Sunday morning kicked off the Think Tank sessions with Captain Jeremy Hill covering highlights from his “Pushing the Mower, Dumping the Baggage” class.  He used this compressed 30-minute window to challenge the crowd with moving intangible ideas and seemingly meaningless labor into tangible concepts and job satisfaction.

Capt. Hill used the following imagery to paint the picture for the 100 attendees. “People mowing a yard see immediate results. The positive effects of the labor are immediately seen. First responders in the field benefit from this same positive effect. Firefighter sprays water, they see the fire go out. Workers inside emergency communication centers (ECC) rarely get to see these positive outcomes. They push the “mower” all day and never get to see the “cut grass.”

Jeremy’s challenge to the group was to implement avenues to create the “cut grass” experience in ECC’s. He reminded everyone, “Find the time and monies to make this happen or you will be forced to find the time and monies to replace them”.

The last half of the session was devoted to having the conversations everyone wants to avoid. Capt. Hill gave a personal story of how he had missed the mark in this area. He shared a story of a high school friend that had also grown up to work at the same fire department. They actually were assigned to the same truck together. Jeremy explained his friend had grown into an adult that was a bitter individual and a person “you didn’t want to ask him how he was doing”. Jeremy avoided deep conversations and began also avoiding answering his friend’s calls, the last call coming two days before his friend shot himself……

Capt. Hill challenged us to step into the uncomfortable areas and be a “responder” to those around us.