Strategic Plan for the Fire Service

Vision is a means that reveals the desired future. It helps to discover the future state of an organization or a person. Actually, vision shows where the organization/person should and can go. Creating a vision is a complex process that involves huge risks and potential failures, but simultaneously, it can lead to the ideal future.

Proactive futuring refers to the process of designing future and following the plan in order to get closer to the ideal model. Firstly, proactive futuring includes the development of strategic plan, the vision of a perfect future. Secondly, this process means taking action today without any delay to change the organization in a proper way and commit toward the achievement of a worthwhile state.

Intuition is a capacity to make excellent decisions with deficient information. Intuition brings a person wonderful tools and schemes to boost thinking processes and develop successful ideas for the organization. Intuition is a natural phenomenon, when a person knows something without any logical proofs or evidences. In a strategic planning intuition helps to design different ideas, and then using a company’s strategic plan decides whether these ideas are useful and can improve its vision for the future.

Linear complexity is a person’s normal thinking process. One step leads to the next one and then again to the next one and so step by step. Thoughts move along a familiar line. However, the strategy process has a dynamic model. The dynamics of strategy concerns its content – ideas, options, procedures, and decisions adopted in an attempt to advance activity, and the outcome that happens from these decision-making actions. Hence, strategy-making comprises a compound pattern of reaction and activities. To move closer to the ideal future, it is vital to refine vision and focus it on the dynamic process.

Beginner is a person in an organization who knows less than others and recognizes his/her lack of competency. In order to become proficient, a beginner must follow special instructions and rules, step by step, under the control of a teacher or mentor. Periodic repeating of actions is an essential part in adapting to changes in job performance.

Minimally competent person has a capacity to perform effective actions. However, he/she still needs a supervisor. Those people who achieved minimally competent level cannot distinguish breakdowns or relapses in the process. For that reason, there are teachers to point them out on the mistakes. To achieve the next level of competency, an important issue is a system of rewards for excellent performance.

The competent person is the one, who has almost adapted to changes. He/she does not determine changes as something separate and strange. The changed process becomes part of his/her everyday activities. Changes seem natural. Moreover, the competent person can usually foresee difficulties or collapses and struggle with them effectively.

Virtuoso is a top performer of the organization. The main qualities of virtuoso are creativity, innovative thoughts and originality. It is a person, who thinks outside the box and can inspire others to attain more. Virtuoso is usually a teacher for a beginner or minimally competent employees.

Masters are the top individuals in their sphere of expertise. Master is a person who performs functions of the old professor in the organization. It is the one who knows everything in his/her specialty. A few people achieve this competence level as it needs much effort. However, masters and virtuosos make the organization move toward the ideal and perspective future. The top performers are those who change history and become legends.

Blind is a person of habit. These people do not know about any changes and even do not want to know about them. Such individuals cannot catch the idea of a new paradigm or organization conception. Their performance is minor and insignificant, so there is no point in convincing them about the need and importance of changes.

Intentionally blind person is the worst part of the organizational structure. It is a person who knows about changes, who admits their meaning for almost all the personnel. However, because of some personal principles and views, such a person rejects changes and any attempt to perform according to a new paradigm. Moreover, the intentionally blind person purposely causes different collapses in order to damage the new practice. The key point is not to ignore intentionally blind people, and conversely supervise them.

Question 1.

What do Roald Amudson, Victor Frankl, and Neil Armstrong have in common? Explain.

The common thing for all these people is a strong faith in their visions. Roald Amundson had an idea to become the first person on the South Pole. Victor Frankl believed in enduring a concentration camp. Neil Armstrong had a vision of the first man on the moon. All these ideas were insane at that time. No one believed in that. However, despite the fact of total insolence, these people continued to believe and follow their visions. They opened their minds to think outside the box, to break the existing stereotypes and reach the desired goals. Despite the huge risks and failures, they succeeded.

Question 2.

Describe your person vision of your ideal future in no more than 50 words.

For me, ideal future is a life in a society without any threats to people. Science progress can achieve the level, when there will be self-defending houses. Thus, minimizing or eliminating the risks of fire, flood or fault can become a reality. That is a best way to save people.

Question 3.

What does it mean to think and act strategically?

To achieve an ideal state, a person must think and act strategically. Firstly, this means to change the way of thinking. Instead of a linear path of thoughts, strategic planning is based on the dynamic complexities. Strategy has a complex content that requires parallel consideration at every stage toward the achievement of the vision. Hence, strategic process anticipates clear definition of the organization core values and establishment of vision for an ideal future.

Question 4.

Why is change so important to planning?

The key point of strategic planning is a strong understanding that commitment to the vision cannot occur without changes. Changes are difficult. There will always be opponents and allies of changes. However, to keep the organization moving to the vision changes are essential. There is no point in staying at the same position and waiting for the perfect future. Only movement and changes can bring the organization to the desired circumstances. Thus, when a person provides strategic planning, he/she should keep in mind the necessity of changes.

Question 5.

List and briefly explain the framework for continuous renewal.

The framework for continuous renewal is a set of rules that provides achieving incessant improvement for the organization. The list of these steps is as follows:

• Constantly pay attention to small successes that have been already achieved. This gives a strength and faith in organization direction.
• Analyze what actions lead to these successes in order to distinguish the productive decisions.
• Permanently concentrate on the vision and key strategic issues of the organization. This helps to update organization performance to the strategic plan.
• Continually provide shareholders with information about advantages of the strategies. Shareholders should admit the strategy and stimulate its fulfillment.
• Regularly check if there is something else what can be done to move organization closer to the ideal future. All plans should be revised under different circumstances.
• Celebrate success, reward yourself and staff. Everyone should feel that changes bring improvements. After all returns to the first position.

Question 6.

Describe the first step of situational analysis.

Situational analysis is an important method to assess the need for a change in the organization. This process begins from one simple question, “Why a change is important?” Any changes are either challenges or options, as they can advance a present situation or can foresee a future need. The first step of situational analysis means the recognition of existing concerns. Planning team should receive answers on the issues about threats and opportunities of the department future success, areas that need improvements, fulfillment of the existing plans and important decisions that have not been made. This list may vary according to the specific situations.