Competency Archives - Page 4 of 9 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

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.

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

Seven Situational Awareness Thieves (Episode 330)

Accountability, Assumptions, Auditory exclusion, Bravado, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Ego, Human Behavior, Human Error, Invincible, Judgment, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Tunnel Vision / Rich Gasaway

You might think that by now the importance of completing a 360-degree size-up would be second nature for firefighters. But it’s not. In fact, failing to complete a proper size-up remains one of the most often cited contributing factors in NIOSH Line-of-Duty death reports. There are lots of reasons why proper size-ups are not completed.

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The 360 Degree Size-up (Episode 329)

Accountability, Assumptions, Automatic Action, Automatic Action, Building Construction, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Expectations, Habits, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception Of Reality, Progress Reports, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation / Rich Gasaway

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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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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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