Situational Awareness

The cornerstone of good decision making is good situational awareness. Leaders can increase their decision space by attaining and maintaining good situational awareness. Decision space is simply the amount of time that a decision maker has for considering options before reaching a required decision point.

Situational Awareness Cycle

Observation and communication are linked to Situational awareness. The graphic shows an arrows circling line art of an eye and eyebrow with the words Gather information, Change, Perception, and No change circling the eye as well.

Situational awareness is depicted as a cycle because the situation and people’s perceptions are constantly changing. This internal cycle continues as long as people are awake. Everyone starts with an initial perception of any given situation and then continuously updates it with new information. People gather information through both observation, which includes input from the senses, and communication, which includes face-to-face conversation, written communication, and radio or telephone exchanges.

Simply paying attention is an important part of maintaining good situational awareness, but even more important is determining what to pay attention to. All perceptions are subject to filtering and focusing: people constantly filter information and shift focus. People also produce a lot of internal inputs such as thoughts about what to do next, stress, memories of similar experiences, fear.

Those with more experience in an environment often can more easily filter out distractions and unimportant details and focus on the most salient information.

Discussion Points:

What does situational awareness mean?
What are the actions that influence situational awareness?
Is it possible to lose situational awareness?
Does your situational awareness match reality consistently?

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NWCG Latest Announcements

Updated NWCG Standards for Fire Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations, PMS 515

Date: May 10, 2024
Contact: IFUASS Qualification and Curriculum Board (IFUASS)

The 2024 revision of the NWCG Standards for Fire Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations, PMS 515 is now available. PMS 515 standardizes the processes and procedures for interagency use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), including pilot inspections and approvals. This publication is now available as a PDF for easy use offline.

References:

NWCG Standards for Fire Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations, PMS 515

Memorandum 24-003: Removal of Type 1 Command and General Staff (C&G) Incident Position Qualification Pathways

Date: May 10, 2024
Contact: Aitor Bidaburu

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide NWCG direction for removal of the Type 1 Command and General Staff (C&G) incident position qualification pathways to transition to Complex Incident Management (CIM). Responders may continue to utilize available NWCG pathways to attain Type 1 C&G qualifications until December 31, 2024.

References:

Memorandum 24-003

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2024 Professional Reading Program

Date: April 26, 2024
Contact: Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program (WFLDP)

The Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program is announcing the 2024 Professional Reading list! The intent of the Professional Reading Program is to promote the reading and discussion of these books throughout the year. Discussion guides are provided and the corresponding Wildland Fire Leadership Levels have been identified.

The five books chosen for this year are: Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog by William H. McRaven, The Art of Clear Thinking by Hasard Lee, Emotional Agility by Susan David, and Writing to Persuade by Trish Hall.

References:

Professional Reading Program

Wildland Fire Leadership Levels

NWCG Training Catalog now on Wildland Fire Learning Portal

Date: April 25, 2023
Contact: NWCG Training

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) has migrated the training catalog from the NWCG website to the Wildland Fire Learning Portal (WFLP) as part of our ongoing efforts to streamline processes and improve efficiency. To facilitate this transition, the training catalog remains available on www.nwcg.gov through April 2024.

Starting May 2024, the training catalog will no longer be accessible on www.nwcg.gov. However, you can still access the complete training catalog by logging in as a guest to the WFLP.

References:

Wildland Fire Learning Portal

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Situational Awareness