I want you to figure out HOW we do something

…I want you to figure out HOW we do something.

Those words spoken by President Obama today sent chills up my spine. I’ll explain why in a moment. He said them today while speaking extemporaneously to workers at the headquarters of the American Red Cross while talking about the recovery from the impacts of Hurricane Sandy. Here is more of what he said (the added emphasis is mine):

Obviously we are now moving into the recovery phase in a lot of the most severely affected areas. New Jersey and New York in particular have been pounded by the storm. […]

This is mostly a local responsibility and the private utilities are going to have to lean forward, but we are doing everything we can to provide them additional resources so that we can expedite getting power up and running in many of these communities.

In places like Newark New Jersey, for example, where you’ve got 80-90 percent of the people without power. We can’t have a situation where that lasts for days on end.

And so my instructions to the federal agencies has been — do not figure out why you can’t do something, I want you to figure out HOW we do something.

The last sentence is almost exactly word-for-word what Incident Commander Rick Gale used to tell his Command and General Staff. I heard him say it many times in strategy and planning meetings on incidents. Rick, who passed away in 2009, had been an icon in interagency fire management and in the National Park Service for decades. He was one of the first Type 1 Incident Commanders and Area Commanders, was Chief Ranger at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area north of Los Angeles, Chief Ranger of the National Park Service, and the National Fire Management Officer for the National Park Service.

Many firefighters have can-do personalities, and that defined Rick perfectly. They will figure out how to get things done — usually safely, and usually within the rules. But they will get things done if it is for the betterment of the public and the agency.

When I heard Rick say those words, it sent chills up my spine. I served with him for several years as the Planning Section Chief on the National Park Service’s Type 1 All-Risk Incident Management Team. We were only assigned to the largest and most complex incidents, and frequently we had to do big things on big incidents. Agency employees in Administration, Human Resources, and Procurement are not used to doing big things quickly, but usually we needed to get them done in a hurry. Road blocks were common, but Rick implored us and the folks we ran up against to make it happen — to figure out not why you CAN’T do something, but figure out HOW to get it done.

We had remarkable success in accomplishing big things quickly.

I remember it like it was yesterday. We were helping the four National Parks in south Florida recover from the effects of Hurricane Andrew which hit the Florida coast August 24, 1992 as a Category 5 storm with 155 mph winds. The exact wind speed was difficult to determine because the hurricane literally destroyed the National Weather Service’s anemometers.

We had many challenges to deal with of course, but one, for example, was restoring electrical power and telephone service to Flamingo (map), a remote area of the park that had a visitor center, employee housing, and administrative facilities 38 miles southeast of park headquarters at the extreme southern tip of Florida. The power and phone lines had been destroyed by the hurricane and we wanted to repair them, but Rick thought, well, what about the NEXT hurricane? Are we going to have to do it all over again? So we brought in experts to draw up the design and specifications for an underground power line from the border of the park all the way, 38+ miles, to Flamingo. And not only that, we threw in a fiber optic line as well, to provide phone and internet service, which would also be buried and hurricane-proof.

Hurricane Andrew Incident Management Team
NPS Type 1 All-Risk Incident Management Team at Hurricane Andrew, southern Florida, August, 1992. Left to right: Bill Gabbert (Planning Section Chief), Steve Holder (Logistics SC), Bill Pierce (Operations SC), Marcia Blazak (Finance SC), Rick Gale (Incident Commander, sitting w/white shirt & sunglasses), Pat Tolle (Information Officer)

This could not be done cheaply, of course, and pencil pushers in Washington were telling us it could be many months or years, if ever, that approval and the funds could be found to do something like that. But Rick kept pushing everyone — do not tell me why you can’t do it, I want you to figure out HOW we do it. Marcia Blazak, the Finance Section Chief, was used to working with Rick, and the two of them were an unstoppable force.

It cost about $9 million. And it was done quickly, in a matter of weeks.

A Top 10 List: Reasons why you can’t do that

In 1994 when I was working for the National Park Service I wrote an article for Ranger: The Journal of the Association of National Park Rangers, entitled The Top 10 List: Reasons Why You Can’t Do That. It was noticed by Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt who *quoted several parts of it in an article he later wrote for Viewpoint, a newsletter that was distributed to all employees in the Department of Interior.

Here is the original article that I wrote for Ranger magazine:


The Top 10 List: Reasons Why You Can’t Do That

Bill Gabbert

Have you ever approached co-workers about an idea and they responded with one of these reasons? Top 10 list, reasons why you can't do that

Of course you have. What did you do? Attempt to persuade them, argue, go to their supervisor, look for another more helpful person, or did you give up on your idea?

