Fire Fighter Case Study
In order to successfully implement the new techniques it is first important to understand the reasons why the implementation failed in the first place.
The key reasons were:
The directive for implementation was given without proper buy-in by the stakeholders and hence it was a case of compliance rather than by commitment
The idea for the techniques came from foreigners and hence lacked credibility. There were no local attesters to the idea
The gas cooling system violated the machismo culture
It disrupted the status hierarchy
The fire fighters had been trained with the hose as their lifeline and the new system was questioning the very core of this belief
There had been insufficient training given on the new method.
While working on the new implementation plan, the above concerns of the fire- fighters had to be addressed and resolved
In order to create a proper buy-in, it is suggested that we run a test pilot of the project at select locations, where-in we short list the key opinion leaders amongst the fire fighters and explain to them the need for adopting the new system and how it would be beneficial for all the stakeholders
Before implementing the pilot a proper orientation of these key fire-fighters needs to be done explaining that they have been selected from the lot to implement this new system as they were the most forward looking fire-fighters amongst the lot and hence part of the elite group to implement the new system.
Some fancy designation could also be given to these set of fire-fighters
Also take in their active feedback in process design for the new system implementation