Running Head: COMMUNICATION 1

Communication
Steven M. Rhea
Siena Heights University
04/12/2017

Communication
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Introduction

Communication is arguably the most important skill for a leader to have. Success of

programs and the organization itself depend greatly on communication. Communication within

the fire service is further complicated and of increased importance in emergency situations. Lack

of clear and concise communication skills could have life threatening effects. This paper will

focus on the communication styles within the Garden City Fire Department (GCFD).

Background

The GCFD is a one station fire department that protects the City of Garden City in

southeast Michigan. The city of Garden City is six square miles with a population base of 27,000

people. With 21 career firefighters, the GCFD runs approximately 3,100 calls for request for

service annually. The GCFD Firefighters are cross trained as paramedics with 84% of calls for

service being emergency medical requests. The shifts are 24 hour shifts with an average of ten

working days per month.

Definitions

Communication. According to skillsyouneed.com (2017), communication is simply the

act of transferring information from one place to another. Communication can take place

through verbal and nonverbal means, each with strengths and weaknesses.
Conceptual Blocks. Something that interferes with creative problems solving (Whetten &

Cameron, 2011)
Creative Problem Solving. Looking at a problem from multiple perspectives to come up

with different solution options (Whetten & Cameron, 2011)

Fire Service. An organization which is responsible for firefighting and fire prevention

within a community (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). This definition includes all job

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responsibilities of todays firefighters, including emergency medical services and fire

inspection activities.

Outline

Utilizing qualitative data, research of scholarly reports and personal experience from

within the GCFD, this paper will focus on communication, fostering creativity and problems we

could face in implementation of these best practices. This paper will focus on the following

topics:

The four major conceptual blocks according to Whetten and Cameron (2011), applied to

personal experience within the Garden City Fire Department.

What is the root cause of these conceptual blocks?

Promotion of communication-based creativity within the organization.

Examples of the types of communication and their effectiveness.

Providing a suggested action plan, offering solutions to communication problems.

Conceptual Blocks

The four Cs

Overview. Our lives are filled with problems and our leaders need to be able to handle

them. The beauty of encouraging creative problem solving is that the leader can share the

workload and not have to have the answers to every problem himself. The problem, too often, is

that there are stumbling blocks that prevent the free flow of creative ideas. These are referred to
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as conceptual blocks (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). The four conceptual blocks from our reading

are consistency, commitment, compression and complacency. Each of the conceptual blocks are

barriers that leaders must recognize and avoid to increase positive outcomes.

Consistency. Consistency conceptual blocks are caused by utilizing the same solutions

for every problem without thought to other possibilities (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). A hammer

is an excellent tool to use with nails, but not so great if you have screws. Not looking for or being

aware of alternatives could lead to increased workload or difficulty in correcting the problem.

Japanese auto-makers have developed the theory of Kaizen to spark the creativity of their

employees and include them in the problem solving process (Surez-Barraza, Ramis-Pujol, &

Kerbache, 2011). Kaizen puts the power to make creative solutions on the line employees who

do the job. The justification of this is that those employees know their job the best, so who better

to

At the Garden City Fire Department, like many departments, we get hung up on traditions

and the traditional way we do things. We do it this way because we have always done it this way.

Many of us were trained to this way of thinking to be included in the group.

Commitment. Two terms that came up in the reading were stereotypes and

commonalities (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). These terms focus on how we look at our issues

compared to problems we have faced in the past.

Stereotyping refers to how we look at new problems through the same view we have

solved problems in the past. By refusing to look for a different way to address new problems, the

leaders may miss out on opportunities to utilize new and more efficient tools for problem solving

(Whetten & Cameron, 2011).

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Commonalities are the opposite of stereotyping. Leaders should look for commonalities

compared to past issues and see if they can be addressed in a similar fashion. While more

creative alternatives may be available, maybe utilizing tools you are already familiar with will be

the best was to apply corrective actions.

Looking for commonalities in your problems might also show you underlying problems

that may not be immediately apparent in addressing concerns. For example, if your problem data

all comes from the same source, finding that commonality may allow you to go back to the

source to address the concern at the cause rather than waiting for the problem to come up again

and again.

Compression. Compression deals with the amount of data that we include in our decision

making process. Too much information could let unnecessary variables effect the decision. Too

much data will also cause to broad of a scope and is not likely to accurately or efficiently solve

the problem. Just as inefficient is taking too narrow of a view and not getting enough data to

understand the scope of the problem.

If you utilized mapping software like Google Earth to make a map of directions across

your city, the view of the entire state would likely too much information and not give you

necessary detail. Likewise if you zoomed into a single subdivision, not enough data would be

available to solve the problem of mapping across the entire city. Finding the right amount of data

to answer your problem will provide the most efficiency for you.

Complacency. Sometime blocks are caused only by ignorance, not knowing or caring

that there may be other and better solutions to a problem (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). Apathy of

a creative solution could have detrimental effects on the morale within the organization if
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employee do not feel the leader cares to do their best. How can you hope to motive others to do

their best if you do not?

