Is Your Team Ready?
Matthew Rivers
Operations Maestro | Leadership Nerd | Published Author | 8x Marathoner Running on Big Ideas (and coffee)
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.�
-George Santayana from “The Age of Reason†- 1905
There is a lot of wisdom to be acquired through learning, especially through the experiences of those who have actually been in the arena, to quote Theodore Roosevelt. Consider the perspective one can gain from reading George Washington’s letters on how he felt he had failed the Continental Army during the early days of the Revolutionary War. There are a lot of lessons contained within the 9/11 Commission Report. As General Jim Mattis says in his book, to read is to leverage the lessons of history. Not to take advantage of those would be foolish.?
That is the primary reason that I read accounts of those who have faced harrowing circumstances in their lives. I want to learn about how they approached a situation and accomplished something extraordinary. Either that, or I wish to find out what they learned when they failed. In this age of information, there is greater access to these stories than in the past. Our ability to accurately document and preserve the experiences of others is augmented through video recordings and other technology. It’s why military units and SWAT teams conduct debrief sessions and author after-action reports. To gain and leverage knowledge for the sake of improved performance and safety.?
I’ve previously discussed the “Big Three†of Time, Complexity, and Consequence as they relate to problem solving and decision making. It happens that these elements also make for engaging stories. And for this reason, I am drawn to incidents in aviation history:
Time: There’s only so much time that a plane can stay in the air
Complexity: Modern airplanes are inherently complicated
Consequence: Often, many lives hang in the balance.?
Consider the incident famously known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.†On a cold January day in 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 landed safely in the Hudson River after striking a flock of Canada geese shortly after takeoff. Amazingly, no lives were lost in that incident. ?
Here’s a great video of that incident that ties together the ATC recordings, cockpit recordings, and an animation showing the aircraft’s position over New York City:
One of the notable things about that flight’s successful outcome was the teamwork of the crew. Flight 1549 incident is regarded as a great example of “Crew Resource Managementâ€; the idea that a team is ready to respond to an incident and utilizes everything at its disposal to solve problems. In that instance, they were.That’s what we’re looking at today: the idea that a team can be evaluated based on its readiness to act when the moment arrives.?
How do you measure?
In an article entitled “A Methodology for Enhancing Crew Resource Management Trainingâ€, the authors base the effectiveness and readiness of a team on the following factors:?
1. Communication
The ability of two or more team members to clearly and accurately send and receive information or commands and provide useful feedback
2. Briefing / Planning
The ability of team members to develop plans of action by organizing resources, activities, and responses to ensure tasks are completed in an integrated and synchronized manner
3. Backup Behavior
Ability of team members to anticipate the needs of others through accurate knowledge about each other’s responsibilities, including the ability to shift workload between members to create balance during periods of high workload or pressure
4. Mutual Performance Monitoring
Ability of a team member to accurately monitor other team members’ performance, including giving, seeking, and receiving task-clarifying feedback.?
5. Team Leadership
Ability of a team leader to direct and coordinate the activities of team members, encourage team members to work together, assess performance, assign tasks, develop team knowledge, skills, abilities, motivate, plan and organize, and establish a positive team atmosphere.?
6. Decision Making?
Ability of team members to gather and integrate information, make logical and sound judgements, identify alternatives, consider the consequences of each alternative, and select the best one.?
7. Task-related Assertiveness
Willingness / readiness of team members to communicate their ideas, opinions, and observations in a way that is persuasive to other team members and to maintain a position until convinced by the facts that other options are better
8. Team Adaptability
Ability of team members to alter a course of action or adjust strategies when new information becomes available.?
9. Shared Situation Awareness
Ability of team members to gather and use information to develop a common understanding of the task and team environment.?
It is through these criteria, primarily the ability of the team, that their response to a crisis can be evaluated.?
As a test, you can apply these to Flight 1549 and say without a doubt, yes, that team was ready for the moment. Let’s take a look at another incident in which CRM was applied and successful.?
领英推è
United Airlines Flight 232
On July 19, 1989, A United Airlines DC-10 took off from Denver en route to O’Hare airport in Chicago. 296 people were on board and were in the care of Captain Al Haynes and First Officer William Records.?
About an hour into the flight, at an altitude of 37,000 feet over Iowa, the fan disk of the tail-mounted engine disintegrated. This caused extensive damage to the aircraft’s hydraulic system and tail section.?
Immediately, the pilots found themselves unable to control the plane, which banked to the right with a nose-down attitude. They pilots worked rapidly to gain whatever control they could to avoid letting the aircraft become inverted. The nature of the hydraulic failure was so rare that a protocol did not exist for how to deal with it. They were forced to improvise in a deadly situation.?
The plane continued to lose altitude. 13 minutes after the loss of the engine and hydraulics, Dennis Fitch arrived in the cockpit to assist. He happened to be an experienced pilot himself and a DC-10 flight instructor.?
Over the next 30 minutes, the three men in the cockpit worked together to keep the plane in the air, each of them focusing on a specific task. During that time, they coordinated their actions with the rest of the flight crew and with ground-based support units.?
As they descended, the impossibility of landing the plane safely or normally was obvious to those in the cockpit. Air Traffic Controllers guided Flight 232 towards Sioux City Airport, where they would attempt to set the plane down.?
Captain Haynes’ ability to remain focused and even humorous in the moment was captured on the cockpit recording:?
Sioux City Approach: United Two Thirty-Two heavy, you’re cleared to land on any runway.?
Haynes: (laughter). Roger. You want to be particular and make it a runway, huh?
Haynes, Records, and Fitch fought for control to the very last second.The DC-10 hit the ground at double the normal landing speed and three times the normal descent rate. The plane broke apart upon impact and skidded to a fiery halt on the ground. It was an airplane crash that should have killed everyone on board.?
And yet, incredibly, 184 people survived, including the men in the cockpit. It is an incident that is often regarded as an outstanding example of Crew Resource Management.?
For more on Flight 232, check out this video:
And this article:
What about you?
When I read that criteria above, I thought back to the chaotic scenes that I managed with my patrol teams, but also to the dynamic problems we faced during the pandemic at Shield Illinois. When we faced a tough situation or problem, how were we successful? Certainly, these components of effective teams can apply to more situations that aviation. There is a set of principles that make up “Maritime Resource Management†for ships at sea.?
Going back to the list of competencies above, it is a list that you can apply to your team as well. How prepared is your team in these areas?
1. Communication
2. Briefing / Planning
3. Backup Behavior
4. Mutual Performance Monitoring
5. Team Leadership
6. Decision Making?
7. Task-related Assertiveness
8. Team Adaptability
9. Shared Situation Awareness
Essentially, it comes down to this:
Are you prepared to effectively use everything at your disposal to solve this problem?
If not, what will you do to change that? In the meantime, I recommend the you seek out other examples of how CRM has helped leaders in critical moments save lives.?
Thank you for reading. Please like, comment, share, and subscribe.?