situational awareness Archives - Page 28 of 56 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Firefighting: It’s a whole new ballgame

6 Comments / Accountability, Article, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Emotions, Fear, Human Behavior, Leadership, Mayday and RIT, Personnel location, Risk Assessment, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

There is little doubt the economic recession of 2008-2009 had a significant impact on the nation’s fire service. Hardly a day went by where there wasn’t some news about an organization that downsized, rightsized or capsized. There are all kinds of explanations and terms being attached to what happened. One I heard at the time […]

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Episode 203 | Normalization of Deviance

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attitude, Automatic Action, Close Call, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Error Creep, Expectations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Incompetence, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Invincible, Judgment, Line of Duty Death, Mindfulness, Mission, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Perception Of Reality, Risk, Risk Assessment, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Stress, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

When we are operating under conditions of stress and consequence, coupled with changing conditions and time compression, we can feel a sense of urgency and this can cause us to want to take a shortcut from safety best practices. Length: 29 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen __________________________________________________

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Episode 202 | Relationship Bias

Leave a Comment / Anger, Assumptions, Biases, Communications, Competency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Emotions, Expectations, Frustration, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Judgment, Miscommunications, Perception Of Reality, Progress Reports, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Shared Mental Models, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

The episode explores how relationship bias can impact situational awareness. Length: 29 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen

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Fear can be a barrier to situational awareness

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Article, Assumptions, Bravado, Close Call, Decision Making, Emotions, Fear, Human Factors, Judgment, Optimism, Risk Assessment / Rich Gasaway

Everyone has fears and fear can certainly impact a person’s situational awareness. Some people are better at controlling their fears while others are controlled by their fears. Some people mask their fears well while others wear their fear on their sleeves. Some people live in denial of their fears and others face their fears and

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Episode 201 | When Unexpected Things Happen

Leave a Comment / Anger, Assumptions, Cognitive Memory, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Disoriented, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Frustration, Gut Feeling, Human Factors, Information overload, Intuition, Judgment, Long-Term Memory, Mental Models, Neuroscience, Overload, Overwhelm, Pattern Matching, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Prediction, SAMatters Radio, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Tacit Knowledge / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we explore what happens when faced with unexpected situations and your brain tries to make sense of the unexpected. Length: 33 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen

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Explaining Tunnel Vision

18 Comments / Article, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness, Tunneled Senses / Rich Gasaway

When it comes to developing and maintaining situational awareness, tunnel vision is a big deal. Effective situational awareness is developed from having a broad perception of the environment in which you are operating. As your focus narrows, you start to miss things. Those “missed things” are like lost puzzle pieces, leaving holes in your understanding

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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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