Today is National Situational Awareness (SA) Day. What is SA you ask? Well I’m gonna tell you. It is one of my most favorite subjects. Situational Awareness is the ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening to the team with regards to the mission. More simply, it's knowing what is going on around you.
In honor of this day I give you 5 ways to improve your SA.
Understand the baseline.
What is normal? When I was 12 I was taken on a hunting trip for the first time. We were hunting deer in Southern Utah. We were in a forest and I had never done this before so I didn’t quite understand the baseline. My cousin told me to listen and tell me what I heard. When that sound changes you need to know why. I learned what the forest sounded like when predators were near, when others humans were near, and when the deer were near.
Sometimes you can establish a baseline quick. Paying close attention you can tell if what you’re seeing is a baseline, or something else.
There are 3 things that may prevent awareness.
1. Not recognizing or understanding the baseline
2. Normacy bias
3. False focus
Not Understanding the Baseline. If you are not monitoring the baseline, you will not recognize the presence of predators that cause a disturbance. Other events can cause this too. Any unusual occurrence from a car accident to a street fight can create a concentric ring. One of the keys to personal security is learning to look for and recognize these disturbances. Some disturbances are dangerous, some are just entertaining.
Normalcy Bias. Even though we may sense a problem that could be alerting us of danger, many times we will ignore the alert due because of our desire for it NOT to be a danger. We want things to be OK, so we don’t accept that the stimulus we’re receiving represents a threat. We have a bias towards the status quo. Nothing has ever happened when I do this, so nothing is likely to happen.
False Focus. This is some form of distraction that is so engaging, that it focuses all of our awareness on one thing and by default, blocks all the other stimulus in our environment. This is when someone is texting and walks into a pole. The smart phone is the single most effective false focus ever invented. It robs us of our awareness in times and places where it’s needed most. Put it away.
Here are 3 things that promote awareness
1. Monitor the baseline
2. Fight the Normalcy Bias
3. Avoid the False Focus
Monitor the Baseline. At first, this will require conscious effort. But after a while, you’ll find that you can monitor the baseline subconsciously.
Fight Normalcy Bias. This requires you to be paranoid for a while as you develop your ability. Look at every disturbance to the baseline as a potential threat. This will allow you to stop ignoring or discounting disturbances and begin making assessments of the actual risk. But as you learn, people will think you are jumpy or paranoid. That’s OK. It’s a skill that will save your life.
Avoid using the Fake focus. It is ok to text while you are sitting at your desk or laying in bed. But it’s NOT ok to text as you walk from your office to the parking garage.
Any time you go into a new area, do a quick assessment of that area, then stop looking at it (the situation) and scan the rest of your environment to see what you’re missing.
Developing awareness is a skill. At first it will seem very awkward and self-conscious, but with practice, it will become seamless and subconscious. You will start to pick up on more and more subtle areas of disturbance and more complex stimuli. Eventually, people may think you are psychic as they notice how you seem to sense events before they unfold.
Jeff Cooper taught this same concept in his book “The Seven Principles of Self-Defense”. It is his first principle.
#1 ALERTNESS
Always know the answers to these two questions: (1) Who’s around me? (2) What are they doing? Situational awareness.
"A commander may be forgiven for being defeated, but never for being surprised."
Practicing situational awareness is most of the battle in self-defense. Not being surprised will give you the tactical advantage.
Semper Paratus
Check 6
Burn
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