Six Aviation Rituals that Reinforce Safety Culture

Andreza Araújo

During interactions with aviation commanders, I had the opportunity to develop structured dialogues that allowed me to better understand the daily operational routines that strengthen safety culture in flights. These practices are essential for maintaining the safety of both the crew and passengers. However, as I understood each of these rituals, I realized that they should not be confined to aviation; they can be explained and applied in other businesses as well.

As I present these rituals, I invite you to reflect on their usability in your company alongside your leaders initially. Let's explore these crucial rituals:

1. Intuitive Checklists: The implementation of procedures in checklist format, designed to be intuitive and read aloud, ensures that no critical step is forgotten before and during the flight by all members of the CRM - Crew Resource Management.
2. Regular Simulation: Pilots participate in simulator sessions every six months, with each session lasting three days. These sessions are vital for practicing maneuvers and procedures in a controlled environment, allowing pilots to hone their skills and prepare for adverse situations.
3. Conscious Safety Briefing: Before each flight, a safety briefing is conducted, emphasizing not only physical safety but also mental and psychological health. Crew members are encouraged to discuss any discomfort with a maneuver or situation openly.
4. Division of Responsibilities: Safety is a shared responsibility between the captain and the co-pilot. This division ensures that all aspects of the flight operation are continuously monitored, promoting a cooperative and vigilant work environment.
5. Standardized Communication: The adoption of clear and precise phraseology standards is fundamental for directing communications within the cockpit, reducing the chances of misunderstandings during critical situations.
6. Global Learning Exchange: Aviation is a global community, and the exchange of information about incidents and accidents is vital. There are rituals of discussions where lessons are shared internationally, ensuring that valuable errors are learned on a global scale.

These routines are fundamental for promoting a robust safety culture in aviation, ensuring that safety remains the top priority in all flights.

However, analyzing all the rituals leaves us with some questions since not everyone is in the aviation sector. How can we co-create these good practices in our businesses?

To help you in this process, I propose some questions that allow for this synergy:

1. How do teams experience the procedures?
2. Are they intuitive and close?
3. Is safety training recurring?
4. What competencies are we developing?
5. Are we preparing our leaders for scenarios where they need to lead in safety?
6. How does our safety briefing or safety dialogue work?
7. What is the reach of our dialogue?
8. Who conducts our dialogue?
9. Has our safety dialogue been a space for strengthening risk perception based on established psychological safety?
10. Who commands the briefing?
11. Do people in your business recognize their role and responsibility in safety?
12. Do they understand the existing limits in safety responsibilities and routines?
13. How do we facilitate operational communication?
14. How does our learning model work?
15. With whom are we learning?
16. How often do we stop to learn between leaders and the operational front line?

Answering these questions can provide valuable insights for short, medium, and long-term implementations, adapting proven aviation safety practices to enrich safety culture in different sectors.

I hope these reflections promote a safer and more engaged environment in your organization. We will continue to explore and promote safety culture in future editions of our newsletter.