The View from my Front Porch

You Must Become a Student of Firefighting

by Dr. Harry Carter - Monday April 9, 2012

My friends, the time has come to share an important principle with you about education in the fire service. Knowledge does not float freely through the air in the world around you. You cannot take a deep breath and inhale a whole bunch of information. You do not gain knowledge via osmosis. Simply holding a book firmly in your hands will serve not purpose in the gathering of new facts, figures, and operational principles. Regardless of how hard you try there is no way for knowledge to suddenly pop up as a part of the gelatinous gray matter of your brain by the simple act of wishing. Experience has taught me that you must consciously work to search for new data. You must then actually do something to make it stick within you brain so that...

Are You Working to Create a Better Organization?

by Dr. Harry Carter - Wednesday April 4, 2012

There are many roads to the land of success. It is my suggestion that you should not overlook the value to be gained by you and your fire department from membership in professional associations. By being active professionally, you can develop a network of personal and professional acquaintances. It may be that someone has already written your policy for you. So search far and wide for information. I know that I have used this very approach on a number of occasions through the years. It is critical for you to read and review the professional literature that you receive. The effective leader is enthusiastic about learning and shares this motivation with their troops. While this might seem like an obvious next stage in your policy drafting...

Leaders Must Help to Shape their Organization

by Dr. Harry Carter - Saturday March 17, 2012

Every one of you reading this commentary belongs to an organization. In some cases each of us belongs to more than one organization. So that we will not diffuse our focus, I want you to concentrate on the one type of organization where we have a common interest: the fire department. Let me suggest that as a member of a fire service organization, you will continually be subjected to the influences created by the three major elements of any organization. These are: Organizational Structure Organizational Process Organizational Behavior I have found during my many years of fire service experience that there is one sure guide for you on your way through the rocks and shoals of your organizational ocean. These are the policies...

Honesty Is the Only Policy

by Dr. Harry Carter - Sunday February 5, 2012

Quite some time ago one of you kind folks out there in reader land took the time to share an important thought with me. After reviewing one of my early leadership commentaries, back in July of 2000, this gentleman took the time to drop me a note. He was most generous in his praise of the research that had been done by the members of Harry's Gang, an ad hoc group of people who responded to my call for fire service leadership thinking. But at the end of his period of praise, he raised a question that I personally found most troubling. Nowhere on the list, he noted, was any mention made of the concept of Honesty. The groupthink had covered a wide variety of topics, but had failed to make any mention of honesty, in and of itself. It is...

Have You Ever Been a Target?

by Dr. Harry Carter - Saturday December 10, 2011

A great deal of my writing over the past decade has come as the editor for the Respondersafety.com website. As the editor, a great deal of what I do involves researching and writing about the highway safety problems which you and I face each and every day. You and I both know that it is tough out there on the highways and byways of our nation. It is my job to share some ways with you that can make your highway safety responses work a little bit safer. Basically, that is how I have operated for most of the dozen years I have served as the editor of this important Internet resource. But wait. I do have a life outside of my writing and consulting world. From time to time, I still respond as a volunteer firefighter with the...