Stay ConnectedHuman factors is a critical topic within the world of SCUBA diving, scientific diving, military diving, and commercial diving. This podcast is a mixture of interviews and ‘shorts’ which are audio versions of the weekly blog from The Human Diver.
Each month we will look to have at least one interview and one case study discussion where we look at an event in detail and how human factors and non-technical skills contributed (or prevented) it from happening in the manner it did.
Copyright: © 2023 (c) The Human Diver 2023
In this podcast episode, we explore the often-overlooked impact of weather, particularly heat, on divers' cognitive and physical abilities. Despite the common perception that warm temperatures are ideal for vacations, studies reveal significant cognitive impairment in individuals exposed to heat, especially without air conditioning. From decreased reaction times to impaired decision-making and mental flexibility, the effects of heat on divers, particularly those new to hot climates, pose considerable risks. Additionally, physical conditions like dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke can be life-threatening if not addressed promptly, underscoring the importance of staying hydrated and seeking shade. With many divers visiting hot destinations for short holidays, acclimatization becomes crucial for safe diving, highlighting the need for a balanced approach to temperature regulation and self-care to mitigate the cumulative effects of heat on diving performance.
Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/hot-hot-hot-challenges-of-diving-in-the-heat
Links:
Harvard study: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002605
Study by Cheema and Patrick: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1509/jmr.08.0205
Tags:
English, Decision Making, Jenny Lord, Performance Shaping Factors
In this podcast episode, we delve into the contentious debates within the diving community, focusing on the half turn back of tank valves as a prime example. Exploring a recent Facebook group discussion with diverse opinions, ranging from staunch supporters to strong opponents, the episode delves into the broader issue of anchoring bias in scuba diving practices. Drawing parallels with anchoring bias in various domains, from shopping decisions to legal judgments, the episode emphasizes the impact of initial teachings on long-term practices. Anchoring bias, deeply rooted in psychology, influences how divers learn and instruct others, creating a tradition that may persist even when no longer necessary. The podcast encourages listeners to question established practices, employing the "consider-the-opposite" technique to overcome anchoring bias and think logically about alternative approaches. The episode extends this mindset to examining incidents and accidents, advocating for understanding the context and reasons behind actions rather than focusing solely on mistakes. Ultimately, the episode urges divers to embrace exploration of new ideas, challenging traditional practices to foster continuous learning and improvement.
Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/change-is-difficult-consider-the-opposite
Tags: English, Cognitive Biases, Incident Analysis, Jenny Lord
In this podcast episode, we delve into the crucial role of mistakes in the learning process, drawing parallels between human learning and artificial intelligence. Reflecting on the challenges of learning to dive, the narrative emphasizes the importance of trial and error, highlighting that making mistakes is an inherent part of improvement. The episode introduces the concept of debriefs as a powerful tool for learning, not just to identify mistakes but also to recognize what went well. A practical model, DEBrIEF, is discussed, emphasizing the significance of balanced feedback that includes both positive and negative aspects. The podcast encourages a learning mindset when approaching accidents and incidents, shifting the focus from assigning blame to preventing future occurrences. The episode underscores the value of a structured approach to debriefs, providing references to support the discussion. Overall, the episode encourages listeners to embrace mistakes as opportunities for growth and underscores the importance of fostering a learning-oriented mindset in both individual and team contexts.
Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly
Links:
Robots learning to play football: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZjQwZNw2po
“Ugly”- Two other relevant blogs: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/counter-factuals
https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/its-obvious-why-it-happened
The positivity effect: a negativity bias in youth fades with age. Laura L Carstensen and Marguerite DeLiema: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6186441/
Tags:
English, Debrief, Incident Analysis, Jenny Lord
In this podcast episode, we explore the challenge of bringing about change, emphasizing the importance of recognizing value in stories. Three compelling examples are discussed: a near-fatal diving incident due to an oxygen mix-up, a media company's critical review of a faulty rebreather incident, and a rural Indian village adopting latrines after witnessing the consequences of unhygienic practices. The central theme revolves around the need for reflection to identify similarities and conditions leading to outcomes, rather than focusing solely on differences. The episode poses questions about trust in established practices, the depth of evidence required for change, and the factors hindering it. The diving industry's reliance on compliance and resistance to a Just Culture are highlighted, emphasizing the necessity of investing in continuous learning and applying human factors for lasting improvement. The podcast encourages listeners to move beyond identifying lessons to implementing meaningful changes for genuine learning.
