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Leadership: Lemons to Lemonade
Presenter: Chief Dennis L. Rubin, DC Fire and EMS Department, Washington DC.
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Only 12 days after Dennis Rubin began serving as Chief of Police for the Washington D.C. area, a house fire broke out that claimed the life of a five year old girl. Six callers dialed 911 and all six gave an incorrect address. However, the engine responding saw the house that was on fire and recognized that the addresses were wrong.
Although the response time was less than five minutes and the house did not have working smoke alarms, media reports focused the blame on the response team. The D.C. fire department was determined to turn this “lemon into lemonade” by implementing an aggressive program called SAVU (Smoke Alarm Verification and Utilization) to install working smoke alarms in every household, free of charge. In this lecture, Chief Rubin discusses this incident and others where he had to take a bad situation and use it to better the reputation of the department in the D.C. area. He also gives his “Rube’s Rules” on how to be a great leader for your department.