Situational Awareness Series: Reading the Signs

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about the Cooper Color Code System which gives us a common language to describe levels of situational awareness. We also talked about the OODA Loop some time back and how it helps us process situations and how to decrease our response time. This time we’re going to discuss the Observation part of the OODA Loop. The sooner we identify a potential threat, the sooner we can Orient, Decide and take Action.

What is Normal?

That’s an important question to ask ourselves. The norm is often situational itself. For example, a man wearing a parka in the middle of a Minnesota winter would be normal, but a man in a parka in the middle of a Florida summer isn’t normal.

Another example would be walking into a convenience store. You expect people to be moving around, shopping and talking. You expect to see transactions being conducted at the register. But if you were to walk up and look in the window to see everyone frozen or hiding, there may be a robbery in progress. You don’t necessarily need to have shopped in that store before to recognize this because your life experience has taught you what the baseline is for a convenience store.

Knowing our surroundings, and what is normal, allows us to establish a baseline. When we have a baseline, we can spot the anomaly and potential danger. And that quick look in the window before walking on the door can save you from having a really bad day.

Remember that the baseline can change. The norm for traffic on our drive to work is one thing, but if we look at the same road at 2 am, the traffic flow would likely be different.

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Read the Signs

Picture a forest. In the early morning, there may be a spike in activity and noise as animals move around, feeding and being active. It may quiet down at midday as animals rest and seek shelter from the heat. Activity can ebb and flow, perhaps spiking again as the nocturnal animals start to become active and the diurnal animals start to shelter for the night. (yeah, I had to look up diurnal) But at any of those times, we may hear a flourish of noise and activity if a predator appears, interrupting the baseline. The prey animals read the signs. They are experts in situational awareness.

In our “urban jungle”, we need to read the signs too. A person mirroring our movements from across the street is a sign. Our normally clear path suddenly narrowed by a dumpster pushed partially into the path could be a sign. An unfamiliar vehicle starting to appear around our home regularly could also be. The more familiar we are with the baseline, the more likely we are to spot the anomaly sooner. The good news is that it becomes easier over time. The more practiced we become, the more automatic these observations become. The true goal is to be observing without conscious effort.

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The Enemies of Awareness

• The safety bias: We want to feel safe. We want everything to be ok. So sometimes we will dismiss potential danger cues because we don’t want them to be dangerous at all. Related to this is our desire to not offend anyone. Because we don’t want to appear racist/sexist/prejudiced/<insert reason>, we ignore our intuition and charge straight into danger like a bull at a red flag.

• Complacency: “Nothing has ever happened here, so nothing will.” If we’re not actively monitoring our baseline, we stand a far greater chance of being surprised by a predator than detecting their presence early. Yes, you’ve walked down that street 100 times before and nothing bad happened. But don’t ignore the disruption to the baseline that is telling you that today may be different. This also means being in a Condition Yellow level of situational awareness at a minimum at all times outside of safe places.

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• Distractors: We have more distractors than ever before. The biggest one is probably within a few feet of us right now; the smartphone. If our head is down, answering a text, while we walk from the car to the store, we’re no longer in Condition Yellow, we’re bordering on Condition White. (I say bordering because you might have good peripheral vision that keeps you from being completely unaware.) Ever see someone texting and walking into a door? Enough said. Distractors aren’t only visual. Earbuds in and music loud makes you vulnerable. If you have to use them, try leaving one earbud out. Or, better yet, try bone conduction earbuds. These allow you to hear what’s going on around you while the music is “heard” through your bones. If you’ve never tried them before, they’re pretty cool.

Are you staying in at least Condition Yellow? Are you constantly reading your environment?

The next article in this series on situational awareness will discuss how to develop your skills. If you don’t want to miss it, subscribe to the blog below or follow our Facebook page.

To get training on situational awareness for you, your family, church or workplace, contact us.

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