@article {bnh-5084, title = {A literature review of methods for providing enhanced operational oversight of teams in emergency management}, journal = {International Journal of Emergency Management}, volume = {14}, year = {2018}, month = {08/2018}, abstract = {

Teamwork is an important component of effective emergency management. From time to time teamwork will break down in the complex situations involved in managing emergencies. It is important for people who have operational oversight of these teams to be able to detect breakdowns quickly and effectively. However, there is typically little guidance within many agencies about how best to do this. This paper reviews the literature on team monitoring by observers in emergency management and related domains and identifies four key approaches to monitoring teams: 1) coordination, cooperation and task-related communication; 2) information flow; 3) linguistic analysis; 4) team outputs. These methods provide a number of different options that agencies involved in emergency management can use as the basis for developing enhanced operational oversight of teams.

}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJEM.2018.094237}, url = {https://www.inderscience.com/info/inarticle.php?artid=94237}, author = {Christopher Bearman and Rainbird, Sophia and Brooks, B and Owen, Christine and Steve Curnin} } @article {bnh-4218, title = {Decision making, team monitoring and organisational learning in emergency management: annual project report 2016-17}, number = {345}, year = {2017}, month = {09/2017}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Strategic level emergency management is becoming ever more sophisticated as emergencies caused by natural hazards become more complex and dynamic. If we are going to expect people to operate in this increasingly complex environment we need to make sure that they have the necessary skills and tools.\  This is especially true of non-technical skills such as teamwork and decision making.\  This project aims to develop simple practical tools that help people to make better decisions and manage teams more effectively.\  As part of this work we are also interested in understanding some of the enablers and barriers to effective research utilization.\  The project therefore has three streams: team monitoring, decision making and organizational learning.

In the team monitoring stream, two teamwork checklists have been developed based on an extensive literature review and discussions with our end-user partners.\  These checklists (known as EMBAM \& TPC) have been trialed during exercises, real time operations and debriefs with encouraging results.\  Qualitative and quantitative studies have so far shown that these checklists are clear, concise and provide useful information that can be used to improve teamwork.

In the decision making stream, we have conducted three interrelated studies that examined how emergency management organisations maintain, assess, and improve the quality of their decisions. The three studies included using a critical decision method to explore strategic decision making during an international disaster, exercising teams in simulated emergency events and training focused on improving decision making skills and knowledge. The resultant qualitative and quantitative research has identified several consistent themes in terms of where participants perceive their organisations to be performing well and areas that can lead to improvements in decision-making. Further tranches of data collection have been scheduled to verify these results across 2017.

The key aim of the organizational learning stream is to help emergency management staff to function more effectively in increasingly complex environments. Its overall approach is to help agencies to {\textquoteright}learn how to learn{\textquoteright}, so they understand how to embed effective learning practices and systems into their organisation{\textquoteright}s culture. The experiential learning model, which is grounded in real-world experiences rather than classroom training, is a key focus of this research. No organisation can forgo learning. All experiences provide opportunities for learning to occur. A key insight for agencies interested in facilitating improvements in learning is to locate potential weak links in the learning cycle and to develop a better understanding of how to learn.

}, issn = {345}, author = {Christopher Bearman and Brooks, B and Owen, Christine and Steve Curnin and Rainbird, Sophia and Heather Stuart} } @conference {bnh-3886, title = {Enhancing team performance}, booktitle = {AFAC17}, year = {2017}, month = {09/2017}, publisher = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, organization = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Sydney}, abstract = {

Effective teamwork is vital when managing emergencies.\  Emergencies can exert extreme pressures on emergency teams, their leaders and co-responders. These pressures sometimes cause breakdowns in teamwork that can lead to impaired operational response.\  This project helps to improve teamwork through better real-time identification and resolution of teamwork issues. To do this the project has developed two tools: the Emergency Management Breakdown Aide Memoire (EMBAM) and the Team Process Checklist (TPC). The tools{\textquoteright} flexibility and ease of use helps emergency managers to strengthen teamwork before, during and after emergencies. The tools can be used during training, in actual emergencies, and in after-action reviews. End-users have so far found the tools to be highly valuable.

}, author = {Christopher Bearman and Rainbird, Sophia and Owen, Christine and Brooks, B and Steve Curnin} } @article {bnh-5076, title = {An assessment of the opportunities to improve strategic decision-making in emergency and disaster management}, journal = {Australian Journal of Emergency Management}, year = {2016}, month = {10/2016}, abstract = {

The management of major emergencies is strongly influenced by the decisions made during the event. Decisions guide the distribution and subsequent deployment of assets, the removal of people from harm{\textquoteright}s way, how objectives are established and a myriad of other actions. Decision-making is therefore an important skill for emergency managers that permeates every emergency event and every level of disaster management. The vast majority of decisions made during an incident are effective enough in both process and outcome, but the drive for continual improvement and the need to manage more extreme events requires decision-making to become sophisticated and to achieve even higher levels of reliability. So how well are emergency management organisations integrating acknowledged developments in the understanding of decision-making? Where are the opportunities for continual improvement? What are some of the challenges that the expert decision-maker is required to balance across an event? This paper examines key concepts that have progressed the understanding of decision-making. A review of preliminary interactions with end-users of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC (CRC) research project {\textquoteright}Practical decision tools for improved decision-making in complex situations{\textquoteright} considers how Australian and New Zealand are using this knowledge to make decisions. Opportunities for improvement and the approaches being taken to evaluate cognitive decision tools for end-users are identified.

