The Unseen Signals: Building Enduring Organizations Through Situational and Self Awareness
Situational and self awareness make us better leaders, allowing us to harness more of our external and internal resources.
On a beautiful summer afternoon, when my daughters were young, long before they discovered I wasn’t cool enough to hang out with them, I decided that we should explore an exciting outdoor adventure together.
After a careful review of a long line of exciting options, the choice was obvious: we were going birdwatching.
Much to my surprise, they agreed to come along for the experiment. We bought a picture book of birds, two pairs of binoculars, and visited Great Falls, a park not far from our home in Maryland.
Something curious happened along the way.
When we saw an interesting bird, we quickly flipped through the book to find it. However, by the time we found something similar in the book, the bird was gone. The better strategy, we discovered through trial and error, was to leave the book in the car.
On our next excursion, when we saw a bird, we would just take its mental snapshot. Later, when we got back to the car, we would flip through the book to find the bird.
To our surprise, all the details we needed were still fresh in our minds. In most cases, we were able to find the bird we had seen and learn all about it from the book.
Our takeaway? Being present without trying to analyze what we were looking at improved our observational capacity. This, in turn, sharpened our ability to be aware of our surroundings. In the end, our trips were far more enjoyable. We got closer to nature and created some wonderful memories.
Cultivating Situational Awareness: The Path to Deeper Understanding
I was reminded of this story in a recent conversation with Fabiana Lacerca-Allen, the author of Crisis Capable and a Fortune 100 C-level executive.
Fabiana brings a deeply experiential perspective to the idea of situational awareness. She grew up during the times of a military dictatorship in Argentina, where her family navigated through some harrowing experiences. She had no choice but to draw on her resources: being aware of her surroundings, her instincts, and her intuition.
Apart from being tuned into our surroundings, a concept called situational awareness, she emphasizes that trusting our gut feelings is essential for survival and decision-making, especially when information is limited.
"If you feel something's off, it's off." ~ Fabiana Lacerca-Allen
Our society often teaches us to override our inherent observational skills and deep awareness of our surroundings.
But, as Fabiana points out, "If you feel something's off, it's off."
This simple truth is a critical foundation for navigating complexities, whether in life or in the workplace. The world around us is as hostile today as it was during a military dictatorship, just a different type of hostility.
Whether we are guiding a team, leading an organization or building a business, learning to trust our instincts is a powerful path to building high-performing teams that can stand the test of time.
Self-Awareness, Inclusion and Belonging: What’s the Connection?
While situational awareness is an awareness of what’s around us, self-awareness is an awareness of what’s going on inside us. It’s the same awareness that allows us to be attuned to our surroundings, but it is directed inwards.
Simply put, self-awareness is the awareness of our thoughts, feelings, emotions and sensations. While it may be a bit challenging to some of us in the beginning, when we develop the ability to be self-aware, we notice our patterns of thoughts, emotions, behaviors, judgments and beliefs.
“Inclusion is a feeling.” ~ Joanne Lockwood
Self-awareness can make us better leaders, builders and managers because it allows us to see our blind spots. With increased self-awareness, we can bring into our teams and organizations people from different perspectives and abilities.
With skilled and insightful management, we can harness the capacity, creativity, and contributions of people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. In the end, self-awareness allows us to build more efficient, better-performing, and highly resilient organizations.
No one I know is more qualified to talk about this than Joanne Lockwood, the visionary behind See Change Happen and a leading inclusive culture expert.
In a recent conversation I had with Joanne on The Business Philosopher Within You podcast, she made an important distinction between inclusion and belonging. For Joanne, inclusion is a feeling – how one is treated dictates how they feel, leading to a sense of ease and acceptance without needing to prove oneself.
Belonging, however, runs deeper. It's about being completely accepted and celebrated for all of who you are, based on shared values and culture.
Understanding Crisis & Intuition: Insights from Fabiana Lacerca-Allen
In our continuous exploration of building resilient, people-first organizations, we dive deep into the concept of situational awareness with Fabiana Lacerca-Allen, author of Crisis Capable.
She reveals how early life lessons instilled in her a profound understanding of trusting one's gut feelings – a skill she emphasizes is vital for leaders navigating today's complex corporate environments.
Learn why society often conditions us to ignore these crucial signals and how Fabiana's path to becoming a C-level executive at Fortune 100 companies was profoundly influenced by her ability to discern unseen patterns and intentions.
This conversation will challenge your perceptions of safety and provide actionable insights into cultivating your own instincts for better decision-making and organizational strength.
Watch the full conversation with Fabiana Lacerca-Allen below:
The Truth About DEI & Belonging: A Conversation with Joanne Lockwood
In this conversation, we dive into the critical yet often misunderstood landscape of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) with Joanne Lockwood, the visionary behind See Change Happen.
Joanne, a leading expert in inclusive cultures, unpacks the powerful distinction between inclusion and true belonging, offering a definition rooted in feeling celebrated for your whole self, not just the parts others tolerate.
This conversation reveals why the DEI label has become "toxic" in some circles and how superficial initiatives can miss the mark.
Joanne shares insights from her own transformative journey and professional expertise, highlighting the courage and deep commitment required from leadership to embed genuine empathy and belonging into an organization's core culture.
Discover how focusing on this profound level of human experience leads to greater performance, wider talent pools, and sustained relevance in the marketplace.
Watch the full conversation with Joanne Lockwood below: