Leading Change in the Fire Service
Fire-Rescue Canada 2025
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Crisis Leadership
Leadership
Crisis
Implicit Leadership
Whole Person Leadership
Leadership is mobilizing people to make progress on tough challenges.
LEADERSHIP
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Leadership is human work
Anyone can do it, anytime, anywhere
Leadership is relational
Leadership is aspirational
Leadership requires trust
Leadership disappoints people
Leadership is risky work
Leadership changes you
Leadership is messy & confusing
Leadership is the selfless promotion of the growth of the other.
10 Timeless Truths
T3
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Leading Change�
PEOPLE THROUGH
TECHNICAL
ADAPTIVE
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Adaptive Leadership
Technical Challenges:
Adaptive Challenges:
Problems experts can solve
Logic and intellect
Solutions are known
Clear definition of the problem.
Problems experts cannot solve
Change habits, beliefs, attitudes & values
Requires new learning
Stakeholders own the work.
What’s the
story?
Heifetz & Linsky, 2002; Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky, 2009
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Why is Change Hard?
Change triggers feelings of loss
Neurobiological development
We’re unclear about the purpose
We change too many things at once
Competing commitments
Ambiguous benefits / no guarantees
We underestimate the work
We’re impatient
We under-communicate.
Adapted from Kegan & Lahey, 2009
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Discussion
Top-Down Leadership
Leading
with
Love
Adaptive Leadership
Leading People Through Change
Speaking to Loss
Clarify
the
Why.
Over-Communication
Technical Challenges
Whole-Person Leadership
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leadership@scottmetzler.com
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Can we clearly articulate the ‘why’?
What happens if we do nothing?
Who’s going to fight it?
Who stands to lose what?
What can we do about it?
What will we do about it?
What will leadership look like?
Q
Powerful Questions
What losses are we willing to tolerate?
Who will join our coalition of the willing?
What will guide changes to the change strategy?
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Leader Responsibilities:
Shepherd the team
Understand individual needs
Focus members on the mission
Communicate the why
Identify stuck teams & members
Make strategic adjustments
Understand systems
Speak to loss.
Leading Change
Tuckman’s Group Development Model
Behaviors are Predictable
Tuckman, B., 1965
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