A few days ago I shared the exciting news that Mountain Assurance is preparing to launch a short online course entitled ‘Mountain CRM’. This short course in Crew Resource Management and human factors in avalanche terrain will be a mix of written material, short lectures and audio interviews.
What is CRM?
But the obvious question is: what is CRM? Like any good three letter acronym it can mean different things to different people. In the context of human factors we are talking about ‘Crew Resource Management’, a term first used in aviation.
CRM training courses were introduced to mitigate the affects of heuristics and other human factors, but have since grown to encompass many ‘non technical skills’.
As mentioned in my previous blog post ‘The Human Factor in mountaineering and snow sports – Going beyond FACETS‘. I believe that non technical skills for skiers and mountaineers include: situational awareness, decision-making, teamwork and communication, leadership and task management and the application of these skills in the winter environment.
For leaders, instructors and mountain guides working in the winter mountains, CRM behaviours and non technical skills can be used alongside existing decision making frameworks such as ‘Be Avalanche Aware’ (BAA).
The winter mountains may not be your work place, but some of the behaviours and non technical skills will almost certainly be relevant to lots of recreational user groups in the mountains.
An introduction to ‘Crew Resource Management’ and ‘Human Factors’ in Avalanche Terrain
A generic definition of CRM might be the training of the cognitive and social skills needed to support technical training in order to optimise safe and efficient operations.
Work (or recreation) in avalanche terrain requires exactly that. The use of cognitive and social skills to better cope with uncertainty. We are not pre-hospital doctors or pilots but our observations and decisions are made in dynamic mountain environments with the potential for signifiant consequences.
Although we are arguably working in a low tech environment, in contrast to a modern flight deck, CRM has a place in any environment which relies on humans in the system.
Mountain CRM
Mountain CRM is an opportunity to “train your brain for avalanche terrain”.
What you will learn…
✔️ Enhance your awareness of human factors and human fallibility
✔️ Develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to mitigate errors and manage risk
✔️ How to prevent and manage group errors
✔️ To use CRM knowledge as an outdoor professional, to balance making a living with safety
✔️ Integrate CRM knowledge, skills and attributes to shift the culture of the outdoor professional sector and help prevent incidents in avalanche terrain
Sign up via the link here for further news and information on the go live of Mountain CRM straight to your inbox: https://share.hsforms.com/1I35IP6_HROOhL4mfTMuh9A3pgcj
Leave a Reply