For empowering technical field teams in humanitarian organisations

Field Team Impact Kit

Stronger Teams = Better Outcomes

The FieldTiK provides a step-by-step approach to achieving more
accountable, locally driven, high-quality, sustainable outcomes and enhanced well-being in humanitarian technical field teams.

Kathryn Harries designed the FieldTiK in her PhD research,
building on global good practice and practitioner experience.

Challenges facing field teams

  • Tough environment

    More devolved decision-making
    (less ‘command-and-control’) than in other emergency services. Field teams operate semi-autonomously.

    Dual accountability
    to people affected by disaster and donors, generally under the leadership of government.

  • Insufficent support for team leaders

    Team leaders learn from personal experience, not global knowledge sharing.

    No practical tools

    Organisations focus on individuals, not teams.

  • Lack of resources

    Finding practical relevant resources (on technical and/or cross-cutting issues, such as accountability and inclusion)
    can be difficult.

    Inadequate training, connected only loosely to change in practice.

  • Lack of useful systems at team level

    Teams lack the systems needed to
    adapt and continually improve,
    within and between emergencies,
    as part of a system-wide response.

  • Poor retention of knowledge

    within and between emergencies, due to

    • High turnover of team members

    • Poor team-based
      knowledge management

  • Insufficient support for team well-being

    Low energy and commitment.

    Poor staff retention.

The FieldTiK empowers
a step-change in professional practice

Empower individuals to function more effectively as a group.

Phase 1 - Find your gaps | Use our team diagnostic to select the top 1–3 areas to work on

Phase 2 - Fill your gaps | Follow our examples and resources to develop new team-specific practices

Phase 3 - Review and improve | Use our reminders and templates to review every 1–3 months

What people are saying…

  • "TiK is the missing element. Ensuring we have a dynamic team of people really working together, that's when we can really make great changes"

    -Global technical specialist

  • "This is very, very useful"

    -National technical specialist

  • "Local NGOs are probably one of the biggest customers"

    -Senior manager, from Global South

  • "Very practical"

    -Local technical specialist

Want to hear more?

Contact us at

Kathryn Harries
Centre for Humanitarian Leadership, Australia
teamimpactkit@gmail.com
+61 498 727 772