The Third Eye

Over a long enough timeline I suppose we could learn all there is to know.  In the meantime I feel like all we can do is take it one piece at a time.  Now, that statement is a simplistic way of breaking it down.  Like all simple statements it requires a deeper depth of knowledge to live it every day.   What I meant to say really is that we only have a limited amount of time to train.  I have figured out that it’s not enough time to really get it all done.  What we need to do is focus our training time to be the most effective for the most people.  Well, I only have 3 people to train.  So I have the luxury of focusing on one person if I want to and the team won’t suffer in the long run.  All training is valuable even if it’s focused on one person, as long as it’s a group event.  Don’t get me wrong I still need to make the most of my limited time.  The only way I found to do that is using every tool available to me.  The video camera has turned out to be one of the best.  Looking at everything we do in the third person in a quiet room with no distractions is invaluable.  In the moment you are so focused on what you are physically looking at with your eyeballs you don’t see the real lessons passing you by.  Vehicle extrication for example.  My entire company is highly skilled in the use of every extrication tool.  They can set up and put into action all the tools at our disposal.  The video camera isn’t going to teach us to handle our tools better.  We can see that in the moment as we use them.  It did teach us that my plan was not made clear in the beginning and caused people to stand around and that caused them to put that heavy tool on the  ground only to have to pick it up again 30 seconds later.  We saw a lot of wasted motion in the video.  Pick it up, put it down, walk over there, walk back.  All because they didn’t know what I wanted next or what the endgame was going to be.  The question came up how do I quickly share my vision on a deeper level than just saying cut off the roof and peel open the door.  2 inch medical tape was the answer. Yup, tape.   I put tape on each pillar where I want a cut.  If and when you pick up a tool it’s yours for the duration of the extrication.  The cutters and the spreaders never shall part.  The Tape allows a man with a tool to move from one cut to the next without delay.  Now what I’m talking about here in this example isn’t the blaring obvious mistakes or procedure errors.  Those types of things you don’t need a camera for.  In order to take it to the next level and improve what we already do well you have to see it from the outside looking in.    Eventually that is the only way to get past certain sticking points or to see patterns.  We all felt that the drill went great and we moved fast and got the job done.  It wasn’t until we watched the video that we could see what was going on.  The point being really is that they watched the video and wanted to use it to take their skills to the next level as a team.   To try and piece together what went wrong after the fact gets harder and harder the more people you add to the equation.  A picture is worth a thousand words and a video speaks volumes.