BY TIM HYDEN
A scene from the 1939 movie classicThe Wizard of Ozhas Dorothy making her way along the Yellow Brick Road when she comes to a crossroad. Being unsure of which direction to take, she is offered assistance from the Scarecrow, who, of course, provides little in the way of useful information. Fortunately, they choose the correct path and make it to their destination. The journey, however, is filled with twists, turns, and a few characters intent on impeding their progress. When compared with today’s fire service, this scene seems almost reminiscent of the types of decision-making challenges we encounter in our day-to-day operations. The big difference is that we are obviously dealing with the real thing, not fantasy.
The journey for some emergency services organizations is as unclear as Dorothy’s, leading to uncertainty and confusion when attempting to make informed decisions regarding organizational direction and need. When it comes to the decision-making process, there often seems to be a fear of setting the organization in a chosen direction and then finding that the incorrect course had been chosen. Even though these occurrences may not be totally preventable, they can have detrimental effects on the confidence levels of subordinates. It may take substantial time for an administration to repair the resultant damage to its perceived ability to lead the organization.
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