These are the first responder situational awareness and decision making issues and opportunities related to crew resource management.
I recently was contacted by a fire officer asking whether their mayday procedure should include a provision for a dedicated mayday channel for the distressed crew to transmit their post-mayday traffic on. This is a question I’ve been asked often enough that I want to dedicate an article to the topic of mayday communications procedures.
Mayday Radio Channel Read More »
Recently I was having a conversation with a fire commander who shared the following experience. He stopped by one of the stations for a visit and came upon a group of firefighters huddled around a computer screen watching videos. Relax. This is not a lecture on watching inappropriate videos on fire department computers. In fact,
How Could They Be So Stupid? Read More »
You develop situational awareness by using your senses to capture information (Level 1 situational awareness). Those clues and cues are then processed into understanding (Level 2 situational awareness). Once you understand what is happening, you can then make predictions of future events (Level 3 situational awareness). This article focuses on the third level of situational
Flawed Expectations of Personnel Can Impact Situational Awareness Read More »
In this episode we discuss the importance of team situational awareness and how it can improve or impact safety. 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
Episode 208 | Team Situational Awareness Read More »
A lesson on situational awareness: The tones drop for a reported residential fire. On the way to the call, 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 residential dwelling. The resident is standing in the front yard. A quick
Ignoring the Signs of Danger Read More »
This episode examines how competing goals can impact situational awareness. Length: 31 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 Matters Online Academy.
Episode 206 | Competing Goals Read More »
This episode examines how frustration can impact your situational awareness. Length: 27 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 Matters Online Academy.
Episode 205 | Frustration Read More »
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
Firefighting: It’s a whole new ballgame Read More »
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 __________________________________________________
Episode 203 | Normalization of Deviance Read More »
The episode explores how relationship bias can impact situational awareness. Length: 29 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen
Episode 202 | Relationship Bias Read More »
