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December 8, 2003

Memorandum

To: Incident Operations Standards Working Team (IOSWT)

From: Training Working Team (TWT)

Subject: PMS 310-1 Leadership Curriculum Recommendations

Attached please find a copy of the Leadership Committee of the TWT
recommendations to be discussed at the joint TWT/IOSWT meeting in
February 2004.

The TWT expects to discuss these recommendations with the IOSWT at the
joint meeting, and felt it was important to provide ample time for the
IOSWT to review these recommendations.

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Leadership Training recommendations for ICS positions

NWCG Leadership Committee

November, 2003

Attached are the 310-1 flow charts for ICS positions with the Leadership
Committee's recommendations for leadership courses indicated for each
position. In examining these flow charts, the reader should keep in mind
several factors that came into play when considering what should be
recommended for the 2004 revision of the 310-1:

-   Only three courses are currently developed and being delivered out
    of the six ultimately planned for the leadership curriculum. The
    three currently available courses are L-180, L-280 and L-380. The
    three courses that are not yet available are L-381, L-480 and L-580.
    For the purposes of the 2004 revision of the 310-1, recommendations
    are forwarded only for the courses currently available.

-   Many positions have other positions as prerequisites. This was taken
    into account when looking at which positions should have a
    recommendation or requirement for a specific leadership course. Many
    positions indicate training "none" because a prerequisite position
    already had a leadership training requirement.

-   The material in L-180, Human Factors, is incorporated into the most
    recent revision of S-130, Basic Firefighter. This means that all
    newly trained firefighters will have received the content of L-180
    simply by taking S-130. Positions outside of Operations and Command
    are not required to take S-130; for this reason, the stand-alone
    L-180 course is kept in the curriculum.

-   L-180 and L-280 are off-the-shelf training products available from
    the Publication Management System. Both courses are designed for
    delivery by agency instructors. L-180 takes 4-6 hours to teach;
    L-280 is a 16-hour course including an 8 hour field exercise.

-   The target audiences for L-180 and L-280 are different. L-180 is a
    human factors course for all people who will be working as
    subordinates in a team involved in emergency management. L-280 is a
    leadership course for leaders transitioning from roles as
    subordinates to roles of first-level leaders. L-280 is targeted
    towards personnel making this leadership transition in the
    Operations Section.

-   L-380 is a 32 hour training recommendation that can be delivered by
    agencies or vendors. A set of criteria for content and design of
    this course is available at
    [www.fireleadership.gov](http://www.fireleadership.gov/).

-   In the diagrams, "recommended training" is meant to be the same as
    training classified as "additional training which supports
    development of knowledge and skills" in the current 310-1. The
    committee just didn't have room to write all that on the diagrams.

A great deal of thought was given to the issue of making leadership
training "required" or "recommended". Each position was looked at
individually and in its relation to other positions. The Leadership
Committee discussed this issue at length and made every effort to avoid
imposing training requirements.

However, the committee did agree that there should be some requirements
for the ICS positions that are directly involved in risk assessment and
management on the fireline, where decision making under stressful
conditions and time constraints are routine. These positions are
primarily in the Command and Operations functional areas. The
committee's thinking was that if there needs to be an emphasis area in
the work force for leadership development, it should be in the
functional areas where the highest risk exposure exists -- both to
individuals and to agencies. In these times of limited budget and
personnel resources, this approach was considered common-sense and
essential. Ample evidence exists in accident investigation reports that
leadership -- especially communication and decision making -- plays a
key role in most fire tragedies. This makes it impossible for the
committee to conclude that leadership development should not be an
emphasis area for all agencies involved in wildland firefighting,
particularly for positions with the most exposure to risk on the
fireline.