I saw this article from this
Website and in the past I will shamelessly snag something that I think is cool or that the people that read my little corner of the internet might like. Having Situational awareness and what I call "Heighten Time Awareness" are crucial for living in today's world. I had posted some stuff as had
Momma Fargo,
Old NFO,
Murphy and others about bad things catching up with you when you least expect it.
This a funny video that shows somebody being totally absorbed to their own world and ignoring the "Real World", and she pays the price for her inattention. We laugh at the video, but it does highlight a fact that many people are totally self absorbed and not paying ATTENTION...Stuff like this does set my teeth on edge, how can somebody be totally uninvolved...people like this are PREY when the bad things come knocking.
There is always what I call a "tell" or a premonition of a bad thing coming and you ignoring the feeling due to social pressure. You know that "Gut" feeling...it is your subconscious giving you a nudge that something is wrong. The primitive part of you is more aware of your surrounding than the "civilized" part of you. if you are on top of your game, you will realize it and quickly depart the area or make preparations so you are not surprised and caught flat footed. I have spent many years developing mine. I surprise people all the time by the things I notice. I just pay attention. I quickly learned in Europe that we need to pay attention....there were bad people that liked to beat up or injure GI's like Turks for example.., they liked to stab you in your butt cheek, something about taking your manhood in their culture. I don't know if it was true but I have had Turks come at me in clubs, and they always wanted to fight and I always had a German beer stein in my hand.
They got the Stein upside the head.(Talk about wasting good beer). and I have heard stories of "snatches" of certain people with certain military specialties or skills. I don't know if it was true or the imaginations of the G-2 and S-2 at *SAEDA briefings. But I paid attention to my surrounding back then and my occupation after I got out of the service as a pizza delivery guy really affirmed it.
I do remember one time I got robbed in a "nice" area. This was the early 90's and I was much younger than now. I wasn't expecting it and got an ugly surprise, 15 stitches later I swore I would never get surprised again. What did I do wrong? I made an ASSUMPTION that all was OK...and let my guard down. I paid the price. I got lucky....Thugs tend to shoot pizza drivers...it helps them build street creed with their fellow thugs. I only got stitches....I could have got a bullet. I continued to deliver on and off until 2007 when my present employer hired me. I swore I would never do that kind of job again, I used to love meeting the people and interacting with the customers, but the times have changed. it was getting more dangerous,
I had several robbery attempts since the early 90's...they failed.....they discover that Pizza boy carries a revolver and I was ready. After the 3rd robbery attempt, I got hired by my present employer and I turned in my 2 week notice and quit. I was afraid that the next time I faced a robbery attempt, I would find myself having to shoot...and I didn't want all that headache. Can you see the headlines "White Male shoots African American youth" Yes I am making a blanket assumption, but the prior attempts were by black teens and the odds of the next one being committed by a "Minority Urban Youth" were high in my favor. I knew that the black grievance industry would have a field day and I didn't want to deal with all the B.S.
I saw what happened to Zimmerman 5 years later and I felt vindicated in leaving that profession. I told myself that I would never do that kind of job again..I had done it on and off for 21 years and if I needed extra money I would get hired to deliver Pizza. But truth be told, if the wolf was at my door, I would do it again...reluctantly.
*Sabotage and Espionage directed against Army
There’s a scene at the beginning of
The Bourne Identity
where the film’s protagonist is sitting in a diner, trying to figure
out who he is and why he has a bunch of passports and a gun stashed in a
safety deposit box. Bourne also notices that he, well, notices things
that other people don’t.
That superhuman ability to observe his surroundings and make detailed
assessments about his environment? It’s not just a trait of
top secret operatives; it’s a skill known as situational awareness, and
you can possess it too.
As the names implies, situational awareness is simply knowing what’s
going on around you. It sounds easy in principle, but in reality
requires much practice. And while it is taught to soldiers, law
enforcement officers, and yes, government-trained assassins, it’s an
important skill for civilians to learn as well. In a dangerous
situation, being aware of a threat even seconds before everyone else can
keep you and your loved ones safe.
