Win or lose, in police work, especially SWAT, it is vitally important to debrief your team.
If your team is not debriefing after every SWAT operation, you are wrong.
What is a Debrief?
A debrief, in its simplest form is an informal discussion between the members of a team about what each team member saw/experienced during a SWAT operation.
It is held immediately after said operation.
It is a time for team members to asks questions about why someone else made a certain decision or took a specific action.
Why is the debriefing process so important?
3 Reasons You Should be Debriefing Your Team
- Learning from more than your mistakes
- Creating accountability
- A learning environment
Learning from Your Mistakes and then Some
Everyone has heard the term, ‘learning from your failures’.
Well how about learning from your successes?
When any type of team fails someone usually asks the question, ‘what went wrong?’
No one really likes losing a game; failing in a SWAT operation is more than just egg on the face. It can mean you let the suspect get away or someone was hurt.
Or worse. It can mean a team member was killed.
With thoughts like that in mind, many SWAT teams will discuss egregious mistakes amongst itself and even share what they did wrong with other teams.
The same should be true for successes.
If your team pulls off a difficult operation, everyone on the team should understand why it was successful.
The knowledge of, ‘what works’ is just as powerful as the knowledge of, ‘what does not work.’
Creating Accountability
The debrief is more than a learning mechanism, it is a mechanism of accountability.
During an operation if someone from my team makes a mistake, I do not want that team member to have an immediate reaction to the mistake they just made.
If someone makes a mistake, they should keep moving and another team member will make an adjustment to handle that mistake.
However, when the team debriefs, I do expect that team member to explicitly say that they, ‘made a mistake’ and explain how and why.
If that same team member doesn’t realize they made a mistake, I fully expect another team member to directly and professionally ask, ‘what happened?’
Why?
Team members need to take responsibility for their actions, especially mistakes.
It shows their teammates that they know they made a mistake and they stand accountable for any consequences of that mistake.
It also prevents any finger pointing of who was at fault. When everyone shares their mistakes, it is very clear who was a fault.
A Learning Environment
You ever wonder why the new guy is often called the FNG?
Because the new guy doesn’t know what they are doing.
Now imagine this; an FNG that is not hampered by indecision and will always stand up to take responsibility for his actions, whether they are right or horribly wrong.
Sounds like a great fantasy, right? It’s a reality if your team debriefs.
Think of the example a being set for the new guy when a veteran team member brings to everyones attention their own mistake that they made during an operation.
Even a mistake that no one else saw. The new guy will realize the culture of the team is to share your mistakes.
Not to cover them up.
The new guy that is sharing their mistakes is also really thinking through and analyzing what they did during the operation; they are critically thinking about their decisions and actions.
They will want to be aware of their mistakes and bring them up before someone else points them out.
The new guy is aggressively trying to learn from his successes and failures.
Summing It All Up
Any team, especially a SWAT team should be debriefing.
No team wants to repeat the same mistakes and every team want to capitalize on their successes.
Debriefing is also an effective way to create accountability throughout the team and encourage the new guy to self-analyze their actions to encourage aggressive learning.
Make sure your team, SWAT or not is debriefing after every operation or event.
If you are not debriefing, you are wrong.