CRM Metric (CRM Shift)
CRMWILSON_at_aol.com
Fri, 4 Oct 1996 16:35:58 -0400
Good Morning all and especially John:
Sounds like I stung the giant awake. Respectful disagreement and debate is
what this forum is all about, so John, your arguement is welcome. I was not
my intent to rest on the questionable laurels of aircrew response. But, as
there is a mass of that information available, I do not feel it should be
ignored. Certainly, if that is the only foundation for measuring the outcome
of CRM training we may be asking the fox how he likes the hen house.
However, I am a little unsure of the meaning of the "politically correct"
thrust of your arguement, particularly in regard to check rides, exams, etc.
In my experience those are almost completely objective measures of physical
performance or specific knowledge.
Oh, that we could develop as exacting, finite, and objective measure for CRM,
as we have for checkrides and writtens. Which, of course, brings us to the
questions: What and how are we going to measure? What are the criteria for
success? The answer to the first is directly related to the "underpinnings"
of CRM. The latter is related to the use one chooses for the information
gleaned from the measures.
If, in fact, CRM training is about behavior modification, then the answers
lie in the realm of the psychologist. If CRM is the aquistion of certain
skills, then their presence or absence should be fairly easy to determine. I
know that my instructors and facilitators are confident of their abilities to
evaluate good and less than good CRM in crew performance. Maybe our research
should use their inputs as well as that from others who routinely evaluate
aircrew performance. If , as I suspect CRM is a function of both, then
experts from both houses should have valid inputs.
What is the purpose for evaluating CRM output? If it is to improve our
training methods and programs perhaps the approach would be different than if
the purpose is to convince the corporate leadership that it is worthwhile to
continue to invest or expand investment in this area of training.
I think we have some definition and direction questions even before we get to
the very necessary effort of developing the valid measure.
Dave Wilson
HTI