Editorial by Greatbatch, I
(Not peer reviewed)
Introduction
As a result of my research and day job, I speak to volunteers and professionals in the
SAR and emergency sectors daily and hear frequent tales of practitioners commonly
going the extra mile, performing heroic rescues, working with their communities to
make them safer and working far beyond what they are paid (or volunteer) to do
officially. Sadly, I also hear frequent reports of frustration, lack of focus,
mismanagement and border-line illegal activity within teams across the world.
As such, I have been thinking recently about change throughout the lifetime of a
team, and how many SAR teams, especially charity-sector teams, seem (to my eyes)
follow a common pattern of phases through time. Having worked with and for a
number of them over the last decade, and having written about many more in various
outlets, I started to notice some patterns, and with them some common potential
dangers facing teams…