Leadership

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

Situational Awareness Matters!

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 /

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 /

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 /

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 /

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 /

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)

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 /

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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Comfortably Complacent (Episode 277)

Leave a Comment / Biases, Complacency, Decision Making, Expectations, Habits, Leadership, Mindfulness, Over Confident, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio /

This episode discusses how easy it can be to get into a comfortable rut of complacency. Length: 20 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 the Situational Awareness

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High Reliability Organization Processes (Episode 276)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Automation, Benchmarks, Checklists, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Expectations, Goals, Human Error, Judgment, Leadership, Mindfulness, Mission, Preoccupation, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Technology, Training, Workload Management /

This episode explores the processes used by high reliability organizations. Length: 21 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 the Situational Awareness Matters Online Academy. CLICK HERE for details,

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Traits of High Reliability Organizations (Episode 275)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Automation, Benchmarks, Checklists, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Expectations, Goals, Human Error, Judgment, Leadership, Mindfulness, Mission, Preoccupation, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Technology, Training, Workload Management /

This episode explores the traits of high reliability organizations Length: 25 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 the Situational Awareness Matters Online Academy. CLICK HERE for details, enrollment

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