A flock of geese represents the new leadership paradigm, which has these principles:

• Leaders transfer ownership for work to those who execute the work.
• Leaders create the environment for ownership where each person wants to be responsible.
• Leaders coach the development of personal capabilities.
• Leaders learn fast themselves and encourage others also to learn quickly.

In addition to these principles, there are several persistent themes throughout book:

• A leader must learn that in most instances he or she is the problem.
• The customer is the boss.
• Think strategically. Start with what you need for your customer and work backwards.
• Everyone must be a leader to have effective leadership.

Of course it all starts with the leader, and the leader will often need a coach to be able to see that he or she needs to get out of the way for employees to have a chance to make things work more efficiently. We have all seen many leaders who have “fix them” attitudes, when in reality, it is the leader who needs to change.

Ordering an organization to operate differently can be like asking buffalo to fly. It is a slow process that must start by asking the people involved what the leader is doing to prevent them from assuming responsibility and performing at a higher level.

The book offers a method “for transforming buffalo into geese — the Leading the Journey leadership system.” The model is based on four leadership activities: Determining Focus and Direction, Removing Obstacles, Developing Ownership and Stimulating Self-Directed Action.

Determining the Focus — Start with the consumers. Ask them what they want. Ask how you can help them be a great performer. Look at your competition as your best friend. Examine their strategies and yours from your customer’s perspectives. Are you creating value for your customer? Are you focusing on a few problems and ignoring the rest?

Removing Obstacles — The first thing to do is ask your people for their input, using this performance management model:
1. The manager determines the overall parameters/objectives.
2. Performers and customers set standards.
3. Expectations are reduced to a specific measurable number. An information system is necessary to tell the employees how they are doing, in real time. A reward system must be aligned and considered fair and motivational.

Developing Ownership — The boss’s desk may be where the buck stops, but it is important that it is not also where it begins. Delegation of authority can be tricky if the recipient is unwilling or facing ownership for the first time. The leader’s task is summarized in four letters: FCLP. “In every possible situation, Focus Conversation on Learning about Performance.” The authors define success as “ownership for the right responsibilities by the right people.”

Stimulating Self-Directed Actions — If possible, leaders should prevent problems, not solve them. One of the best ways to do this is to reward people for solving their own problems rather than rewarding people for bringing them to you. It is also important to eliminate nonessential parts of the business. Simplify operations as much as possible and measure what you want to get done. Expect very high standards. Put the right people in the right positions.

My conclusion: The book ends with a discussion on the importance of learning. It frequently involves leaving your “comfort zone” and trying new things and moving faster than you or your colleagues are ready to move. When worried about making mistakes, the authors quote (without attribution): “He who makes no mistakes ends up making nothing.”

I really like the symbols of the buffalo and the geese. I like the very human touch of the admission the authors make that they have their buffalo “V’d” up, as in the format of a flock of geese, but they have not yet taken off. There is even an admission that from time to time their head buffalo mentality comes back without warning. Nonetheless, they make compelling arguments for empowerment and continuous learning. Although this book was published a while ago, I recommend it for all administrative and other professionals in the National Park Service.

Interpretation

This was the year I sought Park Service duties outside my park. I piled my plate high. I am now a member of the National Education Council, the group tasked to implement the Renaissance.

I was invited into the inner sanctum to play a role in planning the next century for the NPS. I went to a conference in August and immediately was overwhelmed by all the expertise and legacy around me. I didn’t really contribute much at that first meeting, much to my chagrin. But I did listen and felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time. I felt hope. I learned about how current NPS leaders are fighting successfully for us right now to ensure the future of the NPS. That was news to me. All I ever heard or experienced up to then was that the sky was falling.

While at this conference, folks talked about the Education Evaluation Coordination Team, set up to evaluate interpretive programs and projects, with the additional goal of creating a culture of evaluation in the NPS. Who could disagree with the goal to ensure interpreters are putting out products the public will get the most out of? So I joined. I have a full schedule, but I wanted to know all about this evaluation thing.

