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After the German Wings 9525 crash in 2015 in the French Alps, a survey
of pilots mental health was conducted among nearly 2000 pilots in the US
and Europe. The results were then published in the Environmental Health
journal in December 2016. One of the findings showed that 12.6 % of the
pilots were on the threshold of clinical depression. The survey cast
light on a reality distorted by taboos and the preconceived notion of
what pilots are supposed to be like. Pilots, of course, are no different
from other people, and they do experience the same ups and downs as
everybody else.What is resilience and what does it mean for pilots?
In 2016, Resilience Development became an European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) requirement in Crew Resource Management training. But what is resilience, and are we able to actually train pilots around the world to be more resilient?
What is Resilience
Resilience is a psychological term that came about in the 1970s.
After many years of talking about stress management, resilience might be the new term used for pilots to cope in an industry that is changing more rapidly than ever before. Resilience implies being prepared not only for what you are trained but also for unexpected (black swan) events.
The
Hudson River incident showed a crew of high resilience, faced with the
unexpected. Having procedures and checklists incoherent with the actual
situation and yet being able to bounce back in a calm competent manner,
despite the huge time pressure and high stress load. Every day there are
situations in aircraft around the world that demonstrate crews of high
resilience, we just haven’t heard about them because the catastrophic
outcome was prevented.
The Four Cornerstones of Resilience
(Hollnagel,2009)
*Pic source http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:694400/FULLTEXT01.pdf.*
You might also be interested in Hollnagel's Safety1 and Safety 2, what goes right instead of what goes wrong. Click here for full write up.
Anticipating is about staying ahead, looking toward the future for possible failures, and sense making, or retrospective and prospective processes of data framing, re-framing and anticipatory thinking.
Those that are successful in anticipation while engaged in safety-sensitive tasks can detect signals amongst the constant flow of information that signal a potential hazard, and this early recognition offers a head start on developing a course of action to resolve the emergency before it even happens.
However, our expectations and use of heuristics (i.e., mental shortcuts) can create biases and blind spots in our understanding (Fischhoff, 2003; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). Resilient individuals avoid this trap by frequent re-assessment of the cues provide to them.
You might also be interested in the Perils of Multi-tasking.
Monitoring, or detecting early signs of a problem and taking appropriate actions to prevent further degradation, is a key element in preventing abnormal situations from occurring (Mumaw, Roth, Vicente, & Burns, 2000).
The ability to monitor system states can be managed by either a single person, such as in general aviation flying, or with a more team-centered approach like a flight crew. The goal is to recognize, be flexible, and cope with that which could become critical in the near term (Hollnagel, 2009).
What makes monitoring difficult is not the need to pick up subtle abnormal indications against a quiescent background, but rather the need to identify and pursue relevant findings against a noisy background (Mumaw et al., 2000).
Monitoring is a cognitively challenging task for humans (Cuevas, Fiore, Caidwell, & Strater, 2007; Loukopoulos, Dismukes, & Barshi, 2003). Monitoring is a resilient skill because it helps to increase anticipation (early warning) and facilitate early response, hence improved allocation and use of resources (Lay, Branlat, & Woods, 2015).
3.Responding – Knowing what to do. How to respond to regular and irregular disruptions and disturbances by adjusting normal function.
https://www.pinclipart.com/pindetail/TThThT_collection-of-not-following-high-quality-not-following/
The ability of a system to respond to risks or threats is a fundamental feature of any type of system, resilient or otherwise. In order to respond when something happens to a system, the system must be able to detect, identify the risk, and rate the level of seriousness of the risk (Hollnagel, 2009).
What can make responding difficult is that we cannot predict or plan for some risk types. The ability to steer our system’s safety when encountering challenges depends on our perception of the cues we are using to determine the nature of the current threat or risk, and how we should best respond to it.
Because humans have the capability to circumnavigate rules when required, it can actually lend flexibility and adaptability to the system. In fact, there are some cases where intentionally not following the prescribed procedure is a better option (Dekker, 2001).
4.Learning – Knowing what has happened. How to learn from the experience, in particular, to learn the right lessons from the right experience.
A resilient system must be able to learn from experience. Learning can also take place on the flight deck when the event is in progress. However, to simply say that one should learn is not enough.
You might also be interested in Hollngel's learnig Safety1 and Safety2. Click here for full write up.
