External Storytelling: Part 1 "Is Storytelling a Priority?"

I joined the fire service as a volunteer in 1997, just a few weeks after graduating college. Before you join a fire department, you think you know a little bit of what you'll be facing. Fires. Accidents. Action. Tragedy. But unless you grew up in a firehouse – and I didn't - you might not entirely be ready for the social aspect - the epic storytelling!

I spent four years in college studying mass communications – literally learning how to tell stories. Then, I worked professionally in New York as a production assistant in the film and television business – on set with some of the biggest names in entertainment and media. And all I could think when hearing the firehouse banter was: "This is absolute gold!"

A few weeks after joining my hometown volunteer fire department, I started up at the local fire academy. On one of my first nights there, the instructor talked about all the expanding tasks facing the fire service - HAZMAT, EMS, etc. And he said something that was like a smack in the face. He said that most people don't even know half of what we do because "we suck at telling our story."

So far, I'd thought firefighters were the greatest storytellers I'd ever been around. How could we suck? 

Fast forward a decade or so, and I've changed my full-time profession and become a career firefighter. My Battalion Chief is eating lunch with us. We have the news on, watching a story about a fire someplace. The reporter interviews bystanders who say it took too long for the fire department to get there. You often hear this when the fire department doesn't bother to give an official statement.

And what does the Chief say? "We suck at telling our story."

A few years later, I'm at a conference and in a class given by the legendary Jeff Shupe. Shupe has probably been to more fires, written more articles, and taught more students than all the other speakers at that conference combined. He was still using an overhead projector with slides! 

And what does Shupe say during his class? "We suck at telling our story."

How could we tell our stories so well INSIDE the firehouse… but struggle to do so OUTSIDE?

Like everything else - we don't make it a priority.

(Part 1 of 3)