Having some experience in the area, I am a little more optimistic than
Hugo Oscar Leimann about getting self-assessment (S/A) to work. (I
must say, though, that I did appreciate his lucid and erudite essay.
Very informative.)
First, it is necessary to understand why S/A doesn't work. As Hugo
points out, denial is at work. That is what causes questionnaires to
fail. 'That isn't me,' or, 'I would not do that.' Denial. 'I am not,
too ill, or, well enough rested, or, fully prepared, to fly to-day.'
It is important not to classify denial pejoratively, as in 'lack of
intellectual honesty/openness'. That only makes it worse in the
'carrier'. Denial is an autonomous cognitive response, processed
sub-consciously. When the denial 'switch' is activated, the person
denying is unaware they are doing it. How can you ask someone to
correst something they don't know they are doing? Impossible.
That's the bad news. The good news is that autonomous cognitive
responses (or 'habits') have been learned. If you can learn something
'in', you can learn it 'out'. Though, as anyone who has worked with
adult training knows, getting folk to change habits is very difficult,
getting harder as the age of the 'subject' increases.
So powerful motivators are needed. Like, the tenets of a professional
code ‹ you do this because it is the right thing to do, your sacred
duty. Before there's too much slapping of thighs and falling around
laughing at that one, let's look to the future.
You can test for denial, and it's only a matter of time before tests
are readily available. Once pilots know that to fail a test is to hand
in the licence, we are going to see some pretty prompt adoption of the
professional code. Motivation indeed. Get the habit out of the system
well and truly, before any of this testing turns up, yes indeed. The
first step in doing that, in getting latent (yes, there is a
personality component) and learned denial tendencies under control, is
to develop the habit of honest introspection ‹ self-assessment. That's
the antidote.
Oh, and by the way, cognitive habits are learned from experience. They
can only be unlearned the same way, through experiential exercise. And
it is going to be tough going for a lot of people, but, once they know
it has to happen, they'll do it.
A related point. High on the list of priorities for those training the
next generation of pilots should be 'innoculating' them agaist denial.
The approach I am advocating here is that pilots take the lead
themselves in wotking out their denial problems, rather than have
something externally imposed by management/command.
If anyone wants to look at a training seminar I conduct for Australian
pilots let me know and I'll email the package. (The 'cultural
component' will probably render it unusable directly, but I am sure
the general design principles will 'translate' easily.)
Regards
Doug