RE: CRM Millennium Manifesto

Keith Hendy (khendy_at_dciem.dnd.ca)
Fri, 8 Jan 1999 09:21:05 -0400

<snip>
>An example - Keith has made the point that it is difficult to justify
>the synergy position. But - does this mean that we should abandon the
>group as a concept in CRM? The group-individual relationship is by some
>called "the master problem" of social psychology - is there more to
>groups than the sum of the individuals that compromise them? If we feel
>that the answer is no, then we should stop talking about the crew as a
>group and treat them as individuals. I think this would be a serious
>error, and feel that the concept of "the group" is central in relation
>to CRM. But - we still need good, solid knowledge about the individual.
>Solomon Asch, one of the pioneers of social psychology, put it this way:
>"We need a way of understanding group process that retains the prime
>reality of individual and group, the two permanent poles of all social
>processes. We need to see group forces arising out of the actions of
>individuals and individuals whose actions are a function of the group
>forces that they themselves (or others) have brought into existence. We
>must see group phenomena as both the product and condition of actions of
>individuals". This was written 47 years ago, but I see it as valid even
>today.
>
>So - on which theory or theories should we base CRM in the next
>millennium?
>
>Best regards,
>
>Jens R.
>
>
>Jens Rolfsen
>Human Factors Advisor / Psychologist
>Braathens
>Training Department
>PO BOX 55
>1330 FORNEBU
>NORWAY
>Jens.rolfsen_at_Braathens.no

Jens,

I do not argue that the Group concept should be dropped (and I really like
what Asch said, I guess a lot has been lost from this goal over the 47
years since ;-), just that when we talk about Groups we do so from a strong
position (hopefully based on theory) and leave the pop psychology behind.
Early approaches to CRM seem to promote the idea that synergy makes up for
poor individual skills. I believe this idea has been used to degrade the
critical role of individual skills in group performance. I take the
position that CRM is about the management of time, knowledge and attention.
These are completley dependent on one another. Time amanagement starts
with having the highest levels of individual skill, which reduces the time
to goal achievement (settling times of PCT loops), and hence allows
attention to be directed to the next area of concern from which knowledge
can be gained to make another decsion and so on...

Groups don't make decisions, individuals within the group do...

Group process can result in emergent properties, however a penalty of
invoking group processes is the need for communication. Communication eats
up the timeline and hence adds to workload, grabs attention and reduces
overall knowledge. Only when the value of the emergent properties
outweighs the penalty of communication does this result in a positive entry
in the time-attention-knowledge equation. The article that Vince drew us
to talks about this issue in an entirely descriptive sense. We have tried
to put it at a theoretical level.

Cheers

Keith

BTW I was familiar with the quote ;-) It is only the science I try to treat
with reverence.
Keith Hendy
Systems Modelling Group
DCIEM
PO Box 2000
Toronto, ON M3M 3B9
CANADA

Ph: 416 635 2074