Succession Planning: Let’s Talk About Our Future

With an aging workforce and an industry facing an unprecedented global pandemic, it is critical to open a dialogue related to succession planning. In a January 2020 article prominent EMS leader Rob Lawrence called attention to the “elephant in the room” of the aging population of current industry leaders;¹ yet this elephant continues to be woefully ignored. 

Nearly six years prior to Lawrence’s discussion of this issue, workforce experts Ahmed Al-Asfour and Larry Lettau opined that leadership development becomes increasingly critical considering the Baby Boomer generation currently occupies many senior leadership positions.² These Baby Boomers are actively leaving or retiring from EMS and other industries, taking with them vast amounts of institutional knowledge and leadership competencies. This exodus is compounded by the fact that many organizations (regardless of industry) have failed to allocate adequate resources to develop a next-generation leadership pipeline.³ 

In the EMS industry alone, consider that 46% of states and territories do not have a formal EMS leadership development program, and 85% of participants in a 2014 study of EMS officials noted their organization does not require leadership education.⁴ Yet these failures that exist in multiple industries are exacerbated by the lack of senior-level leaders and human resources departments addressing the how-tos of learning, developing, and improving leadership practices.⁵ 

So the question becomes, how does the EMS industry resolve this issue? The answer lives in the term succession planning, or what can be summarized as “bench strength.” While succession planning may seem daunting, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) gives some key areas to review and focus on. This article will introduce and explore these concepts as they relate to EMS. Specifically, these OPM topics cover workforce analysis; competency modeling and gap analysis; strategic alignment; and leadership potential assessment, which will be coupled with the theory of problem-based learning.⁶

Workforce Analysis

As the title of this section implies, current leaders within EMS organizations must start by analyzing their workforce. This includes its demographics: who is retirement-eligible, agency turnover rates, etc. Once this initial analysis of the workforce is done, consider what functions and staff are key to the operation. Develop key checklists and begin training others to fill those staffing and functional roles. All this helps to identify the strengths and potential holes in existing staff and what the leadership pipeline will look like.

Competency Modeling, Gap Analysis, and Assessment

As EMS leaders we must work collectively on defining and developing the competencies the next generation’s leaders will need. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) discusses competency modeling and gap analysis in relation to identification of core and technical competencies needed to achieve the organization’s mission. While every EMS agency considers the missions of public health and emergency medicine as critical and trains providers in the competencies of clinical care, do we consider business operations in the same way? The anecdotal answer is no, as the EMS industry traditionally promotes from within. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s probably not good when the excellent clinician is thrust into a leadership role without training.

As Lawrence identified, taking the “small step” and allowing others access to those closely guarded areas such as budgeting is a way to develop additional competencies. To understand these business competencies, it is critical to look at what the critical aspects of EMS are and identify what gaps exist within them for those who may be the next generation’s leaders. 

How does an agency assess these competencies and gaps? First, establish a panel of subject matter experts (SMEs) within the organization that can identify mission-critical operations. Then survey the incumbents and those who are potential leaders to assess their understanding of these functions. Once the baseline has been established for comprehension and application of these competencies, you’re ready for a leadership potential assessment.

The OPM process uses two steps to complete this. Step one is to assess the ability of future leaders to meet benchmarks associated with the proficiency of performing critical competencies. Without access to the tools of the OPM, it would be beneficial for the EMS industry to create problem-based learning scenarios, while affording future leaders the ability to experience both coaching and mentoring. 

The second step is the use of assessments completed by future leaders. These are designed to evaluate their motivation to lead. Again it would behoove our industry to employ leadership assessment tools such as Wiley’s Everything DiSC (www.everything disc.com/work-of-leaders). While not the focus of this article, understanding one’s own leadership style (self-reflection) is critical to leadership growth. Self-reflection assists in identifying a potential leader’s strengths and growth opportunities.⁷ These opportunities can be coupled into the development model by linking a coach or mentor with the future leader. Yet all of this is less than effective in developing a succession plan if the industry does not evaluate and incorporate strategic alignment.

Strategic Alignment

Much like with competency modeling, EMS organizations should use SMEs to conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. This analysis should be forward-looking and focus on 3–5 years from the present. Utilize the data obtained in the workforce assessment and gap analysis to drive the vision process. This is not a one-and-done process; the EMS organization should also continue to advance the vision statement to maintain relevance while creating learning environments to prepare the next generation’s leaders. To create these learning environments, current leaders and the EMS industry must embrace problem-based learning theory.

Problem-Based Learning Theory

While the understanding of succession planning relies on internal assessment, establishing competencies, and preparing future leaders, it is all for naught if the industry does not afford learning in a no-fault environment. To achieve this we need to use problem-based learning beyond the clinical aspects. Singaporean management experts Elaine Yew and Karen Goh identified that health sciences embrace problem-based learning in the clinical aspects to deal with real-life problems through the application of education and training with great success.⁸ This is evident in the many EMS certification programs across the nation that utilize scenario-driven clinical exercises to enhance learning. 

Yet when the application of problem-based learning scenarios comes to developing a budget, human resources issues, or overall agency leadership competencies, the EMS industry fails. There’s limited leadership-development research specific to EMS to demonstrate it, but it’s plausible to assume that if the industry applies the theories of problem-based learning and mentoring, it will realize greater success in succession planning.

Putting It All Together

The EMS industry as we know it today faces unprecedented challenges far beyond the current pandemic. Among them it has failed to embrace leadership development to create bench strength. To be successful at succession planning, leadership development must integrate practice-based (problem-based) learning models coupled with stand-alone training and certification programs.⁵ The EMS industry must start addressing the elephant in the room of an aging leadership by creating succession plans and a leadership development pipeline. Finally, while this pipeline must incorporate the concepts of problem-based learning scenarios, coaching, and mentoring, the EMS industry as a whole must do better at researching nonclinical aspects.  

References

1. Lawrence R. We cannot afford to ignore the EMS elephant of an aging leadership. EMS1, 2020 Jan 14; www.ems1.com/leadership/articles/we-cannot-afford-to-ignore-the-ems-elephant-of-an-aging-leadership-SJowspUSEx7Lq5DH/.

2. Al-Asfour A, Lettau L. Strategies for Leadership Styles for Multi-Generational Workforce. J Leadership Accountability Ethics, 2014 Jan; 11(2): 58–69.

3. Fernandez-Aráoz C, Roscoe A, Aramaki K. Turning potential into success: The missing link in leadership development. Harvard Business Review, 2017 Nov–Dec; 95(6), 86-93.

4. National Association of State EMS Officials. Emergency medical services leadership education: A state-by-state compendium of EMS leadership development education, 2014.

5. Petrie N. Future Trends in Leadership Development (White Paper). Center for Creative Leadership, 2015; www.ccl.org/articles/white-papers/trends-report-talent-reimagined/.

6. U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Services for Agencies Workforce & Succession Planning, www.opm.gov/services-for-agencies/workforce-succession-planning/succession-planning.

7. Everything DiSC. 363 for Leaders, www.everythingdisc.com/Solutions/363.aspx.

8. Yew EHJ, Goh K. (2016). Problem-based learning: An overview of its process and impact on learning. Health Professions Education, 2016; 2(2): 75–9.

Aaron M. Rhone, PhD, holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in organizational leadership from Northcentral University. He has nearly two decades in the emergency medical services field and is a part-time faculty member at Columbia Southern University and a state EMS official.