Information overload Archives - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Situational Awareness Starts with the Size-Up

7 Comments / Article, Attention Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Information overload, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up / Rich Gasaway

During my fireground situational awareness classes we talk about the process for making high-stress, high consequence decisions. The first step in this process is performing a rapid size up. When I ask participants how long they take to size up a single-family residential dwelling fire with no exposures, the answer I get ranges from 10 […]

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Radio Traffic Can Improve or Destroy Situational Awareness

1 Comment / Article, Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Communications, Complacency, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Information overload, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress, Training, Tunneled Senses / Rich Gasaway

When it comes to first responder radio traffic I am reminded of the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. You may recall that in the story Goldilocks samples three bowls of porridge. One is too hot. One is too cold. And the third is just right. This lesson applies directly to first responder situational

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Twelve Ways to Improve Situational Awareness (SAM 244)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Attitude, Auditory exclusion, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Support, Communications, Decision Making, Human Behavior, Hyper Vigilance, Information overload, Interruptions, Line of Duty Death, Long-Term Memory, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Overload, Radios, Repetition, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Short Term Memory, Size Up, Staffing, Stress, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Vigilance, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, a special guest presents twelve ways to improve situational awareness while working in high-risk, high consequence environments. Length: 25 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher level,

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The 400th Episode Anniversary of the SAMatters Show – 400

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Auditory exclusion, Automatic Action, Automatic Action, Automation, Benchmarks, Biases, Bravado, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Comprehension, Confabulation, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Ego, Emotions, Equipment, Error Creep, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Fatigue, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Frustration, Goals, Gut Feeling, Habits, Hallucinations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Illness, Incompetence, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Information overload, Insubordination, Interruptions, Intuition, Invincible, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Live Events, Long-Term Memory, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Meta Awareness, Mind Drift, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Motion Induced Blindness, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Near Miss, Neuroscience, News, Online Classes, Optimism, Over Confident, Over Staffing, Overload, Overwhelm, PAR, Pattern Matching, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Physical Fitness, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Preoccupation, Pressure, Progress Reports, Questions & Answers, Radios, Repetition, Response Time Delays, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Simulation, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Technology, Testimonials, Time Distortion, Training, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Under Confident, understaffing, Understanding, Vigilance, Virtual Training, Weather, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

Dr. Gasaway, along with some special guests, celebrates the milestone of reaching our 400thepisode. The Situational Awareness Matters Show debuted on May 12, 2014. This episode highlights the journey Dr. Gasaway has taken to educate first responders about situational awareness and high-risk decision making. About the Host Richard B. Gasaway, PhD, CSP

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Dyslexia in the Fire Service: The Burt Clark Story – 396

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Biases, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Competency, Confusion, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Emotions, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Incompetence, Information overload, Intuition, Judgment, Leadership, Long-Term Memory, Lost Focus, Mind Drift, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Pattern Matching, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Saturation, Under Confident, understaffing, Understanding, Vigilance, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, Dr. Gasaway talks with Dr. Burton Clark on the topic of Dyslexia in the fire service. Dr. Burton A. Clark, EFO has been in the fire service for 53 years. He’s known he was a Dyslexic since early childhood and is passionate about reducing the stigma around firefighters with Dyslexia. Dr. Clark was

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Unmanned and Remote Emergency Services – The Ron Warren Interview – 391

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Automation, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Equipment, Expectations, Explicit Knowledge, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Information overload, Leadership, Mindfulness, Mission, Personnel location, Progress Reports, Risk, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Technology, Training, Weather, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

While presenting a situational awareness program for the Fireman’s Association of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, one of the participants was Ron Warren. Ron is the founder and Department Chief of North Central PA Unmanned Emergency Services. He is a full-time state law enforcement officer and a veteran of the US Army, where he served two combat

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Active Shooter Part 2 – Advice for Fire and EMS

1 Comment / Accountability, Article, Attitude, Building Construction, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Decision Making, Emotions, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Intuition, Judgment, Leadership, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Muscle Memory, Neuroscience, Personnel location, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Training, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

When I was in the police academy and went through Active Shooter training it was designed solely for police officers. There was never a mention of EMS or fire department response and how they could assist in these situations. It took approximately 8 years into my career until I went to a training that

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Active Shooter Part 1 – Advice for Law Enforcement

My students often ask me: “Mr. Moldenhauer, what’s the worst call cops could ever go on?” My response is always the same, an active shooter call. I have had my share of terrible calls in my career that will stay with me forever (i.e. suicides, child deaths, and fatal car accidents just to name

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Hands-Free Driving Laws are a Bad Idea

Leave a Comment / Article, Attention Management, Cognitive Memory, Confusion, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Multitasking, Neuroscience, Overload, Perception, Preoccupation, Risk, Safety, Selective Listening, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

Before you get too upset and refuse to read this article, I’ll ask you to give me just two minutes to explain the situational awareness lesson behind this statement. The first premise is: We must acknowledge (and accept) that it is easy for drivers to get distracted and have their situational awareness impacted while talking

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Twelve tips to improve situational awareness – SAM 383

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Attitude, Auditory exclusion, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Support, Communications, Decision Making, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Information overload, Interruptions, Line of Duty Death, Long-Term Memory, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Multitasking, Overload, Progress Reports, Radios, Repetition, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Size Up, Staffing, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, a special guest (Santa) presents twelve tips to improve situational awareness while working in high-risk, high consequence environments. Merry Christmas everyone! I know everyone’s feeling particularly festive this time of year and ole Santa is feeling the situational awareness love. Surely, you’ve heard of the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” – You know

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