Dave Donohue's Blog – September 2024 Archive (3)

In the fire service, our leadership is drawn from the rank and file.  Firefighters train and become drivers, then company officers.  Later they may move to managing officer, managing organization divisions, then chief level officers, and, perhaps, chief of department.  This development model has served us well in the past; however, it has several weaknesses, which disadvantage the fire service.  This blog is putting forth a new model for professional development which develops future…

The ABCD’s of Writing Learning Objectives

All training begins with the end in mind.  In the fire and emergency service, training frequently revolves around the performance of tasks and even our knowledge-type training frequently manifests in performance metrics.  To define the end state of training, trainers and content developers assemble learning objectives.  Terminal Learning…

Traditionally, hazardous materials teams are focused on emergency response and training. While these are critical functions, are teams missing the boat by not expanding into other service areas where their expertise can be of benefit to the organization? I believe by performing additional, values-added services, hazardous materials teams may improve the level of support from their organizations, develop additional funding sources, increase staffing, improve responder health and safety, and…