Noise Impacts Situational Awareness
This week I had the honor of visiting and receiving a tour of the Hong Kong Fire Department training center. Many of the props used there are similar to what I have seen in the United States. However,...
View ArticleHigh Reliability Organizations – Traits
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...
View ArticleHigh Reliability Organizations – Processes
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...
View ArticleDispatchers role in situational awareness
One of the situational awareness best practices discussed during the Fifty Ways to Kill a First Responder program is the role played by the dispatcher during an emergency incident. As I have discussed...
View ArticleComplex Communications
We have many traits that make us uniquely human. Among them is our ability to engage in complex communications. We can look at black ink squiggled on a piece of bleached paper and derive meaning from...
View ArticleTechnology can help and hurt situational awareness
You don’t have to look far and wide to locate cleaver marketing campaigns that make outrageous claims to improve our lives or solve our problems. I’ve been noticing this trend now as it relates to...
View Article19 Ways Communications Barriers Can Impact Situational Awareness
If you are a student of near-miss and casualty reports then you know, without a doubt, that flawed communications is a major contributing factor when things go wrong and flawed communications is often...
View ArticleTwelve Ways to Situational Awareness
Ho, Ho, Ho. Merry Christmas everyone! I know everyone’s feeling particularly festive this time of year and I have caught the Christmas spirit in a very situational awareness sort of way. Surely you’ve...
View ArticleUsing the simulation environment to improve situational awareness
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...
View ArticleRadio Traffic Can Improve or Destroy Situational Awareness
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....
View ArticleSituational Awareness and Decision Making Tips for Training
I recently received an email from a SAMatters community member asking for tips to improve size-up, situational awareness and decision making while training in a flashover simulator. It was a great...
View ArticleWhere does intuition come from?
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 first responders I have...
View ArticleWeather can impact situational awareness
You may recall from earlier discussions that situational awareness is formed by gathering information about what is happening in the environment around you. Then, your brain takes that information and...
View ArticleChatty TSA agents
It is possible that while you are attempting to pay attention to something, you can be drawn off your task by distractions or interruptions to your workload. A distraction is something that pulls your...
View ArticleRoom for improvement
I recently read an investigation report where a firefighter died and it made me sad. First, as we see so often in after action reviews, it appears as though the tragedy may have been preventable. The...
View ArticleFifteen Situational Awareness Barriers
The mission of Situational Awareness Matters is to help you see the bad things coming… in time to change bad outcomes. SA is a complex neurological process and I go to painstaking efforts to ensure...
View ArticleSelective listening can be a barrier to situational awareness
Because first responders frequently operate in environments where there are multiple auditory inputs (e.g., radio traffic, face-to-face communications, ambient sounds, etc.) they are often forced to...
View ArticleNine considerations when evaluating incident command software
As you attend conferences that have vendor display areas, pay attention to how many incident management software vendors claim to have programs that can “develop situational awareness” in first...
View ArticleTwelve Ways to Situational Awareness
Ho, Ho, Ho. Merry Christmas everyone! With Thanksgiving a day in the past, it is officially the Christmas season! I know everyone’s feeling particularly festive this time of year and I have caught the...
View ArticleWeapons of Mass Distraction
The foundation for developing situational awareness is perception – using your senses to gather information about what is happening around you. In lay terms, we call it paying attention. It would be...
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