I recently had a situational awareness conversation with a firefighter who shared the details of an incident that made him both proud and disappointed. His company officer decided to do an exterior attack at a residential dwelling fire because the conditions had deteriorated to the point where an interior attack would not be warranted. […]
Ten Explanations for Unsafe Actions and a Bad Outcome Read More »
Recently I received a phone call from a fire captain in Colorado. He wanted to discuss some training ideas I inspired during my recent Training for Failure program his department hosted. One of the topics we addressed was teaching firefighters how to speak up when they have concerns. Teaching how to do this is especially
The Art of Speaking Up Read More »
As you traverse through life, you are constantly gathering and assessing information. This is accomplished though sensory input (seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling). The senses are always on, always capturing data. Sometimes you are aware of the data being captured and sometimes you’re not. Sometimes you’re able to readily recall stored data and sometimes
I had the opportunity recently to talk with a very progressive fire chief about situational awareness. I really enjoy my conversations with him because I always learn something. He was telling me that his department just hired 17 new paid-on-call members. He shared with me that during the hiring process he visits the home of
Safeguards – It’s a fair question Read More »
Recently I had a video clip shared with me of a residential dwelling fire. The video captures a flashover event. It was reported to me that firefighters were operating inside the structure when it occurred. As I watched the video progress, it was apparent interior conditions were getting worse, the color of the smoke was
Seven Situational Awareness Thieves Read More »
This article does not contain anything valuable that will improve situational awareness. So, please, do not read it!
Please…Don’t Read This Article Read More »
As we train our leaders to improve situational awareness it is important the lessons include a list of both positive and negative clues and cues. In the context of developing situational awareness, positive and negative does not mean good and bad. Rather, positive and negative means present and absent. Let me explain.
Positive and Negative Clues and Cues Read More »
In this article I am taking on a topic often discussed in my leadership programs more often than in my situational awareness programs – motivation. I’m not going to get in to depth on the topic of motivation as it takes me a solid four hours in a classroom session to demystify the topic and
Positive Reinforcement of Undesirable Behavior Read More »
Since I announced the release of the Training for Failure live program (and the DVD recording of the program) I have received a lot of emails from firefighters and training officers asking me to tell them more about the program’s content so I thought I’d share with you a snip-it of the catastrophically important content discussed in that
More on Training For Failure Read More »
Welcome to this, the last of the nine part series on dangerous mindsets. From the feedback I’m getting, this series hit some chords with readers. I appreciate the kind words about my observations and the advice I’ve dispensed throughout this series. In this installment I’m going to talk about the Synergist – the person who
Nine Dangerous Mindsets: Part 9 – The Synergist Read More »