But it’s also a skill that can and should be developed for reasons
outside of personal defense and safety. Situational awareness is really
just another word for mindfulness, and developing mine has made me more
cognizant of what’s going on around me and
more present in my daily activities, which in turn has helped me make better decisions in all aspects of my life.
I’ve spent months researching and talking to experts in the tactical
field about the nature of situational awareness, and below you’ll find
one of the most complete primers out there on how to gain this important
skill. While the focus is primarily on developing your situational
awareness to prevent or survive a violent attack, the principles
discussed can also help hone your powers of observation in all areas of
your life.
How to Develop Situational Awareness
Many of the resources out there on situational awareness say it can
be cultivated by generally keeping tabs on your surroundings — “checking
your six” and “keeping your back to the wall.”
This definition isn’t wrong. That’s exactly what situational
awareness is: knowing what’s going on by scanning your environment. But I
always found this explanation lacking. What exactly am I looking for?
How do I know if I’m paying attention to the right things? Are there
behaviors or warning signs of an imminent threat that I should know
about?
Today we’re going to start by discussing the general principles of
increasing your observational abilities, and then dive deeper into
situational awareness itself to answer these important questions.
Observe + Orient = Situational Awareness
The thing that helped me finally understand situational awareness was
framing it within the OODA Loop. For those of you who haven’t read
my in-depth article on this important cognitive tool, here’s the CliffsNotes version:
The OODA Loop is a learning system and decision-making process that was first laid out by Air Force fighter pilot and
military strategist John Boyd.
The four steps of the OODA Loop are Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. In a
head-to-head competition, like air-to-air combat, a violent
confrontation in a parking lot, or even political contests, the person
who can cycle through the OODA Loop the fastest wins.
Obviously, the Observe step in the loop is what most people associate situational awareness with.
But it’s the second step in the OODA Loop – Orient — that answered my
questions about what developing situational awareness actually
involves. Orientation tells us
what we should look for when we’re observing, and then puts those observations into context so we know what to
do with the information.
So Observe + Orient = Situational Awareness.
But how can we become better observers so that we can improve our
situational awareness? And how should we orient ourselves so that we
observe the right things and understand the context for what we’re
seeing?
Observe: Stay in Condition Yellow
In his seminal book,
Principles of Personal Defense, gun-fighting expert Jeff Cooper laid out
a color code system to help warriors gauge their mindset for combat scenarios. Each color represents a person’s potential state of awareness and focus:
For optimal situational awareness, Cooper recommends that we always stay in
Condition Yellow.
Condition Yellow is best described as “relaxed alert.” There’s no
specific threat situation, but you have your head up and you’re taking
in your surroundings with all your senses. Most people associate
situational awareness with just visual stimulation, but you can also
learn a lot about a particular scenario from the sounds (or lack
thereof) and even smells in the environment.
Even though your senses are slightly heightened in Condition Yellow,
it’s also important to stay relaxed. By adopting a calm demeanor, you
won’t bring any unnecessary attention to yourself. If you look antsy and
your head is swiveling frantically while you scan your surroundings,
people are going to notice you. Additionally, staying relaxed ensures
that you maintain an open focus, which allows you to take in more
information about what’s going on around you. Research shows that when
we get nervous or stressed, our attention narrows, causing us to
concentrate on just a few things at a time. A narrow focus can therefore
cause us to miss important details in our environment.
Situational awareness isn’t just for times when your enemy is of the human variety…
Look up from your smartphone, don’t zone out, open your eyes, ears,
and nose, and calmly scan your environment to take in what’s going on.
Besides staying in Condition Yellow, here are a few more tips to improve your observational abilities:
Put yourself in a position for optimal observation.
To achieve effective situational awareness, you need to be able to
observe as much of your surroundings as possible. Positioning yourself
in obstructed spots will inhibit the flow of information coming in. For
example, something might be in your way that prevents you from seeing a
bad guy enter a theater or restaurant. You also don’t have eyeballs in
the back of your head, so you can’t see what’s going on behind you.
So whenever you enter an environment, put yourself in a position that
will allow you to see as much as you can. My buddy Mike Seeklander at
Shooting Performance
recommends finding a place where you can view all or most of the exit
points, and that allows you to put your back to the wall. This position
readies you to make a quick getaway, and eliminates the possibility of
failing to see a threat materialize behind you.
