US MidWest department fire fighters,…literally!

Like air traffic controllers, firefighters are intensely inclined toward implementation. In their daily problem solving activities, firefighters confront situations that need their immediate action towards saving lives or resolving dangerous situations. As one firefighter said, “In a fire emergency, we have no time to ‘reflect’ on the fire – we just need to put it out and save lives.”

But this department – including the new fire chief and his lieutenants – also felt it had antiquated views and lacked a vision or strategy for the future. As mostly implementers, the team was struggling to create a new strategy and develop action plans – a task that tends to be conceptualizer work. With facilitation, the team established its vision of becoming an elite department and developed a survey questionnaire to distribute to department members as a fact-finding tool.

A two-day workshop led to the development of a long-term vision supported by six action pillars. Committees were then created to drive each action forward. Although a majority of implementers, facilitation allowed the team to work methodically through the process to create a strategy they all bought into. 

“You’re an innovator, you just don’t know it yet!” Learn more about the Basadur Profile and how it measures cognitive diversity to support your team in achieving innovative results.