Treating Toxic Teammates (2 of 5)

The number 2 issue on the poll was:

2.CHANGE a Technique or Task:That’s NOT how I learned it and we DONT do that way here (your New way ... the modern way Your showing us)…!
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Most Dangerous Phrase: We’ve Always Done It That Way.

The real issue here is a person is being required to change instead of wanting to change.
Our job is to be competent in our skills.
When change comes about, guess what?
We don’t see ourselves as being competent in something we have never done before.
This is the underlying emotional response to resisting change.

to be competent in a skill, it must be repeated over and over again. we are normally not that good in the beginning and only after a lot of repetitions do we begin to feel confident and competent.

this is always why you tend to see senior members be the last ones to go during training. They don’t want to look incompetent so they watch others go first.

Imagine the possibility if I told you that they are resisting the change due to how it was presented to them…

I’ll share a story with you to help understand.

A couple years ago, we had a handful of members attend the Nozzle Forward program. If you haven’t attended it, you are missing out on some great skill when it comes to hoseline management.

So the class was given over 2 days. Each day consisted of about 10 hours of work. We are talking grips, communication, advancing, and stream application.

A few days after the training, one of the guys who attended it went to our Deputy Chiefs officer to try to implement the learned skill department wide.

He explained to the chief that we have been doing it all wrong, and this way he just learned is better.

What do you think the Deputy Chief heard?

He heard a Firefigher who had about 10 years on the job, tell a Deputy Chief who had over 20 years on the job, that he had been doing it all wrong his whole career and now theres a better way that a guy with half the time on thinks is best.

Did the deputy chief attend the 20 hours of training it took to have the “aha” moment?
No.
The firefighter did.

The “aha” moment is when that light bulb goes off and you understand what is being taught fully. This normally takes a lot of sets and reps if its a hands on skill or a subject being explained multiple different ways to finally grasp it.

The firefighter got the “aha” moment after training on the material for 20 hours with subject matter experts.

The Deputy Chief was given a 5 minute recommendation by a guy who took the training once.

Are you starting to see why the change wasn’t accepted?

If you want to change to happen. It must be presented well and know that it will take time. All those involved have to have the “aha” moment in order for them to WANT to do it.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…..make sure you try differently each time.

Doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results is called insanity not progress.