The Official Magazine of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Leveraging the Human Response Page 7 The Unsung Hero of Firefighting Page 10 Excellence in Education Page 12 Report from Washington Page 14 And much more! Spring 2024Darley Paul Darley 325 Spring Lake Drive | Itasca, IL 60143 Tel: 800-323-0244 | Email: pauldarley@darley.com Web: www.darley.com You serve others. We serve you. Founded in 1908, Darley provides the highest quality pump, technology, and equipment solutions for first responders around the world. With origins in Midwest manufacturing, Darley offers a complete line of unmanned systems, immersive training technology, equipment and pumps. More information is available at www.darley.com. 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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 6 A Message from the IAFC President and Board Chair COVER STORY 7 Leveraging Human Performance and Mitigating Stress Across the Response Continuum FEATURES 10 Fighting Fire and Preserving Progress: The Unsung Role of Portable Fire Extinguishers in Environmental and Life Safety 12 Igniting Excellence in Fire Service Education REPORT FROM WASHINGTON 14 Legislative Update: This Is Your Fight WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE IAFC 16 Upcoming Events 18 A Message from the IAFC CEO and Executive Director 17 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS 07 10 12 Cover photo by Chief Shaughn Maxwell.before us and paving the way for those who will follow. As we move forward, the focus must remain on our members — their needs, their aspirations, and their successes. The board, CEO, and staff, working together as a team, will continue to foster an environment where the members’ voices are heard, their concerns are addressed, and their interests are paramount. In closing, the true measure of the IAFC’s success lies not in whether it is board-driven or staff-driven, but in its ability to serve its members effectively. By embracing a member-driven approach, where board, CEO, and staff work together, guided by our SIP and a commitment to the members’ well-being, the IAFC can achieve its full potential and make a lasting impact in the fire and emergency services for the next 150 years and then some. Fire Chief John S. Butler President and Board Chair the CEO and can be updated by the board to reflect the changing needs and aspirations of our membership. The importance of member- driven leadership is echoed by John Barnes, author and association consultant, who emphasizes that, “A successful association is one that is member-driven, not board- or staff-driven.” Barnes further explains, “The board’s role is to provide leadership and oversight, while the staff’s role is to implement the board’s decisions and provide support to the membership.” In the context of our association, the continuum of board leaders, from immediate past president Chief Donna Black, to me, to our first vice president Chief Josh Waldo, to our second vice president Chief Trisha Wolford, exemplifies this collaborative approach. Along with the other leaders on our board of directors, each of these leaders have brought their unique strengths and perspectives to the table, building upon the legacy of those who came IN THE WORLD of associations, there is sometimes an ongoing debate about the balance between board- driven and staff-driven leadership. Some believe that boards should take the reins, setting the course and making decisions, while others maintain that staff, with their expertise and day-to-day involvement, should be the driving force. However, in my opinion, this dichotomy is a false one. Effective associations operate not as board- driven or staff-driven, but as member-driven entities. Our board, elected, appointed, or selected by the membership, represents the collective voice of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), while staff, guided by the board’s decisions, provide the expertise and resources to implement those decisions. This collaborative approach, where the board and staff work together, is crucial for achieving our association’s goals. As David Westman, renowned association executive and author, aptly states, “The board and CEO roles are complementary, and both are essential for achieving association goals.” At the heart of this collaborative approach lies the Strategic Initiative Plan (SIP), a roadmap that charts our association’s course and aligns the efforts of both board and staff. Our SIP is not a document that will be shelved and forgotten; it is a living, breathing entity that is periodically being discussed when I meet with For the Good of the Members // A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Effective associations operate not as board-driven or staff-driven, but as member-driven entities.apparatus, and the engine and ambulance responding through the streets to the emergency. The human response likely is not the first thing that enters our mind. However, almost every aspect of a response is influenced by and reliant on the human response. Firefighters and paramedics are humans that are asked to perform extraordinary work, often under T o optimize the performance and sustainability of fire and emergency medical services we must focus on the human response. When we hear the word response, we think of the dispatcher responding to the person reporting the emergency, the firefighters and paramedics responding to their // COVER STORY Assistant Chief Shaughn Maxwell, South County Fire Leveraging Human Performance and Mitigating Stress Across the Response Continuum Firefighters and paramedics complete the final day of Snohomish County Fire Training Academy with high acuity response scenarios and debriefings. Photo by Chief Shaughn Maxwell.extraordinary conditions. These conditions can be both cognitively and physically challenging and demand rapid sense-making, critical decision-making, and prioritization of actions. The high-consequence, time- sensitive analyses and interventions are inherently stressful and require consistent deployment of technical knowledge and expertise. Regardless of the situation there will always be a human somewhere in the response system and the “human” response is a crucial element to the success and safety of the incident. To leverage the human response, it is important to optimize stress and performance across the entire response continuum. Doing so will enhance the health and effectiveness of the responder. There are numerous interventions to improve human performance and reduce stress. Here are a few important measures. SPECIALIZE AND ADJUST TRAINING FOR HIGH-PRESSURE SITUATIONS It is known that firefighters and paramedics often encounter scenarios that elicit stress. Novel, rapidly evolving, unpredictable environments with limited