Outliers

[jolly girl]

Has anyone read Malcolm Gladwell's new book "Outliers," particularly the chapter on Commercial Aviation and CRM?
If so, what did you think?

[alf5071h]

I have not read the book, but the review in New Scientist (26 Nov 08) did not over-excite me.
“His basic theme is that success depends on relentless application and a supportive environment, not merely rare "natural" talent or intelligence”
There is casual use of statistics – “crashes happen far more often when the captain, rather than the co-pilot, is flying the aircraft” – apparently without balanced explanation for the reasons why.
Similarly, the reference to ‘power distance’ without consideration of other factors might indicate a superficial (cheap) use of incidents from a high profile industry to further his book.
IMHO, his previous work – Blink – was biased; it is unlikely that a writer prone to bias could discuss the aspects of CRM - human behavior – in aviation with any authority.

[jolly girl]

"IMHO, his previous work – Blink – was biased; it is unlikely that a writer prone to bias could discuss the aspects of CRM - human behavior – in aviation with any authority."

But don't we all have biases? I have one a big one, "When science and religeon are in conflict, trust science," does this disqualify me from dicussing the subject? Oh wait, I'm not a line pilot I'm disqualified anyway. (wink, intended as humor)

It caught my eye becase it explained CRM in a way that made sense to me (reduce/eliminate mitigated speech), and even gave a quantifiable success story (Korean Air). It was also the second in a sequence of three interesting coincidences... the first being that one of the gentlemen in my meditation group is a forensic anthropologist, and I had been pondering whether there could be an aviation application.

[turbocharged]

JG,

Gladwell didn't 'explain CRM', he read something in a book and copied it out neatly. Mitigated speech acts were identified in conversation analysis of interactions between captains and FOs some time ago. We taught assertiveness to partly overcome cross-cockpit gradient issues but part of assertiveness includes directed communication. Nothing new. In fairness to Gladwell, he does admit to being nothing more than a journo who repackages ideas. It's just a shame that he doesn't always understand the ideas he repackages and he goes with whichever idea works for him at the time (see his use of Helmreich's work on culture). The poor man should read around his subjects more.

Forensic anthropologist? Look at Trostle, J. A. I wrote a paper on 'Dangerousness and Menace - Human Agency in Safety Management Systems' in an attempt to shift the safety paradigm. Look at Nichols - 'Sociology of industrial Injury'

[jolly girl]

Gosh and here I was thinkin y'all would be happy I was finally getting on the CRM - as - training (rather than education as posed by Mansfield) bandwagon.

TC -
Nichols is on request with the library, but I've had no luck finding your article (googla nad library databases). Could you send a complete reference?
J

[flipster]

JGirl,

Check yr PMs Pse

flipster