Hello and welcome to episode 013 of the Situational Awareness Matters radio show. I am your host, Rich Gasaway.
The purpose of this show is to improve situational awareness and decision making for individuals and teams who work in high risk, high consequence environments.
The SAMatters mission is simple… To help you see the bad things coming… in time to avoid bad outcomes.
EPISODE OUTLINE
1.In the feature segment we’ll talk about training for failure, how it happens and I’ll offer some advice for how to overcome it. I’ll also include some discussion questions you can have amongst your members about training and whether there may be opportunities for improvement.
2.And we’ll share a near-miss report where a crew cut through the floorboard of a vehicle and into the gas tank – not on accident – on purpose.
FEATURE TOPIC
There are probably few things I say to a speaker that raises their ire more than: You may be training your members to fail. I understand why an instructor would not want to hear that. No instructor wants a member to fail. Even more so, no instructor wants to be implicated for being the one responsible for training the member failure. This is especially true when failure results in a casualty. Nonetheless, it is happening more often than I would like to see. How do I know? Let me explain.
Training for failure
The concept of training for failure is rooted in the notion that field performance of tasks mirror training. You have heard the phrase: We are creatures of habit. And there is nothing that makes behavior revert to habits quicker than stress. As stress levels increase, the brain transitions from rational/logical information processing to intuitive/instinctive processing.
This is when performance becomes automatic and driven by training and habits. Much of the knowledge and many of the skills needed by responders in an emergent situation must be recalled and applied almost instantly. Training is the foundation that sets you up for success… or failure. The speed and accuracy of your recall of cognitive memory and muscle memory will hold the key to your success, and perhaps, your survival.
Types of memory
You have many types of memory. More, in fact, than I have time to talk about in this episode. The two memories I want to talk about are cognitive memory and muscle memory. Cognitive memory is your storage and recall of information (e.g., names, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.). Committing cognitive information to memory through repetition improves your chances of recalling information quickly and accurately. Think of your recall of the multiplication tables you learned in elementary school as a good example. For most of us, the answer to nine-times-eight comes quickly and naturally – no conscious thought required.
The second memory important to this discussion is muscle memory. This memory is your storage and recall of body movement (e.g., how to ride a bicycle, how to brush your teeth, etc.). Similar to cognitive memory, committing muscle movements to memory through repetition improves your chances of recalling the physical movements to perform a physical task quickly and accurately. Think of your ability to play any sport with reasonable competency as an example. Practice trains your muscles on how to perform accurately when you are in the game – no conscious thought required.
Cognitive memory failures
There are many ways in which your cognitive memory can be an asset during high-stress, high-consequence events. This is especially true when time is compressed and you are forced to recall things quickly. In the mayhem of an emergency is not the place to be tapping your finger against the side of your head thinking: What was the third step in that five-step process we learned about how to handle this situation? This is where repetition in learning becomes critical. However, if you want to improve your ability to recall cognitive lessons in an emergency situation, then learn the lesson in a simulated environment as similar to the real environment as possible. This is known as state-dependent (or context dependent) learning.
While it may be impractical, maybe even impossible, to train responders on everything they need to know in a field setting, it is entirely possible to practice recall of the information you are taught in a classroom when you are in a field setting. Practice and recall in a simulated environment that mirrors the stress of the real work environment will improve recall of the information when it may be needed most… in the same environment it was practiced in.
Muscle memory failures
Like cognitive memory, there are many ways in which muscle memory can be an asset to emergency responders operating in high-risk, high-consequence environments. And like cognitive recall, the compression of time and the immediate need for action can require the muscles to react quickly, dare I say it – instinctively – to a situation.
One of the biggest ways I see instructors training responders to fail is by giving verbal instructions for physical tasks without requiring the responders to physically perform the task. The scenario may go something like this: When you get out there in the field, remember that when confronted with this situation, you will want to _______ (fill in the blank with whatever the physical task is). There is a fundamental flaw with this type of learning.
