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Teamwork
Teamwork
A team is a group of individuals working interdependently toward achieving a common goal. In the context of professional avalanche workers roles are going to be clearly defined and are often assigned based on level of training or tenure in an organization. Team leaders facilitate discussion, delegate responsibility, and keep an eye on the big picture of operational risk management. As a contributor to a team, your role may be defined by internal standard operating procedures. However, each team member should feel empowered to speak up and voice what they are observing in order to keep communications open. If you are working alone in the field, a different set of guidelines or policies needs to be employed. The greatest underlying factor in either situation is situational awareness.
Photo: Grant Gunderson
Departure Check
Departure Check
Every time we enter the field, whether professionally or for our own recreation, a departure check of sorts needs to be performed. In the context of a ski patrol this might look like a designated individual standing outside the explosives cache checking patroller's beacons, airbags, and radios before they depart on their route. For a guide service taking out clients, the departure check resembles the recreational departure check as seen in this video. A forecaster working independently will have their own procedures and protocols to follow. Regardless of the setting the central tenets are the same:
Confirm the plan for the day
Review communication and check-in strategy
Visually inspect rescue gear and group gear
Perform a transceiver function check
Situational Awareness
Situational Awareness
Various models for situational awareness exist and it is incumbent on the practitioner to decide what fits their personal style best. Organizational support will vary depending on the size and scope of the operation. The U.S. Military has had over a century of studying how combat operators perceive, interpret, and respond to their environment on the battlefield. Models like the OODA Loop illustrate how personnel Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (Boyd 1996). Highly Reliable Organizations in sectors such as aviation, medicine, fire, and engineering also rely heavily on operatives accurately perceiving their environment, understanding what they see, and then estimating the consequences of a given course of action (Zacharias 2019). In studies of accidents and near misses in these industries, it is often a loss of situational awareness that contributes to a negative outcome.
The material covered in this module has given you further insight into how operations make decisions through the Risk Management Process. The constant cycle of “Monitor and Review” is where personal situational awareness meets up with the overarching framework that an organization employs.
Photo: Erica Engle
Snow Avalanche Risk Management Framework. Adapted from Technical Aspects of Snow Avalanche Risk Management─Resources and Guidelines for Avalanche Practitioners in Canada (C. Campbell, S. Conger, B. Gould, P. Haegeli, B.Jamieson, & G. Statham Eds.). Revelstoke, BC, Canada: Canadian Avalanche Association 2016.
Ref: AIARE Backcountry Decision Making Guide 2021
On an AIARE recreational avalanche course, you will have used the Ride Safely Checklist to assist in maintaining your situational awareness and to guide your communications. These same principles apply to the professional setting and require an even higher resolution in order to manage the risk to the team and the risk to the stakeholders.
Consider these factors that impact your situational awareness. How do they reduce or heighten your perception and understanding of your surroundings? How can you manage them in the field (Zacharias 2019)?
Wellness Fear and Anxiety
Fatigue Team Check-in
Distraction Curiosity
Habit The Love of the Game
Maintaining your perception fosters communications with your team members in order to review and reassess the plan for the day. If there are numerous factors present that reduce situational awareness and increase uncertainty within the team, a margin can be applied in the form of increasing time to achieve objectives and increasing distance from the hazard(s).
Communications
Communications
On an AIARE PRO course, we will hold regular discussions in our groups each time we enter the field. Through a constant cycle of observations, decisions, and actions, teams will move safely through terrain and each participant will have the opportunity to take the lead. A tool originally crafted by Canadian practitioners and long employed on these courses to organize one's thoughts in order to clearly communicate is called LORI. Using these prompts and recording the information in your field book can serve as a memory aid when you are communicating with your field group.
Location—where the observation took place “Top of Silver Creek Drainage, sheltered north-facing glades around 10,000 feet.”
Objective—what the observer was looking for (usually identified in the AM meeting) “I Found our January 15 Surface Hoar layer 45cm down beneath a cohesive 4-finger storm slab.”
Results—critical findings made by the observer (as related to the day’s avalanche problem) “I observed propagation in 2 of 2 ECTs on the Surface Hoar, which confirms our persistent slab problem in this terrain.”
Implications—how this finding will affect the day’s operational plan “The Problem seems reactive, recommend we avoid terrain features with similar characteristics at this elevation and aspect”.
Photo: The Mountain Riding Lab
The physical tools field teams use to communicate with each other and/or with a central dispatch will depend on the scope and scale of the operation. Radios are commonplace and range from simple family band radios, to UHF/VHF handhelds, to full-scale digital band systems with dedicated repeaters. The advent of 2-way satellite messaging devices also serves as a consistent way for field teams to update each other, track movements, and check-in with a home office. Radio communications are enhanced if each field operative has experience conveying information in short, digestible chunks. The LORI model is a proven tool to succinctly communicate. For radio transmissions at large, other considerations include:
Clear- speak slowly, use simple language
Complete- includes all relevant information needed to make a decision
Concise- transmit memorable facts, details can be discussed face to face.
Timely- relay information at appropriate times and minimize traffic on the airwaves
Relevant - focus on what facts are most important.
Acknowledged- make sure the other team member(s) copy your transmission
(Krause 2017)
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