How we work together, and how well, is a great curiosity to me. For want of a better name, I call this area of study Team Dynamics.
Observers of SARA operations often comment on the apparent lack of anyone being in charge. The surprise comes from the fact that everything still gets done, and very well at that. At other times I have heard it said that everyone appears to be in charge yet, despite this, things still go well.
Over the years SARA's team management structure has developed around twin concepts. First is that people are encouraged and expected to be Self Starters. A good rescuer does not wait for someone to say Do This, but rather seeks out what needs doing and follows through with it. This greatly simplifies the work of managers and leaders, for each person strives to manage or lead his/herself to the greatest possible degree of Team Effectiveness.
That last sentence is a critical one, for it separates us from a mob of well intended individuals. We each seek to contribute to the Team's attainment of the goal. But in so doing we keep a careful watch that our individual efforts are in keeping with the Team's Efforts and the Team's Success. No individual ever saved anybody in this business. The Team made it possible for the Rescuer to be there when needed. The Team provides the resources and support so that the Rescuer can do all those death defying stunts we all expect of ourselves!
To understand the second half of this, consider that SARA does not give tests to rate people as Team Leaders, Search Managers, or Technical Rope Systems Czars. People grow into these positions and take on responsibilities that they seek after. We do at times designate who is in charge of say, a haul or belay. This is important for safe technical operations. What has evolved over the years is that SARA's teams typically lead themselves through a process of dynamic, and rather ad hoc, consensus building.
How this works is not complicated. What a team decides to do is reached through shared opinions and active discussion. I'm not saying you should take an hour to debate the advisability of going left or right. But a few moments spent in discussion commonly lead to actions superior to what any one individual would have thought of. As Team Members, each of us needs to think about everything our team sees or does. Then, understanding that we all have a responsibility to the Team's decision making process, we offer our thoughts to the rest of the team.
It's not that we don't assign people as Team Leaders, we do. Rather it's that our Team Leaders act more as a Master of Ceremonies, a Facilitator if you will, for the Team's actions. The Team's actions and decisions are based on the Team being a collective force, not a led group of people.
It is only when the members of a team fail to work as such a unit that the designated Team Leader must take firmer control. A good leader will do this by trying to initiate the consensus process. A team that acts as a bunch of Free Agents is no team at all. The Team Leader needs the personal strength to take responsibility for the Team's actions, and to serve as the guide or example of what those actions must be.
Another facet of the skilled leader is an ability to recognize changing priorities and conditions. The leader of a search team may be perfect for the job. But what happens when the team finds a victim in a technical rescue dilemma, and our present team leader is utterly unqualified to handle such a situation? Team Leaders and Team Members alike must be aware that events can as easily throw one out of a position of leadership, as they can thrust one into such a position. This business isn't about ego's, it's about success in saving lives.
Personalities demand flexibilities. While we try to match people to each other on a team, it should not be necessary for us to do so. At least not beyond the obvious need to match people for physical ability and skill level.
There is danger in a strong willed person taking over a team simply because s/he can. There is equal danger in the quiet and reserved type not speaking up when something appears wrong, or important. Whatever your personality, you must control your tendency to be only a leader or follower. Do not permit your personal quirks to come between you and your responsibility to the team and victim. You owe it to the victim to be an active participant in your Team's actions. You are equally obligated to encourage the active participation of your team mates.
In all things, there must be a balance. We teeter-toter between extremes, endeavoring not to fall too far one way or the other. If you are too cautious, nothing gets done. Nothing getting done can kill somebody. If you are too rash, the wrong thing gets done. This too can kill somebody. I have often heard it said that in an emergency, any action is better than no action. This, I fear, assumes a great deal.
Let's say you come upon a flooded road crossing. There before you is some local yachtsman clinging to the roof of his amphibious, four-wheel drive, submersible `66 Mustang. Lots of onlookers doing absolutely nothing. Do you:
a). Jump in the water and drown yourself?
b). Send someone to call 911 for help?
c). Get throw bottles and PFD's out of your car, and try to
get a PFD to the victim?
d). Present your PFD's to the Fire Dept. people arriving
with a ladder truck, and suggest they wear them?
e). Something else?
Decisiveness must never be defined as any action taken quickly. It MUST BE defined as the right action taken as quickly as possible. We learn to be decisive by first being intimately aware of our own abilities and non-abilities, then we add in team resources. With experience, and by observing the more experienced, you can learn to quickly boil down what the problem is, what is available to throw at it, and what the best balanced response might be.
For me, this is always my first priority. I look upon safety as being the most critical concern in any successful Search & Rescue venture. Save the victim but kill a rescuer? Not an equitable trade in my eyes.
Safety problems come in a myriad of forms. The searcher who goes out in winter wearing cotton jeans. The searcher in desert heat with but a quart of water. The team that fails to check its knots, or back up its anchors. All are increasing the risk for everyone else.
Safety in technical rope systems requires us to take what the uninitiated often see as excessive precautions. Three anchors where one would handle the load. Two belay lines where no reasonable individual could expect one to fail.
There can be no greater tragedy in this work than the death of a volunteer. This possibility lurks constantly in the shadows of fatigue, complacency, and the failure to control events.
Consider this as an exercise in perspective: In theory the day will come when a live victim will be found in a situation so outrageous, that even our finest people would be certain to die attempting a rescue. I cannot imagine circumstances to fit this scenario. But I realize the day may come when we will have to let a victim die, rather than allow the sure and certain death of a volunteer.
Management types see Risk Management as the application of the fewest possible, least damageable resources to solve a Search & Rescue problem. For the individual Team Member, I define it a bit more personally. We each manage the risks we face by our actions to them. Our mistakes add to the dangers. Our collective expertise in different areas serves to control the dangers we face as individuals.
Take it to heart that no matter how well we do our jobs, these dangers are real. They will not dissolve at the appearance of an orange shirt. These dangers can not be eliminated, and the consequences of not sufficiently controlling them are everlastingly unpleasant.
This is your ability to think ahead, coupled with your experience. People are sensitive to different things. Our better Base Radio Operators often display the uncanny ability to have some important task already in progress when the request comes over the radio to begin the task.
Others pick up on the pending needs of a team in the field. A particularly skilled person in the field often is able to make suggestions back to Base Camp. This from their perceptions of how things are going, and what is likely to come up next.
Thus sensitivities are the awareness we show to the commonality of dozens of searches and rescues. Certain things always happen in every operation. Problems arise both in Base Camp and in the field that are specific to the location and activity.
As experience is gained, these sensitivities begin to manifest themselves in places and situations that are new to you. By virtue of experience and forward thinking many are able to interpolate between similar past events. In simpler(?) words: To forecast the needs of the call through intelligent and informed imagining.
My preference is that people not wait until they have 100 call outs to brag about before trying to think ahead a few steps. We all face some adversity in our everyday lives. We all have some perception of how we handle crisis and surprises. Try and mix these remembered experiences with your wilderness and Search & Rescue background. Perhaps this will give you a head start on developing your own sensitivities.
On to CHAPTER SIX...
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