The Science of Survival

A 3-Part Series from M.C. Kimball and Associates, Inc.

by Michael C. Kimball - Founder, We’ve Got Your Back® Program

The Brain Under Fire: 

Understanding the First 30 Seconds:

Why we freeze, how the brain processes danger, and how awareness and emotional intelligence influence our response.

Imagine an ordinary Tuesday morning. Students are moving between classrooms. Teachers are preparing lessons. Employees are answering emails, helping visitors, and going about their daily responsibilities.

Then something happens.

A loud, unfamiliar sound echoes through the building.

Someone looks up. Another person stops talking. A third asks, "What was that?! Was that a gunshot?"

For a brief moment, nobody moves.

The brain begins searching for an explanation—maybe it was construction. Maybe something fell? Maybe it was fireworks or the slam of a locker?

But what if it wasn't?

What if those few seconds of uncertainty were the beginning of a violent intruder event?

The most important question may not be whether you know what to do—it may be whether your brain will allow you to take action when the moment arrives.

The First Five Minutes:

A Race Between Danger and Decision-Making

In an active shooter or active killer event, the first several minutes can be extraordinarily dangerous. Violence can unfold faster than emergency notifications, coordinated instructions, or the arrival of first responders.

During that initial period, individuals may need to make critical decisions with incomplete information.

Should I evacuate? Is there a safe exit? Should I secure the room? Where is the threat? What can I do to protect myself and others?

These are not simple questions when the brain and body are responding to extreme stress.

That is why preparation must go beyond teaching people what actions to take. We must also teach them how the human brain responds to danger and how to function effectively despite fear.

Your Brain Has a Survival System, and It Doesn't Always Wait for You

• When the brain senses an immediate threat, systems like the amygdala, hypothalamus, autonomic nervous system, and stress hormones start getting the body ready to survive.

• The sympathetic nervous system kicks in, raising your heart rate, breathing, and muscle readiness. Adrenaline and noradrenaline help your body get ready to act. Cortisol adds to the stress response, especially if the situation goes on.

These responses are essential to human survival. But these same responses can get in the way of the abilities we need most during a crisis.

When stress is high, people might have tunnel vision, lose track of time, forget instructions, have trouble remembering things, shake, or find it hard to make decisions.

Some individuals run. Others seek protection. Some freeze.

Freezing is a recognized defensive response to perceived danger. It is not necessarily a conscious choice, and it does not mean a person lacks courage.

The problem is, a response that helps in one situation can be risky in another.

The goal of being prepared isn’t to get rid of fear. The goal is to notice fear, assess what’s happening, and act appropriately.

The Prefrontal Cortex:

Your Brain's Decision-Making Partner

The prefrontal cortex plays an important role in planning, attention, impulse control, working memory, and evaluating alternatives.

When stress is high, these executive functions may not work as well. This helps explain why someone who can describe an emergency response procedure perfectly during training may struggle to remember the same steps during an actual crisis. It also shows why it’s hard to follow complicated instructions when someone is scared.

Just telling people to stay calm isn’t enough.

Instead, we need to give people practical tools that make decisions easier. This is where emotional intelligence, situational awareness, and rehearsal become so important.

Emotional Intelligence:

Recognizing Fear Without Surrendering to It

Emotional intelligence is often associated with communication, leadership, empathy, and relationships. But emotional intelligence also has an important application in personal safety.

Two foundational competencies are particularly relevant:

• Self-awareness allows us to recognize what we are experiencing. "My heart is racing. I am frightened. Something is wrong."

• Self-regulation helps us manage our responses so that fear does not automatically dictate our behavior. "I recognize that I am frightened, but I can still make a decision."

Neither competency requires someone to become emotionally detached or fearless. In fact, fear may provide important information about potential danger.

The goal is to notice that information but not let emotions take over your judgment.

In our We've Got Your Back® approach, we emphasize a simple principle:

Fear is information, not a stop sign.

Situational Awareness:

Recognizing When Normal Changes

Situational awareness begins long before an emergency. It involves:

• Noticing what is happening around us

• Understanding what those observations might mean, and

• Anticipating what could happen next

Consider the difference between these two responses:

• One person hears an unusual sound and immediately dismisses it.

• Another recognizes the sound as an anomaly, notices people running away from a particular area, identifies a nearby exit, and begins evaluating the safest available response.

The second individual does not necessarily know more about the incident. Both are simply using what they know to make a better decision.

We teach four complementary elements of situational awareness:

Conscious Awareness Being mentally present and intentionally attentive.

Spatial Awareness Understanding the physical environment, including exits, barriers, and potential protective locations.

Sensory Awareness Recognizing relevant sounds, movements, behaviors, and changes.

Informed Awareness Applying prior knowledge, training, and experience to interpret what is happening.

Together, these four elements help us recognize a developing situation and evaluate our options.

Being aware doesn’t mean living in fear or always expecting danger.

Being aware means staying engaged with what’s around us so we notice when something needs our attention.

Breaking the Freeze:

One Purposeful Action

When danger becomes apparent, the first challenge may be overcoming disbelief.

People often want certainty before acting. Sadly, you might not be sure what’s happening until it’s almost too late to act. A useful approach is to develop simple When/Then decision scripts.

For example:

When I recognize credible signs of immediate violence, then I will assess my safest available option and take purposeful action.

Or:

When I recognize that my body is freezing, then I will focus on one immediate protective action.

These scripts don’t guarantee you’ll act perfectly. But practicing them in your mind and repeating them can help you remember what to do when you’re stressed.

The key is simplicity. Rather than trying to solve an entire crisis, focus on the next appropriate decision.

• If a safe evacuation route exists, move away from the danger

• If evacuation is unsafe, secure a protective space when possible

• If conditions change, reassess

Even if you don’t have all the facts, your decision should be based on what you can see and know.

The Human Side of Safety:

Your Behavior Influences Others

There is another important consideration.

During emergencies, people look to one another for behavioral cues.

Fear, confusion, and hesitation can spread in a group. But so can clear actions and direction. Understandable instruction may help students transition from confusion to protective action.

• A supervisor who identifies a safe route may help employees overcome uncertainty

• A staff member who secures a door may prompt others to assist

Protective action is not about suppressing emotion or pretending danger does not exist. Protective action is about showing leadership and recognizing how serious the situation is with only a few words:

"Move away from the danger"

"Secure the door"

"Stay with me"

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Closing Thought

The human brain is remarkably capable of responding to danger, but it is not immune to confusion, fear, or hesitation.

Preparation gives us a better opportunity to recognize those responses and work through them.

Remember:

The first step toward survival is recognizing that something has changed.

The next step is deciding what to do about it.

In our next installment, From Fear to Action, we’ll look at the practical decisions that can make a difference during the first five minutes of a violent intruder event. We’ll also see how emotional intelligence and situational awareness work together when every second counts.

M.C. Kimball & Associates, Inc. | We've Got Your Back^®