High Reliability Organizing in High Risk Industries Banner - Artwork by E. Steele, for the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center

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Mar 29, 2009:
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Sayings and Quotations

 

Quotations

A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.  Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) in An Essay on Criticism [The Pierian Spring, in Greek Mythology, fives knowledge and inspiration]

For everyone there is a first time.  Kaldhen Sherpa, Sherpa Trekking Service, Kathmandu, Nepal www.sts.com.np

If you want to learn how to ski, watch the bad skiers then don’t do what they do.  You will never see what makes a good skier good.  Rod Terasaki, MD, Bellevue, WA

Never use malice if ignorance will explain the member’s behavior.  Joe Martin, Batt. Chief, LAFD, (ret.) quoting a chief fire officer

Synergy, from syn which means together and erg which means work.  We do more when we work together.  William J. “Bill” Corr, Capt. II, LAFD (1915-2005) on taking command of a new firehouse

Don’t run.  You will never help anybody with a broken ankle.  William J. “Bill” Corr, Capt. II, LAFD (1915-2005) to a rookie rescue ambulance driver running to his rig.

If you feel your eyes glaze over or your body moving faster than you can think, then stop and breathe.  William J. “Bill” Corr, Capt. II, LAFD (1915-2005)

We don’t fight fires.  What the fire department does is solve problems the public cannot or will not solve themselves.  William J. “Bill” Corr, Capt. II, LAFD (1915-2005)

What you do every day is what you do in an emergency.  Joe Martin, Battalion Chief, Los Angeles City Fire Department, Retired

There are a thousand things happening on scene; you can only see a hundred and act on ten.  I will see a different hundred and act on a different ten.  It doesn’t mean I am right or that you are wrong.  It only means we are different.  LAFD Fire Captain, FS 11

In the presence of a void move forward.  James "Jim" Denney, Captain, Los Angeles Fire Department (Retired) and OSS Group (1947- 2006)

After all, an earthquake is just a big victim generator.  James "Jim" Denney, Captain, Los Angeles Fire Department (Retired) and OSS Group (1947- 2006)

It's in their inherent nature that people are drawn to a problem and, while around the problem, they begin to solve it.  Gary Provansal, Division Chief, San Bernardino County Fire Department

HRO is just problem solving.  Racquel Calderon, BS, RRCP [with Karlene Roberts addendum, “The organization must let you problem solve.]

Sometimes the most effective use of overwhelming force is the conspicuous decision not to use it.  Tony Hare, PhD, Oakland PD (ret)

Are policies a concrete wall that keeps reality out or a picket fence that lets reality through?  Joe Martin, Battalion Chief, Los Angeles City Fire Department, Retired

They push you until you pop your cork [become angry].  That way they know how much it takes to make you angry and what you look like when you get angry.  After that, they leave you alone at a fire but watch for the signs.  When they see them they step in to help you.  Jerry Goens, Rescue Ambulance Attendant, LAFD

Your success is my success and your failure is my failure.  Dywane Thomas, RCP, and Chief Warrant Officer, US Marine Corps, retired

When a fire captain picks up a firehose he is no longer a fire captain, he is a firefighter.  Randy Ammons, Capt., Rialto (CA) Fire Department

Do you want to feel right or be right?  Daved van Stralen, MD, Loma Linda University School of Medicine

How do you identify when you are wrong?  Daved van Stralen, MD, Loma Linda University School of Medicine



Sayings

Just because I’m wrong doesn’t make you right.  Firehouse saying, LAFD

If you can’t trust me then you cannot be trusted.  Firehouse saying, LAFD

Communication is a behavior.  If I don’t want you to know something you will never know it.  If I don’t want to listen to you I will never hear you.  US Forest Service Wildland Firefighter

There are no secrets in the Forest Service, only time delay. John Caffin, Another US Forest Service Wildland Firefighter

What’s the use in being very precise if you are way off of the target? David Christenson, MA, Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center (On the difference between precision & accuracy in communications)

Ready, Fire, Aim

 

Sayings that block thinking

Let’s not reinvent the wheel.

Association does not mean causation.

Assume makes an ass out of you and me.  (A paramedic student uses the word “assumption” as it makes an ass out of you and umption.)

What were you thinking?

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Before we trust you we have to get to know you.