When Awareness Isn’t the Problem
Why getting left of bang depends on systems, not just recognition
This essay is for paying subscribers to The CP Journal.
Last week, I presented a webinar on situational awareness, material I’ve been teaching in one form or another for more than fifteen years.
Instead of updating existing slides and talking points, I decided to rebuild my entire presentation from scratch. I wanted to see what would survive the process. I wanted to pinpoint what still matters, what carries real weight today, and what no longer does.
Most of the concepts carried through. Behavioral analysis still matters. Early recognition still matters. The need to be ready to act remains the same. But arguably, these are the “easier” elements to getting left of bang.
The harder part, which I didn’t fully understand when we were starting out, was what it actually takes to move organizations from a reactive posture to a proactive one. In hindsight, the work required to shift an organization left of bang—at the operational, organizational, and strategic levels—was a significant blind spot for me.
That missing layer is what I want to focus on today. Not as a critique of the original work, but as a reflection on the roadblock many left-of-bang–oriented professionals eventually encounter when they try to make these ideas real inside their organizations.
As paying subscribers, you have access to the full webinar through the Academy, along with a new article on “information hunting vs. information hoping” that I wrote as a follow-up to the presentation. Together, they reflect where my thinking is today on situational awareness and early recognition.
What I Started to See
For a long time, my answer to that gap was simple: more training.