The term situation awareness is commonly used in the wildland fire environment
However, while it's use is commonplace
Understanding what situation awareness means
and how to develop it remain a subject of much debate
Oversimplified explanations of tragic events such as fatalities being caused by a loss of situation awareness
have further complicated things. In this module. We'll learn how
Observation and sense making come together to help us build situation awareness
When we look at the various definitions of situational awareness they have they have certain elements in common the first element is
Observation the way that we take in information from the world around us either through our own
Observations our own senses by communicating with others is an important aspect of that
But then we have to do something with those observations, and that's the process of
sense making
The idea of sense making is is is putting those observations?
recognizing the unique context and trying to figure out what they mean for you and
anticipating what they'll mean for your near future
Using that information to inform your decisions and your actions those perceptions both your own and those around you are
Important to that sense making peace decisions and actions are often very similar
And they're they're impacted by more than just our observations in our sense making
But they are the ultimate expression of what we're trying to accomplish here
To build your awareness of a given situation you certainly start with observation with
Observations we utilize all of our senses we notice wind shifts by the feel on the back of our neck or we see a change
In a smoke home those observations are important if you come around the corner of your division
And you look up and you say to yourself wow I didn't expect that
That's a moment of an adjustment to your situation awareness or something just caught your attention
That you didn't expect if the change that takes place say a wind shift change in direction of a flaming front
Takes place behind a Ridgeline where you can't see it your observations are limited
You're not in a great place to observe that change
Which is why we utilize the the concept of lookouts
So that we can communicate with that individual that's in a different perspective in a different place and gather that information through
communication with that individual
When you begin to actively observe your environment, it's like turning on a flashlight with a broad beam
You're taking in a lot of information but none of its in real fine detail
but when something grabs your attention you focus in on that thing when that happens all the
Events going on around us continue
But we aren't actively observing them our goal with situational awareness is to train ourselves that when something grabs our attention
It is important that we do focus on that
But we can't stay focused on that if we stay focused
Then that becomes an attention trap the idea of take five and two is just to take a pause
To zoom out and question what our perceptions of our current environment are light?
We could be head down dig inline
Or observing a smoke over there and not paying attention to the hoesley we put in an hour ago ask each other
Hey, what have you been seeing that I'm not?
It's intended to get us to take a pause and look at the world around us
Now let's practice our powers of observation as we watch the following scenario. Can you figure out who murdered Lord Smythe?
Clearly somebody in this room murdered Lord Smythe who at precisely 3:30 4:00 this afternoon
was brutally
Bludgeoned to death with a blunt instrument. I want each of you to tell me your whereabouts
at precisely
the time that this dastardly deed took place
Was polishing the brass in the master bedroom, I was buttering his Lordships
Goes below stairs, so what I was planting my petunias in the potting shed
constable arrest
Lady Smythe
How did you know madam has any horticulturist? We'll tell you one does not plant petunias until May is out take her away
It's just a matter of observation
The real question is how observant were you?
The next component of situation awareness was making sense of those observations the idea of sense making of putting meaning to our
experiences in the context of the situation that we're in and that's based on our
Experience our training what we've seen before what we've done before, but it's not limited to that
Looking for how our current situation is different than our previous experiences is incredibly important our own
experience while it informs our decision can also be an attention trap in and of itself as
We observe our surroundings
And as we make sense of them we form perceptions and that perception of our environment is unique
And it's subjective somebody's standing right next to you looking at seemingly the same things could come up with a very different perception
of situation awareness
Now let's see how looking at a situation from a different perspective might help you understand that situation a little bit better
Clearly somebody in this room murdered Lord Smythe who at precisely 3:30 4:00 this afternoon
was brutally
Bludgeoned to death with a blunt instrument. I want each of you to tell me your whereabouts
And precisely the time that this dastardly deed took place
I was polishing the brass in the master bedroom
I was buttering his Lordships scones below stairs
I was planting my petunias in the potting shed
constable arrest
Lady Smythe
Changing your perspective or talking to someone with a different perspective is a powerful tool to help you make sense of a situation
Colonel Boyd coined the term OODA observe orient decide enact and really it was his method of describing
situational awareness
But we have to understand that the the OODA loop was was designed was Boyd's
Concept was all about one pilot in a cockpit of a fighter aircraft
Fighting pitting himself against another single pilot in an enemy aircraft and for him
Observe orient decide enact observe the connection to observation and situation awareness
Orientation is how he described since making decision in action for Boyd
it was all about who could move through the OODA loop the fastest and
If you were faster than your opponent you lived and they didn't for us
We have to recognize that situation awareness and going through the OODA loop is different
It's not individual, and we aren't pitting ourselves against the conscious thinking enemy like Boyd was
We're in an environment a social environment where we're often not alone in fact
We really need to be part of that community to really be able to operate safely and successfully
It's by communicating amongst each other by
Confirming and denying what we're seeing making sense of our observations that we can truly make
Decisions that lead to our accomplishing objectives and getting home safely at the end of the day
So we can use the OODA loop to describe what we're doing we do have to understand its limitations
Using the loss of situational awareness was a common way of
Explaining a really complex event kind of in the old view of looking at safety in accidents. Well. We understand today is that?
simplifications like loss of situational awareness or human error really don't get to
What that person that was operating in a complex environment saw and understood of what was going on around them?
And how they made decisions in the moment loss of situational awareness is really dependent upon hindsight
Hindsight bias that were you know information you know outcome that that the person in that
Operation in that moment could never have known
If they knew that things were going to go bad that someone was going to get hurt or killed and they knew what?
information would be
Important like you do in hindsight. They would have made different decisions and and perform different actions
Everyone plays a part in this
Even when your job is to be head down taking fireline you also need to remember to pick your head up
Observe what is going on around you and when you notice a change
speak up about it by coming together and critically thinking about our observations and
Collectively making sense of them we can better understand our situation
anticipate what might happen
Mentally simulate options and carry out those most likely to lead to safe mission accomplishment
How can you and your crew better observe your environment?
How can you participate in the sense making process? How can you be ready to adapt your plan?
Remember the next time you walk onto the fire line that your situational awareness will never be perfect, but it can always be better