Last week we hit on situational awareness and the multifaceted approach we take on it. Looking for threats and looking for opportunities to serve. This week we'll talk a bit about the foundational strategies that have proven beneficial for our team. The three concepts look at the situation, human behavior and our own intuition. There are other tools that we can employ depending on the mission or overall environment, but these are the legs to the stool of situational awareness. All information is filtered through these lenses in order to make decisions that keep us safe and alive.
The Situation
This comes down to the world you are living in. It's the present version of life and what is immediately going on around you. If you attempted to take in everything you wouldn't be able to carry on a conversation or even enjoy the moment. What we strive to do is establish an understanding for a baseline. The baseline is ultimately the normal accepted behavior within an environment. A portion of this post was written from a coffee shop. With my back to a wall I had visibility on almost the entire space. I could see people come and go and could hear the noises and smell the smells. These senses were in tune to what was expected. People coming and going, groups of 2 or 3 having hushed conversations as to not disturb others or spread gossip too loudly and individuals like myself plugging away at a keyboard and sipping on some caffeine. I've been to this place hundreds of times and even when just walking in, feeling out the room can tell me if things are normal, busy or something could be wrong. This assessment can be true for almost any area and while many coffee shops can expect to have a similar feel a change in geographic location can create subtle differences that impact the baseline. Once we understand the baseline of an environment, we don't need to sweat all of the details. We then look for the abnormalities that diverge from the baseline. In "Left of Bang" one of my favorite books, which we highly recommend, these are appropriately described as anomalies. An anomaly should be something that captures your attention and generates a quick more detailed assessment of the situation. It could be anything from the smell of smoke, or a loud crash of dishes or someone "sketchy". Alone none of these items warrant a major, if any, reaction at all, but they are worth noting. It's when the anomalies begin to compound that we consider action. The loud bang is followed up by a scream and then a smell of smoke. Or the sketchy character comes in yelling... this is when we must choose when and how to react. Today isn't about what we should do, because in all honesty everyone’s answers could be different and the intent is for you to learn to make these decisions and act accordingly. Now that we have a baseline, and understand that the divergence from these is really what we're looking for, let's look at people.
People
My guess is when you saw "sketchy" earlier, an image or host of images ran though your head. Those are images that are either part or your life experiences, or stories you've heard from others or seen on TV. When we look at people we are not only looking for behaviors that go against the situational baseline, but also at a few specific things. Number one is hands. Most threats come from the hands and knowing what someone is holding or not holding serves to determine their immediate level of threat. We are constantly scanning hands! Assessing someone’s overall demeanor is also a solid tactic within the realm of the human behavior strategy. A lot can be determined from body language, tone of voice, and even how observant someone is. Go back to the coffee shop. If a car quickly pulls up front, parks abruptly and someone gets out in a hurry with a coffee cup from the same place it may be worth noting. If they enter and seem out of breath, walking quickly and impatiently, there's a solid chance they got the wrong order and are not having it with the staff today. Again, these behaviors might not necessarily be an anomaly depending on the skill level of the staff or complexity of the customer’s mocha venti, upside down 2 pump, extra hot, oat milk double shot latte, but when paired with the behaviors, we're ticking a couple boxes of concern. When you really start to tune into how people interact, what's in their hands and how it veers from the baseline you've started to dial in your situational awareness. The more conscious you are of things, the less you have to focus on working through the problems and counting anomalies. Pay attention to people in general and you'll begin to see how this is applicable.
Intuition
The third and probably most important principle to situational awareness. Intuition. Because of the creature comforts of modern society, we have lessened the ability to listen to our own intuition. In "The Gift of Fear" Gavin deBecker explains that humans are the only creatures on earth who use "reason" to dismiss intuition. We will deny that things are occurring and attempt to make up excuses instead of recognizing and accepting the risks in front of us. Intuition is there to protect us and is likely drawing from some life lesson or experience that we may not consciously remember, but it's an effort to keep us safe. When we're training groups in our local area I often refer to this as West Michigan Nice. People are willing to risk their own safety instead of listening to their intuition and risk offending someone they'll likely never see again. In practical form it could be something as simple as not getting on an elevator or going into a store alone. There are thousands of stories where someone is interviewed after an event where they said it didn't seem right but they ignored the feelings and moved along anyway.
Putting it all together
Putting these three principles into action and adding some decision making processes and limits of what's acceptable and what's not to your toolbox will increase situational awareness and begin to bring you back intune with intuition. From this foundation we can build a different set of layers to the awareness process that will only enhance observation and even make it easier to live in the moment. Thus not only being able to live a safe and fulfilled life, but also find opportunities to serve.
Situational awareness should be come part of who you are and not something that you do. Mastery takes time and takes ongoing self assessment and self correction. Raven often works in teams of 2 or 3 and we are constantly working to learn from the others and share information. Not only where threats and opportunities are, but the strategies and tactics used to identity them.
Stay aware, stay safe and enjoy life!
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