Re: Classroom Awareness vs. Management Skill Training
CRMDEEN_at_aol.com
Mon, 17 Feb 1997 15:57:57 -0500 (EST)
Hello Andy,
You're in a tough spot; I've been there.Sort of am still, in one area.
It's hard to get mangement to understand that a one-hour visit can too easily
become a "square-filler" and the notion of "quality" seems far removed from
today's workload challenge. I even told senior management that if you can't
do something right, you shouldn't do it. Their response was that CRM
training is too politically sensitive NOT to do it, but yet the client still
refused to allocate the advised time priority.
In light of this predicament, you are on the right philosophical track;
consider the one hour class only part of a series of training sessions, ie:
MOST/LOFT. The challenge you then take on is to connect the simulator
training sessions with the academics. This is possible, but quite a workload
in lesson development, facilitator training, and schedule consistancy. Ask
that smart-alec at NWA; he'll tell you the workload this premise creates.
Here's a positive suggestion; it's one I'm slowly implementing into the
C-130 system and the change is so subtle it's almost invisible.
First the class session of one hour:
1. Divide the group into small teams of 3 to 5 people.
2. Issue a case study for them to read. This should have only a
story of the event, with enought details to come to the right conclusions,
but without the conclusions presented in the paper.
3. The teams' objective: read the story, discuss it and prepare to
identify the CRM dynamic, the possible cause, and how training might prevent
it from happening again.
4. The "dynamic" they are to find is your "topic of the month", such
as "situational awareness". If the story is well written, you can use it
several times, as the CRM dynamics in the AFI are present on a daily basis
(and in each mishap).
5. While the groups are discussing the story, the facilitator walks
through the room and hands a small piece of paper to one individual in each
group. (People will take anything from you if you ask nicely) Once an
individual person in each group is holding the paper, the facilitator
announces "those who are holding the paper are the appointed team
spokesperson"; they are now the PIC (and it doesn't need to be a pilot since
the leadership is a legitimate authority, not necessarily skill-based)
6. After a short time, the spokesperson of each group will present
their analysis of the story.
Time Challenge? 5 minutes for lesson objectives,10 minutes for reading,
15 minutes for group discussion, 15 minutes for spokespersons, 10 minutes for
facilitator wrap-up. It is imperitive that the facilitator announce time
reference countdown during the group discussions. It keeps them on track and
under time pressure. If the facilitator is inaccurate in the time
announcements (and he should be) temporal distortion can influence group
efficiency.
Now the next challenge: connect it to the sim sessions.
If your "topic of the month" is situational awareness, the MOST facilitator
must adjust the mission variables to challenge the crew's situational
awareness. If they are successful, the crew will connect it. Last week, I
gave a one hour discussion of the T-43 in Bosnia mishap, with emphasis on the
deviation from policy and regulations. Later that day, the same crew found
themselves in an airlift mission which had an unpredicted and sudden change
in landing airfields, and the crew was receiving high pressure to divert to
an airfield they knew very little of, had not studied prior to flight, and
were quite confused if (1) they COULD do this, and (2) if they SHOULD do
this. During the discussion, the PIC said "let's don't jump into this. We
just had a discussion about that Bosnia crash, and this scenario smells a lot
like it." He went on to say "how many regulations have we busted already?"
They identified about six, and then he said, "this is a definite error
chain, let's be careful". The crew came to a successful conclusion, and they
had experienced a realistic application from a class discussion to the MOST
session. I can only hope they take it to the flight line.
It's possible, but it's a challenge. Good luck
Greg Deen
HTI, C-130 ATS