The organization that embraces a culture of Intelligence Awareness (thinking & aware people) in conjunction with available technology has the best shot at dealing with potential disaster. The greater the capacity of an organization and its people to act proactively in the realm of uncertainty, the greater the ability to realistically predict, recognize and prevent catastrophe.  

This standpoint is well illustrated by the saga of astronaut Lisa Novak and her indictment on an assortment of criminal offences. The incident sends a strong and clear warning to those employers, desirous of certainty, who believe profiling technology alone can provide an accurate read as to psychological well being.  

With the rank of Captain and a career spanning twenty years in the U.S. Navy and NASA’S Space Shuttle Program, Ms. Novak would have had pass many psychological assessments, the most recent being in preparation for her role as Mission Specialist in the Discovery voyage of July 2006. Is it believable that someone with such bizarre emotional potential could slip through the cracks in such a closely monitored environment?  

My underlying standpoint is that people change day-by- day, year-by-year in direct proportion to their life experience. Much like life, the wild-card factor is ever present. We also often seem to forget that people, in contrast to machines, technology and set process, have intuition, instinct and common sense that, rolled into one, constitute an invaluable competency - Human Awareness.

Surely in the case of Miss Novak, deployment of this innate capacity would have sent up red flags in the tight collegial environment she works? What went wrong? Were there no indicators as to her building anguish? If there were, why did someone not put out a hand to her? Did her supervisor really supervise her?

Human ability is more often than not ignored in deference to an organizational culture that cowers behind technology, regulations and known process. I hear so many saying, after a major fiasco, how “inappropriate” it would have been to address unproven gut-feelings, especially in a professional environment where we pretend to ignore 80% of who a person is (physical, emotional, social etc.) “We thought it more appropriate to wait for the performance review to address these issues”, is another favourite explanation.

The outcome speaks for itself. Like it or not, all of who a person is comes to work…The organization that understands, acknowledges and manages all of who their employees are would reach out to the Lisa Novaks of this world before they unravel.