}, url = {https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/ajem-oct-2016-an-assessment-of-the-opportunities-to-improve-strategic-decision-making-in-emergency-and-disaster-management/}, author = {Brooks, B and Steve Curnin and Christopher Bearman and Owen, Christine and Rainbird, Sophia} } @article {bnh-3081, title = {Decision making, team monitoring and organisational learning in emergency management: Annual project report 2015-2016}, number = {222}, year = {2016}, month = {09/2016}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

There is evidence that incidents associated with natural hazards are becoming more complex and that strategic level emergency management is becoming an ever more sophisticated workplace environment. If we are going to expect people to operate in this environment we need to ensure that their skills and tools effectively support them. We need to develop the capability of our people to function in these increasingly complex environments now and into the future.

This project seeks to develop practical decision tools that can help people to function more effectively in complex emergency management environments. Towards this aim the project has three main research streams that seek to: provide enhanced methods of making decisions; develop methods to better monitor and modify the behavior of teams; and to identify the enablers and barriers to organisational learning so that the capabilities needed can continue to adapt and change.

In the team monitoring stream, a comprehensive literature review of methods to monitor teams from the position of operational oversight has been conducted. Based on this literature review and discussions with end users two methods (EMBAM \& TBM) have been selected and have received preliminary evaluation. This preliminary evaluation has proved to be encouraging and has led to both NSW SES and CFS proposing to use the tools operationally during the 2016-17 storm and fire seasons. This will provide further opportunities for evaluation and development.

In the decision making stream, research has identified both the context in which decisions are made (e.g. the policies \& procedures) and the informal strategies that people use to function within dynamic, pressured work environments. This work has identified opportunities for improvement and ways to bring the formal and informal elements of decision-making closer together. Decision making has also been explored in the context of organisational resilience and the REAG Resilience Health Check Tool. Based on these activities strategies and approaches to enhance decision making have been identified and will be evaluated with end-users through 2016-17.

In the organisational learning stream, interviews have revealed that strategic-level emergency managers need to assess learning through trade-offs where agency values and the complexities involved in managing incidents interact. The findings also suggest that there are sometimes complementary but often conflicting standards against which crisis management may be judged. Finally there is often a difference between assumptions about how emergencies {\textquotedblleft}ought{\textquotedblright} to be managed (espoused theories) and how they in fact are managed. The research in this stream is now focused in working closely with end users to unpack these tensions and contradictions.

Through these three streams of activity then the project is developing a range of practical tools and strategies that have the potential to enhance decision making, team monitoring and organisational learning. It seems likely that strategic emergency management will be becoming increasingly complex in the near future. The research presented here contributes to developing the capability

}, issn = {222}, author = {Christopher Bearman and Brooks, B and Owen, Christine and Steve Curnin and Rainbird, Sophia and Stuart Matthews} } @article {bnh-2646, title = {Proposed tools for monitoring teams in emergency management}, number = {162}, year = {2016}, month = {03/2016}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

As part of their role in managing emergencies regional and state level emergency managers (SEMs) monitor the activities of operational teams below them in the agency to ensure that those teams are functioning safely and effectively. Teams operating in complex dynamic environments are likely to experience disruptions to their teamwork (particularly in the early phases of an emergency). If these disruptions are not managed effectively they will cause the team to move out of conceptualised safe spaces of operation, firstly into the {\textquotedblleft}zone of coping ugly{\textquotedblright} then into an area where incidents and accidents become more likely to occur.


The question then is how SEMs can best manage teams to ensure that they are functioning effectively. There are a number of methods for examining the performance of teams that have been presented in the literature on teamwork. However, none of these have been used in an emergency management context. Two of these methods have been selected as initially warranting further consideration and will be modified and trialled in the initial phases of the evaluation stage of the project. These methods are: The Emergency Management Breakdown Aide Memoire (EMBAM) and a Teamwork Behavioural Markers tool based on the work of Wilson et al. (2007).


The Emergency Management Breakdown Aide Memoir (EMBAM) is a guide to assist the identification of teamwork breakdowns across the various organisational levels by listing indicators of breakdowns. This includes categories, such as: missing information, conflicting expectations, inconsistent information, intuition, familiarity, and networks. The team behavioural markers tool is based on a set of behavioural markers of teamwork developed by Wilson et al. (2007). It is designed so a person can scan the list and think about the items to ensure that aspects of good team performance are being followed and if not, to be able to identify what is going wrong.


In the next stages of the project the research team and a small group of end-users (selected from a wider set of end-users involved with the project) will iteratively develop and test the two team monitoring tools that have initially been identified as warranting further consideration. In this way, enhanced methods for monitoring teams can be developed that can be used for the early detection of problems that if unresolved, can lead to impaired operational performance.

