A37575, I wonder how you would judge the self-study presentation (visual guide) “Critical Thinking” in the library section of <aviation.org> also see the material on situation awareness and decision making. There is little if any psychobabble, nor mention of ‘CRM’.
Will the content improve CRM or at least contribute to the human factors aspects of safety?
I think that there is merit in this form of teaching. The industry needs CRM – professional improvement. In many cases the current CRM initiatives are failing, or at lest they are stalled. Thus there is need for a new way of depicting CRM, but without inventing a new subject or system; just a different way of presenting and thus perceiving the existing material. Hopefully some of this will stick and the skills will develop.
paco, whilst your nutshell has some safety value, training this aspect alone would not meet the majority of CRM regulatory requirements.
CRM’s recent history tracks the emergent views and developing knowledge of human factors. The person – person approach had to be strengthened with ‘aeronautical decision making’, and more recently with concepts of ‘management’, threats, errors, risk and resource, depending on the chosen view. I avoid the diffusion from Cockpit to Crew in CRM, to … ‘C’ whatever, these are labeling distractions.
In order for CRM to work, ‘teaching’ has to promote the application of human factors. This starts with knowledge of human factors and how that knowledge should be applied, thinking skills – aimed at behavioral change. In turn these depend on the situation / context, thus it also important to understand the situation, another thinking skill, etc, etc.
CRM not a panacea for safety, it has to be integrated with other programmes. CRM, the HF knowledge, application, behaviors, etc, have to be lived, they have to be a central to and embedded in every element of daily operations, both safety and economics.
Thus, this concept of ‘teaching’ CRM, and for its success, requires that everyone is both a teacher and a student. The senior pilots, trainers/checkers, captains, and more experienced individuals must set an example, be mentors and facilitators, yet still be willing to learn and seek professional improvement. The younger pilots must also be willing to learn, to gain knowledge, and advance in their profession.
CRM training depends on a willingness to learn, but I wonder how many programs have cleared this first hurdle using the existing concepts and training materials.
A hindrance in these areas is that CRM is often depicted as a course of instruction and once the exam is taken (‘I am qualified’) or the recurrent training undertaken (‘jumped through the hoop’), CRM is shelved.
The industry lacks incentive for professional improvement - a willingness to participate, an attitude of self improvement, a belief in being a professional.