Four Levels of Firefighter Skill Competence: a Fire Officer’s guide

Many fire officers have started the annual evaluation of team members to meet a human resource or fire administration requirement. It is a challenge to differentiate between scary and strong skills. I found a 4-level assessment that may be helpful. Noel Burch developed a practical description of how people learn a new skill while working for Gordon Training International. It was partially based on Curtiss and Warren’s book The Dynamics of Life Skills Coaching.  

UNSKILLED

We do not know what we don’t know, we are Unconcious Incompetence. These are firefighters who fail an evolution or skill performance because:

• Exceeded time limit
• Missed a critical step in the procedure
• Created a safety hazard
• Unable to perform the task

The firefighter is incompetent in this evolution or skill performance. They require remedial practice/training and a mandatory re-evaluation.

MINIMALLY SKILLED

We know what we don’t know. Learning starts at this level when there is a sudden awareness of how poorly the evolution or skill is performed, we are Conscious Incompetence. These are firefighters that completed the evolution or skill performance on a first attempt and meet the minimum requirements from recruit training.

• Improved performance with additional practice.
• Delivery of evolution or skill performance may require supervision in the field to assure adequate performance.
• Firefighter takes all appropriate safety precautions.

The firefighter is capable to perform the task on the training ground but needs oversight to assure an adequate and complete delivery of the evolution or skill set on the fireground.

SKILLED

We know how to perform the evolution or skill performance the correct and complete way, we are Conscious Competent.

• The evolution or skill performance is completed well within the time requirements
• The evolution or skill can be performed on the fireground WITHOUT supervision.
• Firefighter makes no serious or critical errots.
• Firefighter observes and performs all appropriate safety practices.

This is an experienced firefighter who has performed enough repetitions and sets of the evolution to be a competent fireground warrior.

HIGHLY SKILLED

Very experienced with this evolution or skill performance to the point that the activity appears natural and easy, we are Unconscious Competent.  These are the senior firefighters who are the pillar of that fire company who are admired and closely observed.

• Evolutions or skill sets are error-free, and the firefighter can easily adopt to any problem or barrier to completing the task.
• Evolutions or skill sets are accomplished in the least amount of time.
• The firefighter could supervise others doing the same evolution or skill performance and identify errors or suggest improvements.
• The firefighter knows the role and importance of this task in relation to other fireground operations.

This is the performance results from a competent and confident firefighter.

SETS and REPS

To go from minimally skilled to highly skilled will require us to take a page from physical training:

A Rep (repetition) is one complete motion of an exercise. A Set is a group of consecutive repetitions. For example, you can say, “I did two sets of ten reps on the chest press.” This means that you did ten consecutive chest presses, rested, and then did another ten chest presses.

The same concept is used in developing fireground task performance. Perform a complete evolution, such as laddering the C-side of an apartment building. Repeat that process until the muscle memory and sequence of tasks become embedded in your nervous system. That means you require less direct thought to that task and can now be more aware of what is happening around you.

It will take time and a lot of practice. Malcolm Gladwell referred to an Ericsson-Roring-Nandagopal report implying greatness requires enormous deliberate practice time in his 2009 book Outliers: The Story of Success:

• Hamburg 1960-64, Beatles gave 1,200 performances
• Gates’ gained access to a high school computer in 1968 at the age of 13 – spent 10,000 hours programming it.

USING THIS EVALUATION FOR THE 2019-2020 EVALUATIONS

Fire officers cannot unilaterally impose a new standard or process while completing a team members annual evaluation. Consider starting your skill assessment using these four levels for the evaluation period that starts for some officers on July 1, 2019, and ends June 30, 2020.

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Curtiss, PR and Warren PW (1973) The Dynamics of Life Skills Coaching: Life Skills Series. Prince Albert, Saskatchewan: Training and Development Station, Department of Manpower and Immigration.

Adams, L. (no date) “Learning a New Skill is Easier Said Than Done“ Gordon Training International. Accessed February 16, 2019, from http://www.gordontraining.com/free-workplace-articles/learning-a-new-skill-is-easier-said-than-done/ 

Ericsson KA, Roring, RW and Nandagopal K. (2007 June) “Giftedness and evidence for reproducibly superior performance: an account based on the expert performance framework.” High Ability Studies. Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 3–56.