Mental Models Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

The Origins of Intuition – SAM 352

Leave a Comment / Automatic Action, Cognitive Memory, Decision Making, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Intuition, Judgment, Long-Term Memory, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Muscle Memory, Neuroscience, Pattern Matching, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Prediction, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Tacit Knowledge / By Rich Gasaway

In this episode we explore the neuroscience behind causes your “gut feeling” – Intuition – and why you might want to pay attention to it. It is amazing how many articles and videos I have watched lately in which they are talking about decision making based on “gut feel.” It is also disheartening how many …

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Confabulated Realities Impact Situational Awareness – SAM 342

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Automatic Action, Biases, Confabulation, Confusion, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Hallucinations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Judgment, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Over Confident, Over Staffing, Pattern Matching, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Situational awareness / By Rich Gasaway

This episode explores how your brain can make up, or confabulate, its own reality. A confabulated reality is one that we believe to be real but, in actuality, it is made up in our brain. The problem with this is we rarely are able to distinguish between a confabulated reality and true reality until something …

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The 360 Degree Size-up (Episode 329)

Accountability, Assumptions, Automatic Action, Automatic Action, Building Construction, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Expectations, Habits, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception Of Reality, Progress Reports, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation / By Rich Gasaway

You might think that by now the importance of completing a 360-degree size-up would be second nature for firefighters. But it’s not. In fact, failing to complete a proper size-up remains one of the most often cited contributing factors in NIOSH Line-of-Duty death reports. There are lots of reasons why proper size-ups are not completed. …

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Situational Awareness Best Practices for Incident Commanders (Episode 326)

Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Benchmarks, Biases, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Equipment, Expectations, Explicit Knowledge, Goals, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Interruptions, Intuition, Long-Term Memory, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Multitasking, Over Confident, Over Staffing, Overload, Overwhelm, Pattern Matching, Perception, Preoccupation, Pressure, Radios, Repetition, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Time Distortion, understaffing, Workload Management, Worksheets / By Rich Gasaway

There are three component parts to situational awareness – perception, understanding and prediction. There are barriers that can impact awareness on all three levels. The application of best practices can help incident commanders reduce the impact of barriers. Length: 35 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full video. __________________________________________________ All of our …

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A line of duty death perspective – The Jeff Dickey Story (Episode 312)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Building Construction, Communications, Culture, Decision Making, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Gut Feeling, Human Error, Human Factors, Line of Duty Death, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Mission, Mission Myopia, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Radios, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork / By Rich Gasaway

Lieutenant Jeff Dickey has served the Washington, D.C. Fire Department for more than 30 years. Jeff was an acting officer during an incident where a DC firefighter was killed and Jeff was on the crew that recovered his body. Length: 59 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO …

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Situational Awareness: Think Past, Present & Future

Leave a Comment / Article, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Mental Models, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up / By Rich Gasaway

Flawed situational awareness (SA) is one of the leading contributing factors to first responder near-miss and casualty events. In fact, it is nearly impossible to find a line-of-duty death investigation report that does not implicate flawed SA, or one of the barriers that flaw SA, as contributing to the tragedy. As often as flawed SA …

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Trapped Under A Ceiling Collapse. The Ron Hunter Story (Episode 291)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Automatic Action, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Communications, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Disoriented, Gut Feeling, Intuition, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission Myopia, Over Confident, Personnel location, Progress Reports, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Time Distortion, Training / By Rich Gasaway

In this episode, I interview Spartanburg Fire Lieutenant, Ron Hunter, as he recounts the mayday and RIT activation after being trapped under a collapsed ceiling at an apartment building fire. Length: 71 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness …

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Preview of the AskRail® App (Episode 290)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Automation, Benchmarks, Checklists, Command Support, Communications, Decision Making, Equipment, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Mission, Personnel location, Radios, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Teamwork, Technology, Worksheets / By Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we interview Retired Fire Chief Charles Warner as he explains the features and benefits of the free AskRail® mobile app. Length: 36 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 …

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Coffee Talk with Carl Potter from The Safety Institute (Episode 285)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attitude, Benchmarks, Biases, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Emotions, Equipment, Expectations, Experience, Goals, Gut Feeling, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Judgment, Leadership, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Technology, Time Distortion, Training, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Vigilance, Workload Management / By Rich Gasaway

In this episode, I am interviewed on the Coffee Talk Show with Carl Potter, founder of The Safety Institute. The Safety Institute is a resource for organizations that want to create workplaces where it’s difficult to get hurt. Length: 68 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you …

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Using the Simulation Environment to Improve Situational Awareness

10 Comments / Article, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Information overload, Mental Models, Neuroscience, Safety, Simulation, Situational awareness, Stress, Technology, Training, Workload Management / By Rich Gasaway

Many first responder training programs use simulation in the development of decision-making competencies. Simulation exercises help develop skills in setting strategy and tactics, in applying policies and procedures and in developing critical thinking skills. How can simulations be used in the development of situational awareness skills? The answer lies, in part, in understanding what situational …

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