I am convinced that a huge amount of productivity is lost, expecially in the federal government, to people unwilling to take initiative. Unfortunately, in some work situations there are forces that discourage or even punish workers who occasionally would like to try something different.

Let’s take the Top Ten Reasons one at a time:

  1. We have never done it that way. People usually will not express it this way. I have known people who automatically said no to almost every suggestion, no matter how trivial. Saying yes meant they had to make a decision. If their policy was to say no to everything, that meant they didn’t have to make decisions. They took the lazy and safe way out.
  2. NPS-99, (the Manual) says we can’t. If you look hard enough, you can find 13.4 reasons in National Park Service Manuals to not do everything. Those who are scared to make decisions can sometimes find solace in rules that someone else wrote. Now don’t get me wrong! I am not advocating the overthrow of the government by violating the Rules! Besides, we all know that if we violate the Rules it goes into our Permanent Record; the one they started on us in preschool. We need to — no, we have to — follow the regulations, but we should not go to them in search of reasons not to get something done.
  3. I might get in trouble, and,
  4. My supervisor won’t let me make a decision like that. Maybe this person has a supervisor who is not secure enough to delegate authority. If you allow your people to use their abilities, you may be astounded by what they can do. A person shouldn’t be crucified for making an occasional honest mistake. At times it may be appropriate to follow the old axiom: “It is is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.”
  5. I don’t have time. Usually this is an excuse. However, if you are one of those people (like me) who want instant gratification, you may have to settle for a later completion date. But if someone constantly “doesn’t have time”, something needs to be fixed — the workload, the position description, the person’s work habits, their skills, or their attitude. If it is all of the above, they are in deep E. Coli.
  6. We tried it 87 years ago and it didn’t work. Will this be a slightly different approach? Have conditions changed that will result in it working now? When it was tried earlier, was it done correctly? Who evaluated the results? Maybe it actually did work but someone was too resistant to change to accept the new idea.
  7. We don’t have the money. Recently someone with a “can’t-do” attitude tried to torpedo an idea by producing a cost estimate 10 times more than the actual cost. Remember, sometimes you have to spend money to save money. Investing in a new idea may increase productivity.
  8. The public won’t like it. The public’s perception of what we do shouldn’t be downplayed, but neither should it be used as an excuse. We should do the right thing even if it is a tough choice. Will the public oppose it because they don’t understand the issue? Is a press release or public meeting appropriate? Davy Crockett said, “Be sure you are right, then go ahead”. Taking the easy way out is not always the best stewardship of our public lands. Just be prepared with your ducks lined up.
  9. I don’t know how. So find out! Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you don’t, you won’t learn nearly as much as the person who does. Search for the person who knows. Make telephone calls, network. Keep records of people who can be used as resources. Use the trial-and-error method if it is appropriate. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The person who sits at a desk all day and pretends to be busy won’t make mistakes, but he won’t get much done either.
  10. You will need to fill out a form first. Just think what would happen if everybody in the agency identified only one form that could be eliminated.

When Rick Gale’s All-Hazard Incident Management Team was given the delegation of authority to take over the recovery after Hurricane Andrew hit the three south Florida parks, Gale told the superintendents of the parks something like this:

The people on this team have a can-do attitude. That’s one of the reasons they were chosen. If you present them with a problem, they will find a way to solve it. If they don’t, let me know.

That philosophy is the only one that works in a situation like a hurricane. But do we have to wait for an emergency to adopt a “can-do” attitude? We can do it every day, every hour.

Who would you rather work with — someone who says “We can’t do that,” or the person who says, “That is an unusual challenge. Let’s figure out how to get it done!”

Many obstacles are holograms — you can walk right through them. Ask yourself these questions:

  • Am I proactive or reactive?
  • Am I a stepping stone or a stumbling block?
  • Am I part of the solution or a part of the problem?

*Secretary Babbitt failed to provide attribution for the quotes, simply saying “Earlier this year a professional journal detailed a top ten list of “Why You Can’t Do That”, before he inserted the quotes into his article.

Murphy’s Fire Behavior Rules

Rule bookIn going through some papers today I rediscovered “Murphy’s Fire Behavior Rules” that govern wildfire suppression. I have no idea who created them. It’s possible that Rick Gale handed them out during a session in S-520, Advanced Incident Management, but I don’t think he was the author.

