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 routines of many unique individuals within an organization?
You create culture.
Organizational culture can be a great influencer of behaviors, both positive and negative. Culture can also influence situational awareness. Let’s explore how…
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 residential. The resident is standing in the front yard. A quick inquiry reveals they are dazed and confused about what is going on. They’re asked if anyone’s inside. They don’t know.
Almost reflexively training kicks in. The crew pulls a 1 3/4″ line while the lieutenant starts around the left side of the house to complete the 360 degree size up. So far, everything is textbook. But things are about to change in a most unfortunate way.
I was recently contacted by email from a Situational Awareness Matters member asking if aggressiveness and safety can co-exist at an emergency scene. My answer was “of course they can.” The two actions, being safe and being aggressive are not mutually exclusive. To think they are is to believe responders must sacrifice safety when they choose to be aggressive. Or that when responders choose to do things safely, they can not longer be aggressive. I believe safety and aggressiveness can be accomplished simultaneously. Here’s how…
Ho, Ho, Ho. Merry Christmas everyone! I know everyone’s feeling particularly festive this time of year and I have caught the Christmas spirit in a very situational awareness sort of way.
Surely you’ve heard of the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” -You know - Partridge in a Pear Tree and all that other stuff that no one really needs or wants, perhaps sans the five golden rings, of course. [Just don't wear them all at once.]
And you know that Santa has good situational awareness. He’s ALWAYS capturing clues and cues. In the spirit of Christmas, I’d like to share with you my list for how to develop and maintain strong situational awareness.
Of course, like any child at Christmas, my list would be much longer than 12 items. So I encourage you to go back through the archives and read some of the more than 150 articles I’ve written here. Because… Situational Awareness Matters!
And if you’re rushed this holiday season, I’ve made it even easier for you to get the valuable lessons from the articles. Consider purchasing the Situational Awareness Matters Volumes 1 and 2 eBooks. These books contain a compilation of 80 articles, bound in book form and easy to read at your off-line leisure.
There are some great Christmas discounts being offered at the top of the home page too, I might add. The books are also available on Nook, Kindle and iTunes. If you need me to cork it in a bottle and float it down the river to you, I’ll do that too! Whatever it takes.
Ok, enough shameless advertising. Let’s get into my wish list for the Twelve Ways to Situational Awareness.
If you are a student of near-miss and casualty reports then you know, without a doubt, that flawed communications is a major contributing factor when things go wrong and flawed communications is often a factor when situational awareness is lost.
In fact, flawed communications was the second most frequently cited barrier to flawed situational awareness in my research, second only to staffing issues.
But how does communications get so messed up at emergency scenes? Let’s explore some of the barriers to effective communications.
It is my great honor to announce Dr. Steven Gillespie, Chief of the Wheat Ridge (CO) Fire Department, successfully defended his doctoral dissertation today, the final requirement in his long doctoral journey at Grand Canyon University.
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 may help or may hinder situational awareness and incident safety. That reflection caused me to take pause. The answer isn’t so cut and dried.
So I revised answer is “It depends.” Let me explain why I recanted.
You don’t have to look far and wide to locate cleaver marketing campaigns that make outrageous claims to improve our lives or solve our problems. I’ve been noticing this trend now as it relates to products claiming they “create” situational awareness.
I was recently at a conference and had an opportunity to have a discussion with one such “vendor of situational awareness.” I’m sure he wishes he’d never met me.
Here’s what happened…
The mission of Situational Awareness Matters! is “Helping responders see the bad things coming… in time to change the outcome.” That is often easier said than done. In fact, the lessons that sharpen our situational awareness often comes after the fact.
It is very easy to see the bad things that were coming when we look at an event in hindsight. The trick is seeing it with foresight.
Chief Ryan Pierson accepts the Gasaway Consulting Group’s Emerging Leader Scholarship
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 for a future fire service leader to attend the Volunteer and Combination Officer’s Section Symposium on the Sun in Clearwater Beach, Florida.
Pierson competed against 17 other applicants for the opportunity to attend the premier training event for volunteer and combination officers.
For more information about the conference and other VCOS initiatives, visit: www.VCOS.org
For more information about Rich Gasaway and the Gasaway Consulting Group, visit: www.RichGasaway.com
