These are the first responder situational awareness and decision making issues and opportunities related to human factors.
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 […]
Episode 133 | The Devil’s Advocate Read More »
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
Episode 132 | Online Academy Preview Read More »
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
Episode 131 | Best practices for managing mental workload Read More »
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
Episode 127 | Teaching responders how to speak up Read More »
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
Episode 120 | Interview with Instructor John Dixon Read More »
We develop and maintain situational awareness by being perceptive about what is happening around us. To be perceptive, we must pay attention to what is going on in our environment. We can employ all of our senses to help us pay attention – seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling. However, if we let our guard
Complacency – a barrier to situational awareness Read More »
When it comes to first responder radio traffic I am reminded of the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. You may recall that in the story Goldilocks samples three bowls of porridge. One is too hot. One is too cold. And the third is just right. This lesson applies directly to first responder situational
Radio Traffic Can Improve or Destroy Situational Awareness Read More »
We all know we have habits. Some of them are good habits. And some of them are…well… not so good. The less often talked about cousin of a habit is a routine. Habits and routines can impact situational awareness in both good and bad ways. [tweet this] But where do habits and routines come from?
The Comfortable Routine of Complacency Read More »
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a live demonstration may be worth ten thousand words. In a recent situational awareness and decision making class, I was explaining to the participants the science behind why humans are such poor multitaskers. Of course, when I do this there is always someone in the class who,
Multitasking Impacts Situational Awareness Read More »
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
Radio Communications is Essential to Situational Awareness Read More »
