Leadership

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

Tracking of Personnel

Accountability: A critically important component of emergency scene safety when personnel operates in a hazardous environment. From the perspective of situational awareness, accountability plays several roles. The obvious role is personnel accountability facilitates the rapid deployment of rescue teams if something goes awry. Command knows the crew sizes and where they are operating and can […]

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Mental Health Mayday – The Verne and Chancy Friesen Story – Part 2 (Episode 311)

  This interview is part 2 of a 2-part interview with Laverne Friesen and his wife, Chancy, talking about his mental health near miss and how they are working through the challenges together. Length: 56 minutes   Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your

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Mental Health Mayday – The Verne and Chancy Friesen Story – Part 1 (Episode 310)

This interview is part 1 of a 2-part interview with Laverne Friesen and his wife, Chancy, talking about his mental health near miss and how they are working through the challenges together. Length: 51 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO         __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your

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Big Data Could Spell Big Trouble

There is a lot being written these days about how “big data” can help emergency scene commanders improve situational awareness and, subsequently, make better decisions. While information (data) is critical to the formation of situational awareness, it is very easy for a commander to become overwhelmed with data. I say this often during my Mental

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Commanders in Turnout Gear

I recently read, with great interest, a very long thread on Facebook about whether or not an incident commander should wear turnout gear at a fire scene. As my focus and passion is improving first responder situational awareness, I would like to address this issue from that perspective. The feedback on Facebook was, as expected,

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Commercial Building Mayday. The Atascocita Fire Story – Part 2 (Episode 304)

Today’s episode is Part 2 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: 63 minutes   Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking

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

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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Situational Awareness Matters!

Time to Task Completion is Critical for Situational Awareness

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)

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)

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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