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In today’s exercise, you will be practicing your ability to assess groups of people under conditions that were a “lesson learned” following the 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, CA (see “enhance the workout” section for explanation).

Click the “More” button to view the exercise.

The Workout

  • Note: This video is was used in a previous exercise to assess group dynamics, but this exercise reflects the challenges an observer has to face during emergency situations.
  • As you watch the video, play the audio at maximum volume to realistically simulate the conditions you would expect, so if you are in an office, we recommend you put headphones on before you cause an evacuation.
  • As you watch the video, assess the relationship between the man wearing the white tee shirt and the woman wearing a green and black striped tank top.
  • List the behaviors that you can observe to identify the relationship (groups dynamics) and the individual behavior that support that assessment as well as the behaviors that could counter your assessment.
  • Finally, note what challenges the conditions have on your ability to make accurate assessments and observations in this type of situation.
  • Write your answers on a sheet of paper before viewing our answers

[expand title=”View Our Answers”]

  • What relationship does the distance between the two people reflect?
    • Intimate
  • Factors leading to that assessment
    • When the video starts, they are less than a foot away from each other.
    • When the guy begins to walk away and the comes back, he is very close behind the woman and behind her back.
  • Does the individual behavior (the cluster) of the two people confirm this assessment? If no, explain why you feel that your assessment is accurate.
    • No, both people are displaying signs from the uncomfortable cluster as they are closed off (arms crossed), both are swaying back and forth, the woman was swinging her arms at the beginning of the video and they both have elevated levels of situational awareness.
    • The individual behavior for people who have established an appropriate separation from each other that reflects their true relationship should be the comfortable cluster.
    • I feel that the negative atmospherics and having to wait for their bags are what is causing their discomfort, not the physical distance between them.  If it was the physical separation, I would assume that when the man got behind the woman and was that close to her back, that is he proximity was the source of the discomfort, she would have either leaned away, or showed some other sign of discomfort and the flight response.
  • How do the conditions impact the observation?
    • The noise is distracting and makes it harder to hear what is actually being said by the people.
    • The flashing lights make observation more fragmented. Meaning that it feels like we are stitching together pictures and photos as opposed to a smooth video.
    • The flashing light caused me to focus on other people other than the target of the observation because any movement caused me to shift to them, requiring me to intentionally move back to the focus of the exercise.[/expand]
Enhance The Workout
  • Repeat
    • Applying lessons learned: This exercise was inspired by a presentation given by the commander of the SWAT team who responded to the San Bernardino shooting. Once the responding officers made entry into the building, they were unable to turn off the alarm system, increasing the difficulty for the responding officers dealing with gunshot victims and scared witnesses, all while searching for the shooters whose location was unknown at the time.
    • The goal for the exercise was to assess the relationship between people in the group and do it with other senses being impacted as they would in an emergency situation. So:
      • Note the assessments that we made that you didn’t make, and re-watch the video to build your file folder for that specific behavior.
      • Make it easier: Go back to the other exercise where we used this video (without the alarm) and see how different it is under those conditions.
  • Reflect
    • If you are a professional protector: In the San Bernardino shooting, the SWAT unit was conducting active shooter training at the time the attack began and had all of their weapons and gear modified for force-on-force training when they received the call. From changing out magazines, refitting weapons with “live” upper receivers, etc., what steps would you want to consider if this was you? What would that checklist consist of to ensure that no one is about to go into a real fight with training weapons or gear? Write that list down and share it with your team.
    • If you are not a professional protector: What actions should you consider taking if you find yourself in a situation like this and police officers are responding? How do these conditions impact their observation, judgement and stress? What can you do to keep yourself safe and not add to the problem? Write this list down and share it with someone you can talk to about personal safety.
  • Act
    • Identify how the conditions likely to be experienced in an emergency impact your ability to make quick and correct assessments about people.
    • If you had to observe groups in this type of situation, what observations could you master now to make this easier?  Now go do it!

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