See the invisible

Situational Awareness is yours to discover.

There is TREMENDOUS opportunity missed by individuals who "just do the work".

This holds especially true when embarking on large organizational changes - think scaling, transformations (of any kind), or significant product/service pivots.

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If you look past the immediate work, you will be at a distinct advantage. This doesn't mean you ignore the work in front of you...rather you're looking at the entire environment around you. This is situational awareness. Situational awareness is the ability to perceive, understand, and anticipate what is happening in the environment around you. You have a clear understanding of your surroundings, including the people, the elements, events at hand and how they are interacting with each other in that period.

You learn to SEE THE INVISIBLE.

Situational awareness isn’t new. It can be traced back to early military theories, including The Art of War by Sun Tzu where he talks about the terrain, understanding positioning, strategies and decision-making when at war. Accounts of situational awareness appear in WW1 where pilots and flight crews have to make split-second decisions and pivots based on emergencies of war.

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Eventually, a theoretical model was created by Dr. Mica Endsley and has three levels/constructs:

1. Perception: The ability to sense and perceive what is happening

2. Comprehension: The ability to understand the significance of what is happening

3. Projection: The ability to anticipate what is likely to happen

This model can serve as a foundation to ground yourself on learning and advancing your situational awareness abilities. These levels are not meant to be serial but rather all parts of the construct to know, understand, and connect so that you can best deal with situations. While situational awareness stems from the military for emergencies, it is a critical skill to be used consistently.

You need to be aware of multiple factors (and determine how to use the information that comes from your discovery work):

1. Stakeholder management:

   1. Who is your customer?

   2. Who are your key decision-makers?

   3. Who are the key executives and influencers?

   4. Who has control over the money?

   5. Who are the supporters of the work you're delivering?

   6. Who are the detractors?

   7. Who do you need to stay in contact with regularly?

      

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2. Team management and accountabilities. The team(s) you're working with and their expectations of you, the work you are to deliver and nuances that may come along with it (e.g. - historical baggage). Also any other teams you will be regularly working with through the course of your engagement.

3. The working environment, norms and behaviours.

   1. What's their culture/style of working? Slow, conservative and more traditional, a high-action tech firm moving at a frenetic pace of organized chaos or something else?

   2. Are people empowered? Is it command and control?

   3. Decentralized and fully remote? Centralized?

   4. Modern tech adoption? Age-old dinosaur tech?

4. Priorities - this includes your engagement deliverables/services AS WELL AS the priorities of the company. The reason you need to pay attention to the priorities at a greater level are for two key reasons:

   1. If your work is top priority then it provides clear runway to get shit done. If you've ever been part of an initiative that is a strategic imperative and one thats not...its VERY CLEAR work can get done when people want it to happen.

   2. Priorities change. If you're aware of them you can potentially pivot your engagement as needed (or expand it) to continue providing value.

5. Risks, issues and roadblocks that will hinder or prevent you from successfully delivering value to your customer (aka your MISSION + WINNING!)

6. External factors - partners, markets, CUSTOMERS!

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With all of this intelligence at your disposal, several distinct advantages will come from situational awareness:

1. To see potential opportunities and deliver more value for the customer

2. Better decision-making across the board

3. To predict risks and issues

4. Prevent roadblocks

5. React rationally when troubles arise or during changing circumstances

6. Clarity from the chaos and simplify how the organization works

7. Be a trusted advisor and confidant because of your experience + wisdom

8. Influence stakeholders and teams

9. Lead with greater confidence

10. Generate MORE business

Situational awareness is best developed by DOING THE WORK. It involves actively paying attention to your surroundings, listening intently, asking smart questions, gisting information, quickly processing those details and making decisions. Clear examples of where this exists include - gathering market intelligence, setting expectations, delivering on project deliverables, taking products to market, executive advisory, production support, product ops and any transformation at work.

Go and SEE THE INVISIBLE.

Let me know what you discover.

Thanks for reading.

- Adam Thackeray