Situational Awareness and Agility

Situtanial Awareness is a core capability of an antifragile company. Situational awareness is the perception of environmental elements and events with respect to time or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of future status.

I think everyone agrees that in this world full of rapid changes, we need to be very aware of our situation and environmental changes and make fast decisions and act based on this awareness. It’s cool, but what happened in the real world?

Perceptual bias(We are biased against or for something based on our sensory inputs. Perceptual bias is the lens we automatically filter all of our experiences. It makes some things seem more noteworthy than others. It guides our reactions and thoughts about what we experience, see, or feel.) and Inattentional blindness (When we focus closely on one thing or concern, we often fail to see other things in plain sight) are significant obstacles to comprehensive Situational awareness. They filter our sensemaking, and we will remain with an incomplete and inadequate consciousness. On the other hand, we will think that our consciousness is more correct than all other perceptions.

In companies, we have different layers or teams with different concerns and perceptions. If you ask them, “What is the next most important thing to do?” You will hear different answers that all of them are right based on their awareness.

The tech team thinks we should focus on the resiliency of the application; Senior managers think we should enter a new market, Sale guys think we should add some new features to reach new customers,… At the same time, they have great awareness of their domain of concerns, but they have Perceptual bias and Inattentional blindness too.

Situational awareness should be coherent. To have a coherent Situational awareness, you need inhomogeneity and diversity when making decisions about the next priorities.

Don’t hesitate to share your idea with me about the change process.

Regards

Asad Safari