Many fire departments suffer from mistrust between labor and management. The result is lackluster planning and blurred goals that are often shot down by one side or the other. The organization and the people in it endure conflict, ineffectiveness, and disenfranchising of the members. A solution must create trust, harmony, and build relationships between labor and management while accomplishing the organization’s goals.
RBO (Relationships by Objectives) has been used by only a select few fire departments in the country. While Sacramento Metro Fire now uses a form of RBO in their Strategic Planning Team system, Phoenix Fire Department is the most widely known for its success and effectiveness.
RBO and/or proper strategic planning team systems that use both labor and management in a collaborative way allows the organization to get the most out of the individuals in it. When a fire department operates on all cylinders – Watch Out! Amazing things can happen. The very process of RBO and strategic planning teams builds trust, respect, sharing of perspectives, transference of knowledge and most importantly, sharing of the investment. A form of succession planning takes root. Labor and management learn to work together in processing ideas, programs, goals, and vision. Management shares authority, and labor shares responsibility. All the while, the organization is strengthened by individual relationships being strengthened.
This daylong workshop is extremely unique. Case studies from the Sacramento Metro and Phoenix Fire Departments are utilized. Once the system is learned, we brainstorm key issues in your fire department and narrow them down into several categories. Using RBO and the strategic planning team system, we take key players in the fire department, from both labor and management, and spend the day organizing and establishing the department’s goals. The entire process is documented, creating a permanent record from which your organization can move forward. This can also be a springboard to future strategic planning services as well.