Human Behavior

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

Episode 186 | You Can’t Handle the Truth

  This episode discusses some of the strange consequences of stress, including how employees may say untruthful things without knowing it. Length: 36 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 […]

Episode 186 | You Can’t Handle the Truth Read More »

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

Confabulation: It Sounds Better Than Lying Read More »

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

Complex Communications Read More »

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

Episode 182 | Colorado Springs FD Interview – Part 2 Read More »

Episode 181 | Colorado Springs FD Interview – Part 1

This episode is part 1 of an interview with three members of the Colorado Springs Fire Department discussing recruit training, using science to teach firefighting and more. Length: 55 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen  

Episode 181 | Colorado Springs FD Interview – Part 1 Read More »

Come down off the high perch of judgment

At the start of the Flawed Situational Awareness program I share a story about my early years as a company officer and subsequently as a command-level officer. Even in those days (more than 30 years ago), I held a deep desire to learn from failure and catastrophe. I read every near-miss and casualty report I

Come down off the high perch of judgment Read More »

Chatty TSA Agents

It is possible that while you are attempting to pay attention to something, you can be drawn off your task by distractions or interruptions to your workload. A distraction is something that pulls your attention away by accident (like a reflex look in the direction of a loud noise). An interruption is something that pulls

Chatty TSA Agents Read More »

Duty to Die Syndrome

I recently sent out a message across my social media networks (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) about bravado being a barrier to situational awareness. The message, in case you missed it, read: Bravado: The purposeful ignorance of critical signs of danger coupled with a sense of invincibility. A barrier to situational awareness.  First responders sometimes confuse

Duty to Die Syndrome Read More »

Episode 175 | Positive Reinforcement of Undesired Behavior

  This episode explores how the positive reinforcement of undesired behavior can impact first responder safety. Length: 22 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

Episode 175 | Positive Reinforcement of Undesired Behavior Read More »

Assumptions can be a situational awareness barrier

  We make assumptions every day. Some of them are accurate. Others are not. Assumptions occur when there is an absence of complete information. Such is the case at just about every emergency scene you respond to. Let’s explore how we make assumptions.

Assumptions can be a situational awareness barrier Read More »