Granted, this isn’t possible in all situations. You don’t have much
control as to which table a restaurant hostess seats you at on a busy
night, and you’d likely get a lot of strange looks if you stood with
your back in a corner while you’re waiting in line at Five Guys. So do
your best within the given circumstances. In that busy restaurant, you
might not have control of your table location, but you can choose which
seat you take. Pick the chair that gives you the best view from your
table. When you’re standing in line at a fast food restaurant, just
nonchalantly look around and take in the scene.
Hone your observation skills by playing the A-Game.
Mike plays a game with his kids called the “A-Game,” or Awareness Game,
to help them (and himself) strengthen their observational skills. To
play, when you go into a business, make note of a few things about your
environment: the number of workers behind the counter, the clothing and
gender of the person sitting next to you, how many entry/exits there
are, etc. When you leave and get into the car to head home, ask your
kids questions like “How many workers were behind the counter?” “Was the
person sitting next to us a man or a woman?” “What color was his/her
shirt?” “How many exits were there?”
It’s fun to play, but more importantly it’s training your kids (and you) to be more mindful of their surroundings.
Master memorization. Another fun activity that will
help improve your situational awareness is to practice memorizing
things. Bourne knew all the license plate numbers of the cars outside
the diner. You can gain this skill by
practicing with a deck of cards, or strings of numbers.
Here’s a guide on how to gain the ability to memorize anything you want.
Orient: Baselines, Goals, and Action Plans
Being more observant isn’t enough to master situational awareness.
You have to know what you’re looking for, and then put that information
into context so it has meaning and becomes actionable. That’s where the
Orient phase comes into play.
The Orient step provides three things to help us achieve situational
awareness: 1) baselines and anomalies for our particular environment, 2)
mental models of human behavior we should look for, and 3) plans of
action depending on our observations.
Establish a Baseline Wherever You Go
Every environment and person has a baseline. A baseline is what’s
“normal” in a given situation, and it will differ from person to person
and environment to environment. For example, the baseline at a small
coffee shop will usually entail people reading a book or working on
their computer or speaking in hushed tones with their friends. The
baseline at a rock concert would be loud music and people looking at the
stage while either jumping up and down to the music or swaying their
bodies to the beat.
We establish baselines so that we can spot anomalies. According to
Patrick Van Horne, situational awareness expert, instructor of the
Marine Combat Profiling system, and author of
Left of Bang,
“Anomalies are things that either do not happen and should, or that do
happen and shouldn’t.” Anomalies are what direct our attention as we
take in our surroundings and what we need to focus on to achieve
situational awareness.
So the first step in orienting ourselves is to establish baselines so
that we can direct our attention to anomalies. How do we do that on the
fly? Van Horne suggests that you mentally ask yourself these questions
every time you enter a new environment:
- Baseline Questions: What’s going on here? What’s
the general mood of the place? What’s the “normal” activity that I
should expect here? How do most people behave here most of the time?
- Anomaly Question: What would cause someone or something to stand out?
Behavioral Clusters to Look For
Our inability to pay attention to everything all at once makes it
impossible to obtain complete situational awareness. The human mind can
only handle so much information at a given time. Thus in the domain of
personal safety, where things unfold quickly and seconds are often the
difference between life and death, how we direct our attention is
paramount.
So we need to focus on a few things at a time that provide the most
bang for our attentional buck. And we do that, Van Horne argues, by
relying on heuristics. Heuristics are quick and dirty problem-solving
and decision-making mental shortcuts our minds use to figure things out
when minimal information is available and time is limited. Decisions
made from heuristics aren’t always perfect, but in the context of your
personal safety, they’re usually good enough.
In
Left of Bang, Van Horne lays out six domains of human
behavior that Marine Combat Profilers use on the battlefield in order to
quickly determine whether someone is a friend or foe. To get an idea of
what civilians should look for in everyday situations, I interviewed
Van Horne for this article. He told me the most important category of
clues is what he calls kinesics, an area of behavior that involves
people’s conscious and subconscious body language.
