Teamwork

responsible for updating curriculum and training 5,600 members of the National US&R System from 19 different states.  The award of this contract has allowed me to be at the forefront of managing a team responsible for the upgrade, organization, and enhancement of the training curriculum and course deliveries for the FEMA US&R System.  During this time I have also been responsible for organizing, coordinating, and planning US&R exercises and customizing training for regional, state and military search and rescue teams at Disaster City and at remote training sites across the country, all of which requires me to lead and manage teams of personnel. 

Takeaways

I have had the opportunity to manage diverse groups of subject matter experts located geographically across the United States.  The consensus-building skills required of me entail the following:

1. Bring together geographically separates SME's to find consensus and agree upon national-level curriculum

2. Realize the importance to take time within groups for everyone's thoughts to be heard

3. Build an environment of trust in which groups of SME's can explore ideas and brainstorm new approaches to complex problems 

Managing Teams for FEMA Curriculum Development 

As the Contract Manager for the FEMA National US&R Training Contract, I lead a team of subject matters experts from across the country in multiple curriculum development projects.  The FEMA US&R Program Office requests TEEX to update particular courses.  These courses are typically 24 to 80 hours long and last from 3 to 8 days.  The courses require specialized rescue equipment and training facilities, and the average cost of delivering a single course ranges from $80,000 to $100,000.  The full cost of rewriting the course into a blended format ranges from $160,000 to $270,000 and takes approximately 18 months.  To read an article about a recent pilot delivery of a course, click here. Each curriculum task order is instructed by six subject matter experts assigned by the FEMA Program Office.  These experts work for one of the 28 national US&R teams and come from large metropolitan departments such as the City of Los Angeles Fire Department or the New York City Police Department.  Because of the geographic dispersal of the SMEs across the country and because they work full-time for other departments and municipalities, we use collaboration-based technology to communicate among members.  We use WebEx conference hosting either by phone or video conferencing for bi-weekly meetings and utilize Google Documents to collaborate and track changes on curriculum documents, modules, and student exercises.  This allows team members to work from home during their free time and gives them time to think about the proposed changes and comments.  All of these technology tools facilitate communication and move us toward the one-week development meeting in College Station.  We fly them in for five days of detailed discussion of the course and to collaborate and work out differences to finalize the curriculum. Any work that is not completed during that week of development is then assigned to the SME’s based on availability and expertise in the various subjects.  My main responsibilities during that week are to build consensus, diffuse any arguments, and keep the process moving forward.  

Leading a team of nationally renowned SME’s has provided countless opportunities to learn, critique my performance, and try new techniques of leadership.  Each of the SMEs are considered top in their field within the national emergency response community.  An important early step in building consensus with the SMEs is that I must understand individual motivations and approaches to the course material.  Some instructors want to provide very detailed curriculum that specifically describes how to conduct each part of a rescue operation; others follow a Socratic method, encouraging students to think critically about class exercises and arrive at a correct answer by multiple different methods.  Determining the philosophical approach my instructors are taking is central to starting to find where we can build consensus.  In this way, each curriculum project presents new and interesting challenges to overcome, and each challenge requires me to utilize different techniques that best fit the given situation.  

This contract has allowed me to learn how to establish and encourage a positive collaborative environment, while also building trust among team members, encouraging open dialogue, and allowing opportunities for disagreements to be discussed and debated among the entire team.  All of this must be accomplished while also keeping the team moving towards the milestones that have been set for the curriculum project.  Each course has different requirements, and the SMEs and instructors bring their deeply held beliefs to their work.  I have had to lead teams towards finding consensus on national response protocols and operational considerations.  In many regards, the course material that we develop and the courses we teach are considered the national standard for urban search and rescue and, in some cases, are seen as the official process and operational requirements of national, state and regional US&R teams.  The courses are primarily designed for the 28 FEMA teams, but most of the state US&R teams and regional teams--along with many military teams--take the courses that we are redesigning.  For this reason, most decisions to alter and change the curriculum has national implications and far-reaching consequences into areas of regulation, certification, and safety. 

As of December 2015, I currently have seven different teams working on the following curriculum projects:

• Structural Collapse Technician - FEMA

• Communications Specialist - FEMA

• Task Force Safety Officer - FEMA

• US&R Hazardous Materials Specialist - FEMA

• Incident Support Team - FEMA

• Advanced Technical Search Specialist - TEEX

• Transportation Tunnel Rescue – TEEX

Additionally, I am managing five different courses which are in the final development phases and am working with the SMEs to determine how to realize the lessons learned from the recent pilot delivery of the courses.

• Planning Team Training – FEMA

• Task Force Leader - FEMA

• Medical Team Specialist - FEMA

• Technical Search Specialist - FEMA

• Canine Search Specialist - FEMA