Then I found out I was going to be an Interpretive Development Program Certifier, which is a duty and experience not to be missed. So I set aside two weeks to go to Mather Training Center to attend a training workshop with 40 other interpreters so I could be one of about 100 interpretive evaluators for the NPS. This will make me a better supervisor, better coach and all around better interpreter, too. Plus, we are going to test out a new forum on InsideNPS dedicated to the IDP program. And guess who will be one of the moderators?

While at Mather we learned about training tools the Eppley Institute has created to help interpreters learn the craft and create programs. Among other things, the institute wants help advertising it to the field. My hand went up.

I have no intention of backing out of everything that I got myself into. I’m not a quitter and these things are too important. Luckily I’m not married, And don’t have kids, a dog or a yard to mow, so I’ve got the time and energy to dedicate to this. It also helps that my supervisors see the value in my putting time toward these tasks.

The biggest thing I’ve realized is that while we have been going through hard times in the NPS in the last few years, things are getting better. These are unprecedented times for interpreters. Each of us has the chance to participate in the new NPS and the pending Renaissance in interpretation in so many ways.

Furthermore, this is a great chance for proactive interpreters to show what it means to be an ANPR member. We should be trumpeting our association. We should start showing proactive leadership and partner with the Renaissance. Being involved is what ANPR members do.

Interpreters who are members of this organization aren’t just in it for the club spirit, memories of the good old days, or the fun and rejuvenating Rendezvous; we participate to keep this NPS thing alive and kicking.

After what I saw at the Rendezvous in Park City, I know that ANPR is not complacent or content to coast on a dusty reputation. We are not going to fade away. We are an organization that is relevant and active. We are setting the examples that others can follow. We will draw in new members by being a shining beacon of hope. Our work will make ANPR and the NPS stronger by being a professional organization hell bent not just on survival but growth.

Stop waiting for others to do it for you if you find yourself grousing and sitting on the fence. Get in there like I did as an ANPR representative and NPS employee. There is more out there than Eppley, the NEC or the EECT.

Take a look at the tenets of the Renaissance and make them yours in your own park. We might come calling to learn about the amazing work you are doing. Capitalize on what Eppley offers. Find ways to involve ANPR in the Renaissance or the Centennial. Recruit some new ANPR members if you see that they have the fire in them too.

It has been inspiring and a huge relief to see so many of us taking such interest in the future of interpretation. We have the fight in us as rangers. We will need our energy and moxie to make it in the next century by looking beyond ourselves. We need to grasp the future in our daily work. The best thing is that those opportunities are out there for each of us.

Protection

Crew Bossing: The Romance in It — Crew bossing wildland fire crews is a calling within a calling. It has its headaches, but for those who have learned to love it, it can be one of the most rewarding experiences in the already-rewarding field of rangering.

There’s something to be said for taking charge of a crew of folks and motivating them to achieve greatness under challenging circumstances. Whether as a wildfire crew boss, an NFL coach, an infantry platoon sergeant, or a swordfish longliner captain, the principles are the same — it’s still leadership. And for those with the right attitude, it offers genuine opportunities for true adventure. In short, there’s romance in it!

Swordboat Captain William “Billy” Tyne knew this secret of leadership. In the epic movie, The Perfect Storm, harrowing scenes depict the fateful ocean voyage of the Andrea Gail, the daring rescue attempts, the sheer power and carnage the storm delivered, and the tragic human drama that unfolded in its wake.

One of the most moving scenes occurs early in the film, before leaving port. Captain Tyne is studying charts in the Gail’s wheelhouse when fellow swordfishing captain and friend, Linda Greenlaw, drops in for a heart-to-heart chat about their profession.

Mixed in with his lighthearted quips about “no rest for the weary” and “not having a work ethic, just having work,” she tells Tyne that she just doesn’t see “the romance in it.”

