Chapter 6 Learning from Experience: Incident Management Team Leader Training Margaret T. Crichton, Kristina Lauche, and Rhona Flin Introduction Managing of critical incidents in complex sociotechnical systems, such as industrial accidents, large fires, traffic disasters, or terrorist attacks, places high requirements on the decision-making skills of those in charge. The situation is complex, hazardous, constantly changing, and characterized by incomplete information on the current state and the underlying problem. Incident managers need to diagnose, consult, decide, delegate, monitor—all under extreme time pressure and with immense responsibility for the livelihood of others (Flin, 1996). They may also have scarce resources, and the criteria for a good resolution of the incident are multidimensional and shifting. In this sense, incident management is an example of macrocognition (Cacciabue and Hollnagel, 1995; Klein et al., 2003) par excellence: Incident management is a case of human cognition in interaction with the environment in real life. Its success depends on the expertise of skilled practitioners, and the conditions under which it occurs are literally impossible to control and manipulate for the purpose of research. Suitable methods of inquiry are therefore field observations, interviews with practitioners (Crandall, Klein, and Hoffman, 2006) and, once some of the influencing factors have been understood, simulation studies such as Omodei, Taranto and Wearing’s (2003) simulation of bush fires. The special challenge of an industrial incident is that those in charge need to switch from their ordinary technical and managerial activities into the role of on- scene commanders, as Flin (1996) has pointed out in her analysis of the Piper Alpha disaster and transport accidents. A manager’s day-to-day-role tends to be governed by the paradigm of rationalist decision making, combined with the need for consultation and political arguments. This does little to prepare them for unexpected events and decision making under high time pressure, and unlike professional emergency service personnel, they rarely have the opportunity to practice for incident command. The Naturalistic Decision Making approach has made major contributions to current understanding of decision making in real-life environments (Klein et al., 1993; Zsambok, 1997). We have learned that incident commanders assess the situation to identify what type of event they are dealing with, and draw on their repertoire of appropriate responses, and then continue to assess the situation to modify their course of action accordingly, rather than making deliberate choices between options. Yet the focus has traditionally been on individuals and less on teams, and more on Book - Schraagen.indb 104 2060462007 12:9::47