Ludwig on Leadership: Chance Favors Only the Prepared Mind

I recently watched a video of an EMS manager making a presentation in front of his city council. Apparently he wanted to add additional equipment and was making a supplemental request to his existing budget. To say I felt sorry for him was an understatement. He was not prepared in the least to answer questions from council members. His presentation, along with some PowerPoint slides, went well. But nice-looking PowerPoint slides with graphics that slide in and out and slides that pinwheel from one to another only go so for.

The EMS manager was trying to purchase some mechanical CPR devices to place on each ambulance. He wanted five, and the salesperson had quoted a price of approximately $14,000. Therefore, the EMS manager was trying to get an additional $14,000 in his budget. If you can read between the lines, you know where this is going: What the EMS manager failed to realize was that the devices were $14,000 apiece, and he was going to need an additional $70,000 in his budget to purchase five.

But it gets better!

After the EMS manager finished his presentation, in which he virtually read the slides, it was question-and-answer time from members of the city council.

These days many city council meetings are televised to the community. I remember years ago when I worked in St. Louis, Board of Aldermen meetings would usually last less than an hour—until they started broadcasting the meetings on cable TV. Suddenly meetings went longer than three hours. Many alderpersons felt compelled to talk, be seen and heard by their constituents. The same is true in many other communities. When they are broadcast on the local government channel, some elected representatives want the people they represent know they are engaged.

Council members are not dumb, and if you watch many of their meetings these days, some members have computers open in front of them. They can Google almost anything instantly and rapidly educate themselves on whatever the discussion is about. That is exactly what happened in this case. Some of the council members who heard this presentation by the EMS manager started asking questions after using their search engines to find mechanical CPR devices. They quickly discovered they are $14,000 apiece—not $14,000 for all five. When he was questioned about the price, the EMS manager’s face showed distress as he looked for words or something in his paperwork that would save him. He would not be saved this day, and like sharks sensing blood in the water, additional questions came from council members about mechanical CPR devices, including their save rates, recurring costs, drawbacks to their use, what other communities are using them, have family members ever sued after one did not work, etc.

Again, the EMS manager searched for the words that would extricate him from his failure to prepare for his presentation. There were no words, and in the end the council voted unanimously to deny the supplemental budget request.

More than 150 years ago, Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors only the prepared mind.” What he obviously meant by this is that success is no accident. Very seldom does going in and “winging it” lead to success. It does not matter if you are making a speech, a tax audit or a presentation in front of your city council.

Whenever I make a presentation to my city council as a fire chief, I spend many hours preparing before I even sit down in front of the microphone. In my conference room, with my deputy chiefs representing council members, I make my presentation. My deputy chiefs have to step outside their normal roles and play council members. This includes not knowing what our vernacular means. If I use the word “STEMI” in my presentation, one of my deputy chiefs will stop me and let me know that a council member would not know what a STEMI is. When I am done tweaking my presentation, they throw hypothetical questions at me that I should anticipate. We try to think of the question that would trip me up the most and how I would answer it. Only then am I ready to go in front of my council.

Louis Pasteur was right over 150 years ago and still is today. Chance does only favor the prepared mind. Make sure you are prepared whenever you go in front of your council, a civic organization, a neighborhood group or anywhere where preparation is needed for success.

Gary Ludwig, MS, EMT-P, is chief of the Champaign (IL) Fire Department. He is a well-known author and lecturer who has managed award-winning metropolitan fire-based EMS systems in St. Louis and Memphis. He has a total of 37 years of fire and EMS experience and has been a paramedic for over 35 years. Contact him at garyludwig.com.