Has anyone heard the word firestarter used at conferences, or the like, for those who are the changemakers? I've been at a conference on transforming education, and that term has been used a lot, and some of us were designated as firestarters. The facilitator indicated that this is a term used with transformation initiatives, but I sure couldn't find it anywhere on the net. Thoughts?

Well, Firestarter is a 1980 Stephen King novel, subsequently made into a movie (1984). But that's probably not the "firestarter" you mean.

Quint Studer was born in 1951 to a blue collar family. He was small, partially deaf, picked on by bullies, and had low self-esteem. Although his grades were low he scored well on a college entrance exam, much to his surprise. A guidance counselor helped him to get into college on probation and he managed to graduate with a 2.5 GPA with a Bachelor's degree in special education. He excelled at teaching and eventually went back to college to get his Master's. He also drank, and by 1982 he had two failed marriages and mounting debt. He knew something had to change. He began to rebuild his life. In the process of recovering from alcoholism he got into the health care field, eventually forming the Studer Group, a nationally recognized health care consulting firm. The Studer Group has over 100 employees who "help organizations create environments that make health care a better place for employees to work, physicians to practice medicine and patients to receive care."

Quint Studer: “In early civilizations, fire starters taught others how to keep the flame alive. If they were successful, the tribe lived. If they were not, the tribe died. It was that simple."

Pensacola Independent News, July 7, 2005 - Quint Studer - The Story of a Fire Starter
Wikipedia - Quint Studer
Studer Group - About Quint
Executive IdaLink: Moving from CEO to Chief Fire Starter, July 004

Books by Quint Studer:
Hardwiring Excellence: Purpose, Worthwhile Work (March 2004 )
101 Answers to Questions Leaders Ask (April 1, 2005)
What's Right in Health Care: 365 Stories of Purpose, Worthwhile Work, and Making a Difference (June 1, 2007)
Results That Last: Hardwiring Behaviors That Will Take Your Company to the Top(October 19, 2007)
Straight A Leadership: Alignment Action Accountability (December 1, 2009)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,

Well, a firestarter is (unsurprisingly) someone who starts fires, so could be used I suppose as an analogy for someone who sets a train of events in motion, or an innovator.

However, I'd have thought that the connotations of the word are rather negative, being generally used to refer to arsonists. Presumably being a firestarter is meant to be a positive thing is this context, though? It seems like a rather ill-thought-out example of pointless jargon to me.

I think it's used in the sense of "to build (or light) a fire under" someone, that is, to motivate to action, to get someone "all fired up." Are these idioms used in the UK?

While the term isn't common in my limited circle, I have heard it used both ways.

It isn't common in my crowd, either, but people in the west seemed to know it. Yes, arnie, it sounds like a negative term to me, as well, though it was meant to be a positive one here.

This was an interesting conference, and I learned a lot about our country. They had people from the west sit on one side, people from the east sit on the other side, and people from the midwest were to sit at tables in the middle. Well, these westerners apparently think Illinois is an eastern state as my table was in on the east coast. But, beyond that, the people acted very differently. Those who were at tables on the east side seemed to be more quiet, more prompt, and more rule-bound. They were more reluctant to speak out in the meeting of about 200. The one exception was the table from NY, which was a boisterous one. The people at the east coast tables even dressed more conservatively. Those seated on the west coast, however, were louder, dressed far more casually, and were walking in and out, and talking out during the meetings. The midwest tables were a mixture. One might expect that difference, but because of this format, one could really see the regional variations.