Unknown Unknowns

Donald Rumsfeld the American Secretary of Defense stated in 2002

“Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. … it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones.”

He brought up a good point - how do you know what you don’t even know you should know?

Working with professional crew where everyone feels comfortable in bringing all topics to the table leads to open and frank discussions where the discovery of the unknown unknowns is more likely. It might be obvious to the crew that the helicopter longline load is now attached to the tower but is this an unknown unknown to the the pilot? Does he know that this is even a possibility?

Professional crew use communication and empathy (an understanding of the other’s point of view) to let the unknown become known.

In Search of the Perfect Crew