On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 10:39 AM, John Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
> Dave Land <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > but I recall a harrowing story > > learned through my friend Nick of a fire captain who thought he should > > Do Something Now, with deadly consequences. > > A fire is easy to recognize, and the solution is straightforward. That is true for minor fires. Major fires are difficult to characterize and sneaky as hell. If they were simple and straightforward, experience wouldn't matter much, but experience is what keeps firefighters alive, along with training and discipline. Mostly experience. What Dave was talking about is that it is often difficult for people to stand by when that is the right thing to do at the time. The fire chief's correct action in the situation would have been to have the other crews wait for my friend and his partner to complete their task. Instead, he told other firefighters to do something that would have been correct a few minutes later, but was absolutely wrong at that moment and cost my friend his life and another friend was burned badly. For those who know firefighting, my friend was ventilating and the chief ordered other guys to break windows on the first floor -- instant flashover. The only thing recognizable of my friend was the buckles on his turnout coat. This was more than 25 years ago, or I probably wouldn't be talking about it. I still volunteer as a critical incident stress debriefer... and I can tell you now from not just my own experiences, but many others, that standing by when you're trained and experienced at crisis intervention is very stressful and difficult. When it is your job to control, doing nothing can be the hardest thing of all. Feeling out of control is the No. 1 cause of traumatic stress. Thus, I think the comparison is apt -- the situation seems to be out of control and the temptation to do something (and to be perceived as doing something) is huge. Good leaders perhaps are always doing something. Great leaders also know when it is best to hold back. I don't know what the right thing is in the financial mess, but I always take the idea of "we must do something NOW" with a grain of salt, sometimes the size of a salt lick for cattle, if you're familiar with those brick-sized hunks of salt. Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
