Local governments learn from research

Local government emergency managers in Western Australia have been upskilled in their decision making thanks to Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC research.

In partnership with the Western Australia Local Government Association (WALGA), CRC researchers A/Prof Ben Brooks and Dr Steve Curnin from the University of Tasmania facilitated two workshops on 22 and 23 October in Perth, with more than 30 participants from local governments across Western Australia taking part.

The Stretch Thinking for Crisis and Emergency Management workshops explored decision making theory, with participants exploring the influence of psychological safety and cognitive bias and discussing examples of best practice.

Each workshop involved a detailed discussion exercise scenario encompassing social, environmental, infrastructure and economic considerations. After sharing the results of their discussion, participants reflected on how their learnings about psychological safety and cognitive bias had been incorporated into their discussion. 
 
The attendees were provided examples on convergent and divergent thinking and asked unusual questions to inspire creative thinking. Discussions then turned to constraints in emergency management and how they could be used to prompt creative thinking.
 
Participants were then encouraged to apply their newly acquired skills to one part of their scenario, demonstrating how the training session inspired attendees to think more broadly within a short period of time. 
 
The final session of each workshop imposed another level of difficulty to the previous exercise scenario, with participants applying the principles they had learnt to the restricted scenario. 
 
Participants were enthusiastic in their engagement with the content and information collected after the workshops demonstrated that they had improved their understanding and skills in effective decision making during an incident or crisis. 
  
The workshops form part of the CRC project Building capacity in effective decision making for natural hazard emergencies within local government, which was awarded a Department of Fire and Emergency Services grant through the All West Australians Reducing Emergencies program to run the workshops in partnership with WALGA.

Participants upskilled in decision making at the Stretch Thinking for Crisis and Emergency Management workshops.