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Communications

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

Episode 190 | Interview with Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief John DiBacco – Part 1

Episode 190 is Part 1 of a 2-part interview with Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief John DiBacco talking about the after-action review process used by Norfolk Fire to learn lessons from significant incidents.   Length: 36 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen         __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of […]

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Episode 189 | Communications Overload

This episode discusses the cognitive overload that can occur when there is too much verbal information to process.  Length: 31 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen       __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher level, check out the Situational Awareness Matters

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Confronting a Boss With Flawed Situational Awareness

  I recently read a post on social media where a firefighter said at an incident scene that he doesn’t worry about his situational awareness. That’s what he has an officer for. Further, he didn’t worry about having situational awareness about the larger incident scene, that’s what he has an incident commander for. I could

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Confabulation: It Sounds Better Than Lying

Confabulation may sound better than lying, but it’s no less dangerous. One of the most amazing demonstrations I do during my situational awareness programs is to show how a person, when placed under stress, will lie. Only in the world of neuroscience, we don’t call it lying, we call it confabulation. You won’t do it

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Episode 185 | St. Charles Fire Department Near Miss – Part 3

This episode is part 3 of a 3-part interview with two members of the St. Charles Fire Department (Missouri) discussing a near-miss where four firefighters were overrun by rapidly changing conditions at a residential dwelling fire. Length: 48 minutes Click the YouTube icon to listen   _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of

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Situational Awareness Matters!

Complex Communications

We have many traits that make us uniquely human. Among them is our ability to engage in complex communications. We can look at black ink squiggled on a piece of bleached paper and derive meaning from those symbols.  We call that skill reading comprehension. And we can listen to and comprehend the meaning of more

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Episode 184 | St. Charles Fire Department Near Miss – Part 2

This episode is part 2 of a 3-part interview with two members of the St. Charles Fire Department (Missouri) discussing a near-miss where four firefighters were overrun by rapidly changing conditions at a residential dwelling fire. Length: 45 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen

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Situational Awareness Matters!

Teaching Situational Awareness and Decision Making

Situational awareness is the foundation for good decision making. Situational awareness is formed by observing… and understanding what is happening in your environment, in the context of how time is passing. That “understanding” is then used to make predictions of future events. For those who have attended my full-day situational awareness classes you know this

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Episode 183 | St. Charles Fire Department Near Miss – Part 1

This episode is part 1 of a 3-part interview with two members of the St. Charles Fire Department (Missouri) discussing a near-miss where four firefighters were overrun by rapidly changing conditions at a residential dwelling fire. Length: 56 minutes Click the YouTube icon to listen     _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding

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Episode 182 | Colorado Springs FD Interview – Part 2

This episode is part 2 of an interview with three members of the Colorado Springs Fire Department discussing recruit training, using science to teach firefighting and more. Length: 50 minutes Click the YouTube icon to listen       _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to

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