Episode Summary

Drew Rae and David Provan are back in today’s episode discussing research findings in the field of maritime safety through simulator training.

Episode Notes

The specific paper found some interesting results from these simulated situations – including that it was found that the debriefing, post-simulation, had a large impact on the amount of learning the participants felt they made. The doctors chat about whether the research was done properly and whether the findings could have been tested against alternative scenarios to better prove the theorized results.

Topics:

  • Individual and team skills needed to maintain safety.
  • Safety-I vs Safety-II
  • Introduction to the research paper
  • Maritime Safety and human error
  • Single-loop vs Double-loop learning
  • Simulator programs help people learn and reflect
  • Research methods
  • Results discussion
    • Recognizing errors and anomalies
    • Shared knowledge to define limits of action
    • Operating the system with confidence
  • Importance of learning by doing and reflecting back afterward
  • Complexity and uncertainty as a factor in safety strategy.
  • Practical Takeaways
    • Work simulation is an effective learning process
    • Half of the learning comes from the debrief
    • Read this paper if doing simulation training

Quotes:

“Very few advocates of Safety-II would disagree that it’s important to keep trying to identify those predictable ways that a system can fail and put in place barriers and controls and responses to those predictable ways that a system can fail.” – Dr. David Provan

“It limits claims that you can make about just how effective the program is. Unless you’ve got a comparison, you can’t really draw a conclusion that it’s effective.” – Dr. Drew Rae

“A lot of these scenarios are just things like minor sensor failures or errors in the display which you can imagine in an automated system, those are the things that need human intervention.” – Dr. Drew Rae

“Safety-I is necessary but not sufficient – you need to move on to the resilient solution ”  – Dr. Drew Rae

“I don’t really think that situational complexity is what should guide your safety strategy. – Dr. Drew Rae

Resources:

Griffith University Safety Science Innovation Lab

Feedback@safetyofwork.com

Research paper

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Episode 79 –  How do new employees learn about safety?

Episode 19 – Virtual Reality and Safety training