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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.

Episode 168 | Situational Awareness Insanity – Part 4

Leave a Comment / Attention Management, Benchmarks, Decision Making, Expectations, Judgment, Mental Models, Mission Myopia, Perception, Prediction, SAMatters Radio, Task Fixation, Tunnel Vision /

Albert Einstein is credited with saying “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.” This is Part 4 of a 5-part series that explores situational awareness insanity. Length: 23 minutes Click the YouTube icon to listen     _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness […]

Episode 168 | Situational Awareness Insanity – Part 4 Read More »

Aggressive versus conservative

3 Comments / Article, Checklists, Close Call, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Risk Assessment, Safety, Training /

There is an ongoing debate in the fire service. Unless you are unplugged from social media and online journals, you’re surely aware of it. On one end of the argument are those who believe the fire service is tactically too aggressive and purport this may be contributing to casualties. On the other side of the

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Episode 167 | Situational Awareness Insanity – Part 3

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Confabulation, Confusion, Decision Making, Disoriented, Expectations, Human Behavior, Judgment, Mental Models, Neuroscience, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Prediction, SAMatters Radio, Sensory Conflict /

Albert Einstein is credited with saying “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.” This is Part 3 of a 5-part series that explores situational awareness insanity. Length: 30 minutes Click the YouTube icon to listen     _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness

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Situational Awareness Matters!

Administrative chiefs and emergency responses

9 Comments / Accountability, Article, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Ego, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Incompetence, Safety, Situational awareness, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Workload Management /

I recently received an email from a firefighter asking for my opinion as to whether or not the administrative chief officers in his department should respond to reported structure fires. My initial response was: “Well, Duh! Yes!” But then I got to thinking about it more. How and when administrative chief officers respond to fires

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Episode 166 | Situational Awareness Insanity – Part 2

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Decision Making, Expectations, Judgment, Mental Models, Mission, Perception, Prediction, Pressure, SAMatters Radio /

Albert Einstein is credited with saying “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.” This is Part 2 of a 5-part series that explores situational awareness insanity. Length: 25 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen     _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness

Episode 166 | Situational Awareness Insanity – Part 2 Read More »

Actions of the first-in officer

Leave a Comment / Article, Assumptions, Attention Management, Checklists, Communications, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Over Confident, Prediction /

During a recent Flawed Situational awareness program, I engaged the class in a discussion of what the actions of the first-in officer should be once the decision is made to be offensive/interior. The choices were: a.) Make entry with the crew; b.) Establish a fixed command position outside and send the crew in without the

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Episode 165 | Situational Awareness Insanity – Part 1

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Cognitive Memory, Decision Making, Expectations, Habits, Human Factors, Judgment, Mental Models, Mission, Muscle Memory, Neuroscience, Perception, Prediction, SAMatters Radio, Tacit Knowledge, Training /

Albert Einstein is credited with saying “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.” This is Part 1 of a 5-part series that explores situational awareness insanity. Length: 26 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk

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A situational awareness paradigm shift

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Article, Attention Management, Complacency, Decision Making, Emotions, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Incompetence, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Task Saturation, Tunneled Senses, Workload Management /

Paradigm: A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them . Recent research conducted by Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have revealed a flaw in a long standing paradigm about fire attack. As this blog does not

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Episode 164 | Predicting the future

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Decision Making, Expectations, Judgment, Mental Models, Mission, Perception, Prediction, SAMatters Radio /

One of the most challenging parts of situational awareness development is making an accurate prediction about what is going to happen in the future.  This is one of the most often overlooked components of situational awareness development and the outcome can be catastrophic. Length: 30 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen     _____________________________________________________

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