NIMS Management: Manageable Span of Control
The optimal span of control for incident management is one supervisor to five subordinates; however, effective incident management frequently necessitates ratios significantly different from this. The 1:5 ratio is a guideline, and incident personnel use their best judgment to determine the actual distribution of subordinates to supervisors for a given incident or EOC activation.
Image shows 2 pyramids - first pyramid shows 3 people at the bottom of the pyramid with arrows pointing to 1 person at the top. The other pyramid shows 7 people at the bottom of the pyramid with arrows pointing to one person at the top. ICS span of control for any supervisor is between 3 and 7 subordinates, and optimally does not exceed 5 subordinates.