Leadership

These are the first responder situational awareness and decision making issues and opportunities related to leadership.

Nine Dangerous Mindsets – Part 1: The Starter

One of the human factors influencing situational awareness is the mindset of the first responder. Mindset is based on beliefs, biases and self-perception. Mindset may also be influenced by organizational culture and peer pressure. In this series I am going to explore nine potentially dangerous mindsets and share how they can impact emergency scene safety.

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How Flawed Expectations Can Impact Situational Awareness

The development of situational awareness happens on a three-tiered continuum. It begins with perceiving your environment. Then, what is perceived must be understood (and this is not as simple as it may appear). Finally, understanding is used to predict the future. Summarizing, the three-step process: Perception – Understanding – Prediction. This article provides an example

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Episode 211 | 4th Anniversary episode

This episode celebrates the 4th anniversary of the SAMatters show and chronicles the history of the founder and his tireless mission to improve situational awareness and high-risk decision making.  Length: 45 minutes click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO of this interview!       __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding

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Episode 210 | Observations and lessons from FDIC

This episode shares observations and lessons learned from the 2018 International Fire Department Instructors Conference.  Length: 64 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 208 | Team Situational Awareness

In this episode we discuss the importance of team situational awareness and how it can improve or impact safety.  Length: 29 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

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First, Do No Harm!

Primum non nocere is the Latin phrase that means “first, do no harm.” This is a commonly taught principle in healthcare. In fact, the Hippocratic Oath, taken by doctors, promises they will abstain from doing harm to their patients. The premise is it may be better to NOT do something or to do nothing at

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Firefighting: It’s a whole new ballgame

There is little doubt the economic recession of 2008-2009 had a significant impact on the nation’s fire service. Hardly a day went by where there wasn’t some news about an organization that downsized, rightsized or capsized. There are all kinds of explanations and terms being attached to what happened. One I heard at the time

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Explaining Resistance to Change

Imagine for a moment that you’re part of a 4-person first-due crew responding on to an apartment fire. On the way to the call the dispatcher announces over the radio that a caller is reporting the fire to be on the first floor of a three-story apartment building. Your company officer tells you that on

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Episode197 | Interview with Jason Bonney – Part 2

This episode is part two of a two-part interview with Assistant Chief Jason Bonney from the Central Jackson Fire Protection District.  Length: 53 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

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Episode 196 | Interview with Jason Bonney – Part 1

This episode is part one of a two-part interview with Assistant Chief Jason Bonney from the Central Jackson Fire Protection District.  Length: 53 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

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