Situational Awareness Survey

Recently I conducted an informal survey on my social media networks (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), asking: In your opinion, what is the #1 barrier to situational awareness. As expected with social media, the responses were varied and some were intended to be humorous. I would like to share a few of the responses.

 

 

And the Survey Says…

 

Here is a summary of the nearly 100 responses. If you are connected with me on social media you’ll be able to go there and read all the responses. I have provided some links to articles on the SAMatters website. If the barrier is blue, you can click on it to read a related article.

• Ego
• Complacency
• Culture
• Afraid to speak up
• Not looking outside the box
• Stubborn
• Tunnel vision
• Distractions
• Overconfidence
• Arrogance
• Know-it-all
• Prior experience
• Routine calls
• Macho
• Not willing to speak up
• Lack of training
• Adrenaline
• Task saturation
• Time compression
• Too much radio traffic
• Inexperience
• Technology
• Peer pressure
• Biases
• Multitasking
• Overwhelm
• Flawed perceptions
• Poor communications

 

Many of the items on this list are among the barriers to situational awareness discussed during live programs, in the on-line academy, in articles posted here on the blog, and in our books and videos.

 

You can check out the list of :Categories” on the right side of the page and select the barriers/topics you are interested in learning more about.

 

The truth of the matter is, there are over 100 barriers to situational awareness. Some are more commonly occurring than others, but all of them can produce the same, potentially catastrophic, outcome – flawed perception… flawed comprehension… or flawed predictions.

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The mission of Situational Awareness Matters is simple: Help first responders see the bad things coming… in time to change the outcome.

Safety begins with SA! 

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Share your comments on this article in the “Leave a Reply” box below. If you want to send me incident pictures, videos or have an idea you’d like me to research and write about, contact me. I really enjoy getting feedback and supportive messages from fellow first responders. It gives me the energy to work harder for you.

Thanks,

 

 

 

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