Ego

These are the first responder situational awareness and decision making issues and opportunities related to ego.

The Five Step Assertive Statement Process

14 Comments / Crew Resource Management, Culture, Ego, Fear, Safety, Situational awareness, Teamwork /

You’re a firefighter assigned to a roof job. It’s a flat metal roof and there’s a lot of water on it. (Set aside for a moment all your judgement about why you’re on the roof in the first place). Your situational awareness is strong and you’re getting a gut feeling that’s causing you concern for […]

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Situational Awareness Matters!

How Could They Be So Stupid?

8 Comments / Anger, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Incompetence, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Training /

Recently I was having a conversation with a fire commander who shared the following experience. He stopped by one of the stations for a visit and came upon a group of firefighters huddled around a computer screen watching videos. Relax. This is not a lecture on watching inappropriate videos on fire department computers. In fact,

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Frustration – A barrier to situational awareness

1 Comment / Article, Ego, Emotions, Experience, Frustration /

Have you ever found yourself so frustrated at an individual or a situation that you become fixated on that issue? When this happens, oftentimes, we become hyper focused on the individual or the situation and can lose awareness of the bigger picture. When this occurs, critical clues and cues, essential to the formation of situational

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Expectations can Impact Situational Awareness

2 Comments / Accountability, Article, Competency, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Emotions, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress /

Towering Inferno… Backdraft… Ladder 49… Emergency… Adam 12… Dragnet… Rescue Me… Chicago Fire… Hawaii Five O … Love them or hate them, movies and television influence perceptions and create expectations three ways: First, they influence citizen perceptions of emergency service providers and create certain performance expectations. Second, they influence first responders’ perceptions of themselves and

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Will Denial Make the Problem Better or Worse?

Leave a Comment / Article, Complacency, Ego, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Safety, Situational awareness /

I received the following feedback to a recent Situational Awareness Newsletter. I thought I’d share it and use it as an introduction to this article. Here’s what he had to say: __________ I forwarded your newsletter to every one of my email contacts. The newsletter was especially appropriate  for some of the people on my mailing list

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The Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance – 406

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Attention Management, Attitude, Bravado, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Ego, Emotions, Fatigue, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Frustration, Gut Feeling, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Illness, Intuition, Invincible, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Near Miss, Neuroscience, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Physical Fitness, Prediction, Preoccupation, Pressure, Risk, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Training, understaffing, Workload Management /

  In this interview, Dr. Gasaway talks with Jeff Dill about the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance and their work to reduce firefighter suicides.     Description   In 2010, Jeff Dill founded Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FBHA).  And since 2021, Jeff has served full time as the Behavioral Health Administrator for Las Vegas Fire & Rescue

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The Minnesota Hometown Heroes Assistance Program – 405

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attitude, Bravado, Close Call, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Ego, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Fatigue, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Frustration, Gut Feeling, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Illness, Intuition, Invincible, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Neuroscience, Optimism, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Physical Fitness, Prediction, Preoccupation, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Training, Understanding, Vigilance /

    In this interview, Dr. Gasaway talks with George Esbensen, President of the Minnesota Firefighter Initiative (MnFIRE) about the Hometown Heroes Assistance Program.   During his 32 years in the fire service, George Esbensen served in many roles, from firefighter to chief. Today, he volunteers as Board President of the Minnesota Firefighter Initiative (MnFIRE),

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The NIOSH 5 and Leadership – The Jeff Snider Interview – 403

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Benchmarks, Biases, Bravado, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Incompetence, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Multitasking, Near Miss, Over Confident, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Pressure, Progress Reports, Radios, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Technology, Training, Workload Management /

  In this interview, Dr. Gasaway talks with Jeff Snider about the NIOSH 5 – or the five most often cited contributing factors in Line of Duty death investigations and lessons for leader   Jeff Snider has served with the Canadian military as a Special Forces Operator (3 CDO), a Correctional Officer at a maximum-security facility,

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The 400th Episode Anniversary of the SAMatters Show – 400

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Auditory exclusion, Automatic Action, Automatic Action, Automation, Benchmarks, Biases, Bravado, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Comprehension, Confabulation, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Ego, Emotions, Equipment, Error Creep, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Fatigue, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Frustration, Goals, Gut Feeling, Habits, Hallucinations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Illness, Incompetence, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Information overload, Insubordination, Interruptions, Intuition, Invincible, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Live Events, Long-Term Memory, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Meta Awareness, Mind Drift, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Motion Induced Blindness, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Near Miss, Neuroscience, News, Online Classes, Optimism, Over Confident, Over Staffing, Overload, Overwhelm, PAR, Pattern Matching, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Physical Fitness, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Preoccupation, Pressure, Progress Reports, Questions & Answers, Radios, Repetition, Response Time Delays, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Simulation, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Technology, Testimonials, Time Distortion, Training, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Under Confident, understaffing, Understanding, Vigilance, Virtual Training, Weather, Workload Management, Worksheets /

    Dr. Gasaway, along with some special guests, celebrates the milestone of reaching our 400thepisode.   The Situational Awareness Matters Show debuted on May 12, 2014.  This episode highlights the journey Dr. Gasaway has taken to educate first responders about situational awareness and high-risk decision making. About the Host Richard B. Gasaway, PhD, CSP

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