NFPA Journal - Summer 2023 - 46
Perspectives
You can look at achieving diversity as a
business proposition, as a way to improve
the quality of our service.
Why do you think focus on DEI has
gained so much momentum?
Because we are a reflection of the political
society of the United States. Politics in
this country have really heated up since
about 2014. The divide in this country
along race and gender has become more
swollen in a way that it is now impacting
the work environment, and fire chiefs
didn't have a strategy for how to deal
with this discourse. We don't want this
to bleed over into the fireground or erode
trust among members on the team. It's a
problem for every chief.
How do fire service leaders know
when they're on the right track?
What does DEI success look like?
I'll answer that with three questions
for a fire chief. One is, if you don't have
diversity, why? Maybe the chief doesn't
care about it, or has the attitude, " May
the best person win and don't bother
me. " But can they prove that's really
how things are? Have they done an
assessment of the overall health of their
organization? Have they asked members
about their lived experience, or if someone
was able to get something they didn't
particularly deserve because of their last
name or their race or their gender? To
answer that you have to do a self-assessment
and ask, " Where are we sick
as an organization? Where are the gaps?
Where are we out of balance? What could
we do better? "
The second question is: If you do have
diversity, how do you lead it? One size
does not fit all. That's why it's important
to collaborate with community partners,
to lean in and experiment.
The last question is: If you have diversity,
how do you sustain it? Is it just a
one-off? Have you fixed it? Does your
In reality, race, religion,
and politics is all we talk
about in the fire service. We
just don't know how to do it
in mixed company.
department represent the community so
now you don't have any work left to do?
No. You need to continue to monitor that
situation to ensure that the culture of the
organization doesn't eat those policies for
breakfast and cause the organization to
revert to practices that got you here in
the first place.
So instead of trying to attain a goal
and then being done with it, you're
saying that it's best to ask yourself
these questions and assess your
organization on an ongoing basis?
46 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2023
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NFPA Journal - Summer 2023
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