Complacency doesn’t feel dangerous when it’s happening. It feels normal. It might even feel comfortable.
Sometimes it feels like a relief because after getting the really dangerous stuff out of the way. You’ve spent the whole day focussed and concentrating and paying attention – now you can zone out a bit.
Internally, complacency might sound like:
“I’ve done this hundreds of times before…”
or
“She’ll be right…”
or
“Let’s just get this done so we can go and hit the beers…”
or
“I’m sure this will be fine…”
Complacency is a sign that if you keep going the way you are, you will be inviting dangerous and potentially life threatening situations into your life. This doesn’t just affect you, it could be that one of your workmates is impacted. This goes further than that too – it could be your family, or someone you love . Even if it is you, the people that are most affected are the ones that you love the most.
The challenge though, is to become aware of the complacent thoughts.
Complacency and other compromised decision making…
“I’m sure this will be fine…”
This was the thought I tried to convince myself to believe when I surveyed the situation in front of me.
I was with 7 guests in our open safari vehicle, parked a short distance away from a waterhole which was located in a patch of dense woodland in Botswana.
On the far side of the waterhole was a breeding herd of elephants. They had been drinking, but as we approached they had moved away from the waterhole. I drove in as far as I could before the track stopped and switched off the engine.
The elephants took a few moments but seemed to accept our presence quite readily and returned to the water to finish slaking their thirst. It was a beautiful sight - mothers and several babies facing us directly, only about 40 yards away with the waterhole in between us.
It was a stunning moment and my guests were all immediately entranced. It felt like there was an intimacy, which was exacerbated by our location in this clearing in the woodland.
As a guide I felt uneasy, because I had no ready escape route forward. If something happened my only option would be to reverse back down the same narrow winding dirt track that I had come in on.
I could see that if I wanted a decent escape route I would need to reverse the car into a gap in the trees adjacent to the waterhole, then drive forward and reverse back to get myself into this same position, but now easier access to the exit.
But this would break the moment for both the elephants and my guests.
“I’m sure this will be fine…”
And it was - for a while. Then another herd approached the waterhole with a very different vibe. They were anxious, very thirsty and very upset with our presence.
What followed was 15 terrifying minutes with elephants trumpeting and mock charging, and the matriarch of the herd very nearly following through with her charge. The only thing that stopped her was me screaming, shouting and swearing like a banshee.
When I eventually reversed back down the track, with the matriarch escorting us out, the guests were terrified and traumatised and now fearful of the bush. They had also lost their trust in me as a guide - something that I wasn’t able to successfully rebuild in the remaining days of the safari.
The link with decision making…
My decision to assume things would be fine was objectively poor and put us all at risk. During my guiding career I’ve made a lot of other objectively poor decisions, but most of them haven’t resulted in a citation as extreme as that one.
But it does beg the question - how can we as individuals make better decisions.
For me it requires a level of personal awareness. If you’re able to be aware of your decisions you can begin to recognise if you are making an assumption, or being complacent or potentially fatigued or distracted or rushing unnecessarily.
Then you can make a different decision.