ACL in Action: Greg Tryon - Central Valley Fire District

A common question we get from students going through the program is “How do you apply Adaptive Community Leadership in real life?” What a fabulous opportunity to highlight the great work our alumni are doing every day.

This month, to answer this question, we head (virtually) over to Belgrade, Montana. LE Class of 2016 grad, past board member, coach, facilitator and all-around LE advocate, Greg Tryon, is using adaptive community leadership every day to transform his new organization and community.

Greg moved to Montana to lead the Central Valley Fire District in November 2021 and very quickly began implementing and teaching adaptive community leadership practices. He’s been Chief for only a little over a year and he can already see the impact his LE ACL training is having on his organization and the community.

“Those who have taken the adaptive community leadership training are showing up differently and talking to each other in ways that have never happened before,” said Tryon. “Assumptions are being put aside, colleagues are exploring each other’s viewpoints to find understanding, and teams are working together better than ever.”

Greg receiving his Leadership Eastside Adaptive Community Leadership Certificate from James Whitfield in 2016.

Greg has noticed that those who have been through the training are more willing to sit in the discomfort, are having conversations with people they wouldn’t normally engage and are able to use these critical skills in new ways when engaging different groups of people.

“In life, I’ve noticed that most often people in disagreement are saying nearly the same thing, but from the viewpoint of their own values. Once you take the time to engage and learn what the other person’s values and perspectives are, you can better understand why they are expressing their viewpoints differently than you. Having a safe space and a common language makes these conversations easier and more frequent.

I find that engaging all the people impacted by an issue pays back in dividends. It’s happening here in just my first year of teaching adaptive community leadership to the local fire teams. We now have new connections with cities, city councils, food banks, social workers and other nonprofit organizations. A big bright red fire truck brings people together and now we are doing a way better job of engaging those people in conversations.”

Perhaps the most telling outcome of Greg’s adaptive community leadership training classes is that the fire academy trainers are asking for candidates to go through Greg’s ACL training before arriving for full fire academy. Why? Because those who are ACL trained before going through the fire academy worked much more cohesively, were more teachable, trusted each other and worked better as a team, ultimately shaving two weeks off the length of fire training.

Are you seeing great results by applying your ACL training? Send us your story: info@leadershipeastside.com.