A Disruptive Approach to CRM and Situational Awareness Competencies
Authors: Lopez J. C. , Botero C. , Miranda G. , Aguilera F. , Mirdad G. , Moynet S. , Shehabeldeen K. , Villalobos A. M. , Alvarado A. 
Published: October 2023

Research has shown that lack of non-technical skills (also called, Crew Resource Management – CRM) contributes to most personal and process safety incidents in high-risk industries. Situational awareness in the most influential non-technical skill. Authors developed a disruptive program to generate situational awareness competencies and improve non-technical skills of front-line employees. The program is called: Permanent Attention. It combines best practices adapted from high-risk industries and industrial psychology science to generate statistically significant improvements in situational awareness competencies through a sustainable approach.

The paper shows real case applications from two organizations where the Permanent Attention program has generated significant improvement in the participants’ situational awareness competency and non-technical skills (CRM) acquisition and retention. The program is executed with the learner at the centre of the process. The Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT, Endsley, and Garland, 2000) is used to measure the levels of situational awareness competency before and after the training, to determine the impact achieved through the program. The ‘Repeated measures – ANOVA’ statistic model is used to scientifically demonstrate the significant impact of the process in the three elements of situational awareness: Attention, Comprehension and Anticipation.

The training sessions in-between SAGATs contain theoretical information and practical exercises that equip the participant(s) with fundamentals. Exercises for each element of the situational awareness have been designed to obtain optimal skills. To complement the practice of non-technical skills, employees are exposed to simulations of critical operational situations, so they can demonstrate their leadership, communications, teamwork, decision-making skills in group and learn how to manage stress in such situations.

The levels of situational awareness competencies are periodically monitored via practical field-based SAGAT exercises after the training, to ensure a sustained improvement in the participants’ competencies. The feedback provided immediately after each SAGAT is key to let the participant focus on the element(s) of situational awareness that require improvement. Once the feedback is received, the participant is requested to self-evaluate her level on each element of situational awareness. This reinforces self-consciousness and encourages a sense of commitment to improve by conviction, not by imposition.

This novel methodology gives the organization a clear metric on the return on the investment the program offers and allows very specific interventions to improve individual and group level non-technical skills across the organization. A truly disruptive method.

The paper shows how the Permanent Attention instructional design combines Endsley's research from the aviation and nuclear industries, with Knowles’ andragogy (2015) theory to achieve competency acquisition and retention. Novel approaches such as the SAGAT, are used with scenarios that are familiar to the target population. Participants’ levels of situational awareness competency are measured before and after the training to determine whether a statistically significant impact was achieved through the program.

Permanent Attention has been implemented in organizations with a wide range of maturity. Case-studies are presented to illustrate the process, results, and limitations in two leading drilling companies, in which 60 to 70% of incidents had situational awareness as a contributing factor, over last five years. The implementation of the program has brought statistically significant improvements in the competency of employees and the pilot in Colombia has shown early signs of accident reduction.