Communication and Cooperation — Page 264, Lesson 429

I want to walk you through the topic of communication and cooperation, starting with something very human — personal space. In Western society, we guard our personal space jealously. If you sit or stand in close proximity to anyone other than an intimate friend, it unsettles us. Now think about colleagues sharing a desk, facing each other — they tend to resent spillover from the other person's side into what they see as 'their' space. They'll move objects, openly or surreptitiously, back to the other side. Now let's bring that into the cockpit. The side-by-side seating arrangement in an airline cockpit — as opposed to the front-and-back seating you find in some small aircraft — still gives each pilot their own personal space. There's a panel of controls between the pilots, and that often increases the separation, helping maintain the concept of 'our' personal space. But here's the trade-off: that side-by-side seating may actually inhibit some aspects of communication. And some pilots may find the space claustrophobic if the wall of instruments between them takes up too much room. Let's move into cockpit communications proper. Communication — whether direct or via computers — is the main tool used to ensure crew coordination. Early studies of communications were limited to points of interest to psychologists, linguistic experts, and anthropologists. But all of those studies have emphasized the need to train pilots in methods of communication in all situations, through Crew Resource Management — CRM — and Line-Orientated Flight Training — LOFT — courses. In more recent years, the intense automation of cockpits, as well as the reduction in flight deck crew members, has led to greater emphasis on studying man-machine communications. That includes communication via manuals, briefings, checklists, and announcements. Here's the key point: communications are the vital interface between the various components of the SHELL model. That's the model that looks at Software, Hardware, Environment, Liveware — the people — and the interactions between them. Whether the communication is between people, or between people and the machine, it's the interface that holds everything together. And poor communications are a factor in most system accidents and incidents — whether the cause is human or technical. Now, communication absorbs resources. We have to be attentive to what we say and what we hear. But man's resources are limited and must be shared between current reasoning processes and actions. Consequently, communication efficiency is sensitive to variation in workload and to interruptions. Let's look at workload specifically. An increased workload will tend to shorten communications and reduce the number of exchanges, leading to an increased error rate. Communications can also cause distraction. If the pilot is carrying out a routine action, any communication could make him or her forget that action. That makes it vital that the person who interrupted the pilot must remind the pilot of what he was doing before the interruption. The reverse is also true. If the crew member you wish to talk to is absorbed in a difficult task, there is little chance he or she will understand what is said. If possible, wait until the individual concerned has finished the task.