Everyone has fears and fear can certainly impact a person’s situational awareness. Some people are better at controlling their fears while others are controlled by their fears. Some people mask their fears well while others wear their fear on their sleeves. Some people live in denial of their fears and others face their fears and […]
Fear can be a barrier to situational awareness Read More »
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
Explaining Resistance to Change Read More »
In my first responder situational awareness classes we talk about the need to predict the future. Based on the definition I use on my programs (offered by Dr. Mica Endsley), I am referring to Level 3 situational awareness – being able to project future events. This is catastrophically important to first responder safety. Many times
Every Building on Fire is in the Process of Falling Down Read More »
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
Confronting a Boss With Flawed Situational Awareness Read More »
In the business world it is not uncommon for executives to appoint someone on the senior staff to serve as the Devil’s Advocate (DA) when considering a major strategic decision. The role of the DA is to look at the strategy from a critical perspective and to raise objections about flaws in the strategy before
Appoint a DA to improve your SA Read More »
Albert Einstein is credited with saying “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.” This is the final segment of a 5-part series that explores situational awareness insanity. Length: 26 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational
Episode 169 | Situational Awareness Insanity – Part 5 Read More »
Paradigm: A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them . Recent research conducted by Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have revealed a flaw in a long standing paradigm about fire attack. As this blog does not
A situational awareness paradigm shift Read More »
This is going to be, admittedly, an uncomfortable read for some. But, nonetheless it is a conversation we need to have. I need to discuss the “F” word. No, not THAT “F” word. The “F” word that is more dreaded than the F-bomb – Fear. Many first responders enjoy discussing fear as much as they
Explanations for Situational Awareness Insanity – Part 5 Read More »
In this episode we kick off a nine-part serious on dangerous mindsets that first responders develop and offer some advice for dealing with each. We start off with talking about the starter mindset. That’s the mindset of the brand new responder. It is, in many ways, different from seasoned responders. Length: 30 minutes click
Episode 150 | Dangerous Mindsets – The Starter Read More »
In this episode, we discuss how fear can impact situational awareness in ways that might be surprising. 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 out the Situational Awareness Matters Online
Episode 146 | Fear and situational awareness Read More »
