Ithuta JV

Source - Article by Bob Andrew

In the 1970's, aircraft accident investigators determined that that the major cause of accidents involved human error, with other causes, such as equipment failure and weather being less significant. Subsequent to this determination , a NASA workshop, convened to examine the role of human error in aircraft accidents, determined that the majority of flight crew errors consisted of failures in leadership, team coordination, and decision-making.

The response of the aviation community was to develop new kinds of psychological training for flight crews. This training focuses on group dynamics, leadership, interpersonal communications, and decision-making and is now known as Crew Resource Management (CRM) and defined by the US National Transportation Safety Board as the ability of the flight crew to use all available resources; information, equipment, and people; to achieve safe and efficient flight operations. Specifically, it is the process that the flight crew actively uses to identify avoid, manage, and mitigate human errors , by identifying existing and potential threats, and developing, communicating and implementing plans and actions to avoid or mitigate identified threats.

CRM has a broad vista and interacts with such aspects as: solving problems in ever-changing environments, effective sharing of information, verbalisation of thought processes, how to deal with the unexpected, how to concurrently manage tasks, developing situational awareness, improving emotional intelligence, accurate and rapid communication, how to handle interruptions and the importance of delegation. In essence, CRM involves enhancing team members’ understanding of human performance, in particular the social and cognitive aspects of effective teamwork and good decision-making.

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Since first being used in aircraft flight-deck situations, CRM has been adapted for use in many industrial operations, especially where safety and dealing with emergency situations are critical, for example in the control and operational centres of nuclear plants and offshore oil installations, military and surgical teams and in railroad applications. In these cases, CRM is aimed at reducing operational errors, which could cause an accident and to provide operational crews with skills to deal with problems if they are faced with an emergency.

In project management, the principles of CRM could be used to enhance teamwork and to facilitate the effective implementation of project management processes in conditions where continuous scope and schedule changes are necessary to cope with changing stakeholder requirements and changes in the project environment.

CRM for project management applications could consist of ongoing training and monitoring processes through which project team members are trained to approach their activities from a team perspective rather than from an individual perspective. The team concept allows more efficient use of available assets, such as technical and commercial knowledge and proficiency, personal experience and knowledge of project management methodologies.