SAMM
Situational Awareness Management Model
SAMM reflects a way of leading shaped by years of working with people, teams and complex technical systems: observe before judging and understand before intervening.
It connects people, relationships, capabilities, motivation, systems and context to understand what is really happening, recognizing motivation as a key driver of individual and team performance. Rather than changing how you lead, SAMM adds the situational awareness to lead with greater understanding — knowing when to act, how to act, and when not to act at all.
Understand the model
Start with the principles behind SAMM and why situational awareness matters in technical leadership.
Explore the foundations →Understand the people
Explore actors, capabilities, relationships, perception and the human context surrounding a technical system.
Understand the situation
Move from isolated observations to a broader understanding of context, signals, perception and change.
Explore the Situational Map →Put SAMM into practice
Apply the model through Actor Mapping, Situational Pulse, Tech Spaces, 1:1s and other recurring practices.
How SAMM thinks about situations
SAMM is not intended to prescribe a fixed response. It provides a way to continuously observe, interpret and understand a changing technical and human system before intervening.
Start here
If this is your first time exploring SAMM, follow the model through these core articles:
- Situational Awareness Management Model — an introduction to the model and its purpose.
- The Situational Map — representing the system and its context.
- The Situational Process — moving from observation towards intervention.
- Attention Is All You Need — exploring attention, perception and situational awareness.
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