In the early 20th century, a horse pulling a wagon would all of a sudden gallop towards a burning building nearby, endangering itself, the driver, & the passengers.

What was the reason for this peculiar phenomenon?
And why does this matter today?

The Firehorse Effect, a thread:

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Fire has been one of the biggest dangers that humans have faced ever since they started living in structures.

In the olden days, firefighting was a community responsibility.

When a fire broke out, the people in a town or a village would form a "Bucket Brigade".

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Visualize a double-line of people passing buckets of water from a nearby water-source to the fire, and sending empty buckets back to be refilled. That’s a Bucket Brigade.

Eventually, tanks of water, hand pumps, & hoses became the preferred firefighting equipment.

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Then came steam pumps, more powerful & efficient. Great, but the equipment got heavy & it became difficult for firefighters to pull it to wherever the fire was.

What to do?

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Enter horses. It wasn’t an easy change. Horses had to be trained to reliably run towards a fire. They also had to be strong.

As horses became more commonly used to pull fire engines, places like Detroit even created a Horse College, along with report cards for each horse (!)

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What happens when one is trained to do a job well, is systematically evaluated, & rewarded or punished based on job performance? One often gets rather good at that job.

Same with these firehorses.

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At some point, a firehorse would be retired from the firefighting job & given the job of pulling wagons on the street.

A new job!

Things were generally fine in the beginning.

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But...........

Whenever a former firehorse heard a fire alarm or felt the presence of a fire nearby, it instinctively galloped towards the fire: terrorizing its drivers, passengers, & owners.

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This firehorse did a rather poor job in its new context due to the very behaviors and patterns that were reinforced in its old context.

Twitter, this is the Firehorse Effect.

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The Firehorse Effect is why some accomplished business leaders fail to inspire, create a compelling strategy, eliminate drama, or rebuild the culture when they take on a leadership role in a new organization.

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The Firehorse Effect is also why a manager with a string of prior successes is just unable to execute at your startup.

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What can be done about the Firehorse Effect?

As with most such things, the solution needs to be grounded in Self-awareness, Organizational-awareness, & Sound Management.

Leaders in a new setting should regularly think about the Firehorse Effect.

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Leaders in a new setting should take the time to observe & learn.

Doing is important, but doing without a deep understanding of one’s new role can be frustrating or even fatal.

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The leader should invite people to challenge them. Ask "X has worked for me in the past, will it work here?"

And the leader's managers & mentors need to help accelerate this process by candidly sharing organizational context & feedback during the leader's early days.

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That's about it for today.

What are some examples you’ve seen of the Firehorse Effect?

How have you or other people overcome the Firehorse Effect?

What did I miss?

Share your observations and feedback below or over DM.

Footnotes:

Oddly, the inspiration for this piece came from a bedtime book I read last year for my son: “What was the Great Chicago Fire?”

For more about horses in firefighting:
http://firehistory.weebly.com/a-history-of-horses-in-the-fire-service.html

Dalmatians & firehorses worked well as a team:
http://www.kearneyfire.org/History-of-the-Dalmation-in-the-Fire-Service.asp