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| "The Stampede" by Frederic Remington |
General Petraeus used this painting as a metaphor for what his army officers were doing, he explains:
“I use this image to tell you that I am comfortable with semi-chaotic situations. The picture depicts an outrider galloping at full tilt over rough terrain at the height of a violent storm while steering a willful mount and guiding a sometimes frightened and unthinking herd of cattle to its destination. It represents getting the job done despite the challenges. The terrain is rocky, the wind is in their faces and it is raining sideways. Some of these cattle will get out ahead of us - that’s fine, we will catch up. Some cattle will fall behind and we will have to circle back and get them - that’s fine, we will bring them on. We must be comfortable with this environment of uncertainty, challenge, risk, danger and competing agendas. We need to accept it. But we need to do more than simply hang on to the saddle. We must master our mount and we must flourish in the apparent chaos. I am comfortable with this.”
Petraeus shares this painting and metaphor of herding cattle, for his leaders. In the fire service, and on a fire scene, it may sometimes feel like something more akin to herding cats. However, Petraeus was successful in his military leadership by following his four strategic leadership tasks. This four task strategy can be implemented by our fire officers for the same success.
- Get the big ideas right.
- Communicate them effectively.
- Aggressively oversee their uniform implementation.
- Create a feedback loop to measure progress and refine the big ideas.
Get the big ideas right. What is our departments vision and mission? What are our priorities? What are the things that must get done? This needs to be clear for the long-term strategic goal, and for the short term incident. Do not get caught up in all the minutia, focus on getting the big ideas right.
Communicate them effectively. It seems that every after-action report list “communication” as a top problem. Why is this? Using a variety of methods and media, we must make sure that everyone is on the same page and working toward the common goal by communicating the big ideas.
Aggressively oversee their uniform implementation. Implement and execute. An idea is nothing without implementation.
Create a feedback loop to measure progress and refine the big ideas. When you start to aggressively implement your big ideas, you will see that they need to be “tweaked”. As a department changes, or an incident evolves, our previous “big ideas” may not be applicable. We must ensure that we are out getting feedback and measuring the forward progress of the organization, and adjusting and refining the big ideas. From this point the loop can re-start, communication, implement, measure and refine.
As firefighters, inspectors, engineers, and company officers we may feel that we do not have much say in these big ideas. But it is our responsibility to know and understand the strategic leadership of our departments and provide the support in these four strategic tasks. A superior of General David Petraeus said, “David did not try to wear my stars while here, but rather helped me wear them more effectively….” For those of us leading from the middle of the stampede, this should be our aim.
