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Rich Gasaway

Richard B. Gasaway served 33 years on the front lines as a firefighter, EMT-Paramedic and fire chief. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree while studying how individuals, teams and organizations develop and maintain situational awareness and make decisions in high stress, high consequence, time compressed environments. Dr. Gasaway is widely considered to be one of the nation's leading authorities on first responder situational awareness and decision making. His material has been featured and referenced in more than 400 book chapters, research projects, journal articles, podcasts, webinars and videos. His research and passion to improve workplace safety through improved situational awareness is unrivaled. Dr. Gasaway's leadership and safety programs have been presented to more than 42,000 first responders, emergency managers, medical providers, military personnel, aviation employees, industrial workers and business leaders throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Herd mentality can impact situational awareness

I was recently reading some research that mentioned the cognitive bias known as herd mentality (or herd behavior). Stated basically, individuals will group and follow each other for inexplicable reasons. This is sometimes referred to as the “mob mentality” and is observed during riots. When one person yells loudly and charges forward, the herd (or […]

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Episode 218 | Sean Dolan Interview

This episode revisits an interview conducted on September 1, 2014 with Sean Dolan from the Aurora (Colorado) Fire Department about his near-miss event.  Length: 78 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO         __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to

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How We Decide … Anything

How you decide to do something is a complex process that involves multiple brain regions. Are decisions made with the rational brain or the intuitive brain? The answer, surprisingly, is both. Rational judgment allows you to process facts and data essential to good decision making. Intuition allows you to tap into past training and experiences

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Safety training for Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard

Gasaway Consulting Group, LLC, the parent of company of Situational Awareness Matters will be conducting situational awareness training for employees at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard This is the second naval facility to receive a site evaluation and training for lifting and handling personnel. The first training programs were conducted for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

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Episode 217 | Overstaffing

This episode explores how over staffing can impact situational awareness.  Length: 29 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO         __________________________________________________ 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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Safety training for Eagle Materials safety managers

  Gasaway Consulting Group, LLC, the parent of company of Situational Awareness Matters has been selected to provide situational awareness training to the safety managers of Eagle Materials, Inc. The training will be completed in 2018. The focus will be to help safety mangers understand how to improve situational awareness and decision making for front-line

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Expectations can Impact Situational Awareness

Towering Inferno… Backdraft… Ladder 49… Emergency… Adam 12… Dragnet… Rescue Me… Chicago Fire… Hawaii Five O … Love them or hate them, movies and television influence perceptions and create expectations three ways: First, they influence citizen perceptions of emergency service providers and create certain performance expectations. Second, they influence first responders’ perceptions of themselves and

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Episode 216 | Task Fixation – A Barrier to Awareness

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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I Woke Up Today With Nothing To Do!

If you have visited SAMatters before, you know the mission of the site is to help first responders improve situational awareness by “Helping you see the bad things coming in time to change the outcome.” Something happened today that I didn’t see coming and I’d like to share the story with you. Thank you for

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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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