Want to land your dream job?  Make more money?  Get promoted?  Play Ping-Pong!!

I was thinking the other day about ping pong.  You see, after our station in Des Moines was remodeled, we moved our pool table into the day room.  One of the crew built a topper for it so we could play ping pong.  Playing ping pong was an activity that I enjoyed as a youngster in my parent’s basement, when it was clean enough to find the table, so when we got a table at the station I didn’t hesitate for a moment to hop in and play.  And it didn’t take but only a moment for me to get schooled.  Not only in the art of ping pong, but also in the art of taking a ration of crap from my cohorts.  

There was a wide range of ping pong skill and ability on our shift.  There was me at one end of the scale, and Scott, Doug or Jed at the other end.  Keep in mind we usually had a crew of 4.  The games got fierce; volleys being exchanged both on the table and verbally.  

One day, through a series of unusual events and all of the planets aligning, I won a game.  Then another.  And yet another.  I would never say that I became a “force” at the table but I got to the point I could hold my own on a regular basis.  I believe it was during one of these victory celebrations that I realized Jed was “good at everything but losing.”  Or that might have been during a game of bump; a basketball shooting knock-out game.  

Why do you think I got better at ping pong?  Was it lessons?  Hours of YouTube viewing?  Mental imagery practice?  E....None of the Above.  I got better at ping pong because I played with people that were better than I.  Simple as that.  The truth was that everyone was better at ping pong than I....at the start.  

Maybe you want to get better at your job, a sport or hobby.  Perhaps you just want to experience personal growth, go for promotion or change jobs altogether.  I would suggest you surround yourself with people that are better than you in the discipline in which you wish to improve.  Keep in mind that when you play with people that are better than you, you end up losing.  A lot.  But taking this course of action will help you grow and the losses will help you remain humble.  

As you grow, when you get to the point where you feel like you are the best in your discipline, you have to do a couple things.  First, check yourself and honestly evaluate your abilities and if you still feel like you just killing it, the next thing you have to do is make yourself uncomfortable by stepping into a spot where you are again surrounded by people that are better than you.  And if you think you are the best in your special space just because you have finished in front of, or have been promoted ahead of, your peers, please humble yourself as there is always something more to learn even in the most unsuspecting places.  A wise man once shared a quote with me that went something like this; “One remains young as long as one continues to learn.”-Janet Erskine Stuart (Thanks Jeff B. ❤️)

 

The Bangor Ladder.  The largest ground ladder used in the fire service.  They range in length from 45 to 55 feet.  Because of their length and weight they have poles attached, tormentor poles, to enable the firefighting team to get the ladder from horizontal to vertical while maintaining control.  These large ladders are deployed using a team of 4-6 firefighters working in unison to succeed.  In my first organization we had a 45 foot Bangor ladder, weighing in at over 200 pounds, which was a real challenge to our minimal crew of 4....on a good day.  

Deploying this beast required training, practice, skill and most of all, unity.  Deploying this ladder required that the entire crew be crystal clear on the actions required by each team member, a member to call the commands to guide the evolution and every member to effectively carry out their assignment when called upon.  In short, all members had to work together, functioning as one.  Should one member fail to perform their duty, deviate from the plan or decide to act for themselves, the objective of getting this ladder up was sure to fail.  

What does the Bangor ladder have to do with anything?  In my last post, I spoke of the renewed sense of hope that I felt as I listened to the words spoken at the inauguration.  I also mentioned that another word that was used during the hearings on January 6th and at the inauguration was unity.  Unity.  Bring forth the Bangor ladder.  Not many things in the fire service require the skilled coordination of a group of people for a single task.  Lack of unity amongst the team spells failure, catastrophic failure, more assuredly than most other tasks on the fire ground.

Since January 20th, I have spent a lot of time thinking about unity, because it was a frequently used word.  I’ve been thinking what it means to the fire service, what it means to me, those around me and even our country.    

As a station Captain, as a Battalion Chief and again as the Operations Chief, I tried to create unity amongst those whom I worked with and supervised.  Additionally, I tried to get those that I supervised to also work to create unity amongst the member of their team and between the shifts.  I tried to create an atmosphere where no shift was put down, where all people and their different perspectives were accepted and appreciated.  What were the steps that I used to attempt to create unity?  Here are a few:

• Stay focused on the mission/objective: This helps to take your emotions, feelings, opinion out of the conversation.  
• Share the vision:  Ideally, the whole team creates the vision.  If not, make sure to share it so everyone knows what the vision is and WHY it is good for them. 
• Share the values:  Share your values so others understand your perspective and have them share their so you are aware.  Part of empathy.
• Listen to others:  Listen to understand, not to respond.  Part of empathy.
• Value others:  Valuing others helps you grow, helps them grow and they will appreciate having input.
• Give away authority:  Allow others to make decision whenever possible.  Let them make mistakes and coach them to the right spot if they miss the mark.  Allow them to create the path.  You might learn something from it. 
• Recognize:  Constantly recognize the team’s input/impact.  Praise them as much as possible, face to face and in public, without being phony.  
• Appreciate:  Truly appreciate what others are doing and the impact it has on the success of the group.  
• Compromise:  Subvert some of your personal agenda that doesn’t directly support the overall organizational mission/objective.
• Be the first:  Take the first step, extend an olive branch, show the way. 

 

What do you do to create unity?