As presumed by ICAO, all organizations operate, to some degree, within the practical drift. Some may stray from baseline and then oscillate about a point a short distance from ideal. Others may vary more greatly, depending on changes in the organization, training and audit cycles, incidents, etc. Others yet may begin to deviate very slowly, almost insidiously at first, then accelerate quickly towards that boundary between safe and unsafe operation. The catch is to capture the drift prior to reaching the boundary. It would, however, be ideal to capture the drift at its inception, thus quickly returning to baseline performance. How is this done? Through monitoring of operations. Every day your organization operates, it is telling a story through data. The trick is capturing the right data at the right time. ICAO refers to these as “navigation aids” within the practical drift to help organizations navigate the “currents and obstacles.” Depending on the ‘navigation aid’ type, the operator can identify the drift and hopefully work to return the organization back to ‘ideal’ performance levels. This monitoring of operations to identify the drift is part of a mature SMS and with the right ‘navigation aids’ can keep performance close to baseline.