And that’s when he opens her eyes for her. That’s when he reveals to her something she probably never realized about herself.

“But you’ve got it, Greenlaw,” he tells her. “You do, believe me. I’ve seen ’em come and go, but the day I laid eyes on you, I said to myself, ‘She’s going to be a good one.’ You can’t be good unless you love it.”

How true this is for so many chosen professions. When somebody answers a calling, they are actually chosen by it, not vice versa. Like Tyne said, you can’t be good unless you love it. Part of the reason the good ones love it is because they see the romance in it.

As rangers, we may never be at the helm of a 70-foot longliner, but we can certainly thrive on the romance of our own calling and on that of the leadership opportunities. Every aspect of rangering captures this — catching evildoers; rescuing those who are ill, injured, stranded or lost; facing the harsh elements in rugged terrain; traveling by land, sea or air; and fighting fire.

The field is begging for quality leadership. It is incumbent upon seasoned, veteran rangers to step up, shoulder the task, bear the burden of heightened responsibility and thrive on the romance. It is incumbent upon seasoned, veteran rangers who hear the call of leadership to answer it.

Opportunities to step up and lead abound in our field, but one of the most quintessential is crew bossing on wildland firefighting crews. If Billy Tyne had been a firefighter, he would have answered the call. He would have been a crew boss, loved it, been good at it. And he would have seen the romance in it.

~ Kevin Moses, Big South Fork

President Bush issued a new executive order on “Facilitation of Hunting Heritage and Wildlife Conservation” last August. It directed agencies that have a measurable effect on public land management, outdoor recreation and wildlife management, including those in the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, to “facilitate the expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities and the management of game species and their habitat.”

Aldo Leopold opens his classic Game Management (1933 and reissued since) by defining the book title as referring to “the art of making land produce sustained annual crops of wild game for recreational use.” Most employees and many constituents would view the term as incompatible with NPS units. NPS management policies avoid use of the term game, and have, for decades at least, emphasized conservation of wildlife within a broader context of ecological dynamics and processes — a goal which fits with the teachings of Leopold himself, who early on recognized wildlife-land-water relationships.

Parks are permitted and sometimes practice population-specific, even lethal management of wildlife. Generally, lethal control is used for the occasional take of a dangerous or “nuisance” animal that threatens human safety or property. In recent years, proposals by the NPS or outside entities have suggested opening some parks to sharpshooters or public hunters to help manage elk populations (for instance, Theodore Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain). At the same time, lethal wildlife population control even outside park borders has been subject to lawsuits and continued public controversy (deer in eastern parks, bison in Yellowstone).

This is not new. Consider historic controversy over killing non-native mountain goats in Olympic and elk reduction in Yellowstone in the 1960s. These topics helped prompt creation of the Secretary’s Advisory Board on Wildlife Management in the National Parks, which resulted in the so-called Leopold Report issued in 1963. (The team was led by Starker Leopold, Aldo’s son.)

Many people think the report, which did much toward changing NPS policies toward “natural process management,” recommended against lethal wildlife population management, when in fact it did not. However, societal values about hunting and wildlife management continue to evolve and complicate choices for today’s decisionmakers.

Some NPS units — mostly preserves and recreation areas — are authorized by legislation to permit hunting and/or trapping. The new executive order requires units to answer whether their legislation permits recreational and/or commercial hunting or trapping, and how such opportunities might be expanded. While hunting has been on the decline for some time in much of the country, the trend is of major concern to traditional user groups and state agencies, which typically rely on revenue from hunting, trapping and fishing licenses to support their operating budgets.

It will be interesting to see how various publics engage in this call for expansion of a declining recreational pastime, and one that evokes controversy in and adjacent to national parks.

NOTE: Are you in resource management and interested in becoming a columnist in this space? Please contact the editor at fordedit@aol.com.