Inviting Change to Your Life

     The two things Firemen , I mean Firefighters, hate are CHANGE and the Way Things Are... 

    There has never been a more accurate statement regarding fire house culture. At my house we have had a "green" fleet" for well over 48 years. Though we have opportunities to the change the paint scheme of every new piece that has been added to the fleet since I was hired 22 years ago, it was not until this year when we added a new Type 1 engine did we final change the color.. It was no longer white over green, but a stunning metallic flake grey over what is best described as American La France red. 

    We were much like Kermit the Frog as it was not always "easy being green", but it was even harder to accept that fact it became too easy not to change colors. In the past we had the Fire Chief publish a survey to determine the color of a engine as it was being designed. Despite the over-whelming majority voting for a red based paint scheme, he made the choice to stay status quo.

    In my experience people fear change for several reasons; they are not competent enough to learn something new; they are too comfortable/ lazy to put an effort into change; change my expose their flaws; or the want to create turmoil or attempt to influence the situation or to undermine the new ideas and the people who are the advocates for change.

    The watch words of those who oppose change is "We have always Done It That Way". It is when that statement is used that I begin to worry. If a culture is defined by the way they did things 5, 10 or even 20 years ago, they are either lucky or know how to "hide the bodies". When I stated working as an EMT there was not a routine use of gloves on medical emergencies. It took the AIDS epidemic to scare change into the EMS personnel. 

     The fire service: a 150 years of tradition, unimpeded by progress". We never used use SCBA, we rode tail board, we never washed our gear, and most died an honorable fireman's death, leaving in our wake a tradition of unwillingness to change. It took time but change did happen. Even the FDNY now uses "Masks" and they adopted "bunker gear" leaving the tradition of the long coat and roll-up boots for modern PPE. 

    The fire service now uses PPE that has been proven to cause cancer. The need for change in upon us again, and I can bet that somewhere in some fire house, some is saying why do we have to change, we have always been" at risk of of getten' killed or sick on the job".

    Change when managed, it can be good. As humans in general and firefighters specifically need to continue to adapt and overcome to survive our environment. When you stop learning or believe you  already know all that you need to know, you become a danger not only to yourself, but you fellow firefighters. The fear of change is normal, and it is that fear that helps keep us focused on doing the job correctly, hopefully improving our ability to be flexible and responsive to the challenges that we face being a firefighter in our modern world.