Crew Resource Management
It was back in 1989 the Alan Simpson was appointed as the Advanced Airmanship Instructor at SimuFlite in Dallas, Texas to teach military and civilian pilots Cockpit Resource Management, or CRM.
Bringing twenty years of aviation and team building experience he was at the beginning of a training concept that has been shown again and again to reduce accidents and failures in every industry that adopts the training and philosophy.
SimuFlite (Now CAE Training) had one of the most advanced training centers in the world, and pioneered CBT or Computer Based Training, now standard in the aviation world.
Learning from the pioneers of CRM he developed courses, presentations and procedures since used in many industries and professions. Many of the lessons were brought from other areas of military, aviation and maritime training, especially courses and procedures developed for the offshore oil and gas operators in the North Sea and around the world.
Crew Resource Management for Offshore Oil & Gas
The critical situations that can develop offshore are an excellent use of Crew Resource Management, where unless the crew of a production platform, or drilling rig act together to address an emergency, the results could be catastrophic. These procedures and training were developed in 1975, long before NASA came to the same conclusions for pilots.
There are many similarities between the scenarios offshore on a remote drilling or production platform, and in a aircraft cockpit. Both scenarios involve large quantities of very inflammable, and explosive fuel. Both depend on keeping critical machinery, valves and control systems working, and both depend on maintaining reliable, and good communications. When things go really wrong both need survival skills, external rescue efforts and both can result in a large number of fatalities and injuries.
Fortunately the crews in both examples are highly trained and experienced in crew resource management.
Team Resource Management
Take this concept even further and identify professions that require a coherent team, focused, and pulling together towards a common goal, often with dire consequences for failure. The crew can be looked on as a "Team", for normally crews stick together once formed.
Teams can move and change through the life of a project, requiring the skills and communications to be understood by the old team members, and the new replacements. This concept is now being seen as essential for medical teams, fire fighting teams, even sales teams. Team Resource Management is the wave of the future. In the world of intelligence effective Team Resource Management can provide results that can't be found with tight compartmentalized structures, which have failed miserably in the past, and continue to fail today. The same with field sales teams. They can pull together towards success, or fight within to establish prima donnas, and bragging rights. Team Resource Management training provides the skills of questioning, and framing effective communications.