So we finish the year thinking on . . skills and culture . . . great
topics, indeed, worthy of very deep introspection.
But first, the weather report . . Down here the daily temps are
getting up around 40 degrees centigrade. (Work it out for yourselves,
fahrenheiters!) The one Christmas Card I got (from Rosie's Gin Palace)
has snow-covered ground, ever-so-green (and snow be-decked) fir trees,
reindeer, some sort of sled, and a fat bloke in a red serge suit and
wool cap. Fir trees??? Snow!!! For %_at_#*'s sake, even the kangaroos are
hiding out in whatever shade they can get from scrawny eucalypt trees,
only coming out at night to graze, it's so bloody hot. Longest day of
the year coming up, the prospect of roasting a turkey for Christmas
Day - in a red haze of scorching heat - a pagan Northern Hemisphere
ritual, down here? . . I guess it's just culture. Powerful stuff, huh?
Skills . . If the gist of the 'technical skills' debate is that
certain definable attributes are absent in flight crew, then the focus
of our deliberations will be how to remedy that. Or, better, if the
situation is characterised by inappropriate behaviours, then the
challenge is to eliminate the 'wrong' skills, and implant the ones we
want - erase and re-record, so to speak. (Attitudes are skills, too.)
How to do it? Go to the books on the psychology of learning. Skills
are learned through actual practice, lots of it, repetition until
deeply embedded (as they'll need to be to prevail over the massive
emotional stimulus that will accompany an emergency). Displacing
existing skills (bad habits, attitudes) is even tougher than
implanting new ones. Twice a year won't do it. No way. Try twice a
week. More, even. (Yep, you were right, Dave, that is what I have been
driving at, how attitudes, along with other 'flight habits', are
picked up - and dispensed with.)
Too fast over the fence, hey? Nice scenario, Greg. Here's how I do the
same thing. It's the last morning of a two(-to-three) day outdoor
experiential training 'seminar' for pilots and aviation managers. The
group is asked to assemble at a point in the bush, a place they are by
now familiar with. It involves a 30 minute walk. Paths to the
rendezvous are well-defined. The leader sets off - in the wrong
direction. He keeps heading the wrong way. Should no-one in the
'student' body object, one of my 'plants' does - to be smartly put
down by 'lead'. Eventually, the whole group gets 'lost'. On no
occasion, not once, have I found a member of the 'student' body -
senior airline captains, high-powered airline execs and the like -
intervene as the demented leader goes off on his plainly divergent
way. Note: not an aeroplane in sight, nor a simulator, virtually
zero-cost. And there is another good thing about the technique. As the
experience is gained in an unfamiliar environment, it can be isolated,
clinically and objectively observed (self-observed) and similarly
dealt with (as motivation to specific self-learning). (If anyone wants
to look at the seminar outline, I'd be pleased to send the notes.)
Culture . . Whew, it's far too hot here to concentrate, but I must.
Aaah! There! The lunchtime Gin and Tonic helps. (The Gin is only in
there to make the Tonic palatable, you understand, the quinine in the
Tonic being essential to warding off tropical ailments such as the
dreaded malaria. Anopheles mosquitos a problem up your way? For
therapeutic reasons only, I think I should have another.) Around here
the prevailing pilot culture includes attitudes such as, 'It's
necessary to depart from procedures a fair bit of the time'. This is
not wholesale civic disobedience, just practical good sense. Besides,
we're good enough to do it and cope with any untoward consequences.
Hmmm. As my mate the Counsellor says, there are aspects to
dysfunctional mental processes that are purely indulgent. People often
choose, for example, self-destructive lifestyles. While your training
program (the 'journey') will surely have to be culturally sensitive, I
doubt that the objectives of training (the 'destination') need, nor
ought, to be. Safe behaviour, definable safety-related attributes
(like the ability to acknowledge a rotten decision), are really as
culturally-neutral as the flap selector and auto-throttle. I don't
think our passengers really want us to choose unsafe patterns of
behaviour - no matter how desirable they may be as manifestations of
our attractiveness to the opposite sex. So I'm not too sure, Greg and
others tuned in to the question, that the aviation future will not
have to be as 'culture-free' as the machinery we operate (or serve?).
As we often say on this forum, just a few thoughts.
There's a maximum thunderstorm a-building outside, for the afternoon
fireworks and deluge. The humidity! (Modem's awash with my sweat.
Better get this on the wire before it shorts out.) With envy towards
those amongst snow - best wishes for Christmas, mates, & safe flying.
Cheers
Doug