GUARD in 10 Minutes | Steel Water Training

1. How GUARD Helps

GUARD is Steel Water Training's repeatable decision framework: Gauge, Use Your Resources, Act, Reassess, Decide. It gives teams a consistent structure for organizing decisions across different emergencies.

GUARD provides the decision structure; course-specific skills provide the tools for the action you choose.

2. G - Gauge

What happened?
What is the immediate threat?
Is the scene safe enough to enter or remain in?
Who is affected?
What is changing quickly?
What information is missing?

3. U - Use Your Resources

911 and dispatch
Other people and assigned roles
AEDs, first-aid kits, bleeding-control equipment
Exits, barriers, shelter, vehicles, radios, flashlights
Policies, maps, plans, and contact lists
PPE and task-specific equipment
Training and subject-matter experts

4. A - Act

Action should match the emergency and your training. Sometimes the action is CPR. Sometimes it is leaving, calling a qualified technician, moving people away, using verbal de-escalation, or stopping a task.

In GUARD, 'Act' can mean providing care, escaping, sheltering, communicating, stopping an unsafe task, or requesting professional help—whatever best fits the situation and your training.

5. R - Reassess

Did the action work?
Did the person's condition change?
Did a new hazard appear?
Did help arrive?
Is the original plan still appropriate?
Are fatigue, fear, noise, or time pressure distorting judgment?

6. D - Decide

Choose the next step using new information: continue, change, withdraw, escalate, transfer care, or stop an unsafe action.

7. Three tabletop scenarios

Medical

A customer collapses in a lobby. Apply all five GUARD steps and assign specific resources.

Escalating conflict

A visitor becomes increasingly angry at a front desk and begins pacing near an employee-only door. Identify observable behaviors, resources, exits, communication options, and thresholds for disengagement/emergency assistance.

Post-storm

A generator is running under a carport because rain has started. Someone inside reports headache and nausea. Identify the immediate hazard, safe priorities, and resources.

For each scenario, write one sentence for G, U, A, R, and D. Then ask: What training would make the 'Act' step more competent?

8. Team resource-mapping exercise

Walk one real work area and identify five resources people routinely overlook: AED, emergency shutoff, exit, first-aid kit, radio, emergency contact, safe meeting point, or another location-specific asset.