Crew Resource Management
CRM - or Crew Resource Management to give it its full name - has strong roots in aviation psychology. The late psychologist Bob Helmreich from the University of Texas at Austin researched pilot's attitudes and behaviours on the flight deck in the 1980's and laid the foundation for linking these to flight safety. More recent work led by psychologist Professor Rhona Flin of the University of Aberdeen has led to the development of the modern CRM agenda, and its emphasis on NOTECHS including a rating scale that identifies behavioural markers of more and less effective flight deck pilot behaviour.
EASA’s Safety Risk Management process has identified CRM and Communication as one of the key priorities for Fixed Wing Commercial Air Transport operations. There have recently been changes to CRM training developed under RMT.0411. The associated AMC lists a number of areas in which we have specific experience in designing and delivering CRM-related training:
- Personality awareness
- Attitudes and behaviours
- Self assessment and self critique
- Stress and stress management
- Assertiveness
- Effective communication and co-ordination inside and outside the flight crew compartment
- Leadership and delegation
- Decision making
- Resilience development
- Cultural differences
Our use of Transactional Analysis has been popular amongst pilots and engineers in providing a common language and framework to understand how the quality of aircrew interaction has an impact on safety.