the last thing you want to do is make a
decision in crisis but if you're paying
attention to the environment you're in
in a very methodical way you are
undoubtedly ready to react in the way
that you should and that you're trained
your brain to that is the distinguishing
difference between just observation and
true situational awareness
[Music]
I'm Chloe Emerson retired Navy SEAL 21
years combat experience all over the
globe and now at crisis management
professional my years of service
consisted of both SEAL Teams at the
theater level and the national level I
had the opportunity of working in Iraq
Afghanistan in other parts of the globe
I like to sometimes compare things to
the jet birds of World War two where
guys would go in small coalition forces
if you will is an American a Brit and
usually a Frenchman and they go in
behind enemy lines and do sabotage and
other things to try and defeat the Nazis
so a modern-day version of that is
probably a good explanation without
actually telling you what's going on
our brains rely on being challenged the
benefits of just being situational where
besides observing and making decisions
based on what you're presented with is
one way to exercise your mind and learn
how to be more attentive how to pay
attention to the small things you'll
find that your memory starts to get a
little bit better because you're doing
it more often not just with the things
you're paying attention to but
remembering your grocery list all of a
sudden becomes a little easier and you
start noticing the little things about
people and their mannerisms our pattern
of life is really small it's home it's
work into our favorite restaurant if you
take the time to evaluate the routes in
between and those establishments you've
just reduced the number of things you
have to pay attention to when something
bad occurs let's look at situational
awareness presented in the movie Bourne
Identity
I'm not making this up
these are real no operative would store
all his passports together in one big
pile missus that's a little out there I
can tell you the license-plate numbers
of all six cars outside I can tell you
that our waitress is left-handed and the
guy sitting up at the counter weighs 215
pounds and knows how to handle himself
yeah I mean I would I would factor this
more on the side of hyper-vigilance also
pry in some aspects a little
extraordinary most people aren't capable
of that you know just from my
observations there was four cars in the
parking lot there wasn't a truck in the
guy at the bar was not in that greatest
shape but I think this clip is a great
representation for situational awareness
and kind of defining it it shows the
capability of maybe a couple of people I
know but good an average person trained
to memorize and take in that much
information and actually analyze it
interpret it to a limited degree the
more you do it the better you'll get at
it just like with anything
all right so imagine this is your house
we're gonna go ahead and take a look at
it from a safety and security point of
view
ideally in every home or every place you
go or you spend time you designate a
safe area for the families to
consolidate in a time of an emergency
and in this home for example the stairs
are a great place it's centrally located
the walls do not share any outside walls
you could even put water food and other
forms of communication in that spot you
have windows all right as we know a
natural disaster windows are bad but
identifying your windows now you're
seeing kind of a common thread of exit
strategies we've got the main door here
and then you've got really nothing down
below that stands out if you need to
exit we're gonna go out these windows
and once we get done doing this we're
gonna see pretty much where the homes
dead ends are so if there's an emergency
going to the back side back here this is
probably no-go because there's no other
way out into this master bedroom suite
it looks like there's nothing there so
you kind of get the point once you
really start constant
trading on your points of entry and then
all of your windows now you know parts
of your home that are kind of like
off-limits when a crisis occurs the OODA
loop or oo da is a tool you can use to
help sift through the environments or in
observation orientate yourself decide
and then act one thing that happens in a
crisis is your fine motor skills go out
the window you have no time and you have
high stress that is why it's so
important to make your decisions a more
clinical setting where I have plenty of
time and you're running those scenarios
and the more you do that the more you
train your brain to come up with really
good decisions because you're doing it
while you're calm now if something
happens all you're gonna do is act it
out so let's say this is where I go to
work every day so this is part of a
multi-level building and we are not on
the first floor we've got several
elevator banks right here here here
these elevator banks basically become
useless and time of disaster they
usually shut down immediately and you're
forced to use stairs in an emergency we
know that we're gonna probably
concentrate our efforts of exit to these
stairs especially if it's a fire most
people don't know but most of your
stairwells have their own HVAC and
positive pressure systems so once you're
in there it actually protects you from
the bad air that may be going on here a
secondary option we've got so many
windows and in times of disaster you
want to stay away from glass but if
there was a fire you could probably get
away with drilling a chair through the
window and escaping that way if you're a
reasonable distance up so I'd say safely
if you're in reasonable shape could jump
from three storeys and be okay heck you
might break a leg but that's better than
whatever the consequences are up here in
this space it's also important to keep
in mind that as it relates to fires a
lot of trucks ladders only extend 120
feet max just good information to know
in extreme situations I break down
awareness and what I call total
awareness into four big pieces and
that's personal awareness cultural
awareness
third party awareness and then
situational awareness the first one is
