Introduction to Crew Resource Management — Page 336, Lesson 553

I want to walk you through a critical part of Crew Resource Management — how to detect, respond to, and prevent the loss of situational awareness, and then how decision making is structured in the cockpit. Let's start with situational awareness. The book gives us a set of clues to watch for — signs that you or someone in the crew may be losing that accurate picture of what's really happening around the aircraft. Look out for clues like confusion or concern existing in the cockpit. Pay attention when leading questions start being asked — those are questions that steer toward a particular answer rather than genuinely seeking information. Notice the occasion when different sources and information disagree with each other. Watch for the tendency to ignore or distort incoming information — that's when your brain starts filtering out data that doesn't fit your current belief. And be alert for that time when your mind becomes focused on one area to the detriment of others — tunnel vision, in other words. Now, when you spot those clues, how should you respond? First, accept that you may have lost situational awareness. That's the hardest step — admitting it to yourself. Then look for disaffirmation — evidence that contradicts your current understanding — and collect varied information that proves you have indeed lost situational awareness. Finally, use all resources available to you to create a new "mental model" — a fresh, accurate picture of the situation. But the best approach is prevention. Try to prevent loss of situational awareness by keeping ahead of the aircraft. From the very start of your aviation career, make it a habit to work hard collecting information and constantly monitoring to create an accurate mental model. Recognize that your perception and work activity are likely to fall during night flights or if you are ill or stressed, and counter that by working hard at maintaining situational awareness. And crucially, share your mental model with your instructor, a mutual student, or other crew members. It is unlikely that two crew members will have the same incorrect mental model — so constant communication to check and share models is vital. Now let's move to decision making. The book points out something interesting: although we constantly make decisions during our day-to-day life, there was no formal tuition as to how to do this in the aviation system. Because of that gap, two main ways of making decisions have been developed specifically to assist airborne decision making. The first is Standard Operating Procedures — SOPs. For predictable problems, often technical ones, a number of experts will have considered the malfunctions for a considerable length of time and decided upon the best possible solution or course of action. Think of examples like an engine fire, hydraulic failure, or landing gear malfunction — these are scenarios where the best response has already been worked out in advance. The second method is for more complex, unpredictable problems where a Standard Operating Procedure may not be possible. In those cases, a structured approach to decision making is required. British Airways have developed and use a system known as "DODAR" — and that's what we'll look at next.