Within the domain of kinesics, three clusters of body language are of
particular interest for situational awareness. They are:
dominance/submissive behavior, comfortable/uncomfortable behavior, and
interested/uninterested behavior.
Dominance/submissive behavior. Generally, most
people try to get along with others, so for the most part people act in
accommodating and submissive ways. Van Horne writes that dominant
behavior “is an expression of the limbic system’s fight response” and
often manifests itself in “gestures and postures that make a person look
larger to intimidate ‘smaller’ individuals into submission.” Smaller
vs. bigger here doesn’t just apply to physical size, however, but also
relates to relative positions of power.
Because most people get along to get along, dominant behavior often
constitutes an anomaly, and the person displaying it deserves more
attention. If someone acts in a pushy, authoritative, or overbearing
way, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a threat; context matters.
You’d expect a boss to act dominant in relation to their employees and
the employees to act submissive to their boss, but seeing extreme
dominant behavior exhibited by a customer towards an employee isn’t as
common. That’s something to keep an eye on.
Comfortable/uncomfortable behavior. Most people are
going to look relatively comfortable in most situations. Think about a
bus or a subway ride — passengers generally appear pretty relaxed while
they stare out the window or read a book. If someone looks
uncomfortable, that’s an anomaly that warrants extra attention, but it
doesn’t mean they’re necessarily a threat. They could be distressed
because they’re late for work or maybe they just heard some bad news
about a relative. Again, it’s just something to keep your eye on.
Van Horne says that a common display of uncomfortable behavior you’ll
see from individuals up to no good is that they’re “checking their
six.” This is when a person looks over their shoulder to see what’s
behind them or generally scans their surroundings. People who are
comfortable generally don’t do this because they don’t feel any threat.
So if you see a guy looking over his shoulder a lot when he should be
standing there aloof, that’s an anomaly that should get your attention.
Now obviously, “checking your six” is something that situationally
aware good guys do too. If you’re doing it right, it shouldn’t be
noticeable to others, but it takes practice, and some guy with his head
on a swivel might still be green. But until you verify that through
further observation, be suspicious.
On the flipside, someone acting comfortable when everyone else is
uncomfortable would be an anomaly. One of the ways law enforcement was
able to identify the Boston Marathon bombers was that they noticed in
surveillance footage that the men looked relatively calm while everyone
else was running around in a panic. The reason they looked calm was
because they knew the explosion was going to happen and thus weren’t
surprised by it, while everyone else was caught off guard.
Interested/uninterested behavior. Most people aren’t
paying attention to their environment. They’re too caught up in their
own thoughts or whatever it is they’re doing. So individuals who are
showing interest in a particular person or object that most people
wouldn’t be interested in is an anomaly that warrants further
observation.
These three body language clusters establish baselines for every
situation in which we find ourselves and allow us to direct our limited
attention towards things that are potentially more important and/or
dangerous. If a person’s behavior across these clusters fits the
baseline for that particular circumstance, you can pretty much ignore
them. If their behavior doesn’t fit the baseline, they’re an anomaly and
you should observe them more closely.
Other Behavioral Threat Indicators
Besides the above three kinesic clusters, Marine Combat Profilers are
taught to look out for a couple other behaviors that could apply to
civilian situations as well:
Shifty hands. Military and law enforcement officers
typically check the hands first on any person with which they’re
engaging. This is for two reasons. First, “checking the hands of a
person ensures that the person is not holding a weapon and is not
preparing to strike,” writes Van Horne. Second, hands often telegraph
hidden nefarious intentions. People who are concealing something they
don’t want discovered, like a gun, knife, or stolen object, “will often
touch or pat that area on the body where that object is concealed, as if
to ensure the object has not been lost or is still hidden from view.”
“Acting Natural.” It’s difficult to “act natural”
when you’re not completely focused on whatever it is you’re really
supposed to be doing. People “acting natural” will appear distracted and
over- or under-exaggerate their movements. Insurgents in Afghanistan
will often try to act like farmers, when they’re in fact attempting to
collect information on U.S. military patrols. Marine Combat Profilers
are trained to look for these “farmers” who appear to be trying too
hard.
