Attention Management Archives - Page 4 of 18 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Trapped in a basement – The Perry Hall Story – Part 1 – (SAM 336)

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Disoriented, Expectations, Experience, Goals, Human Behavior, Human Error, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Physical Fitness, Pre Arrival Lens, Progress Reports, Radios, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Shared Mental Models, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Time Distortion, Training, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Vigilance, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part one of a two-part interview with Perry Hall, a firefighter who shared his story of a horrific near-miss event and the life-changing impact it has had on him. On May 5, 2014 Perry Hall was part of an engine crew conducting a search when he got separated from his crew and […]

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Trapped in a Tunnel – The Joe Pronesti Story (Episode 335)

Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Close Call, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Disoriented, Expectations, Experience, Goals, Human Behavior, Human Error, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Physical Fitness, Pre Arrival Lens, Progress Reports, Radios, Risk, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Shared Mental Models, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Time Distortion, Training, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Vigilance, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

Captain Pronesti was involved in advancing a hoseline and fighting the underground fire. While approximately 300’ inside the tunnel on the attack, his low air alarm started ringing. He ran out of air before making it completely out, disconnected his regulator and breathed products of combustion. Upon exiting, he provided a briefing to his commander

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Sharing multiple near-miss experiences including being held-up at gunpoint. The Jim Arie Story – Part 2 (Episode 332)

Anger, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Close Call, Competency, Confusion, Decision Making, Denial, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Intuition, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Near Miss, Optimism, Perception, Prediction, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Time Distortion, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses / Rich Gasaway

This episode is Part 2 of a 2-part interview where we learn about multiple near-miss events experienced by retired Fire Chief, Jim Arie throughout his 43-year career and he’ll discuss the situational awareness lessons from being held-up at gunpoint in March, 2020. Length: 40 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full video.

Sharing multiple near-miss experiences including being held-up at gunpoint. The Jim Arie Story – Part 2 (Episode 332) Read More »

Sharing multiple near-miss experiences including being held-up at gunpoint. The Jim Arie Story – Part 1 (Episode 331)

This episode is Part 1 of a 2-part interview where we learn about multiple near-miss events experienced by retired Fire Chief, Jim Arie throughout his 43-year career and he’ll discuss the situational awareness lessons from being held-up at gunpoint in March, 2020. Length: 41 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full video.

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Situational Awareness Best Practices for Incident Commanders (Episode 326)

Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Benchmarks, Biases, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Equipment, Expectations, Explicit Knowledge, Goals, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Interruptions, Intuition, Long-Term Memory, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Multitasking, Over Confident, Over Staffing, Overload, Overwhelm, Pattern Matching, Perception, Preoccupation, Pressure, Radios, Repetition, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Time Distortion, understaffing, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

There are three component parts to situational awareness – perception, understanding and prediction. There are barriers that can impact awareness on all three levels. The application of best practices can help incident commanders reduce the impact of barriers. Length: 35 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full video. __________________________________________________ All of our

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The Impact of Oversharing on Situational Awareness

1 Comment / Article, Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Communications, Radios, Safety / Rich Gasaway

Have you ever been around someone who takes twenty minutes to tell a five-minute story? What does that do to you? I know what it does to me. It lowers my vigilance (i.e., the amount of attention I am channeling to them), it can cause me to become frustrated, bored, tune them out and find

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Responders Overcome by Carbon Monoxide – The Mukilteo Fire Story – Part 2 (Episode 309)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Close Call, Communications, Competency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Human Error, Human Factors, Illness, Judgment, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

This interview is part 2 of a 2-part interview with three members of the Mukilteo Fire Department who were overcome by carbon monoxide on an EMS call. Length: 49 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and

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The Communications Specialist Role in Forming Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Article, Assumptions, Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Confabulation, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Risk Assessment, Size Up / Rich Gasaway

Some of the least appreciated members of the emergency response team are the communications specialists (in some venues, termed dispatchers). How do I know this? First, I served as a communications specialist (my job title was “dispatcher”) early in my career and I was routinely subjected to criticism and ridicule from responders because the information

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Responders Overcome by Carbon Monoxide – The Mukilteo Fire Story – Part 1 (Episode 308)

This interview is part 1 of a 2-part interview with three members of the Mukilteo Fire Department who were overcome by carbon monoxide on an EMS call. Length: 43 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and

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Big Data Could Spell Big Trouble

Leave a Comment / Article, Attention Management, Emotions, Fatigue, Frustration, Leadership, Multitasking, Technology / Rich Gasaway

There is a lot being written these days about how “big data” can help emergency scene commanders improve situational awareness and, subsequently, make better decisions. While information (data) is critical to the formation of situational awareness, it is very easy for a commander to become overwhelmed with data. I say this often during my Mental

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