52 SPRING • 2011
www.carolinafirejournal.com
Carolina Fire Rescue EMS Journal
THE BIG PICTURE
Strategic vision in your organization By Christopher M. Haley With only a week until the due date for this article, I knew I would have to pick a top-
ic that I was truly passionate about if I was going to be able to produce something in time
to make print. I immediately was drawn to what I feel to be one of the
AT T E N T I O N
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most powerful topics in the fire service, one that holds the ability to salvage a sunken ship organization from the depths, and help them once again thrive and succeed for generations to come; that topic is strategic vision. Picture a professional football game; two teams competing on a field surrounded by crowds in the thousands. Amid this chaos, a coach does his best to make decisions from the sideline, assisting him above the field, are his assistants in the coach’s box.This “support group,” if you will, has placed themselves above the crowds to gain a better view of the field, and formulate the team’s next moves. However, at the same time, back at the practice field, offensive coordinators are already viewing tapes and tendencies of next week’s opponent.This is strategic vision. The coordinators realize they have done all they can to prepare the team this week, and have left the execution of plays and tactics in the hands of their coaches, while they once again turn their efforts toward the future.
Big thinking precedes great achievement An organization without vision of where it wants to be, will have no idea of where it is. It will be forever destined to play this week’s opponent, having never prepared for the game.The team will be forced to fall back on what it has “always done” and attempt to adjust the gameplan in response
to the opponents playcalling. This same principal carries directly over to the fire service. If your organization lacks any focus of what it wants to achieve, it will lack any common objectives and purpose. This will in time, serve to destroy your organization. When people feel they serve no greater purpose in an organization, than “just getting through today” they will never find inspiration, and worse, never find aspiration. People generally want direction, they want to be inspired, in other words they want to feel they are part of a team that is doing greater things than they could have done alone. Members that otherwise may have gone onto become great agents of change and progress, will simply fade off into the sea of “just get through today” believers. Along with their fading aspirations, their morale too will fade.This will continue to perpetuate into a problem crossing generations of members in your organization. When general disproval and low morale, span your department from the most senior to the most junior members, a lack of vision may certainly be a contributing factor.
Defining our values and goals, will define how we reach them When visionary leaders see what’s coming they can best navigate towards goals and around obstacles.Think of a See STRATEGIC VISION page 68
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