Fire Service personnel are subjected to stressful situations on a daily basis. Recently, New Zealand has experienced a series of significant emergencies, such as the Pike River mine explosion and the Canterbury earthquakes that have challenged and stretched those involved. Maintaining effectiveness under these operational circumstances requires a high level of resilience.

However, embedding lasting improvements to operational practice requires an equally high level of organisational resilience, as does responding to the event itself. A learning organisation must be courageous and resilient to face failures, scrutiny and deal with lessons learned upfront. This is an uncomfortable, but valuable pathway.

 
For the New Zealand Fire Service, a case in point is the 2010 Lepperton incident in which two firefighters were seriously burned while attempting to extinguish a fire at a livestock facility. Decisions were made that could have had more serious consequences.

In 2013, using a new training approach, the New Zealand Fire Service used the Lepperton Operational Review and Corrective Actions Report to develop a learning case study as a refresher for all Executive Officers. Its aim was to provide succinct, realistic and engaging learning, and to encourage meaningful discussion about the lessons that could be learned. A realistic online scenario was developed, with facilitated reflection and discussion throughout.

Feedback from the training has been extremely positive. Over 2014, training staff plan to undertake research with participants to assess the effectiveness of this learning approach and explore whether behavioural changes have resulted in the field.

The training uncovered unexpected outcomes that challenged organisational and personal resilience. Challenges included meeting legal requirements and the level of acceptance of a 'no-blame' culture, while bringing attention to an incident that involved decision-makers still within the Fire Service.

The presentation will cover:
• The New Zealand Fire Service Lepperton case study approach
• Lepperton – its impact on learners
• Lepperton – the unanticipated outcomes that have required organisational courage and resilience to work through
• reflections about what resilience means in the context of a Fire Service learning organisation, and how this can be achieved.