Meta Awareness Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Mission Myopia: A situational awareness barrier

2 Comments / Article, Attention Management, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Ego, Human Factors, Meta Awareness, Multitasking, Risk Assessment, Safety, Size Up, Task Saturation, Tunneled Senses / Rich Gasaway

The primary mission in all emergency situations is to save lives and property. In some agencies when a new member is inducted into the organization they take an oath of office that includes pledging their commitment to this mission. The mission is an important – even noble – calling. But what happens when a responder […]

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Episode 234 | The Dirty Dozen – Killer Situational Awareness Barriers

Leave a Comment / Auditory exclusion, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Complacency, Confabulation, Confusion, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Gut Feeling, Habits, Hallucinations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Information overload, Intuition, Judgment, Long-Term Memory, Meta Awareness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Prediction, Pressure, Radios, Repetition, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Under Confident, understaffing, Vigilance, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

This episode discusses some of the most challenging barriers to situational awareness while working in high-risk, high-consequence environments. This is part 2 so if you missed part 1 – Episode 233 – be sure to check it out first and that will help you understand the challenges we are going to discuss here. Length: 36

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Episode 233 | The Process for Developing Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Auditory exclusion, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Complacency, Confabulation, Confusion, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Gut Feeling, Habits, Hallucinations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Information overload, Intuition, Judgment, Long-Term Memory, Meta Awareness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Prediction, Pressure, Radios, Repetition, Risk Assessment, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Under Confident, Vigilance, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

The episode discusses the process for developing and maintaining situational awareness. We will discuss the foundation, walls and roof of the SA development process. This is part 1 of a 2-part episode. Length: 36 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking

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Episode 216 | Task Fixation – A Barrier to Awareness

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Crew Resource Management, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Lost Focus, Meta Awareness, Mindfulness, Perception, Preoccupation, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses / Rich Gasaway

This episode examines how task fixation can impact situational awareness while working in high-risk environments. Length: 30 minutes click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO of this interview! __________________________________________________ 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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Episode 200 | Chesterfield County Interview – Part 3

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Confusion, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Information overload, Interruptions, Judgment, Meta Awareness, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Near Miss, Overload, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Pressure, Progress Reports, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Size Up, Staffing, Stress, Task Fixation, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

This episode is the third (and final) segment of an interview with Chesterfield County Battalion Chief Joy Knicely and Captain Rick Grassel. Length: 50 minutes click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO of this interview! __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making

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Episode 199 | Chesterfield County Interview – Part 2

This episode is part two of a three-part interview with Chesterfield County Battalion Chief Joy Knicely and Captain Rick Grassel. Length: 58 minutes click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO of this interview! __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a

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Expectations and situational awareness

Leave a Comment / Article, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Mental Models, Meta Awareness, Risk Assessment, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up / Rich Gasaway

The ability to develop and maintain situational awareness is a far more complex process than most people realize. I’ve had many responders say to me that as long as they are “paying attention” or “keeping their head on a swivel” or “looking up, down and all around”, they will have strong situational awareness. I truly

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Episode 198 | Chesterfield County Interview – Part 1

1 Comment / Accountability, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Confusion, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Information overload, Interruptions, Judgment, Meta Awareness, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Near Miss, Overload, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Pressure, Progress Reports, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Size Up, Staffing, Stress, Task Fixation, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part one of a three-part interview with Chesterfield County Battalion Chief Joy Knicely and Captain Rick Grassel. Length: 46 minutes click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO of this interview! __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a

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Episode 188 | When the puzzle pieces don’t fit

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Automatic Action, Command Presence, Complacency, Confusion, Decision Making, Denial, Expectations, Gut Feeling, Illness, Intuition, Meta Awareness, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

This episode discusses the confusion that can occur when the information you gather during size-up do not fit your expectations of what you thought you were going to see or hear. Length: 35 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness

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Teaching Situational Awareness and Decision Making

2 Comments / Article, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Leadership, Meta Awareness, Risk Assessment, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Teamwork, Training / Rich Gasaway

Situational awareness is the foundation for good decision making. Situational awareness is formed by observing… and understanding what is happening in your environment, in the context of how time is passing. That “understanding” is then used to make predictions of future events. For those who have attended my full-day situational awareness classes you know this

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