Leadership Archives - Page 5 of 14 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Commercial Building Mayday. The Atascocita Fire Story – Part 1 (Episode 303)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Equipment, Expectations, Experience, Gut Feeling, Habits, Judgment, Leadership, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Miscommunications, Mission, Muscle Memory, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Radios, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Time Distortion, Training / Rich Gasaway

Today’s episode is Part 1 of my 2-part interview with three command officers from the Atascocita Fire Department in Houston, Texas, sharing a story of a commercial building fire that resulted in a mayday. Length: 67 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking […]

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Time to Task Completion is Critical for Situational Awareness

3 Comments / Article, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Safety, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

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, future events. This is accomplished through mental models you develop that are founded in your training and experience. But

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The Midwest Fire Story – Brett Jensen Interview (Episode 299)

Leave a Comment / Automation, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Equipment, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Mission, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Technology / Rich Gasaway

This episode is an interview with Midwest Fire Vice President and General Manager Brett Jensen, discussing the Midwest Fire way of doing business. Length: 58 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a

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Overconfidence – A Dangerous Minefield (Episode 296)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attitude, Automatic Action, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Ego, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Incompetence, Judgment, Leadership, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Optimism, Over Confident, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Tacit Knowledge, Under Confident / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we review the Overconfidence chapter of my new book, How Smart Workers Use Situational Awareness to Improve Safety. Length: 28 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher level, check

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The Two Headed Incident Commander

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Article, Attention Management, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Teamwork, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

A subscriber to the Situational Awareness Matters newsletter sent me a photograph of an emergency incident scene that caused me to reflect on a very important situational awareness lesson. This lesson, unfortunately, is often overlooked and is often implicated as a contributing factor to near-miss and casualty events. Let’s spend a little time examining workload

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Teaching Decision Making to Firefighters

1 Comment / Accountability, Article, Assumptions, Decision Making, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership / Rich Gasaway

In a recent class, I engaged in a discussion with an officer who took exception with my recommendation that firefighters should be taught how to use situational awareness to make good decisions. His contention was that the fire service is a paramilitary organization and firefighters should not be decision-makers. Further contention was firefighters should obediently

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Coffee Talk with Carl Potter from The Safety Institute (Episode 285)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attitude, Benchmarks, Biases, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Emotions, Equipment, Expectations, Experience, Goals, Gut Feeling, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Judgment, Leadership, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Technology, Time Distortion, Training, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Vigilance, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, I am interviewed on the Coffee Talk Show with Carl Potter, founder of The Safety Institute. The Safety Institute is a resource for organizations that want to create workplaces where it’s difficult to get hurt. Length: 68 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you

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Mindset of Aggressiveness – Chris Tobin Interview (Episode 284)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attitude, Bravado, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Emotions, Experience, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Mission, Near Miss, Neuroscience, Over Confident, Risk, Risk Assessment, SAMatters Radio, Staffing, Training / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, I interview Firefighter Chris Tobin as we discuss the need to have a mindset of aggressiveness. Length: 51 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher level, check out

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Life and Death Matters – Chris and Sam Adams Interview – Part 2 (Episode 283)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attitude, Benchmarks, Biases, Bravado, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Emotions, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Goals, Gut Feeling, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Judgment, Leadership, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Pressure, Progress Reports, Repetition, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part 2 of a 2-part interview with Chris and Sam Adams discussing their book, Life and Death Matters: Professionalism and Decision-Making for the First Responder. Length: 48 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk

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Life and Death Matters – Chris and Sam Adams Interview – Part 1 (Episode 282)

This episode is part 1 of a 2-part interview with Chris and Sam Adams discussing their book, Life and Death Matters: Professionalism and Decision-Making for the First Responder. Length: 42 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk

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