information are inherently stressful. Even the veteran fire officer needs to be prepared to encounter a situation they have never seen before. Training tailored to these situations is pivotal. Incorporating scenario-based simulations that create cognitive and physical stress prepare us to respond with competence to these events. If we do not train under stress, we will not perform well under stress. This psychological training is called stress inoculation. Everyone is different and prepared to handle various degrees of stress. Training must be individualized to be effective. For example, if the scenario is overly complex for a new officer, it will shut down learning and erode confidence. Conversely, experienced officers require a high degree of complexity, otherwise learning is not activated and there is the risk of developing overconfidence and complacency. Degrees of complexity and stress can be ratcheted up or down using techniques such as adjusting the volume of decisions that need to be made, adjusting the amount of time available to make decisions, and adjusting the number of conflicting decisions or priorities. Novelty and perturbation demand a higher cognitive load, which causes stress. Something that is new increases cognitive load because it requires us to make sense before we can make a plan. Perturbation is to create a change or disturbance from the regular course of action, to disrupt the equilibrium of the situation. Again, this is a tool to increase cognitive demand to evoke artificial or training stress. This could be done by having dead batteries in the laryngoscope, tipping over the med box, or removing a section of hose from the bed. When done appropriately and correctly based on the scenario and individual, it creates stress inoculation. The goal is to build resilience to stress, confidence, and the agility to overcome unexpected challenges. FOSTERING TEAM COHESION AND COMMUNICATION Effective teamwork and communication are foundational in emergency response scenarios. We should be developing our teamwork and communications as routinely as stretching hose or practicing CPR. How we respond to others and how they respond to us underpin our communication and teamwork. Teamwork starts with self-work. The high-performance team is a compilation of high-performance individuals. Individual team members must understand themselves before they can understand others. Knowing oneself requires honest and critical self-reflection. When one is self-aware and works to understand their beliefs, values, and goals, they begin to understand the lens in which they view and process situations. This understanding optimizes teamwork because when you understand yourself, you increase your ability to consider the viewpoints and perspectives of other team members. This allows us to have better empathy for our teammates and causes us to be more accepting of new information and ideas. All these aspects lay the groundwork for camaraderie and psychological safety to grow amongst the team. This safety opens the lines of communication among team members. When everyone feels safe to speak up, to voice solutions and challenges, it maximizes the contributions of each individual. This maximizes the potential for team success. This process of knowing oneself is an ongoing process that enhances one’s ability to be a strong communicator and contributor to the team. RESET, REFLECT, AND RECOVER The response industry has become acutely aware of the post (traumatic) stress that affects us after the call. There are meaningful ways to help recover after routine and critical incidents, and it can be highly individualized. In the same way we are all unique contributors to the team, we have different ways of recovery. It is common knowledge that exercise reduces stress, yet we often think of the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal benefits. We need to remind ourselves that exercise conditions us to physiologically mitigate psychological stress. Knowing the “why” helps us to take action and exercise when we feel least motivated to move. The reason we exercise is to flush out the harmful products created by stress and promote the production of hormones that promote wellbeing. While it is important to exercise regularly, it is also a tool to help us actively rest and recover after a particularly stressful event. Exercise can be used as an opportunity to reflect on the event either as an individual or a group. (Although, it does not need to be done concurrently with exercise.) Reflecting on an event without the pressure of time provides space to make better sense of what occurred and sometimes why something occurred. It is more likely that we will have an epiphany reviewing an event that has concluded versus during a fast-moving stressful situation. These insights discovered during reflection provide significant impact for future performance. Review and reflection make the most out of experiential learning. When we take the time to make sense of an incident, it will enhance our future sense-making capabilities. The next time we encounter a similar situation or challenge, we will likely identify it sooner. The situation produces less novelty and should elicit a lower stress response. When we create a routine of recovery that best matches both our individual and group needs, we will mitigate stress. We can use challenging experiences to level up our performance on the next response. THE MOST IMPORTANT RESPONSE There are a lot of responses on a call — the response to someone’s call for help, the response to smoke activating the smoke detector, the response of the engine when the start button is pushed, or the response of the defibrillator when we “push-to-shock.” All of these responses rely on the most important response: the human response. If we want to optimize the performance and sustainability of the fire service, we must focus our attention on optimizing the health and performance of the human response before, during, and after the call — across the entire continuum of the call. Pursuing these measures is an invaluable service to our people; this will allow them to continue to provide an invaluable service to our communities. Assistant Chief Shaughn Maxwell, Psy.M. EMT-P with 35 years in the fire service, leads EMS, Health and Safety for South County Fire, a large urban fire authority in Washington State. Chief Maxwell has a master’s degree in human (performance) factors psychology and is on a mission to share actionable insights that optimize the human response in high-consequence situations. Chief Maxwell writes and speaks about the art and science of raising performance and resilience and can be contacted at shaughnmaxwell@gmail.com. Individual team members must understand themselves before they can understand others.Next >