It was 9:30 pm on Sunday night. This is the first 24 hours for Lieutenant Eager on Engine 2 in “Oldtown.” The lieutenant thought it was a great day until there was a short discussion behind a closed door with the engine company chauffeur. Had Eager’s transfer to Engine 2 been a mistake?

A promotion opened up Engine 2’s A-Platoon lieutenant spot. Oldtown Engine 2 is the busiest rig in the city. They get more suppression work in six months than Eager had after four years as Engine 11’s boss. “Lost Outpost 11” rarely saw a structure fire.

Eager arrived at Engine 2 during a three day federal holiday weekend.

Engine 2 was staffed with:

• Lieutenant Eager
• Firefighter who is the back-up engine driver
• Firefighter.

Ladder 2 had:

• Lieutenant
• Engine company chauffer as fill-in aerial driver
• Firefighter
• Probationary Firefighter on ladder company orientation.

The truck company chauffer was on annual leave. There was a vacant firefighter position due to a promotion – that was Ladder 2’s back-up driver. That is why the engine chauffeur was driving Ladder 2.

During A-platoon’s four days off, Engine 2 was issued 800′ of fire attack line and two nozzles. The hose was made of a new material that promised to deliver more water volume at a lower engine pressure. The nozzles were part of the package. The attack line package also required a different hose load than the department requires. Engine 2 was directed by the Operations Chief to conduct a 120-day evaluation of the attack line/nozzle set-up.

Eager and the engine crew spent a couple of hours after brunch and before the start of the hometown televised football game practicing with the new hose lines. The ladder company stayed in quarters. The truck lieutenant spent most of the day absorbed in televised sports broadcasts.

We don’t pull hose.

After football, dinner, and evening station clean-up, Eager was in the engine lieutenant’s office when the engine chauffeur came in. The chauffeur had been piloting Engine 2 for a dozen years and wanted to share some pointers about the shift. The office door was closed, “Lieutenant, we don’t pull hose.”

Eager thought the chauffeur was referring to extra training during a holiday Sunday. Nope, the message was that engine company never pulls hose for training. The retired Engine 2 boss said that they learned that skill in recruit school and the company ran enough incidents to keep their proficiency up.

Team Development

Bruce Tuckman Ph.D. published his Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing model of team development in 1965. This concept considers elements of the four-level of skill competence development described in an earlier Company Commander article.

The “we don’t pull hose” came from the Norming stage of team development:

Agreement and consensus largely forms among the team, who respond well to
facilitation by leader. Roles and responsibilities are clear and accepted. Big decisions are made by group agreement. Commitment and unity is strong. The team discusses and develops its processes and working style. There is general respect for the leader who facilitates and enables

In the Performing stage of team development, the team has a shared vision and can stand on their own without active efforts of the team leader. How can Lieutenant Eager change Engine 2-A’s values?

Continuum of Leadership

In 1958 Robert Tannenbaum and Warren Schmidt published a model of leadership as a continuum from “the leader has total freedom to decide” to “the team has total freedom to decide.”

Using the continuum, Lieutenant Eager has three options:

Makes Decision and Tells Firefighters. One-sided classic Theory X approach with carbon-based productivity units. No input from firefighters.

Presents the Situation or Problem, Gets Suggestions and Then Decides. Lieutenant presents the situation or problem, may present some options, asks firefighters to provide ideas and other options. Lieutenant makes the final decision. The three different flavors of the “consult” area of the continuum resemble using the Theory Y approach to colleagues.

The Team Identifies the Problem, Develop the Options and Decide on Action within the Organizational Limits. This is how a Self-Directed Work Team accomplishes tasks. This approach may create heartburn with the lieutenant’s supervisor and/or the Operations Chief.

How would you approach this issue of not pulling hose for drill? 

Respond with your approach. Follow-up next week.

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Tuckman BW (1965), ‘Developmental Sequence in Small Groups’, Psychological Bulletin 63.

Tuckman BW & Jensen MAC (1977), ‘Stages of small group development revisited’, Group and Organization Studies, vol.2, no.4, pp.419-27.

Tannenbaum R & Schmidt, W. (1958) “How to choose a leadership pattern” Harvard Business 
Review 36(2), pp.95-101.

Morse, JJ & Lorsch JW (1970) “Beyond Theory Y.” Harvard Business Review 48(2).

Kauffeld, S. (2010), Self‐directed work groups and team competence. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 79: 1-21.

Featured Image from Westwood Fire Company, Coatsville, Pennsylvania.

Elements. identifiers and sequence of events may be altered in “war stories” to protect the innocent or work better as an example.