Amy Herman

You know, there are problems and there are problems, right?

And so situational awareness lets us think about short-term situational awareness.

How am I going to get my coffee?

Here, I'll give you a good example.

So this is an everyday.

I was flying from New York to Oklahoma City, connecting in Atlanta.

And I had 19 minutes to get from Terminal A to Terminal or Concourse A to Concourse T, which is not a lot of time.

And I get to Starbucks.

And again, there was this long line.

Now, for anybody who travels a lot, you know that you can skip the line at Starbucks if you have a tight connection.

I've never asked anybody, but I've given up my place in line many times.

So I decided to pull the card.

And I asked the woman in front of me, I said, excuse me, ma'am, because I'm in Atlanta, can I get ahead of you?

I have a tight connection.

she turned around she said no you can't and i'm thinking what do you mean no i can't and she looked at me she said the reason i can't let you get in front of me is i'm in pain she said my knee was replaced this airport is so big and i've been traveling and i can't stand one minute longer than i have to i'm sorry i can't let you go in front of me and i said please don't worry about it i'm so sorry about your knee meanwhile i'm thinking i need to get caffeine before i get on that second leg of the plane my head's going to explode

So I'm looking at the information and I have to reframe it.

So she finally gets up to the counter.

She says to the barista, I'll have a skinny vanilla latte with three stevias.

And I'm thinking, fix this, Amy, because, you know, fix it.

And I walk up behind her and I say to the barista, lady's having a bad day.