With all the demands placed on the fire service today, it is easy for a fire department and its various divisions to adopt reactive, rather than proactive, strategies to meet immediate challenges and needs.
There is a problem, however, with reactive strategies. They are generally only viable for a short period of time and often require significant resources and labor to execute. Additionally, they are rarely efficient and typically don’t contribute to the long-term success of the fleet division or the fire department. Even though today’s fleet divisions are busier than ever, it is imperative that they proactively address issues through a strategic planning process to ensure long-term success.
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DEFINING THE STRATEGIC PLAN
Strategic planning can be defined as an ongoing process that uses available knowledge and information to determine the direction of the fleet division. This process includes prioritizing efforts, setting goals and objectives, and effectively allocating resources to meet the goals of the division. It is imperative that the goals set within the strategic planning process are measurable and backed by data.
Strategic planning can help the fleet division focus on the growth of the division over time. As the demands of fire department fleets continue to grow, it is important that the fleet division has a method to account for trends and new technologies. This will allow the division to continue meeting the department’s changing needs. A quality strategic plan should proactively lay out the division’s goals two to five years out, thus giving its members a roadmap to success.
KEY ELEMENTS OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS
Step 1: Define the Mission and Vision of the Division
Clearly defining the mission and vision will assist the fleet division in understanding the goal of the strategic planning process. This process should involve the fleet division, if possible, to assist with buy-in. A clearly defined mission and vision are important because, if not clear, it will be extremely difficult for members to associate how day-to-day activities contribute to the goal. Vision statements should serve to inspire, build trust, and ensure alignment with the overall vision of the fire department. Vision statements outline the fleet division’s long-term goals and define expectations for the future. While the division’s vision should be ambitious, it must also be realistic and achievable.
Step 2: Understand the Division’s Current Status
This step involves examining the fleet division’s current operations and gaining a solid understanding of the division’s status. The first step in this process should be forming a team to manage the development of the strategic plan. The strategic planning team should include members from all aspects of the fleet division who are willing to devote quality time and effort to see the process through. The first task of the team should be developing what isto be considered the “current state of the fleet division.” Information to review at this stage includes budgets, daily operations, productivity, division morale, relationships with other divisions, relationship with the fire department administration, and work capacity. This is also a time to collect a variety of data that will assist in better understanding the status of the division. After gaining a clear picture, it is important for the team to compare it against other similar fleet divisions and the industry’s best standards.
During this step, it is also important for the strategic planning team to understand the environment in which the fleet division exists. The team should also be aware of current industry trends, forthcoming policy changes, emerging technologies, budgetary restrictions, public support of the fire department, and even new legislation that can affect fire apparatus manufacturing. Because the current and future environment will have an impact on the successfulness of the strategic plan, the planning team must understand it and be prepared for potential obstacles or challenges.
Step 3: Determine the Priorities
Once they understand the current state of the fleet division, the team should shift its focus toward determining the fleet division’s priorities, goals, and objectives moving forward. They can start a preliminary document at this point, which will begin to list the division’s goals and the objectives needed to achieve those goals. When setting goals for the organization, they should be clear and without ambiguity of the desired outcome. Goals should be realistic and achievable given the environment (previously assessed in Step 2). Objectives should be developed to assist in meeting goals, and they should be measurable and quantifiable to help track progress. All goals and objectives should also be placed on a timeline to aid in maintaining focus and priority.
Step 4: Define KPIs and Assign Responsibility
Once goals and objectives are established, the strategic planning team or subsections of the team can begin to delve into how they will achieve the goals and who will be accountable for each component. While various responsibilities can be assigned, it is important for the fleet manager to understand that responsibilities can shift throughout the process as data is gathered and evaluated for effectiveness. The development of key performance indicators (KPIS) is a good way to define tactics. Through the development of KPIS, the team will have a framework for analyzing progress toward goals and objectives. An established objective might be to have utility vehicles out of service for scheduled preventive maintenance for no longer than 24 hours. A KH could be the percentage of times that this happens.
Step 5: Manage the Process and Evaluate
Once the goals and objectives are determined, the KPIs are identified, and responsibilities are assigned, it is time to set the strategic plan in motion. It is important for the chief and the fleet manager to work with the strategic planning team to identify a management process that allows for the measurement of success. Regular meetings should be scheduled to review progress with the team to evaluate the execution of the strategic plan. During these meetings, it is important to collect feedback about key elements of the plan including what is going well, what is not going well, and what opportunities or alternatives exist for improvement.
BENEFITS OF STRATEGIC PLANNING
Implementing a strategic planning process within the fleet division can produce many benefits. Strategic planning provides foresight so the division can proactively prepare for future challenges. The strategic planning process also improves collaboration among employees as well as between the employees and managers. When members from all areas of the division are involved, it can lead to an increased sense of value and result in higher employee engagement levels.
Another benefit of strategic planning is operational efficiency. The fleet manager can use the strategic planning process to ensure departments efficiently use resources and improve accountability. Finally, when strategies are properly developed and managed, they often improve staff satisfaction, which aids in the retention of employees.
All in all, the use of a strategic plan can greatly aid the fleet manager. A quality strategic plan can provide the fleet manager with a template on how to move the division forward to meet its mission and vision. Strategic plans can assist the fleet manager in the creation of a single forward-focused vision for the fleet division that all members can support.
The use of the strategic planning process can also make fleet managers aware of their own inherent biases related to division management, as the process forces the manager to operate based on data, projections, case studies, and input from team members. Finally, the strategic plan can aid the fleet manager in tracking progress toward goals. This progress information can then be shared internally with the other divisions of the fire department to align efforts and improve the overall performance of the organization.
JOSEPH MURRAY, Ph.D., is chief and emergency management coordinator for the Dearborn (MI) Fire Department.
