Team Dynamics - 2024 Week of Remembrance

For day 4, let’s look at team dynamics. Most teams are not made up of people with all similar ideas and beliefs, and because of this you can capitalize on it and make a healthy team dynamic. Teams go through stages of development that are essential for continued growth – it is important to remember that any team can wind up back at the early stages of team building by factors as simple as a change of task. Bruce W. Tuckman developed a model for these stages in the mid-1960s, if you would like some more information about this model click here.

“With each team comes a different culture and method of operation – one not better than the other – just different.”
— FLA participant

“The Mendocino Complex had a multitude of resources including two Type 1 Incident Management Teams (IMTs) and over 4,000 people from 34 agencies at the height of the incident. Each one of those groups were in some stage of team development and were expected to collectively work together to accomplish incident objectives. The Incident Command System (ICS) is designed to have a breakdown structure of teams that combine and separate as needed.  For example, each functional area (finance, logistics, operations) that make up the “team” of an IMT can have its own entire team. Even within those teams there are further sub-teams (Operations > Branch 1 > DIV Z > IHC).  The concept of “Teams” as it pertains to wildland fire is nebulous and dynamic.”

Some examples of tools to help continually evolve are pre-season coordination meetings, daily After Action Reviews (AARs), pre-operational meetings, planning meetings, and closeouts. Click here for more resources. Additionally, here are some discussion questions that you can discuss in the comments or take back to your unit.

• Have you observed the different stages of team development? Discuss what stage your team is at now. 
• How does your crew, module, team fit into the larger picture of an Incident Management Team? How do you incorporate a team within a team?
• What contributes to rapid team synergy? What can hinder reaching team synergy?
• What constructs are built into the ICS system to promote successful team building and teamwork?