S6 Ep18 Harry & Peter Ward on SOG Selection, Leadership, and Fatigue (Recast)

Recorded in 2020 during Melbourne's COVID lockdowns, this episode opens on what that stretch demanded of a tactical policing workforce that couldn't pause: fatigue management, disrupted home lives, and the added risk of infection in a workplace that had to keep running. From there, host Harry Moffitt and Superintendent Peter Ward move into a conversation that holds up well beyond lockdown.

At the time of recording, Peter Ward was Divisional Commander of the Security Services Division at Victoria Police, overseeing the Special Operations Group (SOG), the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT), the Bomb Response Unit, and the Protective Services Unit — a 30-year career that includes operator and team leader roles in the SOG, the Port Arthur arrest team in 1996, and training alongside the FBI and LAPD SWAT.

Harry and Peter trace his path from SOG selection through the "privilege of suffering" bond among the final survivors, to the career-defining feedback that leadership means bringing your people with you, not just chasing the task. They close on his current work modernizing selection, opening tactical policing to women, and confronting the mental health toll of the job head-on.

Book mentioned: Legacy by James Kerr.

If you find value in this discussion, the best way to support our work and stay up to date on future episodes is to subscribe and leave us a quick rating or review. It helps us reach more people who need to hear these conversations.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(81)

S6 Ep17 The Myth of Suffering at Work

Diane Malaspina is a psychologist, performance coach, and longtime yoga teacher who specializes in stress and burnout recovery, nervous system regulation, and optimal performance. She coaches frontlin...

24 Aug 43min

S6 Ep16 Dr. Anna Simons: The Anthropology of Mission Critical Teams (Recast)

This week we're recasting Preston's conversation with Dr. Anna Simons from May 2023. Anna retired as a Professor of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School. She holds a PhD in Social Anthrop...

10 Aug 1h 19min

S6 Ep15 Sara (Mills) Kerr - Once a Bushfire Volunteer, Now an AI Researcher

Sara (Mills) Kerr is a firefighter with Fire and Rescue New South Wales and a PhD candidate at the University of Newcastle, researching the trustworthiness of AI-generated information in disaster and ...

27 Juli 52min

S6 Ep14 A Better Approach to After-Action Reviews

A few years ago, senior FBI SWAT team leader Matt Hoffman called Preston after a fatal operation. To assist the team in working through the loss, Preston and Matt used a process that went beyond the s...

13 Juli 55min

S6 Ep13 Christine Stead on Systems of Innovation in ECMO

Christine Stead is the CEO of ELSO: the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization. ELSO is the premier global nonprofit for ECMO and ECLS, connecting providers, researchers, and regulatory agencies acr...

29 Juni 43min

S6 Ep12 The Neuroscience of Operator Development (Recast)

This conversation originally aired December 6, 2022.Dr. Michael Platt is a Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania and holds joint appointments at the Pe...

15 Juni 49min

S6 Ep11 Marius Aleksa on Why Curiosity is Key for Human Performance

We're continuing our conversation on human performance by asking why some performers keep improving under pressure while others hit a ceiling. One of the most powerful answers is curiosity. In this Te...

1 Juni 37min