The Wildland Fire Lessons Center (LLC) serves as a knowledge resource center for the interagency wildland fire community. The primary objectives of the LLC are to improve safe work performance and organizational learning in wildland fire. The LLC was established in May 2002.

The Guidance Group recently provided professional assistance to the Center through service contracts. Mike DeGrosky analyzed and organized wildland fire training curriculum recommendations, provided professional and technical editing to LLC publications, collected lessons learned and best practices by interviewing wildland fire agency personnel at wildfires, coauthored the Southern California Firestorm 2003 Lessons Learned report, and facilitated/instructed at Achieving the Learning Organization workshops. All tasks were completed on time or ahead of schedule and were of excellent quality.

The Guidance Group's extensive background in serving fire organizations was valuable in supporting the Lessons Learned Center effort to improve safe work performance and organizational learning.

Paula Nasiatka, Manager
Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center

Planning requires group decision making, which is very difficult. Prior to hiring a facilitator, we were struggling, unable to arrive at consensus on a number of key issues. Mike DeGrosky did an excellent job of moving us ahead, asking us the right questions, getting us to really think about what we wanted, piloting us successfully through the rough spots, and helping us find the direction that was right for us.

Pat Cole, Executive Director
Yellowstone Association

Michael DeGrosky has been working with the Public Lands Information Association for the past year. He has facilitated the process of formulating a strategic plan for our non-profit organization. I found Michael T. DeGrosky to have a wide range of experiences and skills which helped him understand many different kinds of people and gave him insights into situations that helped move our meetings in a positive direction. Michael's approach resulted in his gaining the confidence and support of even the most resistant participant in our strategic planning process and led to a productive and successful result. Michael was competent, professional, prepared and timely and we intend to use his services again.

Lisa D. Madsen, Executive Director
Public Lands Information Association

Professional facilitation of the Teton County Project Impact Convening Session resulted in a well-organized, highly productive and extremely successful initiation of our program. Over 50 partnerships with local agencies, businesses, and non-profit groups resulted from the meeting. Additionally, 77 volunteers from the community agreed to step forward and serve on subcommittees that would promote disaster resistance in Teton County.

Following the session, I had several individuals from the community contact my office saying how much they enjoyed the meeting even though the topic was disaster! Participants welcomed the opportunity to voice their concerns in an environment where every viewpoint was considered important. Further, attendees were able to see a viable product at the end of the meeting.

In July of this year, Teton County was named a National Model for Project Impact. Building consensus is not easy. In a community where individualism is a trademark, it’s a real challenge! Effective facilitation was key to launching this program successfully.

Georgia Smies
Teton County Project Impact Coordinator

We recently defined the mission and strategic direction for our Fire and Aviation program using a participatory and inclusive process. Our Fire and Aviation Strategic Plan documents and communicates our long-range focus, provides a foundation for future work planning and promotes unity and teamwork among the Department's internal and external stakeholders.

We found facilitation critical to achieving that purpose and to the success of our strategic planning process. Using a qualified, neutral coach from outside our organization aided our planning process in many ways.

The facilitator helped design the overall planning process, assisted with meeting planning and agendas for completing the planning process, helped identify people who should participate from within and outside the organization, facilitated the group process,allowing the agency personnel to focus on issues rather than process and encouraged participation, collaboration and consensus, while balancing individual needs. The unique thing about the Guidance Group is that they can provide us with skilled facilitators, mediators and other human and organizational specialists who also have real world fire management experience.

Tim Murphy, Chief
Fire & Aviation Bureau
Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation