Decision Making Archives - Page 43 of 44 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Episode 14: The need for realistic training

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Building Construction, Competency, Culture, Decision Making, Equipment, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Mental Models, Personal Protective Equipment, Repetition, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Simulation, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Tacit Knowledge, Teamwork, Training / Rich Gasaway

Episode 14: Interview with Dave Casey, Director of Louisiana State Fire & Emergency Training Institute on the need for realistic training. Length: 57 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 […]

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Episode 13 – Training for Failure

Leave a Comment / Decision Making, Emotions, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Neuroscience, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Training / Rich Gasaway

In the feature segment, we’ll talk about training for failure, how it happens and I’ll offer some advice on how to overcome it. I’ll also include some discussion questions you can have among your members about training and whether there may be opportunities for improvement. And we’ll share a near-miss report where a crew

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The irrational obsession with loss

Leave a Comment / Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Mayday and RIT, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress / Rich Gasaway

There is a growing body of research revealing that many human’s have an irrational obsession with loss. Or, perhaps more accurately, an irrational obsession with AVOIDING loss. This phenomenon is something I have seen played out in my evaluation of many casualty incidents. Ironically, the human trait to avoid loss is the same trait that

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SAFER Book Testimonial

Leave a Comment / Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Gasaway Consulting Group, Safety, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

Thank you to Chris Peak for sharing the following review of Situational Awareness for Emergency Response book. Dear Dr. (Chief) Gasaway, I am not an expert in book reviews or any “science”. That is something I think should be mentioned. I am a Fire Fighter and Emergency responder second to a husband and a father.

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Mission Myopia: A situational awareness barrier

Leave a Comment / Attention Management, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Repetition, Risk Assessment, Safety, Simulation, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Training, Tunneled Senses / Rich Gasaway

Every emergency scene operation should begin with determining the mission (sometimes called strategy) and setting task-level goals (sometimes called tactics). Strategy and tactics establish what is to be done and how it is to be done. For example, at a structure fire, arriving responders are trained to conduct search and rescue operations and to extinguish

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Tacit knowledge and situational awareness

1 Comment / Attention Management, Competency, Decision Making, Human Factors, Neuroscience, Repetition, Safety, Situational awareness, Tacit Knowledge / Rich Gasaway

While conducting research on how decisions are made during high consequence events I came across a term I’d never heard before – “tacit knowledge.” Once I learned what it was it quickly became evident that I possessed it… and I didn’t know it. In fact, every first responder who has developed expert-level knowledge and skills

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Seeing the bad things coming in time to change the outcome

2 Comments / Complacency, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Risk Assessment, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Tunneled Senses / Rich Gasaway

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

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Working Command and Situational Awareness

6 Comments / Accountability, Attention Management, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Teamwork, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

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 command position outside the structure and coordinate the activities of incoming units? Or, should the

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High Reliability Organizations – Processes

2 Comments / Accountability, Communications, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Information overload, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Teamwork, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

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 lessons for public safety agencies. Compare your organization and see if you may find some

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High Reliability Organizations – Traits

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Communications, Culture, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Information overload, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Teamwork, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

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 application to first responders. This contribution focuses on helping you understand the overarching concept of

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