Tactics, command, leadership

nature of the damage and the development of the situation in
time and space. Note that the capacity of a resource is also depen­
dent on the physical and mental capacity of the indivi duals as well
as of the group. The commander must also be able to deal with
these types of resource issues. He or she must, moreover, be very
aware of his or her own physical and mental capacity.
Applying the wrong measures such as ones with the wrong time
constant in relation to the course of events of the incident, risks
causing more damage than the incident itself may cause. We can
also here think in terms of taking a big risk to gain a lot, a small risk
to gain a little, but no risk to try to gain something that is already
lost. The problem or problems that must be solved are steered in
turn by the assistance needs at the incident site, i.e. the help that
the victims require in order to, in the short or long perspective,
return them to their normal way of life. It is then important to be
aware of and to have thought about the time constants of the va-
rious measures that a rescue service can execute. But it is also im-
portant to be able to assess and decide the equivalent time constants
for different types of incidents, which certainly does not simplify
the issue. A commander must, therefore, be capable of good jud-
gement with respect to the capacity of resources and the effect of
measures, as well as damage and its development.