Fault or Failure

At one point in every life, one encounters a failure or, in most cases, several failures. They may be caused by a situation over which he has no command over, or they may be caused by something that he himself is responsible for, such as a fault. Determining one’s success or failure depends upon how the individual or society as a whole views an action or objective.

 This is because one’s behaviour is sometimes based on the norms or expectations of society, and any departure from these norms can be labeled as mistakes, errors, or faults which may lead to failure.

“Fault” is synonymous to mistake and error although these words differ in context depending on how they are being applied. A fault may be caused by misjudgment, carelessness, and forgetfulness. When one is at fault, it may be because he is ignorant, not paying attention, or is judging things badly. It is considered a character weakness, a shortcoming, a frailty, or an inadvertent mistake. “Fault” may also refer to a physical or intellectual imperfection, impairment, or defect. Oftentimes it denotes a person’s responsibility for a bad situation or event, a wrongdoing, or failure.

“Failure,” on the other hand, is the condition or state of not being able to meet an intended objective. It is the opposite of success and is dependent on how it is used. A situation may be deemed a failure by one person while it may be viewed a success by another. In life, failures are important to help individuals do better and become successful. Scientists, engineers, programmers, and many other people achieve success through learning from their faults and failures. Failure inspires creativity. Punishing individuals, especially students, harshly for their failures can restrict their creative process and stunt their intellectual and artistic growth. Failures can be bad but they can also be good.

Good failures are the results of making the right decisions but still losing in the end. This may be caused by taking in more work than you can handle or of things and situations that you have no control over. Still it is better than to have never tried at all.

Bad failures are the results of making bad decisions or not making any decisions at all. Failing because you are afraid of taking risks is bad because it does not encourage you to do better. This failure is the result of a fault, a weakness of character that needs to be corrected.

No one can know everything about working around the helicopter and therefore failures in action are likely to occur. The key behaviour is to learn from those failures as repetition of a failure is defined as a fault and a fault is preventable.

Read more: Difference Between Fault and Failure | Difference Between | Fault vs Failure

In Search of the Perfect Crew

You are the Best Teacher

We all know the type. They drive a car like it is on autopilot, answering phone calls, rummaging in the glove compartment or eating that delicious fast food. This person ends up having unexplainable incidents and accidents, scrapes, close calls and negative interactions with all the boneheads on the road.

It always seems to be the other guy that is the problem or just bad luck. This person is experiencing but not learning. Being taught to drive or even having driving experience doesn't make one a good driver. It is only by thinking about what has happened, reflecting upon it and using that knowledge that one can improve.

 Science has shown one doesn't learn when one is taught. One doesn't learn when one experiences. One does learn from reflecting on one's experience. The act of reflection reinforces the teaching and cements the lesson from the experience within the learner. You teach yourself using your failures to prevent faults.

 Using crew debriefs at the end of the day is a powerful method of reflection and can be used to enhance both the safety and efficiency of the operation.

In Search of the Perfect Crew

Risk or Uncertainty

We are pretty good at things. So good in fact, that a single error rarely causes a failure. Looking backwards, it is easy to see the chain of events that led to a failure or an accident however looking forward all we can see are the endless strings of possible connections.

Society is proficient at assessing the chance of an error - this is the assessment of risk. For example there is a possibility of one engine failure in 100,000 flight hours*.

Determining the chances of an uncertain event is not possible as the interconnections that lead up to them are almost infinite or at least looking forward, unknowable.

The best defense against uncertainty is action protocols based on planning and experience. For example in finance - never put all your eggs in one basket. In communication the sender ensures the receiver understands the message, in helicopters - no one ever walks toward the tail rotor. These individual actions break the chain of events or connections that could lead to a failure.

Unless one uses reflection and debriefing, you will never know if these defenses have been used or how close the edge of catastrophe that you have stumbled.

 Manage both risk and uncertainty with a debrief and crew communication.

In Search of the Perfect Crew

Velocity or Acceleration

Much of the time we are fixed on the speed of things, which for dogs and others who live totally in the present, is a good thing. However most of the rest of us need to have an understanding of what is going to happen in the future.

Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity with time. To view the future with some accuracy it is important to be aware of velocity but to focus on acceleration.

For example, a helicopter flying at the edge of its power capability needs airspeed or ground effect to stay airborne.  A snapshot of the airspeed indicator will show the speed however watching the trend of the same instrument will show whether the helicopter is slowing down and will be unable to maintain flight.

In finance we are always told through the disclaimer that past performance does not predict future results. This is especially true if one focuses solely on the velocity of the return whereas an examination of rate of change (acceleration) will give a more accurate foretelling of the future.

