Doctrine Development

A successful emergency response organization is an adaptive, principles-based organization built upon a solid foundation of strong first- and second-line leadership.

Such an organization fosters and relies on delegating decision making to the field, as appropriate, so that decisions can be made quickly. It conducts this delegation and leader development within a framework of philosophies and doctrine that guide operations and enable them to be concentrically focused.

To accomplish this, the organization must be willing to rebuild many of its operational rules, guidelines, and policies, enhancing them with a body of principles and doctrine that guide adaptive operations and provide organizational resiliency under political pressure.

Organizations guided by doctrine and principles contrast sharply with those that are guided by rules.

Principle-based operations encourage judgment, flexibility, creativity, adaptability, and initiative among leaders and teams. It not only fosters but relies on the concept of delegating decision making to the operators on the ground. Rules-based and compliance-focused organizations stifle resourcefulness, encourage in-the-box thinking, and replace meaningful accountability with a just-follow-the-rules mentality. They can cause emergency response leaders to be risk-adverse and can stifle the willingness to engage.

As a critical component of Operational Synergy, a family of reconciled principles, policies, and rules - collectively called doctrine - becomes the ultimate statement of leader’s intent at the organizational level: providing focus and a decisional system for dealing with gray situations and missions.  

Doctrine distills the essence of an organization’s vision, principles, and values into a philosophy of thinking and acting. Leaders must understand the scope and principles of the doctrine and possess the skills to apply timely leadership and judgment to new situations within the scope of the doctrinal boundaries.

Organizations that serve in high-risk environments with an emphasis on doctrine and principles produce a workforce better suited to dealing with the complex and shifting challenges inherent in modern day emergency response.

MCS has a long-term commitment to doctrinal efforts, believing that solid footing in foundational doctrine enables an organization to create an environment in which leaders on every level are set up for success.  The MCS family of products and support services work together to reinforce the development of concentric and effective operating principles and norms.

Faced with a trend of increasing complexity and size in the fire incidents, and undergoing increasing political and legal pressures brought on from an ever increasing body of conflicting and competing rules, policies, and guidelines, the U.S. Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management recently began a multi-year effort to streamline and clarify its principles of operations.

MCS has supported this effort through a series of actions:

• MCS facilitated and provided technical support for the U.S. Forest Service Foundational Principles Conference in Midway, Utah, in February 2007. This conference brought together representatives from across the Forest Service to draft the foundational principles for the entire agency. Attendees drafted U.S. Forest Service Foundational Principles, which is under review by the National Leadership Team.

• MCS facilitated and provided technical support to the Rotor and Wing Conference in Stevenson, Washington, in January 2006. In this second event in the Pulaski Conference series, attendees produced Foundational Doctrine: Fire and Aviation, a document establishing and defining foundational doctrine for the U.S. Forest Service aviation operations, which is the largest governmental user of aircraft outside of the military. Currently under review, this document will be eventually integrated with the fire suppression doctrine.

• MCS provided the primary technical consulting support for the first Pulaski Conference in Alta, Utah, in June 2005. Conference attendees produced Wildland Fire Suppression: Foundational Doctrine (PDF, 1.1 MB), a document establishing and defining foundational doctrine for the U.S. Forest Service wildland fire suppression.  In summarizing the goals of the conference, Tom Harbor, National Director of Fire and Aviation Management, said, "At this first Pulaski Conference we are focused on defining those simple, clear principles that will encourage complex, intelligent behavior."

Acting in a continuing support role, MCS assists the government in the analysis and disposition of agency policies, guidelines, and rules so that they can be brought into alignment with emerging foundational doctrine.

Faced with an increasing role under the National Response Plan, the U.S. Forest Service is being asked to take part in leading and providing responders to all-hazards efforts such as the 9/11 impact sites, volcanic eruptions, hurricane response, and the Columbia Space Shuttle recovery effort. The agency has embarked on a journey to formally define its operational doctrine to enable it to be adaptive and responsive in a wide range of missions.

MCS is a member of the U.S. Forest Service Emergency Response Strategy Task Group that authored Guiding All-Hazard Response, a document defining the all-hazards response aspect of agency doctrine.

In an independent effort, the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) selected MCS to author the first doctrinal guide defining leadership in the wildland fire services. Leading in the Wildland Fire Service is now available through the NWCG Publication Management System.

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