiefs, or fire boards. They should actually be working for their communities and their firefighters. Their focus should be on service delivery and the resources to actually maintain our ability to serve our communities. We need organization, prioritization, leadership, and management in order to be functional. Their job is to balance that with our ability to serve our customers.
So, why do we speak up? Who do we speak up for? We speak up for our communities and our brothers and sisters. We speak up to be able to do our jobs better and to be able protect our fellow citizens. We speak up to remind our bosses, organizations, and municipal leaders of the needs, direction, and resources required to do our job. We speak up to get their attention and remind them of our priorities. We speak up when their egos overshadow their responsibilities. Nobody knows more about the work and how to do it than the people in the street doing it every day. Leaders need to make it work better.
We speak up in order to make the difference!I look forward to speaking up in this new (to me) medium and hope to challenge the plan.
I look forward to the process and journey and look forward to hearing your voices too.
- Chris Stewart