By: Jason Jefferies The day we were awarded our badge we all had grand notions of the countless numbers of rescues we would perform. We also practiced our look of smug satisfaction we would exhibit on our stoic faces the day we were awarded medals for our harrowing and death-defying action. It did not take…
Author: chrisFSW
Critical Thinking: A Mindfulness Skill
By: Christopher Brennan “Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way.” – Christopher Hitchens The ability to think critically, to examine ideas, to separate the known from what we believe we know, and to draw conclusions that match reality may be the most…
Analysis and Synthesis
By: Christopher Brennan Our observations, both conscious and unconscious, are routed to our minds to be processed. This processing is the Analysis and Synthesis aspect of our orientation. The process of analysis and synthesis was very important to Col. Boyd, to the extent that the only paper he ever wrote on the subject of decision-making…
The Fourth Filter – New Information
By: Christopher Brennan Our ability to make sense of the world around us, to make good decisions about how to move through that world, is directly related to our ability to incorporate new information into our worldview. I have written before about the effects of intellectual entropy. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that…
The Third Filter – Previous Experience
By: Christopher Brennan “Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever.” The Road, Cormac McCarthy I’ve been stewing on how to tackle the filter of Previous Experience for months. This has the potential to be a massive topic of consideration, and one that would bore you to death in about…
We are not Cyborgs
by: Gea Leigh Haff We are still doing it. After all the critical incident stress debriefings, suicide prevention workshops, and unacceptably high number of firefighter suicides, (3 in one year on my dept.) we are still shutting people down who try to speak about calls and the sorrow they bring. In the past two weeks…
The Second Filter — Cultural Tradition
By: Christopher Brennan As we continue to explore the five filters of the Orientation phase of the OODA Loop, I will take up the filter of Cultural Tradition. I refer to it as the “second filter” because it’s the second I describe when I teach this topic. I like to progress from Genetic Heritage through Cultural Traditions,…
The First Filter – Genetic Heritage
By: Christopher Brennan Continuing our discussion of the Orientation phase of the OODA Loop I want to take up the topic of our Genetic Heritage. Genetic Heritage As we examine the factors that play a role in determining our world view and impacting the decisions we make and the way we choose I like to…
“Reality” is the Only Word in the Language that Should Always Be Used in Quotes.
By: Christopher Brennan Do you remember playing the telephone game as a kid? The teacher would say something like, “John is going to Europe for Christmas” to the kid sitting in the front left corner of the classroom. That kid would whisper the message to the person next to him, and one at a time…
You Will Search
By: Brian Brush One of the many hot topics in the fire service today is when we search. Our personal opinions, comforts with conditions and our performance vary with the individual and the fire company we are paired with. Regardless of your stance on a particular picture, video, or report of a “vacant” which was…