Originally published by Bruce Kasanoff on LinkedIn: Do You Have Situational Awareness?
One of the cardinal rules of physics is that a chairlift strong enough to carry 500 skiers up a mountain will not stop if three people get in its way.
Actually, that's not a rule of physics but it is a good thing to know. Yesterday three of us slid up to the loading spot for a chairlift and as the chair spun around to load us, my son noticed that the safety bar was down. That made it impossible to load, and the chair would have kept going until we were knocked out of the way... or the attendant halted the lift.
None of us were hurt because my son was paying attention and he reached back and flipped the bar up. I sat down without even realizing what happened. He had situational awareness; I did not.
This term is often used in the context of safety, but it also has relevance in terms of your career. You probably can think of a colleague who was so focused on one narrow view of her job that she was completely unaware that her job was being phased out.
Here's my own admittedly unscientific guide to career situational awareness:
First, recognize that threats exist. This does not mean that the world is evil and you need to be paranoid. But your employer may not always need someone like you. Your new boss may prefer to bring in someone he knows better; your best skill may become less valuable as technology advances.
Never be complacent.
Next, watch for impactful patterns. Is your compensation - or your productivity - going down? Does your phone ring less often? Are other employees overtly positioning themselves to steal your responsibilities?
You also want to look for patterns that impact a larger area than just you or your job. For example, perhaps your entire company is becoming less competitive.
Not every pattern has negative outcomes. You can use the same skill to spot potential customers, better jobs, and opportunities that could enhance your entire life.
Finally, pay attention! It's one thing to theoretically look for patterns. It's quite another to be fully aware in your day-to-day activities.
Every time you stare at your phone or try to multitask, you utterly lose any ability to be aware.
You live in a complicated, ever-changing, potentially dangerous world. Nothing will keep you safer than a highly developed ability to be situationally aware.
One last point: thinking you're safe is the most dangerous mindset of all. Remember my chairlift example? I've loaded thousands of times onto a chairlift and never once has the safety bar been down before I loaded. Being aware means paying attention to small details that never before have caused you harm or otherwise threatened your safety.