I often start my morning with a quick glance at LinkedIn. A quick scroll, a quick sense of what’s going on with the people in my network. Among the posts, I see a familiar name. A colleague from another department has shared a poignant quote. Great. I smile. But a few seconds later, something feels off. My gut feeling protests; my situational awareness calls me to order. I scroll back. And then I see it: the time of posting. The middle of the night. That stings. I send a message: “Are you okay?” While I wait for a response, I already know. And yet, I’m startled when the answer arrives. What can I do?

“You manage things, you lead people”; it is a quote from a clip on YouTube by an American ‘rear admiral’ (a naval rank). The quote sounds very obvious, almost like a no-brainer. But what does it say about leadership, and what questions do you have to ask? And what is the relationship with situational awareness?

It is two weeks ago that the Crowdstrike issue brought large infrastructures and companies to their knees. I have been thinking about the situational awareness aspect of this incident. Although it was reported as a technical issue, there is so much to talk about from a human factor point of view.