Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
The Carpentersville Fire Department is closer to having its first comprehensive strategic plan in place.
The process came as a result of the 100 Day Plan Fire Chief John-Paul Schilling was tasked with when he took the helm of the fire department last June. The initiative’s overall objectives, established through the collaborative efforts of village administration, battalion chiefs, and executive board members of the fire department’s full and part time unions, included improving and/or increasing communication, improving training, safety, and risk management, and increasing personnel collaboration through the creation of various committees.
Strategic planning is not about just producing a document, he said.
“The process is for us more of an improvement of our culture in the fire department. The strategic plan is a vision of our future. It’s a mindset for our personnel to continue to move forward,” Schilling said. “It’s a cycle that should never end and one that continually seeks ways of improvement to do better for our department and our community.”
One goal of the department is to establish a comprehensive community risk reduction program through public education, fire prevention and life safety services, communications, and comprehensive emergency medical services. As the strategic planning process moves forward, so too will the momentum for continuing to improve the culture of the fire department, Schilling said.
“It’s a process going from a rule-based department to one that’s focused on values,” he said. “The rule-based organization sets the standards with rules. And rules incidentally focus on the minimum acceptable behavior for an organization. The minimum. We want to focus on what their values are and establish those values as the department’s values so when they go out they perform at a higher level with a higher value.”
To facilitate that, an anonymous values audit is currently being conducted throughout the department.
“These members write their top 10 values. They take those top 10 values and as a shift they put them together and they come up with a top 10 shift values. Then the three shifts are going to come together and we’re going to create the top 10 values of the department based off of everybody’s input,” he said.
