SOP and CRM

[Sick Squid]

Caroline,

Excellent questions, and if you continue throughout your career asking and seeking like that you will do very well.

You probably won't have completed a CRM course yet; Crew Resource Management is something that will arise mainly when you head towards the multi crew environment, but it should equally be seen as applying to all aspects of flight at all levels, even during your training.

Perhaps the major goal of CRM is the retention of Situational Awareness at all times, and airlines use SOP's to facilitate that. Situational Awareness is a cover-all term that includes the aircraft, the environment, where we are going, who is around us and where, and how we are doing in the task overall. At a very simple level, having a set of SOP's in place means that there is no need to second-guess the person next to you, and allows a greater part of your attention to be devoted to the aircraft and the environment.

If someone isn't using SOP's, then that is potentially a threat to your Situational Awareness. Depending of course on the urgency of the situation as you see it, you could simply start with a friendly question along the lines of "Sorry, is this in the Flying Manual? " or something similar. Failing that, there is the standard CRM advocacy question format that you can follow in which you;

Verbalize concern "I feel uneasy here with you operating outside the SOP's...

Stabilize Conditions "I would appreciate it if we could operate as the book says...

Brief the current/future Impact "..at the moment I feel outside the loop and uncertain of what is coming next, and that is affecting my performance as part of this crew. If we carry on like this I will not be able to devote as much of my attention to the operation as I would like to and I feel that is an unsafe situation"

Afterwards, it should be possible for you debrief the situation in a professional manner, and hopefully both learn.

As a line Captain, I try to mitigate any tendency to operate outside SOP's in my brief. First, I'll set a tone that is as approachable as I can be, and positively invite feedback on all things at all times "If there's anything you feel unhappy about, anytime, let me know... I'm only human, and do miss things." I also put a little almost throwaway phrase in (deliberately!) which is along the lines of "Well, should be a nice relaxed trip today... I always think that as long as we both go by the SOP's at all times, we know whats coming next and where we stand, don't we?" or something like that.

Hope that helps.. thats the view of a simple line skipper here, not a CRM trainer, but I fundamentally feel that this is an area that we require to devote a lot of thought to in our professional life, and keep revisiting to see how we can improve.

Good luck with your training.

Sick Squid