Launch enhances teamwork

Two checklists that will help incident controllers better deal with the stress of emergency management and enhance teamwork before, during and after an incident were formally launched in Melbourne last week.

Developed by Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC research, the Emergency Management Breakdown Aide Memoire and Team Process Checklist are both backed by extensive research and testing. They enable incident controllers and those in charge of a team during an incident to recognise when there is a breakdown in teamwork and provide a health check to ensure teams are working at a premium when they are needed most.

The checklists provide guidelines to improve team processes before, after and during an emergency, says research leader A/Prof Chris Bearman (CQUniversity).

“The checklists were very much driven by a gap that we identified through our research in the ways that agencies operated at the time,” A/Prof Bearman said.

The two checklists are designed to shift the focus away from blaming people and place an emphasis on error recovery and minimisation. They are a flexible way to closely examine teamwork from a range of perspectives.

“Teamwork will breakdown from time to time,” A/Prof Bearman says.

“So what we need to do is to be able to quickly and effectively detect and recover from these breakdowns.”

Mark Thomason, Manager of Risk and Lessons Management at the South Australia Country Fire Service, believes emergency management agencies have a lot to gain from using both of the checklists, particularly those who work in incident management teams, strike teams and at regional and state operation centres.

“The tools are straight-forward and practical, and adaptive to the needs of individual emergency managers,” he said.

“They are invaluable not only during operational response but also in debriefs and training. I recommend you use it with your incident management teams,” Mr Thomason said.

Both checklists have been utilised by the South Australia Country Fire Service, Tasmania Fire Service and used by NSW State Emergency Service.

The tools were launched in front of an audience of 100 researchers, end-users and agency staff from around Australia at the AFAC Lessons Management Forum in Melbourne on 15 August.

Download the Emergency Management Breakdown Aide Memoire and the Team Process Checklist here.

What are the Emergency Management Breakdown Aide Memoire and Team Process Checklist?

The Emergency Management Breakdown Aide Memoire is a quick and easy checklist, which identifies teamwork issues at a general level and provides practical solutions to resolve any breakdowns that are detected. It has been designed to be integrated into the role of a senior officer and focuses on organisational networks and the outputs of teams.

Five methods of resolving problems in team functioning are integrated within the checklist. These cover delegating tasks; providing additional resources; mentoring; asserting authority and replacing people in the team. All are designed to improve teamwork in what can be challenging working environments during a bushfire, cyclone or flood, when lives could be at stake.

If a problem is identified or a further health check is required, then the Team Process Checklist is used. This checklist prompts teams to think about the three aspects that should be present in effective teams - communication; coordination and cooperation - in an open questionnaire format. Any issues that are identified are then discussed with the team.