Communications

These are the first responder decision making and situational awareness issues and opportunities related to radio, face-to-face and interpersonal communications.

Fighting Fires on Main Street – Part 2 (Episode 254)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Communications, Decision Making, Disoriented, Equipment, Expectations, Goals, Mindfulness, Personnel location, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Training, Vigilance /

This episode is part 2 of a 2-part interview with Elyria Fire Department Assistant Chief, Joe Pronesti, talking about the unique challenges we face when fighting fires in legacy-era, Main Street structures, ie: Main Street Fire! Length: 42 minutes   Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If you are […]

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Information Overload!

Understanding Stress – Part 7: Information Overload

3 Comments / Article, Attention Management, Checklists, Communications, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Information overload, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress, Workload Management, Worksheets /

Welcome to Part 7 of my series on stress and its impact on situational awareness. I appreciate all the very nice comments I have received by email, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Keep them coming. Your messages inspire and motivate me more than you can ever imagine. Thank you so much! In the previous segment I

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Main Street Fire

Fighting Fires on Main Street – Part 1 (Episode 253)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Communications, Decision Making, Disoriented, Equipment, Expectations, Goals, Mindfulness, Personnel location, SAMatters Radio, Size Up /

This episode is part 1 of a 2-part interview with Elyria Fire Department Assistant Chief, Joe Pronesti, talking about the unique challenges we face when fighting fires in legacy-era, Main Street structures, ie: Main Street Fire! Length: 42 minutes   Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If you are

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Backdraft and Mayday! – Part 3 (Episode 251)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Frustration, Gut Feeling, Intuition, Judgment, Mayday, Miscommunications, Personnel location, Progress Reports, Radios, Response Time Delays, Risk, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, understaffing, Worksheets /

This episode is part 3 of a 3-part interview with the incident commander from the German Township Fire Department who was in charge of a residential dwelling fire where a backdraft occurred followed by a Mayday call. Length: 62 minutes         Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO    

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Backdraft and Mayday! – Part 2 (Episode 250)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Frustration, Gut Feeling, Intuition, Judgment, Mayday, Miscommunications, Personnel location, Progress Reports, Radios, Response Time Delays, Risk, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, understaffing, Worksheets /

This episode is part 2 of a 3-part interview with the incident commander from the German Township Fire Department who was in charge of a residential dwelling fire where a backdraft occurred followed by a Mayday call. Length: 40 minutes     Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If

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Backdraft and Mayday! – Part 1 (Episode 249)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Frustration, Gut Feeling, Intuition, Judgment, Mayday, Miscommunications, Personnel location, Progress Reports, Radios, Response Time Delays, Risk, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, understaffing, Worksheets /

This episode is part 1 of a 3-part interview with the incident commander from the German Township Fire Department who was in charge of a residential dwelling fire where a backdraft occurred followed by a Mayday call. Length: 67 minutes     Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If

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Top Ten Near-Miss Interviews (SAM 248)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Auditory exclusion, Automatic Action, Automation, Benchmarks, Biases, Bravado, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Confabulation, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Educational Products, Ego, Emotions, Equipment, Error Creep, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Fatigue, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Frustration, Gasaway Consulting Group, Goals, Gut Feeling, Habits, Hallucinations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Line of Duty Death, SAMatters Radio /

In this episode, I recap the events surrounding our most downloaded near-miss interviews in the history of the show. Length: 33 minutes     Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher level, check

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Pre-Arrival Lens, Task Fixation, Mission Myopia and Fear (Episode 246)

Leave a Comment / Communications, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Ego, Emotions, Experience, Fear, Human Factors, Intuition, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Perception Of Reality, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Stress, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Vigilance /

In this episode, you get to sit in on a segment of a situational awareness program where Dr. Gasaway discusses four situational awareness barriers. Length: 33 minutes   Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to

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Peer Pressure Can Impact Situational Awareness

2 Comments / Article, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress, Teamwork /

The social interaction between coworkers may not be on your mind as you think about  situational awareness. But the fact is we are all influenced by our relationships with others. We have an inherent internal desire to be well-liked and respected. We also have a very strong internal drive to avoid embarrassment. These traits of

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How We Understand (Episode 245)

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Competency, Decision Making, Expectations, Gut Feeling, Human Factors, Interruptions, Intuition, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Overload, Pattern Matching, Perception, Prediction, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Short Term Memory, Simulation, Situational awareness, Tacit Knowledge, Vigilance /

In this episode, you get to sit in on a short segment of a situational awareness program where Dr. Gasaway explains the second component in the situational awareness process – how your brain develops understanding. Length: 47 minutes   Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If you are interested in

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