Original blog:
https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/learning-from-stories-isn-t-easy-here-s-why
Links:
Look at the conditions, not the outcomes: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/don-t-just-focus-on-the-errors
Article by Dan Heath on LinkedIn about trying to bring latrines to rural Indian villages: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-can-change-anyones-mindif-help-them-trip-over-truth-dan-heath/
The status quo is good enough blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/status-quo
Compliance provides an illusion of safety blog: https://gue.com/blog/compliance-provides-an-illusion-of-safety-in-diving/
Compliance provides an illusion of safety video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNhmxz2_adc
Were you lucky or were you good blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/were-you-lucky-or-were-you-good-2
Tags:
English, Debrief, Decision Making, Gareth Lock, Learning, LFUO
Dive into the world of diving safety with insights from Gareth's blog on counterfactuals in this podcast episode. Jenny tackles common but unhelpful statements following accidents, such as "They should have paid more attention" and "They lacked situation awareness." The episode explores practical strategies for divers, focusing on increasing capacity and directing attention effectively. She emphasizes the importance of making diving processes automatic and shares tips on self-assessment for skill readiness. The episode also covers the nuances of prioritizing attention to elements like mindset, buoyancy, and gas supply, offering a comprehensive guide for safer and more enjoyable diving experiences. The summary highlights the significance of practice, experience, and slowing down to build expertise in underwater environments.
Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/unleashing-your-sixth-sense
Links:
Gareths blog about counterfactuals: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/counterfactuals
Tags:
English, Jenny Lord, Situation Awareness, Situational Awareness
In this podcast episode, Jenny shares a humorous yet insightful experience from assessing an instructor course, highlighting the common issue of miscommunication. The example involves a diver misinterpreting hand signals during a training exercise, leading to an unexpected outcome. She explores the challenge of ensuring clear communication, emphasizing the responsibility of the communicator to provide sufficient information. The episode introduces the concept of closed loop communications as a way to check assumptions and ensure understanding, especially in underwater scenarios where verbal communication is limited. Cultural behavior and the importance of avoiding condescension in communication are also discussed. Jenny acknowledges the inevitability of miscommunication due to our natural inclination to be efficient and make assumptions, concluding with a humorous reference to the challenges of explaining every detail, especially for those with young children. The show notes include a link to a video that further explains the efficiency aspect of communication.
Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/lost-in-translation
Links:
Video about explaining every step of a process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDA3_5982h8
Tags:
English, Communication, Jenny Lord
In this podcast episode, we explore a diving incident where two divers entered a wreck without laying a line, resulting in a challenging situation inside a room. We reflect on common responses that often follow such incidents, emphasizing the limitations of retrospective counterfactuals, where people tend to say what the divers "should have," "could have," or "would have" done differently. The episode discusses biases and the importance of understanding the local rationality of those involved, urging listeners to consider the perspectives of the divers at the time. Gareth provides insights into various factors affecting decisions, such as training availability, financial constraints, and the emotional significance of past experiences. The episode concludes by highlighting the prevalence of counterfactuals in discussions about incidents and encourages listeners to approach learning from adverse events with an open mind, understanding the complexity and challenges involved in change.
Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/counterfactuals
Links:
The power of hindsight blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/joining-dots-is-easy-if-you-know-the-outcome
Hindsight bias blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/its-obvious-why-it-happened
We can’t pay more attention blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/cant_pay_MORE_attention
Balasore train crash news report 1: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/odisha-accident-wrong-labelling-of-location-box-wires-led-to-mix-up-crs-report-8699655/
Balasore train crash news report 2: https://thewire.in/law/cbi-arrests-three-railway-employees-for-balasore-train-tragedy
Tags:
English, Cognitive Biases, Counterfactuals, Decision Making, Hindsight Bias, Incident Analysis, Just Culture
In this podcast episode, we explore the profound wisdom encapsulated in various quotes about learning from mistakes. Quotations from figures like Oscar Wilde, Samuel Levenson, and Mary Tyler Moore emphasize the importance of embracing errors as opportunities for growth. The discussion delves into the challenge of learning from near-misses and the cognitive biases, such as the outcome bias, that hinder our ability to reflect on decision-making. Using the context of diving safety, Gareth highlights the significance of focusing on contributory factors rather than just outcomes when analyzing incidents. The episode emphasizes that true learning involves change and recounts a personal experience in a diving safety review, highlighting the crucial difference between lessons identified and lessons learned. The importance of reflection in activities like diving is stressed, and a four-question post-activity debrief model is shared. The episode concludes by distinguishing between types of errors – mistakes, slips, and lapses – and underscores the need for understanding the context surrounding these events for effective learning. The concept of psychological safety and Just Culture is introduced, highlighting the necessity of creating an environment where learning from mistakes is encouraged. The summary encourages listeners to recognize that merely focusing on outcomes without understanding the context may hinder the learning process, emphasizing that true learning involves embracing change.
Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/you-need-more-than-mistakes-to-learn
Links:
The difficulty in learning from near misses: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/were-you-lucky-or-were-you-good-2
The difference between mistakes, slips, and lapses: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/mistakes-errors-words-have-meaning
Looking at conditions, not just outcomes: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/don-t-just-focus-on-the-errors
Stages of psychological safety blogs: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/team-building-psych-safety-1
https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/team-building-psych-safety-2
https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/team-building-psych-safety-3
https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/team-building-psych-safety-4
Just Culture video: https://vimeo.com/410128892?share=copy
Tags:
English, Debrief, Decision Making, Gareth Lock, Psychological Safety, Teamwork
In this podcast episode, Gareth reflects on the challenges of learning from near-misses, particularly in the context of recent tragic events involving the loss of the Titan submersible. The episode explores the biases that hinder our ability to analyze and learn from incidents, emphasizing the complexities of socio-technical systems and the difficulties in replicating conditions for learning. Drawing parallels with diving, Gareth discusses the dynamic nature of risks, the fallacy of binary safety assessments, and the importance of recognizing uncertainties. The episode delves into cognitive biases, heuristics, and psychological factors influencing decision-making, shedding light on the sunk cost fallacy, prospect theory, and the local rationality principle. It advocates for a culture of learning, critical debriefs, and the application of human factors principles in diving. Ultimately, the episode encourages listeners to approach incidents with curiosity, suspend judgment, and seek to understand the local rationality of those involved. The tragic loss of the Titan submersible serves as a poignant reminder of the imperative to learn and improve safety in complex systems. The episode concludes by honoring the lives lost in the incident.
Original blog:
https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/its-obvious-why-it-happened
Links:
How Near-Misses Influence Decision Making Under Risk: A Missed Opportunity for Learning: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/mnsc.1080.0869
If we want to learn, notice the conditions, not the outcomes: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/don-t-just-focus-on-the-errors
AccipMap: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S000368701730100X
DMAIB report: https://dmaib.com/reports/2021/beaumaiden-grounding-on-18-october-2021/
Implications for hindsight bias: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Perspectives-on-Human-Error%3A-Hindsight-Biases-and-Woods/d913cdeae4e2782881a52e635e06c208b0796aed
If the adverse event occurs in an uncertain or unusual environment, then we are more likely to judge it more harshly: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167292181012
Five principles behind High-Reliability Organisations (HRO): https://www.high-reliability.org/faqs?_gl=1*j0ylqo*_ga*NDkyNjExMzA3LjE2ODc2Nzc2NTI.*_ga_TM3DC1EMKK*MTY4NzY3NzY1MS4xLjEuMTY4NzY3OTI2OC4wLjAuMA..
Prospecive hindsight/Pre-mortems: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/how-to-help-correct-the-biases-which-lead-to-poor-decision-making
Red Team Thinking: https://www.redteamthinking.com/
Guy’s blog, Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/is-the-juice-worth-the-squeeze
Doc Deep’s final dive: https://gue.com/blog/i-trained-doc-deep/
Single and Double Loop learning: https://hbr.org/1977/09/double-loop-learning-in-organizations
Columbia Accident Investigaion Board: https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/caib/news/report/pdf/vol1/chapters/chapter8.pdf
New ways to learn from the Challenger disaster: https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/aero.2015.7118898
Drop your Tools: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2393722
Availability, Representativeness & Adjustment and Anchoring: https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/Psyc590Readings/TverskyKahneman1974.pdf
Trieste record breaking dive: https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2020/january/first-deepest-dive
Resources from RF4 presentation: https://bit.ly/rf4-resources
Psychological safety, Tom Geraghty’s site: https://psychsafety.co.uk/
Normal Accidents: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_Accidents
Tags:
English, Decision Making, Gareth Lock, Human Factors, Incident Investigation
In this podcast episode, Gareth delves into the concept of near-misses in diving, exploring the two categories: those that "could happen" and those that "almost happened." The distinction lies in background risks versus perceived risks influenced by cognitive biases. The episode draws parallels with real-world examples, such as the normalization of risks in the space shuttle Columbia tragedy. Three dive scenarios are presented, examining the outcomes and whether the participants were lucky or skilled. The discussion emphasizes the impact of successful near-misses on risk perception, leading to potential complacency. The episode concludes with insights into mitigating these issues, promoting counterfactual thinking, and stressing the importance of effective debriefs to enhance learning from near-misses. The audience is encouraged to reflect on successful outcomes and consider whether they were lucky or good in order to improve diving practices.
Original blog:
https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/were-you-lucky-or-were-you-good-2
Links:
Normalisation of Deviance blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/normalisation-of-deviance-not-about-rule-breaking
Debrief model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debrief
How Near-Misses Influence Decision Making Under Risk: A Missed Opportunity for Learning. Dillon & Tinsley, 2008: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/mnsc.1080.0869
Tags:
English, Decision Making, Gareth Lock, Normalisation of Deviance, Risk Management
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