The 4 keys pillars of a bulletproof team

The tragedy at Mann Gulch in Montana[1] illustrates how a highly effective team courts disaster if it doesn’t master the basics.On August 5, 1949, 15 hardened smokejumpers were dropped into an area known as Mann Gulch above a wildfire they thought they would be able to contain without difficulty. Once on the ground, however, they were engulfed by the fast-moving flames. The captain, who was holding a rear position, ordered his crew to join him behind an “escape fire” he had started. But, in spite of these instructions, the men separated and tried to escape. Thirteen firefighters lost their lives in less than two hours. They had underestimated the threat, couldn’t make sense of the situation when it took a turn for the worse, and didn’t understand their leader’s strategy. Never having trained together, the crew barely knew one another, and lacked the ability to act as a unified team: each member focused on his short-term survival.The group had cracks in the 4 key pillars of team resilience: their confidence as a collective was low; the roles and duties of individual members lacked clarity; they weren’t able to improvise together when confronted with the unexpected; and they didn’t feel comfortable enough with one another.