situational awareness

Distractions and Interruptions…What’s the Difference?

Leave a Comment / Article, Attention Management, Communications, Distractions and Interruptions, Personnel location, Situational awareness /

As I talk with first responders in classes about the impact of distractions and interruptions on situational awareness, I find myself often being asked: “What’s the difference?” While there are distinctly different causes for distractions and interruptions, the outcome is often very similar…a reduction in situational awareness and the potential for a catastrophic outcome. [tweet […]

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Episode144 | Pre-Arrival Lens

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Biases, Communications, Expectations, Neuroscience, Perception, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Radios, SAMatters Radio /

    In this episode, we discuss the pre-arrival lens that responders use to help form situational awareness. Length: 24 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

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Meta Awareness & Situational Awareness

2 Comments / Article, Attention Management, Decision Making, Meta Awareness, Situational awareness /

  Meta awareness means being consciously aware of your own awareness. I know that sounds redundant, so let me explain. One of the things responders need to understand is that situational awareness is fragile. Situational awareness can be lost in ways that are so subtle that it may erode before a responder even realizes it

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Episode 143 | Memory and situational awareness

Leave a Comment / Cognitive Memory, Decision Making, Explicit Knowledge, Gut Feeling, Information overload, Intuition, Long-Term Memory, Overload, SAMatters Radio, Short Term Memory, Tacit Knowledge /

    In this episode, we examine the role that short-term and long-term memory plays in helping first responders develop and maintain situational awareness. Length: 29 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

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Situational Awareness of Your Weakest Link

Leave a Comment / Article, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Training /

It has often been said: “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” [tweet this] This is true. Regardless of how fortified the individual links are, when the chain is stressed under a load, the breaking point will be the weakest link. The same can be said of situational awareness at an emergency scene.

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Episode 142 | Interview with Near Miss Survivor Rick Mehaffey

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Building Construction, Close Call, Complacency, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Personnel location, Prediction, Risk Assessment, SAMatters Radio, Tunnel Vision, understaffing /

  In this episode, Captain Ricky Mehaffey from the Waynesville NC Fire Department, chronicles his near-miss survival story where 3 firefighters almost died at a “routine” chimney fire. Length: 48 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen       _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making

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A Recipe From Hell’s Kitchen – Part 5

3 Comments / Article, Culture, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Incompetence, Safety, Situational awareness /

This is the final segment of the Recipe From Hell’s Kitchen series. In this article I want to share my personal perspectives on the catastrophic outcomes that result when the ingredients of the recipe come together. [tweet this] You may recall in the first segment I shared with you that I see this recipe being used over and

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Episode 141 | Confabulation

Leave a Comment / Cognitive Memory, Confabulation, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Expectations, Human Factors, Information overload, Miscommunications, Neuroscience, Overload, Perception Of Reality, Progress Reports, SAMatters Radio, Stress /

In this episode, we explore how the brain confabulates – or makes up its own reality. In the absence of facts, the brain can start to invent or create its own reality.  This can be dangerous on emergency scenes. Length: 22 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen       _____________________________________________________ If you are

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A Recipe From Hell’s Kitchen – Part 4

4 Comments / Article, Complacency, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Incompetence, Safety, Situational awareness, Training /

In  this segment of the Recipe From Hell’s Kitchen series, I share the fourth step of the recipe – complacency – and more specifically letting your safety guard down and how it can result in failure to learn, implement and practice nationally accepted best practices. As complacency sets in, an organization can lose its inertia and its

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Episode 140 | Speaking up

2 Comments / Assertiveness, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Emotions, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Insubordination, Mental Models, Miscommunications, Risk, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Stress /

    In this episode, I interview my son, Cameron Gasaway, a firefighter with the Madison, Wisconsin Fire Department, about why it is so hard to speak up when you see something that’s going wrong. Length: 39 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen     _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of

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