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Celebrations at FIRE centennial conference |
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Phil Mason reports from the FIRE Centennial Conference – ‘A Practical Guide to Implementing Successful Leadership Strategies Within the Fire and Rescue Service’ – which took place on June 10 in Westminster, London
FOLLOWING THE OPENING OF THE conference by FIRE Editor Andrew Lynch, CFO of East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service Des Prichard gave the opening address, which served to set out the themes of the day.
He said that the event was intended to highlight strategies to help evolve the leadership role in a fire sector environment that was subject to constant change. “It’s a much more complex environment out there,” he said, speaking not just in terms of the change in emphasis regarding FRS service itself, but also the heightening of public expectation. He said that the Aspire model is the major tool being used by the Fire and Rescue Service to evolve the concept and practice of leadership at all levels. This, he said, was based around notions of “service, dignity respect, integrity and honesty,” referencing the idea of ‘core values’ which would be another major theme of the day. “These should be a golden thread that runs through all that we do,” he said. “All interactions have to be predicated on the same value system. Leaders must behave in a way that is based on core values.” Following his opening address, CFO Prichard introduced Falklands War veteran Simon Weston, who offered his perspective on the leadership role, and the facing of challenges within it. He began by showing a film in order to illustrate his experience in the Falklands, and to help tell the story of the horrific events following the Argentinean attack on the RFA Sir Galahad on which he was serving. “In seconds,” he said, “it was like Hiroshima.” Following this, he gave an account of his efforts to rebuild his life after suffering from 48 per cent burns in the attack. He said that it was not only his body that needed mending, but also his psychological state, stating that the incident had robbed him of every reference point in regard to his own identity. The rebuilding process, he said, was a matter of mental attitude – an attitude that, in time, had helped him regard change not as something to be feared, but something to be embraced and even regarded as an energy to be harnessed. This tied in with the theme of the conference in terms of the importance of core values, albeit of a slightly different kind and at a much more personal level. “The difference between a winner and loser comes down to a matter of attitude. If people don’t believe in you, they won’t follow.”
Following Simon Weston was Chief Executive of leadership consultancy SFL John Fay, who spoke of his company’s ideas regarding how to change culture within an organisation in order to facilitate more effective leadership at all levels. The main model he put forward centred around the notion of ‘the philosopher and the engineer’, referring to two broad stages of organisational change identified by SFL. Before the ‘engineers’ can come in and effect change through the structuring of strategic performance indicators etc, he said, the ‘philosophers’ need to completely re-imagine the culture of an organisation by aligning it with an in-company consensus around core values as well as the direction of the company itself. Mindsets, he said, needed to be changed at a fundamental level, and at all levels, with the involvement of everyone. In order to illustrate this, he gave examples of the work that SFL has done with a range of companies including Littlewoods Shop Direct Group and rugby team, the Sale Sharks. He also said that he was very proud of the work that his company had carried out, working in collaboration with several UK fire and rescue services.
The next two speakers drew from their direct experiences of helping to effect cultural change from within fire and rescue services themselves. The first was London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson, who offered a timeline of progress from the, he said, almost militaristic ‘effective management’ leadership model of the 1990s to the more integrated approach used in the present day. He gave examples of recent work done by London Fire Brigade, including coaching and mentoring schemes, as well as the graduate programme that was instigated in 2006.
CFO of Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service, Paul Fuller, meanwhile, spoke of the efforts in his county to help implement ideas of ‘ethical leadership’. He outlined the strategy implemented in Bedfordshire and Luton, saying that it centred around establishing the ‘legitimacy’ of those occupying leadership roles – a legitimacy agreed upon via the building of consensus at all levels within an organisation. When competencies (or ‘virtues’), he said, match the identified duties owed to the organisation and the community at large, then legitimacy is achieved. Germane to this idea is ‘ethics’, or always doing what is perceived to be correct, again according to pre-determined and agreed notions of correct behaviour and practice. CFO Fuller said: “Thinking properly prevents us from moral error. What you believe in may come true. What you don’t believe in certainly won’t.”
The final speaker before the break for lunch was Sue Hopgood, Director of Leadership and Organisational Development at the Fire Service College. She gave an account of the story of the most recent phase of leadership development, from the equality and fairness thematic review in 1999, to the establishment of the National Leadership Programme and the Executive Leadership Programme.
Afternoon Session
The afternoon session began with a joint presentation by Andy Trowsdale of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, and Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe of Leeds University. Titled ‘Successfully Integrating Transactional and Transformational Leadership Within the Fire and Rescue Service’, the presentation served to consolidate many of the themes already touched on in the conference, with Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe putting forward an academic case for a more integrated leadership model. The idea of ‘heroic’ leadership, she said, had had its day, and could, in some instances, actually be dangerous. The emphasis now, she said, should be on “getting more out of people” while at the same time building motivation rather than damaging it. This entails leadership principles spread throughout the organisation, aligning the vision of the employees with the vision of the company and vice versa. In her words, motivation (and thus performance) on the ground is linked with engagement and humility at leadership level – employees should have involvement in decision-making, freedom to voice ideas, the feeling that they are valued and enabled to develop the job, as well as the feeling that the organisation is concerned with their health and well-being. “The soft stuff is really the hard stuff,” she said. “Leadership is a social process.”
The next speaker was Mike Astbury, Operations Director at consultancy company Alexander. During his presentation – ‘Dealing With Change: Value Centred Leadership’ – he used the real life story of different aspects of the Health Service’s dealings with a girl with a serious illness to demonstrate the effectiveness of employees who are ‘engaged’ compared to those who are not. Talking of the improvement of organisations in this regard, he demonstrated the reactive rather than proactive ways in which some companies deal with the idea of change, even after the necessity of it has been identified. The last speaker of the afternoon was Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda MP, who delivered the keynote presentation of the day. He began by touching on the difference in the approaches to leadership within the Fire and Rescue 20 years ago, compared to now. He said that he wondered what the landscape will look like a further 20 years down the line, and predicted that FRS leaders will need to understand and pre-empt change – to “own” it, in other words.
He said that it was possible to see the beginnings of that change at the present moment, from the social arena, to technological and climate change, to the threat from terrorism. Speaking specifically of the equality and diversity issue, he said that it was imperative that the make up of the Fire and Rescue Service should reflect the society which it serves, as should its leadership. He said that the reality of changing demographics is something that “we need to embrace and be at the cutting edge of.” He said that he understood that change is not always popular – as evidenced by the coverage of FRS equality and diversity work in some of the national press. However, the modernisation continues to be a vital process. “We have the capability and the capacity to embrace these challenges,” he said.
The final event of the conference was a panel session, during which questions regarding the leadership issue collected during the day were discussed by Des Prichard, Sue Hopgood, John Fay, as well as DCFO of Lancashire FRS Paul Richardson and Chair of Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service Anthony Duggan. Questions included the impact of the decision to put the proposed Centre of Excellence on hold, the question of support staff who aspire to be leaders within more inclusive structures, and skill retention and knowledge capture following the inevitable departure of people from the Service. Following the panel, Andrew Lynch closed the day by thanking all of those involved in the event, particularly Chair Des Prichard. He thanked delegates for coming, and thanked them also for their continuing support of FIRE magazine in its centenary year. |
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