After receiving an invitation from FIRE CHIEF Editorial Director Janet Wilmoth to contribute to the magazine’s new blog, I began to ponder my first topic. A corollary between my article Task Master in the March issue of FIRE CHIEF and the overarching challenge of managing technology for chief officers immediately surfaced as a central focus.
After selecting my topic, I began to contemplate how exactly I would create my blog. I have read a few blogs, but never created my own. I researched the term blog on the Internet and found that Wikipedia, although not recognized as an accredited scholarly website, identified some potential consequences of blogging, including the loss of employment due to negative descriptions of the author’s organization and defamation or liability due to uncomplimentary images of individuals being portrayed. I am not concerned with any of these potential pitfalls because I have the support of my fire chief for participating in this forum (Thank you, Chief Burdick!), and I am confident that the editorial prowess of FIRE CHIEF magazine will keep me out of court. I also will admit that the only person who may be defamed by my blog entries will be me, which my wife will enjoy thoroughly!
At this point you may be wondering in what direction this diatribe is headed and how the control of technology is connected. I previously described searching the Internet for the definition of a blog, which is an example of how to use technology as an asset. I would like to express one word of caution. Although this forum can be an incredible resource of information, a person must be discriminating when selecting an Internet source. There are no “Internet Police” regulating the validity of sources.
Uses of technology
Chief Ronny J. Coleman best summarized the need for fire chiefs to manage technology in his book Going for Gold, when he recognized:
“The technomanager neither accepts nor rejects technology on its surface merit. Instead, he looks upon technology as a tool — a tool to get the job done, to improve productivity in the organization, or to modify working conditions within the organization. This is a task for the fire chief.”
Fire administrators should use technology such as Microsoft Outlook, personal digital assistants and tablet personal computers to increase their efficiency in completing tasks, which will result in increased internal and external customer service. I realize that an administrator’s ability to use technology may be limited by budget constraints or lack of information technology support. However, I have observed more than one organization that possessed both sufficient funding and IT support to maximize technological advancement but failed to do so because of the organizational leadership’s refusal to embrace technology.
Technology take-away
The purpose of this blog is to emphasize the need for fire administrators to manage technology in an effort to be successful. Technology is being used throughout the fire service. For example, the Center for Public Safety Excellence uses Microsoft SharePoint for the accreditation process.
I recently had the pleasure of attending a CPSE Standards of Cover (Basic) and Self-Assessment Workshop with Chief Martel Thompson. Chief Thompson used a great definition of efficiency: “Efficiency is doing things right.” I would challenge fire administrators to assess if their organizations are operating as efficiently as possible, and to ask themselves if they’re managing technology, or is technology managing them?
Technology management and use is absolutely necessary in today’s world. This contention is best summarized by Joseph Wood Krutch, who stated, “Technology made large populations possible; large populations now make technology indispensable.”
