By Mike Friesen

Situational Awareness

A competitive edge for any pilot is situational awareness (SA). In order to make better decisions, the pilot builds and maintains a mental picture of the environment in and around the airplane. Whether it is moving the aircraft to or from parking to the runway, flying with visual reference to the ground or flying by instruments, pilot SA increases the safety and efficiency of a given flight. The better the SA, the better the flight will likely be. On the ground, the environment is relatively small similar to a driver’s awareness in a car. Once airborne, the SA picture expands or contracts depending on the phase of flight.

When it comes to flying fighters, SA is an indispensable quality for the pilot. In order to make better decisions, the successful fighter pilot will continually build and update a mental picture of as many aircraft as possible and airspace parameters in the immediate area. This area should be many miles in radius. Where are the other members of my flight (group)? Where are other friendly forces? Where are the bad guys? Where are we in relation to any airspace borders? Where are we in relation to ground borders with other countries? The questions go on.

One time as an F-4 pilot training with C-130s in the southern United States, SA of the border position became crucial. Because we were so near the border, we were careful where we maneuvered to remain in U.S. airspace. Our C-130 friends were also aware of the border and sought to use it to their advantage by hugging the line to prevent us attacking from the south. Their strategy worked part of the time.

In order to have high SA, the pilots in a flight (group of airplanes in some type of formation) must communicate verbally and non-verbally as appropriate. The flight must also have good contact with outside agencies which could include other aircraft and any type of controlling agency such as air traffic control, weapons controllers (radar controllers especially trained to direct aircraft to engage targets). One tactic to reduce SA in an enemy flight is to jam their communications by putting odd sounds on the frequency. Because the enemy flight can no longer communicate verbally, this lowers their SA and raises the probability of a successful conclusion for us. The converse can be true also.

Lack of SA can become dangerous. In peacetime, a fighter pilot who is engaged with another airplane to the exclusion of all others may inadvertently set up for a mid-air. In wartime, this same scenario could result in a pilot shot down due to unawareness of an unseen enemy in the area. In the military world, weapons controllers greatly contribute to the fighter pilots SA by using ground-based and airborne radar and calling this information to the appropriate flight members. Ultimately, SA is about mental awareness and all-way communication.

Organizational Situational Awareness

Situational awareness applies in the organizational world on several levels as well. Each level contributes to greater and greater overall awareness. This in turn impacts the quality of leadership decisions. Leadership SA is about four main areas.

• Personal mindsets regarding people and concepts
• Organizational mindsets at all levels regarding people and concepts
• Work environment awareness in terms of creativity, satisfaction, etc. 
• Formal and informal communication flow in all directions

Personal Mindset Awareness

The leader who will accept personal responsibility for growth will start by searching for and examining personal mental models. This is a lifetime project but well worth the effort for growth, understanding, and wisdom. The adventure of learning will only happen with this philosophy. The challenge is to uncover invisible paradigms and the way to approach this is to diagnose personal behavior by asking “why” questions. Why did I respond to that conversation that way? Why did I have trouble receiving feedback? What troubles me about input from another person? In what areas am I absolutely persuaded of my opinion? How much allowance should there be for error? Greater personal awareness propels the growing leader to better awareness in other areas.

Organizational Mindset Awareness

Just as individuals possess paradigms, so do groups, teams, departments, and entire organizations. This is the larger-than-life backdrop where the leader must do the best work because mental maps control human behavior regardless of the level. The questions that lead to discovery in the team and organizational awareness are quite similar to inquiries on the personal level. Start the sentence with “why” to discover a number of things. Sometimes, the findings are unpleasant but necessary all the same.

Work Environment Awareness

This area is so dynamic and yet the committed leader must be in tune as much as possible. Searching and clarifying organizational mindsets naturally lead to greater work environmental awareness by the leader. What is morale like? What is it like on different topics? Who is the “jerk” boss? What departments have lower than average turnover? Who are the quietly, rising stars?

Communication Awareness

In every organization, there are the formal and informal communication networks. An effective leader needs to be aware of both. The formal is easier than the informal because the positional leader will have more control over this system. Effective communication must be multi-faceted. A sharp leader will feed both the formal and informal systems as needed to serve principled ends. It is important to emphasize principled ends as many an unethical or corrupt boss has misused these channels. The crucial measure is whether or not the method is for the long-term good of the organization versus self-serving for the individual superior or senior team.

Perhaps one of the most challenging components of communication for many is listening. This is active listening that seeks to assign as much accurate meaning as possible to the dynamic, whole message. How are the words relating to subtle visual cues? Does the sender’s body language seem to emphasize, agree or disagree with the words?

In order to have high awareness of organizational paradigms and the work environment, the would-be leader must be constantly engaged in the high-stakes game of communication.

E-mail contact: LSInfo@LeadingStrategies.net

Copyright © 2008 Mike Friesen. All rights reserved.