A Five-Step Process for Everyday Situational Awareness

Most safety training hands people a poster and hopes they'll be ready when something happens. Retired Air Force colonel Brian Searcy says that has not stopped the problems it targets. He points to human trafficking, which he said grew from half a billion dollars eight years ago and is on track to exceed $20 billion, while those posters stayed on restroom walls. The Paratus Group, which he founded, teaches a process everyday people can practice until it becomes a habit.

In this episode of the Web Talk Show, I talked with Brian Searcy, founder of The Paratus Group. Brian spent 23 years in the Air Force, flew AWACS and JSTARS, and commanded at the squadron, group, and wing level before he retired in 2010. After about 18 months with a defense contractor, he left to build his own work. He started in active shooter training for schools and churches, then realized an active shooter is only one of many threats communities face, including bullying, suicide, human trafficking, and sexual assault.

He and his partner, retired Army Special Forces colonel Tom Leach, took a military decision process called the OODA loop and turned it into five steps civilians can use: identify, assess, predict, decide, and act. You practice the first three whenever you walk into a place, even a coffee shop you've visited a hundred times. Identify anything that feels off. Assess who you're with, where you can sit, and where the exits and restrooms are. Then you predict what you would do if something happened that day. Brian was clear that they never tell someone what to do. What he can do is different from what his wife can do, so the plan has to be something that person is willing to carry out.

Brian treats that feeling on the back of your neck as a real signal, but only if you notice it and trust it. The way you notice it is by practicing the process so you have a picture of what's normal around you. He told a story about a young woman who drove to the same trail every day, felt that warning while she was still in the car, got out, looked around, didn't see anything, and went on her run anyway. When she came back, her car had been broken into. Brian said if you get that feeling, you have to trust it and be ready to leave or change what you're doing. He has walked his own family out of restaurants when he couldn't identify what was wrong.

Their program lasts 90 days because of what Brian calls the 2190 rule: about 21 days to form a habit and 90 days to form a behavior. Around week three or four, he often sees people already practicing the process. He and Tom also focus on parents. When his kids were young, he would give a short briefing before a restaurant or a trip to Disney, then use the outing as practice. He'd ask where the nearest fire extinguisher was, or where the exit was that day, and he sat facing the door. Years later, his oldest daughter told a 14-year-old friend she couldn't take that seat because dad needed to see the exits and have a plan. He also said parents spend as much time on their phones as their kids do, and kids notice when the rule and the example don't match.

We also talked about everyday gun owners. Brian said a lot of people are accurate at the range but never practice getting a firearm out of a nightstand or a glove box, and many have never decided ahead of time what they're willing to do. He said gun ranges can give a false sense of security because the conditions are controlled. His advice is to think through the plan at home, including who's in the house that night, and to practice the mechanics safely and often.

At the end of the day, the useful part is having a process you can run in a coffee shop, a church, a workplace, or with your family before you walk in. I said a 60-second briefing can be enough for everyone to share a plan. Brian agreed, and he uses short briefings at restaurants, at Disney, and even on a hunt at a familiar place. He also has programs for businesses and churches, because the same habits travel from one setting to the next. If you want to learn more, he said to start at the contact page at www.paratus.group.

Watch the full episode on YouTube, or listen on Spotify.