Muscles only learn from muscle movement. Muscles do not learn from verbal instructions. The only way for you to learn how to perform a physical task with any kind of competency is to move! – to physically perform the task. An instructor can talk to you all day long about what you are supposed to do but until your muscles move in practice, they are not learning. Then, when your muscles do move in practice, it is important the movements are right.
A hypothetical example
Let us use an example of a responder who learns how to perform a task using one type of equipment in training but the training division is using old equipment because they, most unfortunately, get the hand-me-downs that are no longer in-service. So the recruit learns cognitive memory (i.e., the recall of the steps needed to complete the task using the old equipment) and muscle memory (i.e., the physical movements necessary to complete that task, again using the old equipment). Learning has occurred.
Unfortunately, however, in this example the field equipment does not match the training equipment. The higher the stress, the more likely the responder is to revert back to memory and habits taught in training. This holds the potential to either cause multiple errors in performance or there is a risk the performance of the task will be significantly slower as the mind tries to reconcile the differences between how the responder was trained and how to perform in the real scenario. Both delays and errors are likely to occur.
In the real world
During the Training for Failure program, I have had the opportunity to discuss this problem with thousands of responders, business leaders and industrial safety managers. I never have to look far or dig deep to find real examples for how people are being trained to fail.
The reactions I get to this revelation can be a real mixed bag. As I provide the real life examples using participants in my class some instructors begin to look as though they have just seen a ghost. Some are stunned into silence. Some feverishly write down notes. Sadly though, some instructors glare at me with anger and try to defend their training methodologies and practices.
Instructors who go on the defensive say things to me like: We do not have the time to train the way you are proposing. I cannot argue with that response. I do not claim to know the time constraints an instructor is under in his or her individual organization. All I am simply saying is training in ways that do not mirror real life scenarios is a set-up for failure. A lack of time to train properly will not fix the problem. It simply explains why a responder may have been trained to fail.
In some instances, time is not the culprit in training for failure. Rather, it is a lack of knowledge on the part of the instructor about how the brain learns and how information is recalled, especially under stress. There is a fundamental flaw in the educational methodologies curriculum in most instructor and safety programs I have seen. The programs fail to teach the neuroscience behind how the brain learns and recalls. This can, in turn, impact how the instructor teaches students.
Advice
I have several tangible pieces of advice on how to combat training for failure. Much of what I have to say on this may run counter to the established paradigms of instructors so I can only wish (with fingers crossed) that instructors will let down their protective guards and take this advice with its intended benefit – to help you improve the safety of your responders. This advice is not a damnation of your existing ways of training.
First, stop judging the performance of others when they do things that seem inappropriate. I once took a class where an instructor showed one video after another of responders doing what, in his words, were stupid things. I watched and listened with a heavy heart. For not only was this instructor judging the performance of others harshly and unfairly, he was also teaching his students to do the same thing. The fact is, when you are judging the performance of others you cannot, simultaneously, be the student.
As I sat there and watched this program I so much wanted to blurt out: So why do you think those responders thought that what they were doing at that moment in time made sense… or why they thought it was the right thing to do? I am sure I would have stunned the room into silence and embarrassed the instructor. This would have, in turn, likely earned me an angered response. No good would have come from that.
The lesson here is to stop judging others when things go wrong and start seeking to understand why it made sense to them to be doing what they were doing. They were either trained to do it the way they were doing it or they were not trained at all and were improvising based on their assumption that it would work. No worker performs unsafe acts with the purposeful intent of getting hurt. Understanding why and how bad things happen begins when we stop judging others.
When the class was over I waited around for the students to leave and then I approached the instructor and asked him why he thought those responders in his videos were doing the things they did. His response floored me. He said: Because they are stupid (expletive). I did not know what to say. I mustered the courage to ask my second question.
Did he ever consider the possibility those firefighters were trained to fail. If they were trained to do what they did their instructors should be fired – came the indignant response. Should an instructor whose never been taught about how the brain learns be fired for teaching the best way they know how? That does not seem very fair to me. An instructor training responders to fail is likely only training others the same way they had been trained.
The second solution I am going to offer is to invite an independent evaluation of your training program. Why independent? Because sometimes you are too close to the problem to see the problem. If you knew you were training responders to fail, you would change the way you trained your responders. You would not need someone to point it out to you.
