Tools to enhance emergency management team performance

Effective teamwork is vital when managing emergencies, which can exert extreme pressures on response and management teams, their leaders and co-responders. These pressures sometimes cause breakdowns in teamwork that can lead to impaired operational response. This research 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’ 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, with emergency managers finding the tools to be highly valuable.