Murphy’s Fire Behavior Rules

  1. Winds will remain constant until your backfire is lit.
  2. Upon reaching the far side of the fire, all batteries cease to function.
  3. The last hard freeze of winter occurs the day after you fill the pumper.
  4. Rain occurs only after a fire is finally controlled.
  5. The arrival time for backup coincides precisely with fire containment.
  6. A 3:1 gas/diesel mixture burns hotter than 3:1 diesel/gas. So does the person carrying the drip torch.
  7. You are always one lunch short.
  8. Leakproof bladder bags will. Self-priming pumps won’t.
  9. Burning out the wrong side of the line will prolong the time of containment.
  10. Critiques are sometimes painful.
You may have some suggestions for #11.

Services for Rick Gale (updated)

(UPDATED: March 31 @ 10:00 MT)

From the National Park Service:

The full story of Remembering Rick Gale can be viewed at the NPS Daily Digest- Daily Headlines page. Below is a brief update on the remembrance ceremony this coming Friday and on other matters, including where to send condolences.

Rick Gale, retired NPS chief of fire operations and a ranger with more than 40 years of field experience, died unexpectedly of a heart attack at his home in Boise, Idaho, on Friday, March 27th.

Rick Gale, speaking at the IAWF/NPS conference in Jackson Hole, WY Sept. 2008.

Rick is survived by his sister, Anne Berardi, and her husband, Pete Prince, of Goodyears Bar, California; his sister, Judy Gale, and partner, Gale Jensen, of Omaha, Nebraska; his daughter Beth Spencer, her husband Cliff, and their daughter, Lily, of Show Low, Arizona; his daughter, Cindy O’Neill, of Jackson, Wyoming, and her sons senior airman Matthew Wadsworth, stationed at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom, and Cameron O’Neill, of Port Angeles, Washington; his daughter, Sarah Fisher, her husband Chad, and their son Beckett of Boise, Idaho; and his companion, Sherry Clark of Napa, California.

Condolences may be sent to The Gale Family, c/o Fisher, 4252 E. Homestead Rim Drive, Boise, Idaho 83716. You can also send them online .

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that contributions be made to the Association of National Park Rangers. Donations can be made online by credit card via ANPR’s secure server . Please type “Rick Gale Memorial Fund” in the comments section of the donation webpage. If your preference is to donate by personal check or money order, please mail either of them to ANPR, 25958 Genesee Trail Road, PMB 222, Golden, CO 80401 and write “Rick Gale Memorial Fund” on the memo line.

A remembrance celebration will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, April 3rd, at the Barber Park Education Center, 4049 S. Eckert Rd., Boise, ID 83716. It will be followed by a pot luck lunch. If you are coming and able to bring a dish, please notify Jes Benson at galememorial at gmail.com. If you would like to speak at the celebration, please contact either Chad Fisher or Dan Buckley via email (chad_fisher at nps.gov, dan_buckleyat nps.gov ).

A compilation of memories of Rick is being put together for his family. If you would like to contribute a memory, story or experience, please send same to Bill Wade at jwbillwade at earthlink.net .

For continuing updates on the specifics of the celebration, please check the Fire and Aviation Management home page .

More information about Rick Gale’s passing was covered earlier on Wildfire Today.

The passing of an icon: Rick Gale

Richard T. Gale passed away at his home in Boise, Idaho Friday night, March 27.

Rick had been an icon in interagency fire management and in the National Park Service for decades. He was one of the first Type 1 Incident Commanders and Area Commanders, was Chief Ranger at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area north of Los Angeles, Chief Ranger of the National Park Service, and the National Fire Management Officer for the National Park Service.

Rick was the Area Commander during the 1988 Yellowstone fires and was the Incident Commander of the first Type 1 All-Risk Incident Management Team formed by the National Park Service in 1991.  (The team is shown in the photo below.)

For 25 years he was involved in S-520, Advanced Incident Management and S-620, Area Command as an instructor, evaluator, and Steering Committee Chairperson.

Hurricane Andrew Incident Management Team
NPS Type 1 All-Risk Incident Management Team at Hurricane Andrew, southern Florida, August, 1992. Left to right: Bill Gabbert (Planning Section Chief), Steve Holder (Logistics SC), Bill Pierce (Operations SC), Marcia Blazak (Finance SC), Rick Gale (Incident Commander, sitting w/white shirt & sunglasses), Pat Tolle (Information Officer)

After his retirement in 2002 following 41 years with the NPS he continued his involvement in wildfire by consulting. He served two 3-year terms on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Wildland Fire, retiring from the board in December, 2008 after serving the maximum number of consecutive terms allowed.

