Lessons in Agile Leadership from the Phoenix Fire Department people

 

People that have not attended the PMI Leadership Institute Meeting last week in Phoenix, Arizona, may not be aware that the Sheraton Downtown hotel closed for a week after an electrical fire last Saturday morning.

The Sheraton Downtown is located only a block away from the Convention Centre where the LIM and Congress were hosted, and therefore it was a popular place to stay at for both PMI members and staff.

The commotion began around 11am, with fire crews and police dispatched to the hotel to get the source of the smoke under control - the cause of the electrical fire has apparently not been fully identified yet.

A decision got made to evacuate the hotel, and about 800 guests had to be guided in near pitch-darkness up and down dozens of flights of stairs by firemen armed with little more than glow sticks to provide some form of illumination. Due to the nature of the incident, all power got cut off, and since the emergency lights did not have a battery backup, all stairwells and internal corridors plunged into total darkness.

The PMI staff and volunteer organizers pulled off a near-magical location rearrangement for the Awards Ceremony from the third floor Phoenix Ballroom in the Sheraton (now off-limits due to the evacuation) to the Convention Centre, such that by 7pm (with barely an hour's delay) you wouldn't have believed that it wasn't intended to be held at the Convention Centre all along. I suspect we shouldn't have expected any less from such a seasoned group of Project Management professionals.

However, I know from first-hand experience that the Phoenix Fire Department people impressed all of us "refugees" from the Sheraton even more. Here are some of the lessons in Agile Leadership that I saw the Fire Department people demonstrate through example:

1. Everyone was treated with utmost respect at all times. There was no rushing, no shouting, no agitation. Everyone kept a sustainable pace. The firemen also inspired deep respect through their calm, collected, professional attitude.
2. No-one was overburdened. The firemen always worked with relatively small, manageable groups of people. They organized clear access paths to promote a smooth flow of traffic and avoid congestion. They regularly kept in touch with one another by radio, asked for and gave help as-needed, with clear, precise instructions, self-organizing to maintain a smooth flow of people through the building.
3. Safety was paramount. There were always firemen with flashlights in sight of the people climbing up and down the stairs or walking through the dark corridors. The firemen distributed glow sticks to everyone and only escorted people up the stairs once some glow sticks were dispersed on the stairs every few steps for a bare minimum of visibility.
4. Careful attention was paid to mistake-proofing. Before admitting people into the building, one fireman invited a small group of people in the gap between entrance doors. He would explain what happened, and that people were asked to prepare themselves to go up to their rooms, pack everything, and get back down. He would then check that people felt they were fit enough and prepared to make the trek up the stairs and confirmed that they had their room key with them (the room locks were battery activated, so everyone still needed a room key to get into their own room). In this way, they sought to avoid the unpleasant situation of climbing 20+ floors only to discover that the key is missing and another trip down and up would be required. Fortunately, as a matter of defense-in-depth, some firemen in the building also carried master keys, so when one PMI staffer found to her dismay that her key doesn't work anymore, she was spared having to make another trip down and back up for a working key.
5. Regular Training: Firemen are constantly training to climb 30+ flights of stairs every other day, so they could keep helping to carry bags for some of the hotel guests, saving them from having to make repeated trips to complete the evacuation of their rooms. With no elevators, all bags had to be carried by hand down the stairwells, for up to 30 floors.

In this way, in just a few short hours over 800 people were evacuated safely from the hotel, with no further mishap or injury. The hotel staff also worked their magic in rapidly finding alternate accomodation, communicating directions clearly, and organizing free transportation to it. The Professional Awards gala then proceeded smoothly, and what could have become a very disappointing disaster turned into an exhilarating adventure.

What else have you learned from the people of the Phoenix Fire Department? How do you think we may apply some of their lessons in some of our own project emergencies?