Focus on the acceleration or rate of change to make better assessments of the future.

In Search of the Perfect Crew

Attentional Blindness

By concentrating on one aspect of life we generally have to give up paying attention to other things. We usually have a choice - we can focus on one thing and miss the rest or we can generalize, pay attention to the big picture and lose the detail. Concentration is inversely proportional to total awareness.

 Being aware of having to pay attention is stressful. Sharing the burden is both efficient and safe.

Working as a crew it is possible to have the best of both worlds. Each crewmember is responsible for a specific aspect of the task and is also trusted to maintain an overall focus of the operation.

 For example, X is flying and Y is looking at insect damage of the forest. Upon seeing another aircraft in the area coming from X's blind spot, Y lets X know its position. Simple.

A well functioning crew works on the byline "If you see something, say it."

In Search of the Perfect Crew

Walk the Line

Did you hear about the pilot who always flew on the edge of the envelope? His pals called him Stamp.

All activities have a line where crossing it means added risk.

There are three ways to know if you are crossing the line.

Experience, knowledge and crew.

If you have frightened yourself and through the miracle of non-event feedback, nothing happened - you have crossed the line. This experience is used by your brain to warn you. Your stomach gives you an uneasy feeling or butterflies. As in "Uh oh, I have been here before and I didn't like it."

Understand that others have gone before you and recorded their experiences through stories, articles, standard operating procedures, protocols or accident reports. Use this knowledge to understand where the line is. As in "I remember reading about Doofus doing this and it turned out badly."

The crew can assist in recognizing the line by using the two previous methods, experience and knowledge. A simple acknowledgement of the line is usually enough. It can also be the starting point for a discussion on the wisdom of crossing it - much the same as a rumble strip on the side of the road makes the driver aware of the impending ditch.

Stomach as Brain - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/health/23gut.html?pagewanted=all

In Search of the Perfect Crew

Play Defense

Is your crew on the defensive?

James Reason, in his seminal book Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents, defines defensive functions as the following,
Create understanding and awareness of local hazards,Give clear guidance on how to operate safely,
Provide alarms and warnings when danger is imminent,
Restore the system to a safe state in an off normal situation,Interpose safety barriers between the hazards and the potential losses,
Contain and eliminate the hazards should they escape this barrier

Provide a means of escape and rescue should hazard containment fail.

It is this multiplicity of defenses that makes complex technological systems proof against single deficiencies.

The helicopter crew fulfills all these functions and provides the operation with a robust resistance to failure.

In Search of the Perfect Crew

Going Ballistic

To be ballistic means to travel unguided. Fire and forget. If the direction is absolutely perfect or the chosen target is either unspecified or huge and it doesn't matter where things end up, ballistic is a good way to go.

If you are working in a complex, changing or hazardous environment going ballistic provides a less than optimal outcome.

Don't blow things up. Catch the error. Correct the course. Continual feedback helps keep the car on the road and operation on track. Looking in the mirror is not a great way to move forward.

In Search of the Perfect Crew

Under the Influence

Take a quick look and decide which orange dot is larger?

Once you measure things you know that both orange dots are the same size but look different because of their surroundings.

Helicopter passengers can affect the safety and efficiency of their flight by adjusting the surroundings of the pilot. By focusing on situational awareness and lessening distractions, passengers become crew, making the flight closer to perfect.

In Search of the Perfect Crew

What Matters

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a pretty famous pyramid that illustrates people need to fulfill or satisfy at some level a lower layer of need before moving up to the next.

Take a moment to think about the pilot - the pyramid illustrates an interesting conclusion.

The pilot will need to satisfy the physiological (food, clothing, shelter - defined as "keeping my job and paying the mortgage") before safety. Therefore he might be motivated to do something to please the customer and keep his job at the risk of putting the aircraft in jeopardy.

Knowing this is the case, an active and involved crew will engage with the pilot's decision making to ensure that safety underlies all decisions and gets everyone home to pay the mortgage instead of the hospital and repair bills.

In Search of the Perfect Crew

Taking the time

Every time you go flying it is THE first time you are flying that particular mission. Because something hasn't happened before doesn't mean it won't happen this time.

Having habits that enable you to perform effortlessly take time to build. On the other hand it takes time every time if you don't have a habit. For example, if you take the time to build the habit of always doing up your seatbelt it will never be left hanging out of the machine. But it takes effort and time to build that habit otherwise you will always have to check "Is the seatbelt hanging out of the helicopter?" and chances are you will miss checking one day.

The mark of a professional is the consistent building and use of positive habits. A schmoe says "It can't happen", a joe says "It hasn't happened" while a pro says "It could happen"

Habituation is worry's off switch.

In Search of the Perfect Crew