Situational Awareness Matters!
Our mission is to improve safety by enhancing decision-making for individuals and organizations in high-risk environments. Because understanding your environment is a matter of life and death!
We are committed to expanding your knowledge...
How do we do that? By teaching people about situational awareness. By equipping them with the knowledge and skills they need. Our goal is to help them make better decisions under pressure, prevent accidents, and improve overall safety.
We deliver engaging keynote presentations and interactive workshops, and we offer online educational content. Everything is designed to help individuals and teams enhance their cognitive abilities, strengthen communication, and develop critical thinking skills. These are essential for working safely in dynamic and high-risk environments.
At Situational Awareness Matters!, we believe that awareness is the foundation of safety. Our mission is to equip people with the tools they need to recognize (and respond to) hazards before problems arise.
Because when it comes to safety, situational awareness truly makes a difference.
SA Matters! was founded in 2008 by Dr. Richard Gasaway, a leading expert in situational awareness and high-pressure decision-making.
Situational Awareness Matters! is built on years of research, real-world experience, and a passion for saving lives. Through training, consulting, and resources, we help first responders, safety professionals, and organizations across various industries recognize and respond to hazardous situations.
How your brain works in high-risk situations
Your brain helps you navigate your work safely and efficiently every day, yet it still has many limitations. That’s why we don’t focus on teaching procedures, but rather on the human side of working in high-risk environments. Our training is grounded in neuroscience, presented in clear language, and illustrated with practical examples.
We help you understand how stress affects your brain and how it influences decision-making under pressure. Our focus on cognitive science enables you and your team to recognize your own limitations and improve performance in high-stress situations.
Delivered with passion by our experts
Richard B. Gasaway
PhD, CSP, MBA, EFO, CFO, CVP
President, Situational Awareness Matters!
Principal Consultant
Follo Rich on LinkedIn!
Bart van Leeuwen
Certified Master instructor
Owner, SA Training EMEA
Emergency services, Industry, Business Continuity and IT-infrastructure & development
Follow Bart on LinkedIn!
We offer the following:
Our keynotes, workshops, training sessions, and incident evaluations are always tailored to your organization. Designed to address your specific challenges, with relevant examples and clear language, ensuring your team can connect the insights to their daily work.
Lectures & presentations
Workshops
Trainingen sessions
Incident evaluation
Custom programs
What other say about us
Like a lot of kids, I wanted to become a fireman when I grew up. Newsflash – I did not. I ended up the next best thing – a systems administrator.
But after having SA spend a day with us, showing us through knowledge and example alike what we all turn into when things are – figuratively – on fire, it turns out that I’m not as far from my childhood dream as I thought.
Fighting fires in an IT system can be just as stressful and chaotic as fighting real fires. Sure, you don’t fear for anyone’s life, but your brain doesn’t necessarily know that. Which means that all your most basic strengths and weaknesses are exposed. Turns out that situational awareness is among the first to go, but you won’t know that until it’s too late – or until Situational Awareness Matters here has told you about it.
Now that we know, we can act differently during a crisis. We can create support mechanisms for our firefighters, we can prepare better, and we can improve our post-mortems, if nothing else to make sure nobody gets fingers pointed at them for having reacted wrongly under pressure.
Eirik Oeverby Command Line Warrior in Chief - Entersekt
I recently had the pleasure of attending a Situational Awareness Matters workshop, and I must say, it was eye-opening. The content was incredibly insightful, shedding light on human behavior during high-pressure incident situations in a way that directly relates to my work in customer-focused software service delivery. Bart did an exemplary job of bridging the gap between the intense world of firefighting and the challenges we face in tech. His use of real-life examples made the concepts not only understandable but also immediately applicable. This workshop has genuinely transformed my approach to incident management, emphasizing the importance of situational awareness, decision-making under stress, and fostering a culture of learning from every incident. Highly recommended for anyone looking to enhance their team’s responsiveness and resilience.
Jan Wiersma Investor & Technology Executive