Situational Awareness is a term originaly coined following the Korean War in 1953 to describe the ability of American figher pilots to understand the enemy and emerge triumphant in aerial dogfights.

It is a term commonly used in the military, aircraft control, emergency response, search and rescue and other situations that are highly complex,involve high levels of risk and have life and death consequences.

Wayne,  my companion, is a search and rescue guy here in Whistler and he uses the term Situational Awareness frequently – not only to assess and minimize risk and develop protocols for his work but for all of us to use when we are in any high risk situation in the back country.

A search and rescue missions near Whistler BC.

 

We know that we need to have a mindset of Situational Awareness whether we are in avalanche terrain,  scouting a class III rapid or watching the changing weather patterns on a sea kayaking trip.  Understanding the entire environment is critical  to survival.

Avalanche near Blackcomb Mountain, BC

 

Snake River, Yukon Territory
Brooks Penninsula, BC

Since Situational Awareness is highly effective for these complex situations that matter –  I knew that we could translate this type of high level thinking to our real estate practices with incredible outcomes.

If we want near perfect performance for highly effective results, why not train ourselves to be  Situationally Aware in much the same way as fighter pilots,  emergency responders and other rescue personal?

So what does this mean?

Situational Awareness means understanding what is going on around you.

We can break it down into four simple steps:

1.  Get the right information.  Get all that is needed, make sure it is accurate and don’t get more than you need

2.  Be able to analyze it.  Have the required skills to analyze it accurately

3.  Make projections based on the analysis.

4.  Use this information to take the appropriate action

Sounds simple?  It many ways it is about making complicated things simple by eliminating much of the unnecessary clutter.  It involves being fully present,  not being distracted by things that don’t matter and using the knowledge and skills that you have in their purest form.

On the flip side,  criminals rely on their victims lack of situational awareness to take advantage of them.

Enough said.