Human Behavior Archives - Page 14 of 22 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Flawed Expectations of Personnel Can Impact Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Anger, Article, Attention Management, Checklists, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Leadership, Neuroscience, Risk Assessment, Safety, Situational awareness, Tacit Knowledge, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

You develop situational awareness by using your senses to capture information (Level 1 situational awareness). Those clues and cues are then processed into understanding (Level 2 situational awareness). Once you understand what is happening, you can then make predictions of future events (Level 3 situational awareness). This article focuses on the third level of situational […]

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Ignoring the Signs of Danger

7 Comments / Accountability, Article, Communications, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Teamwork, Tunneled Senses / Rich Gasaway

A lesson on situational awareness: The tones drop for a reported residential fire. On the way to the call, dispatch reports multiple calls, confirming a working fire. On arrival the crew sees fire blowing out the B-C corner of the single story, detached residential dwelling. The resident is standing in the front yard. A quick

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Imagination Can Influence Situational Awareness

1 Comment / Article, Attention Management, Confabulation, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

If I were to tell you that on an emergency scene it is possible for you to use X-Ray vision, you’d probably think I’ve been watching too many Superman movies. But it is possible for you to look right through a solid object on an emergency scene and see what’s beyond it. Seriously! Read on…

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Episode 205 | Frustration

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Command Presence, Communications, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Expectations, Frustration, Human Behavior, Preoccupation, SAMatters Radio, Stress / Rich Gasaway

This episode examines how frustration can impact your situational awareness. Length: 27 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 Online Academy.

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Firefighting: It’s a whole new ballgame

6 Comments / Accountability, Article, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Emotions, Fear, Human Behavior, Leadership, Mayday and RIT, Personnel location, Risk Assessment, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

There is little doubt the economic recession of 2008-2009 had a significant impact on the nation’s fire service. Hardly a day went by where there wasn’t some news about an organization that downsized, rightsized or capsized. There are all kinds of explanations and terms being attached to what happened. One I heard at the time

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Episode 203 | Normalization of Deviance

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attitude, Automatic Action, Close Call, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Error Creep, Expectations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Incompetence, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Invincible, Judgment, Line of Duty Death, Mindfulness, Mission, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Perception Of Reality, Risk, Risk Assessment, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Stress, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

When we are operating under conditions of stress and consequence, coupled with changing conditions and time compression, we can feel a sense of urgency and this can cause us to want to take a shortcut from safety best practices. Length: 29 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen __________________________________________________

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Fifteen Situational Awareness Barriers

2 Comments / Accountability, Article, Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Confabulation, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Information overload, Multitasking, Neuroscience, Prediction, Repetition, Safety, Situational awareness, Task Saturation, Tunneled Senses / Rich Gasaway

The mission of Situational Awareness Matters is to help you see the bad things coming… in time to change bad outcomes. SA is a complex neurological process and I go to painstaking efforts to ensure that what I teach here, on the podcast and in classrooms is “first responder friendly.” I don’t ever want a

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Episode 202 | Relationship Bias

Leave a Comment / Anger, Assumptions, Biases, Communications, Competency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Emotions, Expectations, Frustration, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Judgment, Miscommunications, Perception Of Reality, Progress Reports, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Shared Mental Models, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

The episode explores how relationship bias can impact situational awareness. Length: 29 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen

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Explaining Resistance to Change

Leave a Comment / Article, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Ego, Expectations, Fear, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Leadership, Repetition, Safety, Size Up, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

Imagine for a moment that you’re part of a 4-person first-due crew responding on to an apartment fire. On the way to the call the dispatcher announces over the radio that a caller is reporting the fire to be on the first floor of a three-story apartment building. Your company officer tells you that on

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Every EMS Call Starts with Scene Safety

8 Comments / Article, Checklists, Communications, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Training / Rich Gasaway

“Scene Safe, BSI.” These words have been uttered by every first responder who has ever received medical training. In fact, any responder who has performed a practical exercise for certification knows the first two mandatory skills to be completed on the evaluation checklist are: (1) Ensure the scene is safe before entering; and (2) Don

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