Human Factors

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

Episode 137 | Radio Traffic and Situational Awareness

In this episode, we discuss how situational awareness can be improved or impacted by radio traffic. Length: 30 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. CLICK […]

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Episode 133 | The Devil’s Advocate

In this episode, we discuss the role of the devil’s advocate on emergency scenes and how the advocate can help when there is a flawed perception of reality. 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

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safety training

Episode 132 | Online Academy Preview

  I am super excited to be able to share with you the features and enrollment options for the newly released Situational Awareness Matters Online Academy. 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

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Episode 131 | Best practices for managing mental workload

    In this episode, we discuss five best practices for managing mental workload under stressful working conditions. Length: 26 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

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Episode 127 | Teaching responders how to speak up

    In this episode, we discuss the challenges of teaching responders how to speak up when they think something is going wrong.  As we will see, it goes way beyond telling them to speak up if they see something. Length: 39 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen     _____________________________________________________ If you are

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Episode 120 | Interview with Instructor John Dixon

  In this episode I sat down for an interview with Instructor John Dixon to discuss his passion topic – the normalization of deviance.     Length: 63 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

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Radio Communications is Essential to Situational Awareness

I was invited to be an observer at a regional police tactical training exercise. The program was a multi-day event, starting with some classroom training and culminating in a series of simulations using mock weapons, flash-bangs and actors. The one thing that readily stood out to me was the tactical teams were not using radios

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Projection

Time to Task Completion is Critical

Your highest level of situational awareness is formed when you are able to make accurate predictions about future events. In science we call this projection and it simply means you are able to predict, or project, the future events. This is accomplished through mental models you develop that are founded in your training and experience.

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Blindfolded

Mission-induced Blindness

When I talk with first responders about situational awareness and what it takes to develop and maintain it, the program participants often use terms such as: “It’s important to pay attention.” Or, “You have to keep your head on a swivel.” Or, “It helps to look up, down and all around.” All of this is

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Unexpected information can be a barrier to situational awareness

One of the foundations of situational awareness development is being able to make accurate predictions of future events. Making (accurate) predictions is a fairly complex neurological process that relies heavily on gathering information, comprehending the meaning of the information, tapping into your stored knowledge of past experiences, trusting your intuition and using your imagination to

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