Re: crm and military aviation
CRMDEEN_at_aol.com
Sat, 27 Sep 1997 10:51:46 -0400 (EDT)
Hello Tor, welcome to the group. Congratulations on the opportunity to
pioneer a new training course. I've done that a couple of times myself.
One the best ways to start a training program is to establish answers to
these questions? (I should have done this myself once)
1. Why do we need the training? Don't start just because "everyone else
is doing it." Has your organization realized some problems lately that
appear to be related to CRM? Many companies don't do CRM until they have an
accident that includes CRM in the report of causes. Therefore, they start
out thinking that the "new CRM stuff" will stop the accidents. Wrong
approach.
2. As you may have noticed in some of the comments, "fighter" pilots
tend to be very resistant to CRM training. That's mostly due to ignorance on
their part, and failings in the training department. The solution is to
design and present the course in a manner which make them think that it's
THEIR course, not someone else's. Bob Helmriech's and Asliegh Merritt's
recent research on cultures would be a good place for you to begin. Simply
stated, who are the students? Fighter pilots are very good at what they do,
and some think what they do is a "one-man show", but they are really an
extension of a larger team. Also, are your aircraft single seat, or dual?
3. If you can't get a well planned cultural analysis done, gather some
pilots together for a "chat session", and ask them what they do. Get them to
identify all of the players of the "mission", and how the mistakes of one
player may affect the overall outcome. You'll learn a lot, by just listening
to their "war stories". Don't forget to ask them to explain why their job
exists--what is their role in life?
4. You'll soon learn that a "CRM" program for your fighters will
include plane-to-plane communication challenges, high and low workload
challenges, physiological stressors, and difficulty in working with the
"non-pilot" groups such as air traffic control, mission planners,
maintenence, etc. Another area that may surface, depending on the aircraft,
is how well the training system teaches the pilots the technical stuff of the
aircraft.
Tor, that should keep you busy for a few days, let us know how its
coming, and we'll keep the advice flowing. Good luck, and again, welcome.
Greg Deen
HTI