personal awareness when we talk about
threat reduction you have to know what
you look like to others so the next
piece is cultural awareness and that's
really knowing the do's and don'ts of
the geographical area that you're gonna
be visiting so third party awareness is
really just knowing that we have people
all around us that can look at us judge
us and potentially gonna find your
vulnerabilities and exploit them in some
varying form the last one is the big
ones situational awareness cataloging
the environment sifting through it and
then confirming what's good and what's
bad so now we're in a restaurant alright
so we know that there are one two three
four exit and entry points here I'm
probably gonna come inside probably step
to the left or step to the right but
stay out of the way of that doorway the
doorways are known as fatal funnels when
I look at a crowd of people I wonder to
myself all right if everyone was to get
up right now and run out of here because
of a natural disaster or whatever where
would they all go the doorway that I'm
standing there then as I get seated they
walk us over and this is where we're
gonna end up see immediately I'm gonna
go ahead and go to the restroom mainly
so that now I can identify is this a
good route out is there any doors down
here and then of course there's always
the exit in the kitchen that you never
see but it's always there as you come
back out sit down I can cover at least
here field of view and then here with
the doors active shooters unfortunately
our reality one of the things I promote
the most as far as what you can kind of
run through to keep it really simple
it's run hide fight the run if you
increase distance from the shooter then
you increase survivability when you run
ideally you want to run from cover to
cover
never follow the herd take a moment and
see if you can truly identify the
shooter so trust your eyes question your
ears when it comes to gunshots now
looking at exit strategies a majority of
the people
may run to the door that they came in
that's gonna be natural instinct some
are probably gonna head over to this
fire raise it door and some are probably
gonna go towards that patio door if it's
a big slider and very few people are
probably gonna go to the kitchen I'll be
able to see what's coming at me and then
be able to react accordingly using the
kitchen door hi
what would I hide behind it stops
bullets ohh structural pillars a big
planter that's out in front of my office
vehicles you'll hear about people hiding
in a closet or hiding in a bathroom if
you're gonna hide in a dead end
and make sure it's a room that has
furniture and you can stack in front of
that door and the proper way to
barricade when you're hiding is to stack
in front of the door all the way to the
opposing wall now you're using the wall
is the brace against the door and no
one's gonna open it right off the bat I
know that this bar is probably built
pretty well so if you need to take cover
you can cover back behind here and then
if you roll into fight mode the utensils
on your table salt and pepper burns the
eyes you've got loose chairs everywhere
that you could potentially throw at the
guy anything you need to do to create
pain or create distraction so that you
can escape so then when we talk about
the fight or the defend you've got to be
far more aggressive than the person
coming at you if you want to win so here
we have a collection of objects that can
be readily found around the globe so all
of these can be used as self-defense
tools and let's start with the roll of
quarters
roll of quarters and just by gripping it
alone increases the density of your fist
making it a little bit harder if you add
it to a sock just by dropping it in
there you've just created an improvised
SAP a fist typically flies at roughly 25
miles an hour by adding your quarters to
a SAP now you're increasing upwards to
about 40 to 50 miles an hour eight ounce
fishing weights we're putting in a
handkerchief let gravity keep it in
place and once again it's an improvised
sap this one because it's got more
weight than a roll of quarters you're
increasing its velocity upwards to 55 60
miles an hour and that's just the
average person books a couple of them
will by themselves will stop most
handgun rounds by adding ceramic tiles
but ceramic does and what's unique to it
is that it displaces the energy of the
round as soon as it hits if you wanted
to make some improvised body armor you
could take two books and you can either
throw in your tiles on the inside like
so or you could throw them in between
the two books like so all right the two
books and adding ceramic tiles will stop
most rounds regardless of whether it's
handgun or rifle impact it'll displace
it and very rarely will it penetrate
through the second book if you've got
that many tiles in place okay so that's
improvised body armor so steel barrel
pens are awesome a steel barrel pin acts
as a great puncture tool
alright so salt and pepper alright first
and foremost this certainly is
everywhere around the world
salt and pepper both burned the eyes
don't think for a second that you can't
take a moment pull some out put it in
your hands and use it to your advantage
a newspaper nailed back so if you've got
a newspaper that's you know it's a ten
pages or more you spread it out just as
I did as you can see it's a square and
then the idea is to roll it as tight as
possible then you fold it back on itself
your best friend duct tape so the fold
becomes hard as a rock up here at the
end once again all of this is used to
either defend yourself or create pain so
that you can then escape and get away I
believe awareness is 100% teachable if
you're walking or driving that same
route every day if you're sitting in the
same office or cubicle every day then
identifying these things really isn't a
big deal applying the the situational
awareness starts to fine-tune more of
the human interaction
it helps work the brain and give it
something new to do and learn increase
your cognitive levels your ability to
retain information and then to be able
to pull that information when you need
it your gamifying it and while you're
doing it you're actually you know
increasing your safety and security
you