#35 - Winning in the DARC
Operational Learning Is The Answer
In Post #31, I made the following statement and posed a big question about maneuvering in the DARC:
But a DARC environment is not predictable. By definition, a DARC environment means you can’t write enough rules for it, don’t have enough tools for it, can’t define everything that’s going on … yet you need to maneuver effectively within it.
All this means that the 4S mentality of prediction, prevention, control—even the tools of formal decision-making—those will only get you so far when you have to maneuver in the DARC.
So how do you prepare?
In Post #34, we saw the answer: Operational Learning.
That is to say, the way firefighters on the Pagami Creek Fire prepared for the unpredictable and unprecedented blow-up on Monday 12 September 2011, was by learning from the unpredictable close calls two days earlier.
No, learning from Saturday did not totally prevent Monday’s close calls. Those events were harrowing to the people involved and the margins were very tight. But learning from Saturday made Monday’s events less severe. Given how close margins were, there is no doubt that learning saved lives.
New Question
But this leads us to a new question: Just how did the learning actually happen?
Typically, when we think of Operational Learning, we think of After Action Reviews (AARs), Accident Investigations, Facilitated Dialog Sessions, and classroom training.
Personally, I like talking and writing about Operational Learning tools like those, and have spent years teaching people how to do them. But guess what… when it came to the Pagami Creek Fire, none of those happened between Saturday and Monday.
This is one more reason the Pagami story is so powerful and unusual. Since it was a cluster of close calls spread out over several days, it actually gives us a chance to see how learning happens—in real time, in the DARC. And some of what we discover runs counter to our typical assumptions. So, Pagami is not only a case study we can learn from, it is also a case study in learning itself! How often do you get a chance to see that in an investigation? It’s an incredible opportunity. That's why I’m so excited to be exploring it together.
Clearly, the Pagami firefighters learned, but they didn’t do it through the processes we normally think about.
So then, how did they do it? What did they actually do to make Operational Learning happen?
The answer to that question will reveal a profound truth about Operational Learning.
We will dive into that in the next post.
