There are various avoidable pitfalls SAR teams and organisations make: harmful approaches, counterproductive methods and mindsets, and behavioural improprieties. They span psychosocial attitudes, operational practices and procedural means. Naming them is the first step to preventing them.
A sample list
No codified psychological safety measures
Workplace psychosocial safety is left to goodwill rather than written policy, so nothing is measurable or enforceable.
No education in ethics and teamwork
Training covers equipment and procedure but never ethical leadership, teamwork, or non-toxic interpersonal behaviour.
Internally inconsistent behaviour
Decisions that contradict the organisation's own rules — for example forcing advancement by seniority where no rule requires it, or accepting bad behaviour from team leaders.
Looking the other way
Paid personnel overlook poor conduct from volunteers in leadership roles because that volunteer meets quotas, or out of favouritism and fear of turnover.
No discipline or accountability for volunteer leaders
Accountability applies downward but not upward, and closing ranks becomes the default response to complaints.
Treating retention as a reason to tolerate harm
Fear of losing people is used to justify keeping harmful behaviour in place — which itself drives good people away.
Barriers behind them
Known barriers to psychological safety include workplace bullying, blame culture, and rigid professional hierarchy. Developing psychologically safe environments is critical to an organisation's success, but it is genuinely difficult — many systems are designed, however unintentionally, to encourage blaming and shaming for mistakes.
Solutions
- Codify workplace psychosocial safety and continuous improvement as a requirement at both tactical and strategic levels.
- Apply discipline and accountability consistently to paid staff and volunteer leaders alike.
- Educate leaders in ethics, teamwork, and the behaviours that quietly erode a crew.
- Run an independent review of gaps, with concrete, prioritised recommendations.
Move from good to great
Contact SoS for consulting, guidance, or an organisational review of gaps and potential solutions — bespoke to your team.
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