Re: magnum 357?
CRMDEEN_at_aol.com
Sun, 29 Dec 1996 12:15:28 -0500
To Hugo;
I suspect all who have held CRM teachings, especially at the awareness
level, have enjoyed the opportunity to debate individuals who are not
supportive of the CRM program. Among my company collegues, we call this
person the "classroom heathen." This person is not initially receptive to
the idea or concepts of CRM, and they will be quite vocal in a classroom
setting. They seem to be especially sensitive to any psychology-based,
"behavior modification" efforts. Additionally, I have been able to pull from
them their fear of "empowerment of the crew"; example: one senior manager,
pilot of many aircraft, qualifing into his first "crew" aircraft, expressed
STRONG vocal resistance to the flight engineer's duties. "I don't want to
ask the engineer permission to change the altitude!", he expressed. We had
been talking about how flight engineers can be active in the monitoring of
altitude, and when the engineer should inform the pilot that the altitude is
wrong.
Hugo, try to consider the majority of our audience are "controllers"
and they must, and want to , be "in control". The challenge is to teach the
classroom heathen, especially pilots, that they are not losing control
through the teachings of CRM; in fact, they are being given the opportunity
to increase their control (they'll like that). The PIC actually has two
"things" to control; one is the aircraft, in which he has spent the majority
of his training and takes extreme pride in his prowess. This is also the
easiest for him to control; when he flips a switch, pushes a button, moves a
lever, the effect and feedback are instant. This instant feedback reinforces
his perception of control. The other "thing" he has to control is the
"crew": that group of humans who have quite individualistic mindsets, and
ironically, are controllers themselves. How much training has the
traditional pilot had in "controlling" a crew?
One of my techniques to convert the classroom heathen is usually
effective but it takes class time. Get them to talk about their opinions of
CRM, and the class, the training, their "philosophy", if you will. Once they
"have the floor" (control), ask them to tell a story of their most
challenging aviation event; a time in which they had to call upon their great
aviator skill. Almost all of these stories include an error chain in which
the "great" aviator made some mistakes and put himself into a crisis. The
crisis could have been averted had he been a smarter aviator at the beginning
of the error chain. Listen for the part of the story that indicates high
workload and stress, particularly "tunnel-vision". As the story concludes,
ask the aviator to agree he had become a victim of tunnel-vision, and ask him
if he thinks it is understandable that anyone can become task saturated
during a flight, and as a result, not think as clearly or as comprehensively
because of the pressure of the moment. Once they agree to that, ask him if
this has ever happened out of the airplane, and that during that quite
humanistic "mind-block", another individual made a comment, said a word, or
asked a question, that broke through the mind-block, and help to find the
answer. Once the classroom heathen recogized that, then ask him that, in his
aviation story, if someone would have said even one little word, the story
would have been different. And woe be to the heathen who retorts, "well, I
was the only one in the airplane", for my closure statement is "are you not
glad that you now have people, working for you, to assist you to do you're
job better?"
This is a longer reply to Hugo than I meant it to be, but it is a
technique I picked up when working with a fighter pilot. His story was one of
distraction by ATC during a bomb-delivery dive. He focused upon changing the
radio frequency, and when he looked out again, he saw dust trails in his
rear-view mirrors and realizied that while he had leveled off 100 feet above
the ground, he was inverted. I asked if his rear-seat navigator could have
changed the radio, and his reply was "ATC told me to do it, and I didn't want
to distract the nav." We had a good debate.
Hugo, I hope this helps. Coverting these guys is time-consuming, and it
does not always work. When it does work, they become some great supporters
of your program, so it usually worth the time invested. Good Luck, and keep
the faith!