I worked with Rick many times in a large variety of situations and incidents.  He had the willingness to do the right thing even if it meant battling stupid rules.

When he worked in the NPS Washington office there was a sign on the wall at the end of the hall that said: “What have you done for a park today?”… a concept that is a little too rare in Washington these days.

UPDATE, March 30

The remembrance celebration for Rick Gale will be scheduled for mid-day on Friday, April 3 in Boise, for those who may be making travel arrangements.  When more specific details are available, we will post them here.

UPDATE, March 31

THIS POST has the details about the funeral or remembrance service.

Time to think

When I walked into Bill Supernaugh’s office one day in 1995 I found him looking out the window with his feet up on his desk. I was the Fire Management Officer and had an appointment with the Assistant Superintendent of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to brief him about the prescribed fire we were going to ignite in the park in a few days. I got along well with him and felt comfortable smiling and saying, “Oh sorry, I didn’t know you were busy–I’ll come back later” and half turned to walk away.

He pointed to a chair and told me to sit down. In the banter that we usually engaged in before getting around to business he explained that he was “thinking”, something that he felt was important for a manager in his position, supervising the Operations of a large workforce and a big chunk of public land. Taking time to think gave him the opportunity to mull over the issues of the day and strategize about the direction the park would take. He said a person in his position was more of a thinker than a doer.

I wanted to slink down into my chair and disappear, because what he said made perfect sense and I was giving him a hard time. I was there to brief him about a project I was going to DO, and he was going to take my information and THINK about it, then approve it, ask for more information, or give me advice about how to do it differently, or not at all.

At 5:00 a.m. on August 26, 1992 Hurricane Andrew made landfall, knocking the crap out of south Florida and four national parks including Everglades, Big Cypress, and Biscayne Bay. Early the next morning I was in a rental car south of Miami driving through Homestead trying to navigate on back roads while driving over downed power lines and other debris. The first power line was scary as hell, but then we realized there was no electricity anywhere. Navigation was difficult because all of the road and street signs and many of the usual landmarks were gone. Even someone with us that was familiar with the area was disoriented.

We were a Type 1 All-Hazard Incident Management Team with a mission to rescue park employees and restore the infrastructure. It was a huge job and after a few days as Planning Section Chief I felt a little overwhelmed, with lots to do and not enough time in the day to get it all done. In confessing my situation to our Incident Commander, Rick Gale, he said “Order the personnel you need to get the job done. You are paid to think, not do.”

After that, I made time, like Bill Supernaugh, to think. Occasionally I even put my feet up on a desk.

Until he retired from the day to day operations of Microsoft, Chairman Bill Gates scheduled a twice-yearly “Think Week” ritual, where he would take a helicopter or float plane to his secret lakeside cabin and… think….by himself….barring all outside visitors. He would rarely leave the cabin during the week except for an occasional walk on the beach, having a caretaker slip him two simple meals a day at the cabin. He subsisted on the two meals, Diet Coke, and Orange Crush.

Think Week was legendary in Microsoft. Gates would pore over about 100 papers written by company executives, researchers, managers, and developers, who hoped to obtain approval for their new project, or a new direction for the organization. Comments that Gates wrote on the papers could give the green light to a new technology that millions of people would use, or send Microsoft into new markets. He had to be careful what he wrote, after finding that a casual “Hey, cool, looks good” could result in 20 people being assigned to a project.

Barack Obama appears to understand how important it is to set aside time to think. Here is part of an accidentally-captured conversation between Obama and British Conservative Party Leader, David Cameron. Cameron asks Obama if he will be taking any time off for a vacation this summer:

Mr. Cameron: Do you have a break at all?

Mr. Obama: I have not. I am going to take a week in August. But I agree with you that somebody, somebody who had worked in the White House who — not Clinton himself, but somebody who had been close to the process — said that should we be successful, that actually the most important thing you need to do is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you’re doing is thinking. And the biggest mistake that a lot of these folks make is just feeling as if you have to be …

Mr. Cameron: These guys just chalk your diary up.

Mr. Obama: Right. … In 15 minute increments and …

Mr. Cameron: We call it the dentist waiting room. You have to scrap that because you’ve got to have time.

Yes. You have to have time to think. Those of us in the emergency management business too often see time to think as a luxury we don’t have. True, at times, when split second decisions can have life-long, or even life-dependent outcomes. But when initial attack becomes extended attack morphing into a long duration incident, thinking is not a luxury. It is a necessity.