Communications Archives - Page 6 of 26 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

The Impact of Understaffing (Episode 328)

Accountability, Anger, Assumptions, Building Construction, Command Support, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Expectations, Experience, Human Error, Human Factors, Leadership, Mission, Multitasking, Overload, Overwhelm, Personnel location, Pressure, Progress Reports, Response Time Delays, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Staffing, Stress, Teamwork, understaffing / Rich Gasaway

The pandemic has been tough on everyone, especially first responders who have stepped up to the task. But for many first response agencies, the worst is yet to come as the economic fallout will likely create budget shortfalls that will, in turn, cause fire departments to reduce staffing and services. This show looks at the […]

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Bravado – A barrier to situational awareness (Episode 327)

Accountability, Anger, Assertiveness, Attitude, Bravado, Command Location, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Ego, Emotions, Experience, Fear, Frustration, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Incompetence, Invincible, Over Confident, Pressure, Risk, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Under Confident / Rich Gasaway

Bravado is defined as “a bold manner or a show of boldness intended to impress or intimidate.” A co-worker or boss displaying bravado can be dangerous because their need to impress or intimidate can cause them to miss critical clues and cues and flaw their situational awareness. Length: 12 minutes Click the YouTube icon to

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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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What we fear most Part 2 (Episode 325)

Accountability, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attitude, Bravado, Communications, Competency, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Ego, Emotions, Experience, Fear, Frustration, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Insubordination, Invincible, Leadership, Miscommunications, Pressure, Progress Reports, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Stress, Teamwork, Under Confident / Rich Gasaway

The fear of public speaking consistently ranks near the top of the list in fear surveys. This won’t come as a surprise for many. But the consequences of not speaking up can be catastrophic for organizations and for the individual gripped by this fear. This episode explores the fear of public speaking and offers some

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Situational Awareness Thoughts and Observations About Covid-19 (Episode 313)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assumptions, Attitude, Biases, Bravado, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Confusion, Defiance, Denial, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Expectations, Fatigue, Fear, Frustration, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Information overload, Invincible, Leadership, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Multitasking, Over Confident, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Preoccupation, Pressure, Risk, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Training, Under Confident, understaffing, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, I share situational awareness thoughts and observations about the COVID-19 Pandemic and address 25 situational awareness barriers that are causing me concern. Length: 65 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ All of our live event topics are now available, virtually. CLICK HERE for details, enrollment

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A line of duty death perspective – The Jeff Dickey Story (Episode 312)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Building Construction, Communications, Culture, Decision Making, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Gut Feeling, Human Error, Human Factors, Line of Duty Death, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Mission, Mission Myopia, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Radios, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

Lieutenant Jeff Dickey has served the Washington, D.C. Fire Department for more than 30 years. Jeff was an acting officer during an incident where a DC firefighter was killed and Jeff was on the crew that recovered his body. Length: 59 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO

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Tracking of Personnel

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Article, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Mayday and RIT, Safety, Situational awareness, Staffing, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

Accountability: A critically important component of emergency scene safety when personnel operates in a hazardous environment. From the perspective of situational awareness, accountability plays several roles. The obvious role is personnel accountability facilitates the rapid deployment of rescue teams if something goes awry. Command knows the crew sizes and where they are operating and can

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Mental Health Mayday – The Verne and Chancy Friesen Story – Part 2 (Episode 311)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attitude, Bravado, Building Construction, Close Call, Communications, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Emotions, Expectations, Fear, Human Behavior, Illness, Judgment, Leadership, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Perception Of Reality, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Stress / Rich Gasaway

This interview is part 2 of a 2-part interview with Laverne Friesen and his wife, Chancy, talking about his mental health near miss and how they are working through the challenges together. Length: 56 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your

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Mental Health Mayday – The Verne and Chancy Friesen Story – Part 1 (Episode 310)

This interview is part 1 of a 2-part interview with Laverne Friesen and his wife, Chancy, talking about his mental health near miss and how they are working through the challenges together. Length: 51 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your

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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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