Rube's Rule 7: Words we can all live by.

Chief Dennis Rubin says you shouldn’t have to raise your right hand. He believes it should be SOP to tell the truth. The chief writes about a concept few can argue with, but many ignore.

Recently I pointed out something I thought was missing in a column about public information officers written on the blog,  The Fire PIO, by Jeff Bressler. Jeff, who I do not know (but like what he writes even if I don’t always agree with him), had written about a bunch of ways to avoid saying “no comment” and how to handle the tough questions.

I responded on STATter911.com that “the truth shall set you free”. Jeff’s posting left out that you don’t need to be evasive with pesky reporters like me if you just tell the truth. I thought Jeff made up for his omission with a later column praising Warren Buffett’s ideas on handling crisis communication. Buffett was talking about Toyota, but the lesson is universal: get it right, get it fast, get it out, get it over.

Related to all of this is a column in the latest issue of Firehouse Magazine by DC Fire & EMS Department Chief Dennis Rubin. Chief Rubin, a regular contributor to the magazine, has had this concept of candor as one “Rube’s Rules”. The columns is titled Rule 7:  Tell the Truth — Always!. Here is part of that column (from an excerpt posted on Firehouse.com):

Tell the entire truth the first time and every time that you are asked. Understanding that our most precious resource is our people and that our people are human, the possibility does exist for deception, so it makes sense to talk about it in the rules. It seems like quite the irony that the folks that Americans trust the most, firefighters and paramedics, can sometimes withhold information, mislead or otherwise not be truthful in the workplace.

If you look at the report recently issued on reputation management by the Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firemen’s Association (CVVFA), or view many of the so-called “negative” stories from around the country that show up on this raggedy website, a common theme is that the truth gets lost somewhere along the way. It can be in the initial act or the cover-up.

For many years now there has been so much talk about leadership in the fire service. It seems the word is in the title of dozens of classes at each of the major conventions and gatherings around the country. A recent email conversation with Mike Dallessandro, who has RespondSmart.com and thinks and talks about this stuff all of the time, prompted me to ask is there anything more important from the people who lead the firefighters, paramedics and EMTs of today than providing an example of honest and ethical behavior?

If that is not your priority as a leader, aren’t you telling the troops the chief can get away with it, so anything goes? 

Besides the issue of personal responsibility, could leaders who fudge the truth and blur ethical lines be one of the other major contributing factors behind the problems outlined in the CVVFA report?

As usual, I don’t have the answers to these questions I am asking. I just think they are worth pondering.

My only question about what Chief Rubin has written is shouldn’t always telling the truth be bumped up to rule number one?

Isn’t that be the starting point and basis for everything else that goes on?