Hazard Knowledge

An incident commander should possess the technical knowledge and command skills to underpin their judgements, decisions and behaviours. This hazard and its control measures draws on research and incident ground observations that have helped identify the command skills necessary for incident commanders.

Causes of ineffective command include:

• Personal factors, such as:
  • Insufficient training
  • Lack of exposure to a wide range of incident types
  • Physiological stress
  • Psychological stress
  • Failure to effectively use a command skill
• Resource factors, such as:
  • Insufficient personnel
  • Insufficient or inappropriate vehicles, equipment or technology
  • Inappropriate speed of response
• External factors, such as:
  • Size and complexity of the incident
  • Unfamiliar or unconventional incident
  • Moral pressure to act
  • Public pressure to act
• The working environment, including:
  • Adverse weather conditions
  • Poor ergonomic conditions
  • Reduced visibility
  • Noise
  • Fast-moving or hazardous conditions
• Organisational factors:
  • Ineffective incident commander selection process
  • Inadequate operational procedures
  • Ineffective development and preparation of incident commanders
  • Inadequate information management and systems
  • Ineffective operational assurance
  • Ineffective organisational learning processes
  • Inappropriate organisational culture

Ineffective command of an incident amplifies the potential impact of the hazards present, or escalation of the incident, which could result in:

• Harm to people
• Harm to communities
• Damage to or loss of property
• Damage to the environment
• Reputational damage
• Loss of public confidence

Ineffective leadership

If commanders are unable to effectively lead others it will impact on their ability to:

• Manage an incident safely
• Comply with relevant legislation and regulations
• Instil confidence
• Motivate and inspire others
• Encourage innovation
• Collaborate and co-operate effectively with other emergency responders

The leadership of an incident commander is exercised under scrutiny and pressure; it may directly influence a person’s survival. It carries with it the expectation of all involved in an emergency for the incident commander to resolve it safely, efficiently, and successfully. This leaves little or no room for error or failure.

Inaccurate situational awareness

Inaccurate or ineffective situational awareness may lead to incident commanders potentially overlooking information when they make decisions or plans. Some of the factors for this occurring include:

• The incident commander being unable to effectively process information
• The incident commander being unable to effectively manage information
• Inaccurate information being provided to the incident commander
• A delay in information being provided to the incident commander
• Poor information provided by the incident commander
• Poor communication
• Lack of co-operation or co-ordination between personnel or other agencies

If an incident commander is unable to obtain and maintain their situational awareness this may affect their ability to:

• Assess risks
• Make decisions
• Develop a plan
• Devise contingency plans
• Determine resource requirements
• Assess the impact to the local area

Inappropriate decision-making

Decision-making is a complex skill, which is influenced by the situations that confront incident commanders. Some decisions are made rapidly with little or no conscious thought, while others involve a conscious and intensive thought process that compares options and takes time.

Different situations may elicit different decision-making strategies. Poor decision-making may lead to a deterioration of an incident, and may be negatively influenced by inaccurate or ineffective situational awareness, along with other contributory factors.

Incident commanders may have to make critical decisions involving the application of operational discretion, by exercising professional judgement to decide on and implement a plan. The inability or unwillingness of an incident commander to appropriately implement operational discretion may prevent an effective response to an incident. It may also prevent experiential learning gained from its use, and sharing this with other incident commanders and fire and rescue services.

The inability to appropriately implement operational discretion may be influenced by:

• Lack of situational awareness
• Poor decision-making skills
• Unfamiliarity with policies and procedures
• Decision inertia
• An organisational culture that does not genuinely empower incident commanders to apply operational discretion
• An organisational culture that does not encourage or seek to understand and learn from the performance and outcomes of incidents

Ineffective interpersonal communication

An incident commander’s use of interpersonal communication skills affects the way information is received and understood by others. Incident commanders should recognise the detrimental impact of ineffective or poor communication to personnel and the incident, and apply appropriate skills to avoid this occurring.

If commanders are unable to communicate effectively with others it will impact on their ability to:

• Foster trust
• Motivate others
• Gather and share information
• Issue orders to others
• Ensure compliance with instructions
• Obtain situation reports
• Assess and provide for the needs of other agencies
• Carry out risk assessments
• Brief and debrief others
• Co-operate and co-ordinate actions with others

Inadequate personal resilience

Personal resilience is the capacity of an individual to cope with stress and fatigue without it affecting their performance. Both stress and fatigue have detrimental effects on all aspects of an incident commander’s performance, from decision-making and judgement to equipment operation and communication.

If incident commanders are unable to manage their stress and fatigue it will impact their:

• Cognitive skills, for example:
  • Reduced attention span and situational awareness
  • Impaired memory, planning, judgement and decision-making
  • Inability to switch strategy
• Motor skills, for example:
  • Impaired hand-eye co-ordination
  • Impaired timing
• Communication skills, for example:
  • Impaired interpersonal communication skills
  • Impaired speech
• Social skills, for example:
  • Increasingly distracted and irritable
  • Less tolerant of others, affecting leadership and teamwork

Ineffective teamwork

Ineffective teamwork between personnel, command team members or members of a multi-agency team and an incident commander may lead to:

• A breakdown of trust between team members due to a lack of or poor communication, co-operation or co-ordination
• Mistrust, resulting in conflict
• Inconsistent application of:
  • Service policies or procedures
  • Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP)
• Poor quality briefings of team members about a role they are required to perform
• Poor communication and co-operation between team members
• Poor co-ordination of actions by team members on the incident ground
• Different levels of situational awareness within a team or between teams, resulting in different perceptions of an incident
• Poor decision-making, including that which is counter-productive to achieving a common goal