One of the critical skills for any instructor is to be able to adapt to different conditions and to move outside of your comfort zone. Having trained with firefighters from literally dozens of countries in the last 4 decades, I have witnessed many ways to successfully conduct fire and rescue operations. The same can be said about practical training methods.
I relate it to the 80/20 principle. 80% of how firefighters respond around the world is surprisingly similar. I find the vast differences in the remaining 20% fascinating. These differences are generally driven by the context of geography and socioeconomic factors. By maintaining an open mind, we may be able to adapt some of this 20% to our own context. I firmly believe that the greatest potential for improvement lies in exposing ourselves to ideas that are different and challenging.
Shan Raffel