It’s Not the Job, It’s Your People

This is a good thing. Probably the best thing you’re going to hear all day.

Why?

Because people can change. The job cannot.

Emergencies are predictively chaotic. That will always be true.

Therefore, the job of firefighting is not particularly complex. Once crews learn SOPs and adjust to the chain of command, there’s little room for innovation. They show up on scene to repeat similar behaviors hundreds, if not thousands, of times.

This is intentional. Having SOPs in place counteracts the natural volatility of first response. It allows all types of emergencies to be addressed effectively. Whether a first responder gets called to a vehicle fire or a 52-story burning skyscraper, the process is relatively similar. Wet stuff on the red stuff. That will always be true.

The firefighter is the one who introduces variability in this system. Whether an individual firefighter gets PTSD from either of those calls depends on their cognitive makeup. Ever notice how the entire crew reacts differently to each situation?

That’s because Individuals assign meaning. They give context. Events themselves are inherently neutral.

Each call is just sensory data, and that data doesn’t carry meaning – it carries information that we personally interpret. We run the data through the filter of our thoughts, memories, and beliefs where it may get jammed in the system to precipitate stress.

Let’s say firefighter Bob’s sister died in a vehicle fire when he was a child. Something about the paint job on the car he extinguished the other day triggered his memory. Now he can’t get the image of his sister’s accident out of his head. Meanwhile, Lt. Sally keeps having nightmares about that skyscraper because Sept 11th impacted her profoundly.

Both Bob and Sally find each other’s offending call rather forgettable because it didn’t mean anything to them. Just another day on the job. Another vehicle fire. Another structure fire. Yawn.

And this is why it’s not the job or the call. It’s the person experiencing it.

How individuals assign meaning to something is how it will impact them. That is the goal of self-command training – to gain situational awareness in the mind. We all have a choice over what things mean to us. The choice exists and that will always be true.

Exercising that choice allows firefighters to assign or withdraw meaning from events, people, and circumstances with a sense of inner authority rather than blind reactivity.

Remind them of that choice.