Lay out on paper the past 6 months or year, every single Rescue Water Craft activity undertook and the results of those actions.  Make a humble assessment of the last year or semester.  Take a hard look at it from all angles and do a strong inspection against the mishaps, gear, and training results.  Do all these items accurately inspected validate your current operational methods? Did you attain the appropriate results last year?  Don't forget to add in the budgetary needs to maintain a successful program.

The indication that your values are flawed is if there is any harm being generated? Are your Rescue Water Craft keep breaking down did they get repaired too often and are the gear checklists understandable and can you defend them? Is your PPE intact and functional, is there any damages? Are your endings safe for survivors when you transfer them? Do your actions stack up against failures you see in other rescue attempts you have studied online or from event debriefings?

Failures are going to tell you that you did something wrong. Do you have an associated feeling of regret, embarrassment or recall a painful moment that you feel was stupid or biased by excusing away the results?
When was your program first created? How many revisions have the original program migrated from?
There are still things to learn. Are you not taking criticism well, does it hurt your feelings? Anxiety can tell you when an action or a theory is wrong or the person of critique is wrong. If you keep playing over in your mind the moment of failure instead of the moment of success and there are reactions from team leaders that reinforce an error it is time to take action.

This is why we in a group or team setting we are giving experience outsourced to the free decisions of every member. If we surround ourselves in our membership and one of our members does something wrong, the membership will issue a response, they will validate and if the negative behaviors of a member persist the group members will become irritated, they will want to distance themselves and not reach out.

We cannot perceive reality completely, groups help moderate our success and failure. But we need the value of the creatives, those who step outside of the group and test and trial the unknown. These people are often disposable and our greatest risk takers and we should not discount their genius even if they are rough at the edges, something on the horizon may come from their persistence.

Humility is the pre-condition towards learning, it’s the strongest virtue in rescue success for individuals or teams.  It is difficult to perceive our own reality. If it keeps working, why change it? That’s a common phrase we hear.  You can mediate for yourself by looking at all the variable relationships and what your professional goals are.

Where is our advantage for your Rescue Water Craft program review? When was the last time your RWC program was evaluated by an outside source?

Not fact checking our progress opens the door for problems.  How can this be mediated?  Research and networking in the Rescue Water Craft community provide an avenue for cross referencing program management. However, the greatest asset is for outside sources who are turning and burning the industry on a daily basis and have a firm connection to the intellectual knowledge and equipment on the front line.

The bias of ignorance is within our scope of knowledge.  What if we were willing to step outside of our comfort zone and search for other methods, the result is obvious; our capability will increase.