Ignorance is better than apathy because you can more easily point out and correct the

ignorance with a training than make someone value something. While many of these concepts

are not new, I believe a formal education program on these topics would be a huge benefit to

leaders in most industries.

Root Causes. At the fire station I believe the main cause of our conceptual blocks is

ignorance to all of the tools and potential blocks that we face on a daily basis. While

communication is championed as one of the most important skills for a supervisor to have, little

education on the topic is presented to the fire officers in traditional fire service classes. As a

community we need to take steps to address this concern. We often do not compare ourselves to

other careers, but much may be gained by better understanding communication style of other to

better improve our own.

Another suspected root cause of our communication cause is our pride and arrogance.

Too long our leaders have expected compliance simply because you were told to do something

(Kastros, 2013). While emergency operations often require obedience with little discretionary

time for communication, most everyday exchanges can be improved by strong communication

skills. I have had the opportunity to work with officers on both ends of the communication

spectrum. Strong communicators make their subordinates feel important and a contributor to the

over-all success of the department. The poor communicators cause poor morale and decreased

shift efficiency with their lack of apparent compassion.

Communication-based creative problem solving.

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Problem solving problems. One of the main problems with creative problem solving is

the natural reaction to solve the problem immediately, when in all honesty there is usually time

to evaluate options and decide on the best course of action (Hicks, n.d.). Good communication

skill are paramount as one of the most important steps of creative problem solving is active

listening. The best solutions have a positive effect on the most people. Any how do you know

what each person needs? You listen to how they feel. When you know what your employees are

feeling and make decisions accordingly, when possible, you have a workforce that know you

care for them. With improved inclusion you will receive better morale, more efficacy, and all

around buy-in in the organization.

Types of Communication

Verbal communications. Verbal communication is the relaying of messages from one

person to the next. While the name implies oral communications, most researchers consider

verbal to include both oral and written communication.

The advantages to verbal communication are that they are a rapid sending of a message

and the feedback, especially in face-to-face communications, is also rapid. In oral

communications, adjustments in the statement can be made depending on the feelings of the

receiver (Wisestep, n.d.).

The disadvantages to verbal communication, in my experience, are the relatively longer

wait for a response and the fact the tone of voice and emotions are missing from written

communication, forcing the receiver to guess at the tone of the message. If the tone is

misunderstood, the message might end up being lost due to the misunderstanding.
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Non-verbal communications. Non-verbal communication is the message we are sending

out by body language and facial expressions. Many scientific studies have been done on this

topic with the results being that a majority of our communication is done through non-verbal

means.

This disadvantage hits home for me as my son has Autism. His form of Autism make

subtle communication like body language confusing and hard to understand. Very much a literal

thinker and speaker, he is slow to pick up on non-verbal clues like body language.

Suggested communication action plan

Training. You do not know what you do not know until someone who knows tells you

that you do not know. The first step in the action plan would be training the leaders in

communication. Any number of incident can be used to point out problems with communication.

The focus of this training should be awareness of how little we may know about communication

and improvement we may need to make.

Practice. Communication is a skill and like any skill it requires practice. Skills like active

listening, clear communication and two way communication are all skills that the leader should

be using with each communication.

Live communication. Communication is used in every aspect of our lives. From the

workplace to home, we communicate all the time. What is your communication really saying?

Understanding those around you and how they think, feel and act all play curtail roles in

communication. These fundamental step could mean the difference between success at work and

at home, or utter failure.

Conclusion
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While communication is something that we are doing every minute of the day, truly

understanding it is something most do not have. Knowing what stumbling blocks exist to

problem solving and how communication fits into solving those problems are important.

Using verbal and non-verbal communication effectively is the sign of a good leader.

These leaders need to understand and model good communication skills for the betterment of

their workers and the organization as a whole.

Formal training and practice need to be done to help the leader make communication

skills and creative problem solving another set of tools in their leadership toolbox.

References

Hicks, T. (n.d.). Seven Steps for Effective Problem Solving in the Workplace.

Retrieved from Mediate: http://www.mediate.com/articles/thicks.cfm

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Kastros, A. (2013, April 1). How to inspire and motivate firefighters. Retrieved from

Fire Engineering: http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/print/volume-

166/issue-4/features/how-to-inspire-and-motivate-firefighters-.html

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Fire Service. Retrieved from merriam-webster.com:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fire%20service

Skills You Need. (2017). Communication. Retrieved from skillsyouneed.com:

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.html

Surez-Barraza, M., Ramis-Pujol, J., & Kerbache, L. (2011). Thoughts on kaizen and

its evolution. International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, 2(4), 288-308.

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing management skills. Upper

Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall/Pearson.

Wisestep. (n.d.). Advantages and disadvantages of verbal communication. Retrieved

from wisestep.com: http://content.wisestep.com/top-advantages-

disadvantages-verbal-communications/