Have a Plan of Action Based on What You Observe
You visit your favorite coffee shop and a bad guy with a gun decides
to drop in as well. But because you’ve followed the principles above,
you’re the first to see him as a threat. Great. But what are you going
to do about it? Seconds matter here. You don’t have time to formulate a
well-thought-out plan. What’s more, the stress of the event will muddle
your thinking and decision-making.
In addition to asking yourself the baseline and anomaly questions
every time you enter an environment, Van Horne suggests you ask yourself
a third question: “What would I do if I saw an anomaly?” In other
words, come up with an action plan.
So let’s go back to the coffee shop example. Let’s say the anomaly
for which you want to create an action plan is “guy comes in with a
gun.” The best course of action in this scenario depends on a few
things. And knowing what those few things are requires you to be
situationally aware. If the robber came in from the front door and
you’re near the rear exit, your best action would be to book it out the
back door right away. On the other hand, if he entered through the back
exit near you, according to the Department of Homeland Security, your
best action would be to immediately close the gap between him and you
and incapacitate him.
Establish baselines. Look for anomalies. Have a plan.
That’s what situational awareness comes down to.
Situational Awareness as a Preventive Tactic
Animals are creatures of opportunity. They’ll typically only attack
another creature if they look vulnerable. Lions will go after younger,
sicker, or older gazelles because they’re easier to catch. The same goes
with humans. Criminals are typically going to go after a person who
looks vulnerable, whether the victim is physically weaker or will simply
be easy to catch off guard.
Practicing situational awareness goes a long way in keeping you from
appearing like an easy target. When you’re out and about, look alert.
Get your nose out of your smartphone. When you’re walking back to your
car at night, have your keys at the ready and constantly scan your
surroundings. The less vulnerable you look, the less likely someone is
going to mess with you.
Here’s another tip on not looking like a victim, from the guys at
Sage Dynamics: Always
keep a tactical flashlight on you
and bust it out at nighttime. Having a light allows you to better
observe in the darkness, but it can also act as a deterrent to would-be
bad guys. Because law enforcement officers are usually the only ones
shining flashlights down alleys and under cars, if you’re shining your
light as you walk to your destination or back to your car, the bad guys
are probably going to think you’re a cop and will likely just leave you
alone. If worst comes to worst and you do end up getting jumped, you can
use the tactical flashlight as a defensive tool by blinding your
would-be attacker with the bright beam or even hitting him with the
beveled edge that’s often built into the handle.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Situational awareness is a mindset that you have to purposefully
cultivate. You want to get to the point that it’s just something you do
without having to think about it. To get to that point, you have to
practice it regularly. Starting today, consciously remind yourself to
look for entry/exit points whenever you enter a new building. Start
observing people and establishing baselines and generating possible
anomalies while you’re at work, at the gym, or on a date. And then start
coming up with action plans on what you would do in that specific
situation if you see a possible threat. Don’t be paranoid, just mindful.
Do that day in and day out, and situational awareness won’t be
something you have to intentionally think about, just something you do
naturally. And not fake farmer natural, but Jason Bourne natural.
Until next time, keep your head on a swivel, check your six, and keep your back to the wall.
Oh, and stay manly!
__________________________
Further Reading and Resources on Situational Awareness
Left of Bang
by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley. Patrick has spent his career
researching and teaching situational awareness to Marines through the
Marine Combat Profiling system that he helped create. This book, coupled
with the articles at his site
cp-journal.com and a personal interview with him went a long way in helping answer my questions.
www.cp-journal.com. This is Patrick’s company website. He has
tons of
free content that provides insanely useful information on developing
your situational awareness. If you’re looking for something more
structured, he also offers online courses.
“Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness”
by Dr. Mica Endsley. Dr. Mica Endsley is the Chief Scientist at the
U.S. Air Force. While Dr. Endsley’s paper is pretty technical, she does a
fantastic job explaining the minutia and nuances of situational
awareness that helped clarify a few things for me. I highly recommend
you check it out.
Streetlights and Shadows: Searching for the Keys to Adaptive Decision Making by Gary Klein
The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker
