Category Archives: Leadership
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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Emerging Leader Scholarship Recipient Named
Congratulations to Ryan Pierson, Chief of the Pitman (NJ) Fire Department for being selected the recipient of the 2012 Emerging Leaders Scholarship. The scholarship is sponsored by the Gasaway Consulting Group and is designed to provide an all-expenses paid opportunity … Continue reading
Posted in Gasaway Consulting Group, Leadership, Safety, Training
Tagged emerging leader scholarship, fire department scholarship, firefighter scholarship, gasaway consulting group, IAFC, International Associaiton of Fire Chief, scholarship, Symposium in the Sun, VCOS, Volunteer and Combination Officers Section
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Begin With The End In Mind
One of the essential components of well-developed situational awareness is being able to accurately predict the future. This prediction should be made during the initial scene size up and then it should be updated often as the incident progresses. In … Continue reading
Posted in Attention Management, Decision Making, firefighter situational awareness, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, size-up, Training, Workload Management
Tagged begin with the end in mind, comprehension, decision making, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, incident command, judgment, leadership, perception, projection, situational awareness, standard predictable outcomes
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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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How could they be so stupid?
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. … Continue reading
Posted in Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego and Self-Esteem, firefighter situational awareness, Human Behavior, Incompetence, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Training
Tagged decision making, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, incident command, judgment, leadership, situational awareness
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Positive Reinforcement of Undesirable Behavior
In this article I am taking on a topic often discussed in my leadership programs more often than in my situational awareness programs – motivation. I’m not going to get in to depth on the topic of motivation as it … Continue reading
Posted in Communications, Culture, Decision Making, firefighter situational awareness, Human Behavior, Leadership, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness
Tagged communications, decision making, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, incident command, leadership, positive reinforcement, situational awareness, undesirable behavior
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Time to Task Completion is Critical for Situational Awareness
The highest level of your situational awareness is formed when you are able to make accurate predictions about future events. In science we call this projection and it simply means you are able to predict, or project, the future events. … Continue reading
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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