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 192 | Amtrak Train Derailment Interview with Larry Creekmore

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Command Location, Command Support, Communications, Decision Making, Goals, Leadership, Mission, Personnel location, Radios, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Training /

This episode is an interview with DuPont Fire Chief Larry Creekmore. Chief Creekmore was the third-in unit to the December 18, 2017 Amtrak train derailment in Washington state.   Length: 56 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen           __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and

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Developing Situational Awareness in Novice Responders

4 Comments / Article, Competency, Decision Making, Emotions, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Neuroscience, Repetition, Safety, Simulation, Situational awareness, Training /

One of the most frequent questions I get asked during the Mental Management of Emergencies and Fifty Ways to Kill a First Responder programs is: How can a novice responder develop expert knowledge when the number of fires are going down? It’s a great question and a great concern because so much of situational awareness

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Episode 191 | Interview with Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief John DiBacco – Part 2

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Communications, Decision Making, Experience, Goals, Leadership, Mission, Risk Assessment, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Training /

This episode is Part 2 of my interview with Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief John DiBacco talking about the after-action review process used by Norfolk Fire to learn lessons from significant incidents.   Length: 44 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen           __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of

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Culture And Situational Awareness

3 Comments / Accountability, Article, Communications, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Emotions, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Teamwork /

Each member of an emergency response team is guided by a unique system of values, beliefs, assumptions and norms. Every member 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

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Episode 190 | Interview with Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief John DiBacco – Part 1

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Communications, Decision Making, Experience, Goals, Leadership, Mission, Risk Assessment, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Training /

Episode 190 is Part 1 of a 2-part interview with Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief John DiBacco talking about the after-action review process used by Norfolk Fire to learn lessons from significant incidents.   Length: 36 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen         __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of

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Creatures of Habit

1 Comment / Article, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Neuroscience, Repetition, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress, Workload Management /

Perhaps you’ve heard it said that we are creatures of habit. The more we do something over and over again, the more likely that behavior will be turned into a habit. But what happens in the mystical world of the brain when a behavior becomes a habit? Is your behavior under stress predictable? Rational? Understandable?

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Episode 189 | Communications Overload

1 Comment / Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Information overload, Mayday, Miscommunications, Overload, Radios, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening /

This episode discusses the cognitive overload that can occur when there is too much verbal information to process.  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

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Confronting a Boss With Flawed Situational Awareness

1 Comment / Accountability, Article, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Ego, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork /

  I recently read a post on social media where a firefighter said at an incident scene that he doesn’t worry about his situational awareness. That’s what he has an officer for. Further, he didn’t worry about having situational awareness about the larger incident scene, that’s what he has an incident commander for. I could

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Episode 188 | When the puzzle pieces don’t fit

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Automatic Action, Command Presence, Complacency, Confusion, Decision Making, Denial, Expectations, Gut Feeling, Illness, Intuition, Meta Awareness, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Vigilance /

This episode discusses the confusion that can occur when the information you gather during size-up do not fit your expectations of what you thought you were going to see or hear. Length: 35 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen         _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness

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The Myth of Multitasking and Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Article, Attention Management, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Neuroscience, Repetition, Safety, Situational awareness, Workload Management, Worksheets /

Think you’re good at multitasking? If so, you are just fooling yourself. Or, perhaps more aptly stated, your brain is fooling you. Multitasking is simply a way for us to be tricked into doing a whole bunch of things, poorly, all at the same time. When it comes to managing attention, the human brain cannot

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