Samatters Radio

In reading casualty reports you will often see issues related to communications as a contributing factor. Miscommunications, lack of communications or too much radio traffic (to include overloaded radio channels) are often cited. It is the last of these issues I want to address. There is an inherent cognitive consequence from too much communications that can impact situational awareness. Essentially, you can stop listening… and it doesn’t happen on purpose.     Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

This episode chronicles an event where responders were managing two cardiac arrest calls in a hotel room.  Initial response teams did not consider the possibility of carbon monoxide as the potential cause and the outcome was almost catastrophic for the response teams. Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

Oftentimes employee training involves scenarios where workers learn how to perform to the scripted standards. On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with that. However, the employee training scenarios are often developed to ensure the outcome of the training will be success.  And, as many workers know, the complexity of many work issues can often require actions that are not consistent with the Standards. In other words, workers must veer from the written standard and be resilient problem solvers.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

If you have attended one of my situational awareness programs you have learned how stress is a game-changer when it comes to situational awareness and decision making quality. Most employee training programs focus on developing cognitive knowledge and physical skills. Far less address the impact of stress on situational awareness and decision making and the seemingly irrational (some might even term it bazaar) behaviors manifested by some workers when they are under stress.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

On January 3, 2014, the St. Charles Fire Department responded to a single-family residential dwelling fire on Nancy Drive.  This podcast chronicles events (told by Captain Chip Ashford and Battalion Chief Dan Casey) as they unfolded. The thermal assault enduring by these firefighters resulted in injuries that included second and third-degree burns and a shoulder injury from bailing out a window. Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Overhaul to Fireball Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/Overhautofireball/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

  On January 3, 2014, the St. Charles Fire Department responded to a single-family residential dwelling fire on Nancy Drive.  This podcast chronicles events (told by Captain Chip Ashford and Battalion Chief Dan Casey) as they unfolded. The thermal assault enduring by these firefighters resulted in injuries that included second and third-degree burns and a shoulder injury from bailing out a window.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Overhaul to Fireball Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/Overhautofireball/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

On January 3, 2014, the St. Charles Fire Department responded to a single-family residential dwelling fire on Nancy Drive.  This podcast chronicles events (told by Captain Chip Ashford and Battalion Chief Dan Casey) as they unfolded. The thermal assault enduring by these firefighters resulted in injuries that included second and third-degree burns and a shoulder injury from bailing out a window.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Overhaul to Fireball Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/Overhautofireball/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

On May 31, 2017, I delivered a presentation to the Colorado Springs Fire Department in Situational Awareness. During the program we engaged in a conversation about how they do their training. I was so impressed that I asked them to do an interview with me.  This is part 2 of a two-part interview with: Jason Buckingham, Lieutenant, Station 8; Jesse Weddle, Firefighter, Station 8; and, Brian Lynch, Lieutenant, Station 1. Bryan Lynch is a Lieutenant assigned to fire station 1 in downtown Colorado Springs. Bryan has been a lead instructor for his departments annual Truck Academy and developed his departments Ground Ladder and Ventilation programs. He was instrumental in implementing Nozzle Forward in his department. In 2008, Bryan was the Colorado Springs Professional Firefighters Local 5 Firefighter of the Year. He is the co-owner and co-founder of Irons and Ladders LLC. Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situa

On May 31, 2017, I delivered a presentation to the Colorado Springs Fire Department in Situational Awareness. During the program we engaged in a conversation about how they do their training. I was so impressed that I asked them to do an interview with me.  This is part 1 of a two-part interview with: Jason Buckingham, Lieutenant, Station 8; Jesse Weddle, Firefighter, Station 8; and, Brian Lynch, Lieutenant, Station 1. Bryan Lynch is a Lieutenant assigned to fire station 1 in downtown Colorado Springs. Bryan has been a lead instructor for his departments annual Truck Academy and developed his departments Ground Ladder and Ventilation programs. He was instrumental in implementing Nozzle Forward in his department. In 2008, Bryan was the Colorado Springs Professional Firefighters Local 5 Firefighter of the Year. He is the co-owner and co-founder of Irons and Ladders LLC.    

Accountability is a critically important component to the safety of employees when they are operating in hazardous environments. From the perspective of situational awareness, accountability plays several roles. The obvious role is personnel accountability facilitates the rapid deployment of teams if something goes wrong. The person in-charge knows the team sizes and where the teams are operating at and can send help expeditiously. Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

The potential issue from uncoordinated, independent action is it may be unrealistic to think multiple individuals, or multiple teams can begin work on a problem, at varied times, and make the same assessment of the situation/conditions and know, automatically, what other team members are doing and what goals they are trying to accomplish. This can cause problems with team and big-picture situational awareness.  Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

When it comes to developing and maintaining situational awareness, tunnel vision is a big deal. Situational awareness is developed by having a broad perception of the environment in which you are operating. As your focus narrows, you start to miss things. Those “missed things” are like lost puzzle pieces, leaving holes in your understanding of what is happening. Thus, situational awareness can be impacted.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

Your highest level of situational awareness is formed when you are able to make accurate predictions about future events. We call this projection and it simply means you are able to predict, or project, the future. This is accomplished through mental models you develop that are founded in your training and experience. But for supervisors, it requires more than training and experience to make accurate projections of the future. Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

In this episode, we discuss how to use your imagination to anticipate outcomes – an important component of developing strong situational awareness.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

In this episode, I am taking on a topic often discussed in my leadership programs more often than in my situational awareness programs – motivation. I’m not going to get in to depth on the topic of motivation as it takes me a solid four hours in a classroom session to demystify the topic and reveal the secret sauce for how people are motivated. However, there is one fundamental component of motivation that has a direct implication to firefighter safety – the positive reinforcement of undesired behavior.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

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 those symbols.  We call that skill reading comprehension. And we can listen to and comprehend the meaning of more than 10,000 words. We call that listening comprehension. Indeed, our ability to communicate is quite complex. But our complex communications system has a downside also – complex miscommunications. Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

  A person displaying bravado is not concerned with his or her own safety. They are only concerned with looking courageous. This does not make the individual brave. It makes the individual dangerous.  Once a person gets into the bravado mindset, the critical first two steps in the formation of situational awareness (purposefully capturing clues and cues and comprehending clues and cues into meaning) can be flawed.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

The foundation of situational awareness is capturing clues and cues in your environment – what some would call “paying attention” – and then making sense of those clues and cues – what some would call “understanding” – and then making projections of future events – what some would call “prediction.” One of the challenges in the formation of situational awareness that can arise during the “understanding” phase is Confirmation Bias.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

  One way to control your reaction to stress is to first understand what causes you to be stressed. There are the obvious stressors – physical demands of the work, time compression to make quick decisions, dangerous and unpredictable work. Then there are the less than obvious stressors – peer pressure and the fear that can result from not meeting citizen expectations and/or elected official expectations.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com     Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

It is so easy to trudge over your intuition and to trust your logical, rational form of thinking. Not only can this be unwise, it can also be deadly. Today’s guest shares an experience where he trusted his intuition and it saved his life. Unfortunately, others working on this job site were not so lucky as there were 13 injuries (3 critical) and one fatality.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Brad Davidson contact information BDavidso@mymts.net   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424