4 Steps to Take Command of Any Business Situation

Imagine sitting down in a conference room and being able to take stock of the reaction of the room to the presentation material, knowing who is working on what high-impact initiatives and how the seating arrangement is building informal cliques within two or three closely seated colleagues, as well as the availability of whiteboards, markers or presentation materials in case you are asked to give an impromptu situational briefing on a project you are working on… If you have developed observational skills, you will be able to use situational awareness to quickly coalesce the audience into a group of stakeholders with a shared interest (likely where their projects intersect with yours as a compliment to their own success) and move effortlessly into presenting a compelling update and taking command of the room.

Making it real – The OODA Loop

Some military strategists refer to situational awareness as the “OODA Loop.” A process of coalescing your Observations in their environmental Orientation, to Decide what the relevant present conditions are and what your personal command Action should be.  

Step 1: Collect OBSERVATIONS, gather information as quickly as possible from all immediately available data sources.

Step 2: ORIENT yourself to any gaps or errors in the current thinking, add immediate value and clarity by filling in the gaps and correcting the errors.

Step3: DECIDE on an approach to move forward with, the options to take, or the approach to align with.

Step 4: ACT and assume a command position on your decision, pilot to prove the concept, implement at scale.

As always, until next we meet, I appreciate all you do to fill the hands that heal!

TH

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