Question

From Harvard Business Review Storm King Mountain Case Study

Why did firefighters at Storm King Mountain ignore so many rules?

Answer 1

The reason why a great deal of firefighters ignored so many of the rules is partially due to their “can-do” attitude. Rhoades, one of the Montana Smokejumpers, summed it up best by saying that firefighting “depends on critical judgement made under-high stress situations by people on the scene, based on their experiences and the volatile conditions at hand.” He believes that the “10 Standard Firefighting Orders,” as well as the “18 Watchout Situations,” are good when they simply used for guidelines, but ultimately have no merit when in actual situations.

            Unfortunately, Rhodes argument does not hold up well for firefighters who are new to the job. As they have not yet developed the skills or accumulated the experience to know what the best course of action would be to take, for the variety of situations that can arise. This is a dangerous mindset to have when dealing with situations of this magnitude. As the two lists were put into place to remind firefighters the importance of being safe and cautious of every situation, and that following it should greatly reduce much of the inherited risk of fire fighting.

            However, one person thinking this way isn’t necessarily the problem, but when it’s a large group of people, the results can be catastrophic. It became clear after the investigation that groupthink was a major reason to why many were ignoring the rules. With eight out of ten of the “Standard Firefighting Orders”, and twelve of the eighteen “Watch Out Situations” were found to be violated, Rhodes clearly wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Although, in the very few cases of where groupthink can be a positive thing, majority of the time it turns out bad, because often it leaves out critical or alternative viewpoints when deciding a plan.