Incident Management United States Department Organization Succession Planning of Agriculture Forest Service Stakeholder Feedback Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-297 Anne E. Black January 2013 Black, Anne E. 2013. Incident Management Organization succession planning stakeholder feedback. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-297 Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 322 p. ABSTRACT This report presents complete results of a 2011 stakeholder feedback effort conducted for the National Wildfire Coordination Group (NWCG) Executive Board concerning how best to organize and manage national wildland fire Incident Management Teams in the future to meet the needs of the public, agencies, fire service and Team members. Feedback was collected from 858 survey respondents and 57 email comments. In order to facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the affected community and issues of relevance for implementation, the report includes: a final overview, complete narrative and survey responses, relevant statistical results and interpretation. Keywords: Incident Management, wildland fire, National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), IMT succession planning AUTHOR Anne E. Black, is a Social Science Analyst with the Human Factors and Risk Management RD&A, part of the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. Stationed in Missoula, Montana, she focuses on understanding the theory and practice of high performance, risk management and organizational learning at team and organizational levels, particularly in the wildland fire community. She received her PhD from the University of Idaho in Forest Resources with an emphasis in landscape ecology, a Masters in Environmental Studies from Yale Scholl of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Resource Conservation from the University of Montana. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The results presented here were definitely not a solo effort! The survey instrument was largely developed by the Incident Management Organization Succession Planning Team (IMOSPT), in particular, team lead Sue Husari. In addition to the IMOSPT members, several others were invaluable to this process. The Organization Development Enterprise Team (ODE), which the IMOSPT and NWCG contracted with to develop and implement the Stakeholder Feedback, and the State of Texas took the lead on the non-Federal survey and response. The ODE team consisted of: John Able, (ODE) Team Lead; Dr. Anne Black, Social Science Analyst (USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station); Chris Barrett, Data Resource Specialist and Susan Sova, Program Support Assistant (Adaptive Management Services Enterprise Team); and Jules Riley, Software Engineer (Vegetation Management Solutions Enterprise Unit). The State of Texas team was headed by Don Hannemann, Emergency Operations Coordinator. L. Scott Baggett, Statistician with Rocky Mountain Research Station provided much appreciated support during statistical analysis. The use of trade or firm names in this publication is for reader information and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of any product or service. Incident Management Organization Succession Planning Stakeholder Feedback Anne E. Black United States Department of Agriculture / Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-297 January 2013 CONTENTS Executive Summary .....................................................................................1 Project Background .....................................................................................4 Purpose .......................................................................................................4 Methods ......................................................................................................5 Outreach ............................................................................................................5 Feedback Structure and Analysis ........................................................................5 Respondent Profile (demographics) ............................................................9 Overview of Results ..................................................................................13 Overarching Principles .....................................................................................13 Building Blocks ................................................................................................15 Alternative Organizational Models ...................................................................19 Narrative Comments ........................................................................................20 Results—by Overarching Principle ............................................................23 Succession Planning .........................................................................................23 Single Qualification System ..............................................................................34 Agency Accountability .....................................................................................40 Incident Complexity/Scalability ........................................................................48 Modules and Service Centers ...........................................................................54 Responsiveness to Federal Fire Policy ...............................................................61 Compensation Strategies ..................................................................................65 Accountability ..................................................................................................71 Standard Operating Procedures for Incident Management Teams ......................75 Support of Incident Management Team Decisions ............................................79 Interagency Cooperation/External Considerations .............................................83 Consistent Financial Practices ..........................................................................88 Additional Comments on Overarching Principles .............................................91 Results—by Building Block .......................................................................92 Team Management ...........................................................................................92 Team Coordination .........................................................................................138 Workforce Succession ....................................................................................150 Management Framework ................................................................................160 Compensation ................................................................................................174 Results—by Alternative Organizational Model .......................................194 Current Situation ............................................................................................195 Current Situation with Overarching Principles ................................................201 Single Standard ..............................................................................................208 External Capacity—Contract ...........................................................................215 External Capacity—All Hazard and Contract ..................................................222 Core Team ......................................................................................................233 Core Team with State Integration ....................................................................240 Additional Comments on Models and Succession Planning ............................245 Group Responses and Alternative Models .......................................................269 Survey Considerations .............................................................................314 References ..............................................................................................315 Appendices .............................................................................................316 Appendix A. Survey ................................................................................................316 Appendix B. IMOSP Team Members and Organizational Structure ..........................322 Executive Summary We present full and final results of stakeholder feedback concerning how best to organize and manage national wildland fire Incident Management Teams in the future to meet the needs of the public, agencies, fire service and Team members. This data was collected and analyzed for, and in close coordination with, the Incident Management Organization Succession Planning Team (IMOSPT) at the request of the National Wildfire Coordination Group (NWCG) Executive Board. We include a final overview of data, the full narrative response data, complete responses to survey questions, and relevant statistical results. This report provides stakeholders, members of the NWCG, and recommendation implementation committees with the complete results of the feedback effort. This level of detail is presented to help develop a more comprehensive understanding of the affected community and issues of relevance for implementation. Respondent Demographics The IMOSPT sought feedback from March to May 2011, over which time 858 survey responses and 57 email comments were collected. Respondents included members from each of the three types of stakeholders the IMOSPT identified as their primary,