While most of my return trips from FDIC – the Fire Department Instructors Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana have been unremarkable, I’ve shared previous experiences of traveling home from this conference that have had an impact on my outlook on life. However, the way my most recent trip home from FDIC2017 played out is nothing short […]
“Please don’t tell my parents I’m a volunteer fireman, they think I’m a piano player in a cat house.” That’s the tongue-in-cheek message printed on a bumper sticker that used to be pinned to the bulletin board in our chief’s office about 25 years ago. Decades later, have we overcome the stigma of being volunteer […]
Xbox Hack#160125: “Creating a work environment that meets the individual needs of your team members creates outcomes that will exceed your organization’s expectations.” I tell the participants in my facilitated conversation: “From the Xbox to the Box Alarm” that if they remember nothing else about our discussion, remember that ‘The greatest expectation of this XboxTM […]
I originally wrote “From the XboxTM to the Box Alarm†in 2008 as I stumbled upon what I saw as a direct correlation between Generation Y and the influence of video games on virtually every aspect of their lives. Based on my reading of some formal research conducted by those a lot smarter than I am […]
The term “Brotherhood” means different things to different people. Ask 100 firefighters what brotherhood is and you’ll get 100x different answers. You know it when you see it; you miss it when it’s gone and you certainly feel it when it’s turned against you. Used gender-generically to refer to this special, sometimes inexplicable bond that […]
While I believe it was P.T. Barnum who referred to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus as “The Greatest Show on Earth!” – I’m not clowning around when I tell you that FDIC should be one of the definitive destinations for every firefighter at least once in their career. Unfortunately, as fire department and personal […]
Recently I had the opportunity to participate in what I thought was going to be a “speed recruiting” event at a local high school, unaware until I got there that the tables would be turned and I was the one who was going to be interviewed. More than 30 high school sophomores, juniors and seniors […]