I write this to primarily provide Andy and others a perspective and some
specific tools for building Mission Oriented Simulation Training.
Skip States:
"I disagree with your concept that there are "CRM Sorties". My position is that
CRM is and must be evident in all situations...CRM, to be effective, just become
habitual...Good CRM is not a toolbox of skills and techniques."
One of the first figures in the Air Force Instructor's Handbook is Bloom's
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. It highlights a predictable progression
from the lowest level (recall and recognition) to the highest level (exercise of
learned judgement). It is noble to set ones sights on the highest educational
objectives for CRM. First, however, the training designer has to identify
specific Management Skill Objectives then decide to what level they will be
taught (See Bloom). One must build and refine skill on the way to developing
habits and expertise. Then the training designer has to identify the best
training methods for bringing the student to the desired proficiency level (See
Bloom for Proficiency Levels). I agree totally with Dave and Andy's premise
that THERE ARE CRM Sorties. I write them every day. These are simulations
that have identified specific Management Skill Objectives to be trained. These
Management Skill Objectives are often combined with other technical and
procedural objectives but our LOFT sessions are designed to elicit specific
management skills and are written to support management skill objectives.
The biggest challenge for most of the industry is identifying specific
management skill objectives for skill training. Many have identified the major
categorizations that they want to train (communications, decision making,
workload management, etc.) but they have not stated the position specific
desired learning objectives / expectations within each of these categories.
About 2 years ago at Delta we specifically identified these outcomes and are now
building our training, evaluations, and line audits to specifically focus on
these outcomes. One of my Graduate Students, Bart Stine, is currently writing
his Graduate Research Project on how to derive these desired learning outcomes
for single seat fighters. One of the spin-offs that I would like to see from
this project is a concise "How To" guide for developing position specific
Management Skill Outcomes/Expectations for any position. This is why many CRM
initiatives have stalled at the Classroom Awareness Training phase is because
there have not been Position-Specific Skill Based Expectations from which to
build training and evaluation systems.
My suggestion to the folks like Andy in AETC and throughout the industry who
are starting to design Mission Oriented Simulations:
1. Take a blank piece of paper and write each of the Management categories from
AFI 22-3643 or your organizations categorization on the page with some space in
between each. Be careful about using categorization schemes that mix concepts,
outcomes, and skills. Group dynamics is a concept... Situation Awareness is an
outcome. The categorization should only be skills (identifable action verbs).
If it is not a skill than it doesn't belong in CRM Training. Have a separate
bin for human performance awareness topics and store concept objectives there.
2. Under each of these categories write: The (specific pilot position) should:
3. Under each of these "Pilot Should" Statements write a few expectations of
what the pilot should do for that specific category
4. Have a few "Expert Pilots" review this list of position specific
expectations
5. Use this set of Management Skill Expectations as your core document for
deriving your Management Skill Objectives
6. Pick one or two of these management skill expectations as the desired
learning outcome(s) for your simulation
7. Build simulations with operational complexities that will require the pilots
to use the management skills you have identified for that training sortie.
The art of debriefing these is best addressed separately. Building them will
keep you busy for some time. For Andy and the folks in AETC.... Maj. Alex
Bapty has a prototype template for designing MOST event sets that I created for
him and he can send to you. I will be working with Maj. Bapty to design
instructor training for maximizing MOST/LOFT debriefs. More to follow.....
Hope this Helps Andy.....
Best Regards,
Vince Mancuso, Ph.D.
Delta Air Lines Training and
Reserve Advisor to the CRM Manager at AETC Headquarters