Operational Awareness Playbook
The Operational Awareness Playbook is designed for public safety leaders, corporate security executives, emergency managers, and organizational decision-makers responsible for making high-stakes decisions in uncertain environments.
Building on the principles introduced in Left of Bang, this playbook is a growing library of practical resources—articles, decision games, how-to guides, and planning tools—to help leadership teams anticipate challenges, identify critical decision points, align decisions, and act before a crisis takes hold.
The Operational Awareness Playbook complements the Watch Office Situation Reports by helping organizations apply what they’re seeing to real-world decisions and operations.
Through articles, interactive decision games, how-to guides, and practical job aids, the playbook helps turn theory into action—developing habits, systems, and shared understanding that drive real-world readiness.
Know What’s Coming. Know What to Do. Get Left of Bang
This Playbook is available to Left of Bang Academy subscribers (unless noted as a public article). Consider upgrading to a monthly or yearly subscription.
Table of Contents
Information Sharing
Systems Are Weakest At Their Joints: How Information Sharing Prevents Organizational Fracture (Public Article)
From Observation to Action: Strengthening Information Sharing in Complex Incidents (Public Article)
Developing the Incident Situation Report (with report template)
How The Watch Office Helps
From Decisions to Actions
Reducing the Gap Between Decisions and Actions: Developing a Plan Activation Checklist (with template)