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Human Factors: Team Intelligence

Human Factors | April 14, 2015

Author: Patrick Mendenhall

In June of 1989, I attended my first formal training class in Crew Resource Management (CRM). The class composition was all male, mostly former military, assertive, aggressive, motivated, intelligent, and any number of other attributes that we considered real assets in a high reliability organization. The initial response to having to “endure” CRM training was, for that time, predictably negative. CRM was considered by many as being nothing more than the “flavor of the month,” “psychobabble,” and a “flash in the pan” that would be replaced by another fad in the next training cycle. (I shall not disclose my own position on the grounds that it may incriminate me – or not.)

After lunch on day two of CRM training, we were told to return to a classroom across the hall with about three times the capacity of ours. For the afternoon training session, we were told, our class would be doing scenario-based training with a group of flight attendants. The ensuing moans and groans suggested that this “touchy-feely” stuff may have gone too far. Yet, in spite of the grousing and complaining, we all showed up at the appointed place and time as directed – and on our best behavior, I might add – that is what we do.

After introductory remarks, we were split into teams of three pilots and three to five flight attendants per team, each seated at a round table. Each team was given an in-flight scenario that was based upon a real event. We were asked to read over the scenario, then discuss our reactions and thoughts as they pertain to which side of the cockpit door we operate. The revelations were astounding, and gave clear purpose to the exercise. Each side took away a much greater awareness – level of intelligence – about what the other has to do and think about in a crisis.

For example, the pilots were previously unaware of the protocols and expectations that flight attendants faced in different levels of emergencies. It takes a lot more time than we had thought to prepare the aircraft for an emergency landing, stressing the need for early, clear, and concise communication with the cabin. Then there were the passengers…one hundred passengers and one hundred (or more) different reactions to deal with!

Likewise, many flight attendants had no notion of what was happening on the other side of that door. One of the pilots pulled out a set of abnormal checklists (precursor to what is now referred to as a cockpit operating manual or quick reference manual). When we demonstrated to the flight attendants how we needed to go through the abnormal checklists (sometimes multiple checklists, depending on the situation), go through the weight manuals, talk to the company, and not to mention aviate, navigate and communicate in the same compressed timeframe, the flight attendants expressed that they “had no idea” and better understood why we didn’t always have time to make PAs and answer the interphone on their time schedule.

This became the “ah-ha moment” for many of us – the moment when we recognized the significance of the word “crew” in crew resource management. That crew didn’t stop at the cockpit door; that crew was synonymous with “team” and that to perform as a team in more than name only, we were working at a functional disadvantage if we failed to recognize and understand the challenges that our fellow crewmembers faced in a crisis.

At the time, I do not recall if a label was placed on this notion, but what we learned in that class is part of a concept that is well known in today’s CRM vernacular as Team Intelligence (TI). TI is formally defined as “the active capacity of individual members of a team to learn, teach, communicate, reason, and think together, in the service of realizing shared goals and a shared mission.”

Team Intelligence has been the subject of extensive research since before the dawn of CRM. TI is now well understood to be an essential factor in the synergy that a true CRM culture produces. A true team requires an appropriate distribution of knowledge (“distributed cognition”) to most effectively complete a given task. The more complex or perilous the task – such as in an emergency – the more essential TI becomes.

TI includes many of the basic elements of the CRM model, including leadership, communication, emotional intelligence, and of course, teamwork. On a given flight, TI begins with the preflight briefing and ends with the debrief. In between, all parties should feel encouraged and open to share information they believe to be significant, regardless of their position (“psychological safety”), and should always share status changes as they occur.

In terms of the bigger picture, TI can – and should – be greatly enhanced by including the entire flight department in initial and recurrent training. As with that “ah-ha moment” that I experienced nearly 26 years ago, it is only through such open conversation in a non-stressful training environment that we can appreciate the challenges faced by other members of our team when things get tight. Such knowledge and awareness – Team Intelligence – will better prepare us to deal with the situation as a crew – a team – should the wheels start coming off the bus.

Patrick Mendenhall is a principle at Crew Resource Management, LLC. He develops and teaches CRM and Human Factors courses and frequently addresses audiences in High Reliability Organizations. He currently works as an A-330 pilot for a major international airline, and is co-author of Beyond the Checklist: What Else Health Care Can Learn from Aviation Teamwork and Safety.


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