The key to this solution is to ensure the evaluator you select is not from your agency and they understand how responders are trained to fail. Now, before you think this paragraph is some kind of informercial to have you hire me to do an evaluation of your department… it is not. There are plenty of resources available to you and some may be local to you. The important thing is you begin to see where the shortcomings are in your training program and start to fix them.
The third solution I am going to offer is to avoid the trap of believing you can train responders how to do something one way in training and then tell them, or expect them, to do it differently when they are in the field. I hear this often. Recruits are told: We are going to train you how we are required to here in the academy but when you get out into the street they will teach you how it is really done.
Would not it make better sense to teach how it is really done in the academy? Why the disconnect? Either the way the academy is teaching has not kept up with best practices used in the field or the field performance has drifted away from the best practices taught in the academy. Regardless of how it has occurred… it is a set-up for failure.
Discussions
1. Discuss examples of how responders in your organization may have been trained to fail and offer tangible solutions for how to fix the problem.
2. Locate some videos on the Internet of responders doing what seems to be stupid things at emergency scenes. Instead of judging their performance, ask: Why did what they were doing make sense to them at that moment in time. Seeking to understand the basis of behavior is where the real learning begins.
3. Discuss how to evaluate your training program to ensure your responders are being trained for success.
CLOSE CALL SURVIVOR STORY
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS NEAR MISS LESSON LEARNED
This lesson comes to us from the Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System, where lessons learned become lessons applied.
Flammable atmosphere created by cutting a gas tank
May 21, 2014
Event Description
Two separate fire departments responded to a vehicle on fire in the driveway of a single-family dwelling. There were two other vehicles that were exposures and the vehicle on fire was approximately 30 feet away from the house. The initial attack was fast and successful and the majority of the fire was knocked down. However, the gas tank on the vehicle was leaking and a small fire continued to burn as a result.
Additional resources were requested, but were denied by the on-scene incident commander. The decision was made to cut the floorboard of the vehicle, directly above the gas tank, and flood it with water. The cut was initiated and completed. Application of foam and dry chemical were completed and the fire went out.
The near-miss came during the cutting of the floor. The vapors were released as the tank was opened, causing an optimal environment for the gas to ignite and or explode. A safety officer was never assigned and this person could have stopped the actions that were assigned by the incident commander.
Lessons learned
The tactic of cutting a gas tank with a saw should never be done. The saw itself is an ignition source and the cut releasing flammable vapors was not smart.
You can visit them at www.FirefighterNearMiss.com
If you have experienced or witnessed a near miss and would like to be interviewed on this show, visit my companion site:
www.CloseCallSurvivor.com and click on the Contact Us link. Thank you, in advance, for sharing your lessons learned so others may live.
INFORMATION
If you are interested in attending a live event, you can check out the Situational Awareness Matters Tour Stop schedule at: SAMatters.com. Click on the Program and Keynotes tab just below the header. Then click on the Events Schedule tab. If I am in your area, I hope you will consider attending a live event.
If you are not able to attend a live event, consider signing up for the SAMatters On-Line Academy. The Academy contains videos and articles that cover the same content as a three-day live tour event, delivered in 14 modules you can go through at your own pace, from your own computer.
If you sign-up for the Academy Plus version you will also receive four situational awareness books that are cross-referenced throughout the Academy. The Plus version is a great bargain because the tuition simply covers the cost of the books… making the Academy free!
Just click on the link below the header on the SAMatters home page titled On-Line Academy.
CLOSING
Well, that is it. Episode 13 is complete. Thank you for sharing some of your valuable time with me today. I sincerely appreciate your support of the SAMatters mission.
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Be safe out there. May the peace of the Lord, and strong situational awareness, be with you always.
Post Closing Message
You have been listening to the Situational Awareness Matters Radio show with Dr. Richard B. Gasaway. If you are interested in learning more about situational awareness, human factors and decision making under stress, visit SAMatters.com. If you are interested in booking Dr. Gasaway for an upcoming event, visit his personal website at RichGasaway.com
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