communications

Episode 215 | Dave Beauregard Interview – Part 2

This episode is Part 2 of a two-part near-miss interview with Chicopee Fire Department Deputy Chief Dave Beauregard.  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 to a higher […]

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Episode 214 | Dave Beauregard Interview – Part 1

This episode is Part 1 of a two-part near-miss interview with Chicopee Fire Department Deputy Chief Dave Beauregard.  Length: 47 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

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Episode 207 | Selective Listening

This episode examines how selective listening can impact situational awareness.  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 to a higher level, check out the Situational Awareness Matters Online Academy. CLICK HERE for

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First, Do No Harm!

Primum non nocere is the Latin phrase that means “first, do no harm.” This is a commonly taught principle in healthcare. In fact, the Hippocratic Oath, taken by doctors, promises they will abstain from doing harm to their patients. The premise is it may be better to NOT do something or to do nothing at

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Explaining Resistance to Change

Imagine for a moment that you’re part of a 4-person first-due crew responding on to an apartment fire. On the way to the call the dispatcher announces over the radio that a caller is reporting the fire to be on the first floor of a three-story apartment building. Your company officer tells you that on

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Culture And Situational Awareness

Each member of an emergency response team is guided by a unique system of values, beliefs, assumptions and norms. Every member also brings their own unique habits and routines. What happens when you combine the values, beliefs, assumptions, norms, habits and routines of many unique individuals within an organization? You create culture. Organizational culture can

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Episode 189 | Communications Overload

This episode discusses the cognitive overload that can occur when there is too much verbal information to process.  Length: 31 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

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Confronting a Boss With Flawed Situational Awareness

  I recently read a post on social media where a firefighter said at an incident scene that he doesn’t worry about his situational awareness. That’s what he has an officer for. Further, he didn’t worry about having situational awareness about the larger incident scene, that’s what he has an incident commander for. I could

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Situational Awareness Matters!

Complex Communications

We have many traits that make us uniquely human. Among them is our ability to engage in complex communications. We can look at black ink squiggled on a piece of bleached paper and derive meaning from those symbols.  We call that skill reading comprehension. And we can listen to and comprehend the meaning of more

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Communications Overload Impacts Situational Awareness

In reading casualty reports you will often see issues related to communications as a contributing factor. Miscommunications, lack of communications or too much radio traffic (to include overloaded radio channels) are often cited. It is the last of these issues I want to address. There is an inherent cognitive consequence from too much communications that

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