OK, TSA hasn’t asked my opinion, but if they did, I’d have three coachy hunches for their next round of training.

Coachy Hunch #1. Look us in the eye. Watch our body language. Learn about listening to your gut. I know you’re supposed to watch the ex-ray machine and make us take off our shoes and the rest of the drill and that sometimes when you look at us we don’t look very happy with you. But here’s the deal: if you don’t “listen” with all of your senses and all of your intelligence, maybe you’ll tend to get more grudging compliance than actual bad guys. Remember that customs agent in Port Angeles, the one who caught the Millennium bomber ten years ago? She simply noticed that the driver of the last car on the last ferry of the day from Victoria was “fidgeting, jittery and sweating.”

Coachy Hunch #2. Remember that the vast majority of us are allies. There must be ways to use that fact more. All good working relationships are co-created.

Coachy Hunch#3. Safety and freedom are more dynamic and adjusting than they are fixed and flawless. In this dangerous world bad things happen, but if we value resilience more than perfect execution we’re always ahead.

Do that stuff and you’ll get more lasting respect from us as your allies than you will lasting blame when bad things do happen.