}, issn = {162}, author = {Christopher Bearman and Rainbird, Sophia and Brooks, B and Owen, Christine} } @article {bnh-1663, title = {Capturing community experiences: South Australian bushfires January 2014}, number = {052}, year = {2015}, month = {03/2015}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Lightning strikes in January 2014 caused a number of significant bushfire events in South Australia that continued into February. Fires in and around Eden Valley, Bangor and Rockleigh provided an opportunity to conduct research into the bushfire risk perceptions, decision-making processes and behaviour of residents across three very different fire events involving a rapid-onset fire (Eden Valley), a long-campaign fire (Bangor), and repeat fire incidents (Rockleigh).

During April and May 2014, 171 residents in affected communities were interviewed and 606 South Australians participated in a complementary online (statewide) survey. Approximately one in two (49\%) survey respondents considered their residential area to have been impacted by fire, and almost one in five (17\%) indicated that they were directly impacted by the fires, and one in five (20\%) experienced fire threat without property damage. The aim of the research was to inform SA Country Fire Service about community members{\textquoteright} experiences of bushfires in South Australia, with particular attention to a range of research questions grouped under the three themes discussed below. The nature of the study has allowed us to provide observations and insights on each one of these themes. However, it should be noted that cause and effect relationships between the factors should not be inferred.

}, isbn = {978-0-9941696-2-4}, issn = {052}, author = {Trigg, Josh and Rainbird, Sophia and Kirrilly Thompson and Christopher Bearman and Wright, Lyndsey and Jim McLennan} } @article {bnh-2594, title = {Decision making, team monitoring and organisational performance: Part One Executive Summary}, number = {69}, year = {2015}, month = {08/2015}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

This research report is an interim report for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC project Practical Decision Tools for Improved Decision-Making in Complex Situations. The project plan for this research includes three main research streams: Decision making, team monitoring and organisational performance. The initial work in the project has identified that the three research streams in the project are best treated as interrelated but distinct bodies of work.

For ease, these have been published as separate documents.

All parts can be located at www.bnhcrc.com.au, under the Practical decision tools for improved decision-making in complex, time constrained and multi-team environments project page.

Each of the research streams has been coordinated by one of the principal researchers in the project and each research stream is thus considered discretely in this report.\  While we have chosen to present the research streams individually here there is a large degree of interrelation between the streams, particularly between the team monitoring and organisational performance streams; and both are informed by the decision-making tranche of work. The interdependence of these streams will be emphasized in later phases of the research project.\ \ 

}, issn = {69}, author = {Christopher Bearman and Brooks, B and Owen, Christine and Steve Curnin and Keith Fitzgerald and Grunwald, J and Rainbird, Sophia} } @article {bnh-2314, title = {Practical decision tools for improved decision-making in complex, time-constrained and multi-team environments: Annual project report 2014-2015}, number = {126}, year = {2015}, month = {10/2015}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

This annual report presents information about the Bushfire and Natural Hazard CRC funded project: Cognitive Decision Strategies, which is concerned with decision making, team monitoring and organisational performance in emergency management.\ 

As the incidents associated with natural hazards increase in complexity, duration, and the number of agencies involved, there is likely to be an increased frequency of degraded operational situations, breakdowns within and between teams and the occurrence of errors. These problems will play out within the context of a decreasing tolerance in the community and their political representatives to emergency management coordination failure.\  The current project has three main research streams that aim to: Provide enhanced methods of making decisions in complex situations; develop methods to better monitor teams to detect breakdowns and disconnects that can impair operational performance; and to develop enhanced methods for agencies to evaluate and learn from their operational performance.

Towards this end the research team have visited 18 agencies in Australia and New Zealand to collect data and discuss the issues around decision making, team monitoring and to identify how agencies currently assess and learn from reviewing their organisational performance.\  The team has discussed the research and/or collected data with: chief officers, deputy chief officers, principle rural fire officers (NZ), state coordination personnel, regional coordination personnel, and incident management team personnel.\  These personnel represented urban fire brigades, rural fire agencies, land management agencies, state emergency services, council officers with responsibility for search and rescue, the Red Cross and the National Rural Fire Authority (New Zealand).\ \  In addition, we have conducted a number of research studies and observations, including: Literature reviews, semi-structured interviews with senior staff, observations of real-life and simulated events and an online survey.

This has provided the team with information about current practice in decision making, team monitoring and learning from evaluating organisational performance across Australia and New Zealand.\  Comparing current practice to the research literature provides opportunities to develop enhanced methods of developing decision making, monitoring teams and assessing organisational performance.\  For example, using skill-based training to enhance peripheral vision \& memory in decision making, developing breakdown indicators that can indicate a malfunctioning team for team monitoring, and unpacking the values and challenged that enable and constrain learning from reviews of organisational performance.\  These strategies and methods will be investigated, developed and evaluated through close consultation with end-users in the next stages of the project.

}, issn = {126}, author = {Christopher Bearman and Brooks, B and Owen, Christine and Steve Curnin and Keith Fitzgerald and Grunwald, J and Rainbird, Sophia} }