Prove and Improve Your Capability in an Age of Complexity

A famous incident during a 1949 forest fire in Montana underscores the need to build confidence in leadership well before a group faces its most difficult challenges. A fire chief named Wagner Dodge was leading his team of fifteen smokejumpers into an area known as Mann Gulch when the wind shifted and a massive wall of flame headed their way. Dodge had analyzed the intensity of the fire, the wind conditions, and the speed at which the fire was traveling much more accurately than his crew. He knew that they could not outrun the fire. He quickly lit a small fire in front of them, an escape fire, in order to create a pre-burned area of ashes that would deprive the oncoming flames of fuel. All the men would be safe if they remained lying down ....19