Situational Awareness Training

Situational Awareness Is Essential In Everyday Life

Many people think that situational awareness is just for the military or law enforcement. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Situational awareness training is something that everyone should practice to stay safe. The world is full of dangers, accidents can happen, natural disasters may strike and criminals are always on the lookout for easy marks. A simple milk run can result in a car accident or mugging.

Situational Awareness Is NOT Just About Observation

The term situational awareness can be misleading. It is not only about awareness of your surroundings. But also about the ability to escalate from scanning for potential threats. To identifying a threat and lastly to acting or reacting to said threat. 

A simple example would be:

You notice a car with 2 suspicious-looking men parked in your neighbor’s driveway. There is a identified a potential threat. You pick up your phone and observe the men. They get out of the car holding a crowbar and proceed to pry your neighbor’s door open. The threat has materialized. You call the police. You have reacted.

How To Improve Situational Awareness

Be In The Moment

Be aware of your surroundings using your sense of, sight, sound, and smell. Actively observe your surroundings and any changes to them.

Now that you are in the moment, you have established a baseline of the environment and know the vibe of the area you are in. Any odd behavior or changes will be noted. 

Do NOT Be Distracted By Electronics

Don’t mute your senses with electronics. Using headphones to listen to music or audiobooks, texting while walking, or playing games on electronic devices. These will all distract you from your surroundings.

Observe The People Around You

Observe the people in your vicinity, in as discrete a way as possible. Use mirrors, windows, or any reflective surface to your advantage.

Even sunglasses on a tabletop can be strategically angled to cover a blind spot.

Take note of anyone suspicious. Nonverbal cues are often a good way to judge a person’s intent.

Look For Exits

Note down all exits, be aware that exits are not limited to doors, anyway out of a building can be an exit. Eg: windows, balconies (if not too high), etc.

Trust Your Instincts

No matter how observant you consciously attempt to be, some part of you may have noticed something that didn’t consciously register. So trust your instincts. If you have a gut feeling that something is off, then act on it. Get out of there. 

Situational Awareness Training

The improvement of your situational awareness will take time, it is a soft skill that needs to be practiced. People tend to be lax in familiar surroundings. Which makes it the perfect place to practice and improve situational awareness.

A Café Or Restaurant Exercise:

Basic Situational Awareness Training In A Café.

Environmental Surroundings

Try to notice as much as you can about your surroundings. Any people sitting in parked cars outside the café. How many people are there? What is the mood in the café? How many entrances and exits to the building you have just entered? Are there any security cameras, where and how many?

Vantage Point

Try to choose a vantage point that allows you to observe as much as possible while leaving you with no blindsides. Never sit with your back to a door or window. This includes service doors.

Count People

 How many people are there, how many adults, children, males, and females? Which ones could be potential threats?

What People Have On Them

How many people have bags with them? Do any of them seem to have unusual bulges on their bodies possibly from a concealed weapon? Check the obvious places first, waist

Out of Place

Keep an eye out for anything that looks out of place, a bag under a table with no people sitting there. A person sitting with a jacket covering their hand.

Situational Awareness Games For Training

Spot The Difference

A great way to increase your situational awareness is to take a quick photo. Then when you get home, write down everything you noticed. When you are done, take out your phone and have a look at the photo. Compare it to what you wrote down.

Witness Training

Take a photo of a random person. When you get home, write down as detailed a description of the person as you can. Height, weight, age, distinguishing features, clothes, shoes, etc.

Compare it to the photo you took. Note down the things you got wrong and what you missed. So that next time you can improve on those details.

This can also be done with vehicles and as you improve, try increasing the number of people.

People Behavior

Go to a park or shopping mall and watch people. Try to guess what the person is doing there. In the park, are they waiting for someone? In the mall are they shopping, killing time, working, etc.

Draw A Map

Draw a map of where you have been, and how you got there. How many left turns, how many right turns. What landmarks have you passed.

This can be done in a mall or even a grocery store. If in a large grocery store like Target or Walmart, just draw out what items are in each aisle. How many cashiers were working? How many were male and how many were female?

This will improve your powers of observation.

Observation Without Action Is Dangerous

Situational awareness is not only about noticing a potential danger, but also about taking the appropriate action when the danger has been detected.

Being in a constant state of yellow. And not being able to escalate the mindset to orange and after that red, is just as dangerous as being in a constant state of white.

Once you have detected the threat, escalate to orange, and time to plan a course of action. There may not be a need to take action. But the plan is there.

If the situation warrants the red status, then there is a plan and action needs to be taken. It is time for fight or flight.

Grammarly done