No Time for Playing Cards : Higher Reliability Organizing for the Fire Service

Turning your department into a higher reliability organization starts with building a learning culture and teaching firefighters to ask “why”? In this book readers will learn how to: measure for and demonstrate leadership; focus solutions on human performance; build resilient departments; and reduce firefighter injuries and LODDs

Why do we continue to see similar firefighter injuries and line-of-duty deaths (LODDs) repeated each year? We often respond with technical solutions, such as more SOGs, safety lists, and studying more strategies and tactics. But are there greater depths of technical knowledge in our profession that can make firefighting significantly safer? Does it also help to look at the human side of our profession? Other high-risk, high-consequence industries have reduced injuries and LODDs by 60%–80% just by focusing on human factors and performance. Turning your department into a higher reliability organization starts with building a learning culture and teaching firefighters to ask “why?”

Authors Dane Carley and Craig Nelson have a passion for helping people and departments in the fire and emergency services become successful. The techniques, methods, and processes in this book are based their own research and data as well as studies from many other professions and industries interested in being the best.

Readers will learn how to:

• Measure for and demonstrate leadership
• Focus solutions on human performance
• Build resilient departments
• Most importantly, reduce firefighter injuries and LODDs