Behaviour and Motivation — Page 176, Lesson 283

I want to walk you through the topic of behaviour and motivation, starting with some very practical guidelines for maintaining good situational awareness. These are not abstract ideas — they are concrete actions you can take in the cockpit to make sure you stay on top of what is really happening around you. First, gather as much information as possible from every possible source before you make up your mind. That means using your instruments, your eyes outside, radio calls, what the other crew member says, your own feel for the aircraft — everything. Do not jump to a conclusion based on only one piece of data. Second, take as much time as is practicable to make up your mind. The book makes a strong point here: rapid decisions are seldom necessary and are often erroneous. In an emergency, you may feel pressure to act instantly, but in most cases you have more time than you think. Use it. Third, consider all possible interpretations of the data, not just the ones that fit your existing ideas. This is a trap we all fall into — we see what we expect to see. You must actively look for alternative explanations. Fourth, once you have started on a course of action, stop occasionally to take stock. That is feedback. Ask yourself: is this still working? Am I still heading where I need to go? Fifth, check that your hypothesis still fits the data as events progress. Your initial understanding of a situation may have been correct at the time, but things change. Keep testing it. Sixth, consider ways to test your actions to check the accuracy of your theory. For example, if you think you have an engine problem, you might cross-check with a different instrument or ask the other pilot to verify. Seventh — and this is a critical one — if incoming data does not fit in with your thoughts, do not just disregard it. Take time to reconsider the situation. If necessary, go all the way back to the first symptoms of the problem. Do not let your ego or your initial plan blind you to new evidence. Eighth, try to ensure that you interpret the world as it is, not as you would like it to be. This is the essence of objectivity in the cockpit. And the book gives you a memorable motto to sum all this up: by all means, hope for the best, but plan for the worst. Now we move into the topic of motivation itself. The Oxford Dictionary defines motivation as "to cause a person to act in a particular way". That is the formal definition. But the book gives you a much more practical one from Frank Hawkins, who wrote: "motivation reflects the difference between what a person can do and what he will do." Let me unpack that. An airline may spend millions of pounds on selection, training, and checking of aircrew to ensure they have the capacity to perform at the highest level of expertise. That is the can do part. But it is motivation that determines whether they will do it. You can have all the skill in the world, but if you are not motivated to apply it, that skill is wasted. Motivation comes in many guises. The book gives examples: a painter may live in poverty, working long hours for the love of art. A politician will tolerate public attack and personal abuse in the quest for power. A business executive may forgo all family life in the pursuit of financial reward. Murder may be committed in order to survive, or life lost in the attempt to save another's life. We are all different, and each of us is driven by individual motivational forces. At its most basic level, motivation is driven by physiological needs — hunger, thirst, pain, or the need to survive. But we are also driven by psychological or social needs. The book references Figure 9.1 here, which I have on screen for you. However, the situation is rarely quite so clearly defined. The book gives a good example: a woman's hunger drive may be modified by a conflicting motivation to remain attractively slim. So even a basic physiological need like hunger can be overridden by a social or psychological motivation. That is the complexity we are dealing with.