Culture Is What You Do, Not What You Say

By Caleb Floyd

A firehouse’s identity is built through consistent, everyday behaviors lived out by rookies, senior firefighters, and officers alike

The word cult comes from the Latin word cultus, which means; care, cultivation, worship, or reverence. In ancient times, a cult simply referred to a system of religious worship devoted to a particular deity, person, or practice. It had no negative meaning. The same Latin root gives us cultivate (to nurture and grow), culture (originally the cultivation of land, later of society and ideas), and agriculture (cultivation of fields).

In my limited experience, I’ve noticed people will use the word “cult” to negatively describe a crew’s culture. Based on the Latin root and the original meaning, cult and culture mean the same thing. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what word you use. In a firehouse, people will rarely buy into a culture because they’re told to. They buy into it because they see it lived out consistently by the people around them, especially senior firefighters and company officers.

Let’s define how culture is perceived. A lot of departments say things like professionalism, brotherhood, or tradition, but those are vague. Instead, let’s make it concrete: we train every shift, we clean and maintain our equipment, we take care of our people, we treat patients with respect, we own our mistakes, we leave the station better than we found it. People can buy into behaviors more easily than slogans. This is why we must lead by example. The fastest way to kill culture is to say one thing and do another. If the culture is fitness, the leaders work out. If the culture is training, the leaders show up and participate. If the culture is being a professional, then leaders make the job their priority; not their side gig. People will watch what you tolerate far more than what you preach.

Most firefighters will work hard if they understand the purpose. Explain the “why.” Instead of, “Because that’s how we’ve always done it” say, “We train every day because when a citizen calls 911, they expect us to be competent.”

Humans naturally gravitate toward what’s recognized, so make the culture rewarding. The behaviors that get attention become the behaviors that spread. Good or bad. If you build belonging, people will support that culture.

Give newer firefighters responsibilities, opportunities to contribute, a voice in training ideas, and ownership of projects. When someone helps build the culture, they become invested in protecting it. This is where standards become important. One highly motivated firefighter can be destroyed by a culture that lets poor attitudes and undisciplined behavior slide.

Consistency matters: same expectations for everyone, same accountability for everyone, no favorites! Culture is ultimately what a group is willing to tolerate.

The fire service is a team sport, so how do we build a dream team? The strongest firehouses usually aren’t built around being “hardcore.” They’re built around being competent. The houses that people respect tend to have members who know their job, train often, stay physically capable, take care of each other, and remain humble to keep learning. The culture becomes self-sustaining because everyone wants to be part of a crew that performs well when the tones drop.

If you’re trying to build culture in your station, the approach is different if you’re a rookie firefighter, a senior man, or a company officer. Each has a different role in influencing the crew.

Rookies

Most rookies think they have no influence because they have no authority. That’s not true. A rookie’s influence comes from effort, attitude, and humility. You build culture by showing up early, training without being told, taking care of the station, being coachable, asking good questions, and accepting criticism without getting defensive.

Every time a rookie demonstrates those traits, they reinforce the idea that those behaviors matter. A rookie who says, “That’s not my job” can poison a culture. A rookie who says: “I’ll take care of it” can elevate a culture. You won’t change the station overnight, but you can absolutely strengthen the standards that already exist. The biggest mistake rookies make is trying to change the culture before they’ve earned credibility. Learn first. Observe first. Work first. Then, over time, your example will start to influence others.

The Senior Firefighter

Culture is usually won or lost with the senior firefighters. Most firefighters don’t spend their shift with the chief. They spend it with the senior men. Whether he knows it or not, the senior firefighter teaches what’s acceptable, what’s unacceptable, how hard people work, how seriously training is taken, and how rookies are treated and trained. The senior firefighter is often the real culture carrier. Every rookie is watching you. If you cut corners, they’ll cut corners. If you train hard, they’ll train hard. If you complain constantly, they’ll learn that, too. Whether intentional or not, you’re teaching every day.

A strong culture isn’t built by speeches. It’s built by a firefighter holding the standard and saying, “Hey man, let’s do that again” or “That’s not how we operate here.” Those small corrections matter. Additionally, you have to stay positive. The senior firefighter who constantly complains becomes a cancer. The inverse is a senior man who acknowledges problems and proposes solutions. The biggest mistake senior firefighters make is becoming cynical. Nothing destroys a station faster than respected firefighters who no longer care.

The Officer

The officer has the most formal authority, but culture isn’t created through authority. It comes from what the officer rewards, tolerates, and models.

“The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.”

That’s especially true for officers. But how do officers build culture? You set clear expectations; nobody should have to guess. The crew should know how to operate on the fireground, how training will be conducted, how the apparatus will look, how reports should be completed, and (maybe most importantly) how firefighters will treat each other. Clarity creates consistency, this is accomplished by explaining the mission.

People are naturally more committed when they understand why something matters. Don’t just say, “We’re doing hose deployment drills.” Connect every expectation to the mission. Strong officers don’t create followers; they create more leaders. They let firefighters teach drills, run projects, take ownership, and make decisions. That creates long-term buy-in.

Hold everyone accountable equally. Nothing kills culture and creates division faster than favorites. If standards apply to one firefighter, they must apply to all firefighters.

Consistency helps build trust. A mistake officers can fall into is trying to demand culture instead of creating it. You can order compliance however, you cannot order commitment, commitment is earned.

Nothing I’m saying is new, or outside the box. I would venture to say most people would agree that the strongest stations usually have junior guys who are hungry and want to learn. Senior firefighters who care and invest in the next generation. Officers who serve, and provide direction, resources, and accountability. When those three groups align, culture becomes self-sustaining.

A rookie will arrive on his first day and immediately understand, “This is how we do things here.” Culture isn’t just words; it’s the identity of the crew. The goal isn’t to create a culture where everyone is friends. The goal is to create an environment where every firefighter trusts that the person next to him or her is competent, prepared, and committed when the tones drop. Everything else grows from that foundation.

Caleb Floyd has been serving with the Garland Fire Department for a year and half. Though new to his department, he is not new to the fire service. He is a second-generation firefighter and prior to becoming a municipal firefighter he was a firefighter in the US Air Force for six years, where he was able to forward deploy on two different occasions.