Category Archives: Accountability
Bravado: A Barrier to Situational Awareness
I recently sent out a message across my social media networks (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) about bravado being a barrier to situational awareness. The message, in case you missed it, read: Bravado: The purposeful ignorance of critical signs of danger … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego and Self-Esteem, Emotions, Fear, firefighter situational awareness, Human Behavior, human factors, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Teamwork, Training
Tagged bravado, bravery, decision making, decision making under stress, dispatch, emergency management, EMT, fire, fire command, fire command training, fire training, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, fireground command, fireground command decision making, fireground commander, fireground safety, haz-mat, hazardous materials, line of duty death, officer safety, paramedic, patient care, police officer safety, public safety, rescue, responder safety, risk management, safety, situational awareness, Situational awareness matters, tactical decision making, technical rescue
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Firefighting: It’s a whole new ballgame
There is little doubt the recent recession has had a significant impact on the nation’s fire service. Hardly a day goes by where there’s not some news about an organization that had downsized, rightsized or capsized. There are all kinds … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, 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
Tagged decision making, decision making under stress, fire service leadership, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, high reliability organizations, leadership, organizational culture, problem solving, resiliency, resilient problem solving, safety, situational awareness, staffing, teamwork, training
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Culture can be a Situational Awareness Barrier
Each member of the fire department is guided by a unique system of values, beliefs, assumptions and norms. Every members also brings their own unique habits and routines. What happens when you combine the values, beliefs, assumptions, norms, habits and … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Communications, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Ego and Self-Esteem, Emotions, Fear, firefighter situational awareness, Human Behavior, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Teamwork
Tagged communications, decision making, decision making under stress, fire service leadership, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, leadership, organizational culture, safety, situational awareness
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Ignoring the Signs of Danger
A lesson on situational awareness: The tones drop for a reported residential fire. On the way, dispatch reports multiple calls, confirming a working fire. On arrival the crew sees fire blowing out the B-C corner of the single story, detached … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Communications, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Fear, firefighter situational awareness, Human Behavior, Safety, Situational awareness, size-up, Teamwork, Tunneled Senses
Tagged decision making under stress, firefighter rescue, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, flashover, flawed situational awareness, incident command, information management, mayday, situational awareness
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Administrative chiefs and emergency responses
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 … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Ego and Self-Esteem, firefighter situational awareness, Incompetence, Safety, Situational awareness, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Workload Management
Tagged fire chief, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, fireground safety, ICS, incident command, incident management, situational awareness, strategy and tactics
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Working Command and Situational Awareness
I seem to be getting asked a lot lately about what the first arriving company officer should do at a working structure fire. Specifically, the debate revolves around two basic premise. Should the first arriving company officer assume a fixed … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Attention Management, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, firefighter situational awareness, Safety, Situational awareness, size-up, Stress, Teamwork, Workload Management
Tagged decision making, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, incident command, judgment, leadership, mobile command, situational awareness, working command
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The Two Headed Incident Commander
A subscriber to the Situational Awareness Matters newsletter recently sent me a photograph of an emergency incident scene that caused me to reflect on a very important situational awareness lesson. This lesson, unfortunately, is often overlooked and is often implicated … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Attention Management, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, firefighter situational awareness, human factors, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Teamwork, Workload Management
Tagged crew resource management, decision making, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, fireground command decision making, incident command, judgment, leadership, shared decision making, shared mental models, situational awareness
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High Reliability Organizations – Processes
Last month I wrote a piece on the traits of high reliability organizations (HROs) and received a lot of very positive feedback. Thank you! This article will focus on the processes used by HROs. These processes definitely provide some valuable … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Communications, Decision Making, firefighter situational awareness, Human Behavior, Information overload, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Teamwork, Training, Workload Management
Tagged decision making, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, high reliability organizations, HROs, resilient organizations
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High Reliability Organizations – Traits
There’s a lot being talked about these days about the concept of high reliability organizations. The concept is being embraced by many hospitals throughout the United States and, arguably, for good reason. The principles of highly reliable organizations have direct … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Communications, Culture, Decision Making, firefighter situational awareness, Human Behavior, Information overload, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Teamwork, Training, Workload Management
Tagged decision making, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, high reliability organizations, HROs
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