An Incident Commander’s (IC) mission is to ensure that incidents are managed as
effectively and safely as possible. Complex incidents are particularly
challenging to manage because they often evolve rapidly, involve significant
hazards, and/or require innovative solutions. Complex incidents require a
response from multiple jurisdictions/agencies, each of which may have a unique
perspective when arriving on-scene. To effectively manage these incidents, the
diverse response partners must act collaboratively, and this requires ICs to
rapidly bring their differing response priorities, objectives, and strategies
into alignment. This course discusses how to overcome the unique challenges
that complex incidents present. Topics include the need to rapidly recognize
the incident’s magnitude and cooperate with other commanders, strategies for
promoting interdisciplinary collaboration before an incident occurs, strategies
for deconflicting competing priorities, how and when to establish a unified
command, and how and when to transfer command. This course is 16 hours.