360-Degree Situational Awareness Mindset
What is situational awareness? It is the conscious and subconscious mindset of knowing what’s happening around you. “Around” implies 360 degrees – more than just what’s in front of you. What you need is 360-degree situational awareness.
How many people do you observe daily who are ‘tuned out’ as they walk?
Maybe they’re looking only in one direction—typically down towards their feet or the path in front of them or into their “smart device.”
Situational awareness is a mindset—a frame of mind—awareness. It is a learned and eventually habitual behavior of observing one’s surroundings, including one’s senses (sight, hearing, etc.).
It involves mental conditioning that might be considered ‘forced paranoia’ at first, but eventually becomes natural and almost subconscious.
We don’t have eyes behind our heads, but we do have pretty good peripheral vision. Peripheral vision is a part of vision that occurs outside the very center of gaze and is good at detecting motion, 120 degrees or thereabouts.
A problem (with situational awareness) is that our world is spherical — left, right, up, down, and all around. To achieve the highest level of awareness, you must have a mindset of 360 degrees.
A ‘360-degree mindset’ is one in which we monitor what’s happening around us—the entire environment. We see, hear, smell, and “sense.”
How do we successfully utilize our senses to accomplish effective situational awareness?
First, WE MUST NOT BE TUNED OUT. Which begs the question,
“Why do so many people stare into their ‘smart phones’ all the time?”
Here’s what you need to do. Train yourself (force yourself) to be 360-aware. The next time you go out in public, could you do it?
Let’s say you’re off to the grocery store. As you step out of your home, take a moment to observe your surroundings. The same goes for the grocery store parking lot. What’s happening around you as you walk to the store? It’s a simple practice, one that’s often overlooked, but you can easily adopt it.
At first, purposely observing what others are doing around you may seem odd. After a while, however, it should become natural as your subconscious begins to take over the task.
On a related note, there’s a “color code” of situational awareness that may help:
[ Read: Cooper Color Code For Readiness ]
Condition White (unaware and unprepared)
Condition Yellow (relaxed alert)
Condition Orange (specific alert)
Condition Red (fight)
You should always be in condition yellow when out and about…
Another example: while in your vehicle and having reached your destination, before you get out, take a few brief seconds to have a quick look around.
Give yourself a specific drill – Look at people’s hands. Look at their eyes. Read their body language. It should take a micro-moment to categorize most people as potential “friend or foe”.
Next time you’re out in public, observe how few people look like they even know what’s happening in front of them, let alone around them!
Observe how many people walk with their heads tilted downward towards the walkway in front of them, their thoughts tuned out of their surroundings and environment. Observe how many have their heads tilted down in their electronic gadgets as they walk. It is pretty impressive. Don’t be them!