“Son, always park the car so the rear end is facing the sun. Then you won’t have to sit on a hotseat when you get back in.”

That was one of my father’s dictums to me, while spending the summers in Phoenix with him. It was my earliest instruction about the value of positioning. The dictionary gives several relevant definitions for the noun form of the word position:
•    a place occupied or to be occupied; site: a fortified position.
•    the proper, appropriate, or usual place.
•    situation or condition, especially with relation to favorable or unfavorable circumstances.

Now that emotions and internet commentary have quieted down about the recent Las Vegas murders of two police officers and a private citizen with a concealed weapon, it’s useful to discuss the relationship between ‘situational awareness’ and positioning. The two concepts are interrelated and complementary but not identical. Unfortunately, the…