Situational Awareness Series: 3 Obstacles to Your Awareness

Situational Awareness isn’t just deciding to pay attention and you’re done with the issue. There are actually obstacles to being situationally aware. Things that are working against our awareness and our safety. In a previous article, we mentioned some obstacles to your awareness. In this one, we’re going to examine the 3 biggest obstacles to your awareness in more detail.

Obstacle 1: Not Monitoring the Baseline

In almost every place you go or situation you walk into, there is a normal. There are normal activities, sounds, actions and environments that we can expect. These are what we call a baseline.

You don’t have to have particular experience in a place to have a good baseline. For example, all of us have probably been in a convenience store at one point or another. Even if we haven’t been to this particular 7-11, we know basically what to expect when we walk in. So, if we look in the window while walking up to the store and see people frozen in place, not talking and all staring toward the front of the store, we know that’s not normal. And our situational awareness may be preventing us from walking into a robbery in progress.

I Was Fooling Myself About Situational Awareness

There are 4 main things to consider:

• What is happening that should be happening?
• What is present that should be present?
• What is NOT happening that should be happening?
• What is NOT present that should be present?

What Are You Looking For?

In general, we’re looking for things like:

• Unusual/abnormal behavior
• Clothing that is out of place
• Unusual smells
• Aggressive or erratic behavior
• Hands/Eyes not acting normal

The OODA Loop: Your Secret Weapon for Personal Safety

Obstacle 2: Normalcy Bias/Safety Bias

We don’t want to be in danger, so sometimes our brains will lie to us to avoid the truth that we could be in danger. Both of these are cognitive biases that can significantly impact our situational awareness and personal safety. Here’s how they work:

1. Normalcy Bias: This bias occurs when people underestimate the likelihood or potential impact of a disaster or emergency. Individuals affected by normalcy bias tend to believe that things will always function the way they normally do, even in the face of potential danger. For example, during an emergency, someone with normalcy bias might ignore evacuation orders because they believe everything will turn out fine as it usually does. This can lead to inaction or delayed response in dangerous situations, increasing the risk of harm.
2. Safety Bias: Safety bias, in this context, refers to the tendency to favor choices or actions that feel safe or familiar, even when they may not be the most effective in ensuring safety. This bias can manifest as overestimating the safety of certain environments or underestimating risks because they are not immediately apparent. For instance, a person might avoid certain safety precautions because they believe their current habits or surroundings are already safe enough, potentially leaving them vulnerable to risks they haven’t considered.

Essentially, it is the proverbial “head in the sand”. Both biases can hinder a person’s ability to assess and respond to threats accurately, potentially putting them in harm’s way. Being aware of these biases and actively working to overcome them can lead to better decision-making in personal safety situations.

Intuition

Gut feeling. Hunch. Spidey senses. A warm fuzzy feeling. Whatever you call it, intuition is a powerful tool in keeping you safe. In his book, The Gift of Fear, author Gavin De Becker says:

Intuition is always right in two important ways; it is always in response to something, and it always has your best interest at heart- Gavin De Becker

The problem is that we often dismiss our intuition or don’t even hear it. We allow other things to drown it out. Pride may keep us from turning away from a situation because we’re afraid of looking silly or weak. We may choose to not steer clear of a hazard because we don’t want to seem rude or biased. Your intuition is a combo of all of your life experiences. Put them to use.

Obstacle 3: Focus Lock

Simply put, focus lock is some form of distraction so engaging that it focuses all of our awareness on one thing and, by default, blocks out other stimuli in our environment.

This video is an excellent example of how focus lock affects us. Check it out.

Your cell phone is the single biggest obstacle to your situational awareness. It occupies our sight, hearing and touch at the same time in a very engaging way. Have you seen people sitting in a public area, watching a video on their phone, earbuds in, completely unaware of anything going on around them? Or have you sat behind a car that doesn’t move when the light turns green because they’re texting? Please, don’t be that person. Remember, if you are outside of a secure place, you should be in Condition Yellow as a minimum.

But there are ways to avoid focus lock, particularly when it puts your safety at risk.

• Avoid focus locks in transition areas. In other words, don’t text or scroll in the parking lot walking to your office, wait until you are safely at your desk.
• When you encounter an event that you are assessing, look at the whole environment (360 degrees), not just one element.
• Limit distractions and avoid overload.

Situational Awareness Series: Developing Skills

Wrapping Up

Dealing with these 3 obstacles can make all the difference in your situational awareness. Monitoring the baseline, avoiding normalcy/safety biases and combatting focus lock will go a long way to keeping you safe and helping you spot potential danger early. The earlier we are aware, the more options we have to deal with it.

If you’d like to have situational awareness training at your workplace, church, school or small group, contact us.

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