Critical Thinking
An Introduction to Situational Awareness
and Decision Making
Thinking about thinking
This presentation provides an overview of how to improve critical thinking. It is intended to enhance the reader's awareness but it shall not supersede the applicable regulations or airline's
operational documentation; should any deviation appear between this presentation and the airline’s AFM / (M)MEL / FCOM / QRH / FCTM, the latter shall prevail at all times.
Introduction
This self-study guide provides advice on how to improve your thinking and introduces the
associated aspects of situational awareness and decision making. These subjects
are essential processes in threat and error management, which must be used in
daily operations. Thinking is the core skill in these activities; critical thinking involves
controlling our thinking; thinking about our own thinking.
The guide is in five sections:
1. Threat and Error Management
2. Situational Awareness
3.
4.
5.
Decision Making
Critical Thinking
Thinking — Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is
biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or downright prejudiced. Yet, the quality of our life
— and that of what we produce, make or build — depends precisely on the quality of
our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life. Excellence
in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated.
Speaker’s notes provide additional information, they can be selected by clicking the right mouse button, select Screen, select Speakers notes.
This presentation can be printed in the notes format to provide a personal reference document.
Threat and Error Management
Threat and error management (TEM) is a major safety process in aviation.
TEM consists of detecting, avoiding or trapping threats and errors that challenge safe
operations. Where threats and errors are not contained, the resulting conditions
must be managed and their adverse effects reduced.
All flight and ground operations
Threats
Detect
Avoid / Trap
Mitigate
Errors
Undesired States
Situational Awareness
Resist
Resolve
Recover
Decision Making
Plane
Path
People
Fly the aircraft, Navigate, Communicate, Manage
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Situational Awareness
Situational awareness is having an accurate understanding of our
surroundings — where we are, what happened, what is happening, what
is changing and what could happen.
Good situational awareness requires:
1.
Gathering data (sensing, perception), seeking cues in the environment
2.
Assembling information to give understanding (comprehension)
Thinking ahead (projection)
3.
Thinking about situational awareness involves:
–
–
–
–
–
Directing our attention to seek data; scanning a range of sources
Evaluating information without bias, for accuracy and relevance
Understanding, using our knowledge and previous experiences
Comparing and checking, visualizing future events — ‘What if?’
Planning ahead, considering possible outcomes
Gathering
data
Situation
Plane
Understanding
Planning
Ahead
Path
People
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Now
Future
Decision Making
Decision making involves assessment and choosing a course of action.
Decision making requires an understanding of the situation and controlled thinking.
The situation determines the urgency of the decision, risks and limits of action.
THINK
Controlled thinking:
–
Reduces risk
–
Moderates behavior
–
Manages time constraints
–
Uses knowledge; seeks options
–
Judges relevance and the quality of the choice
–
Prepares for action, evaluates the outcome or a future situation
DECIDE
Detect a change
Estimate significance
Choose a safe outcome
Identify possible actions
Do take action
Evaluate the result
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
OODA
Observe
Orient
Deduce
Act
GRADE
Gather Information
Review Information
Analyze Alternatives
5D
Detect
Determine
Decide
Decide
Evaluate Outcome of
Action
Do
Discipline
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking provides the mental control and discipline required for
situational assessment and decision making. It involves several skills
that can be learned, practiced and improved.
Control your mind by:
–
–
–
–
Seeking and understanding information, facts and data
Effective planning, briefing and communication
Increasing knowledge; gaining experience
Critical thinking is the skill of
Learning within a context (situation)
thinking about your thinking
Maintain discipline by:
–
–
–
–
Being aware of how you think; hazardous attitudes
Evaluating your actions; having self regulation
Being aware of all available resources
Being sensitive to feedback
Think inside the box
before you think
outside of the box
“Are we in charge of our thinking, or is our thinking in charge of us?“
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Critical Thinking — Self awareness
Self awareness — self questioning, self monitoring
Am I biased in my thinking?
Have I made a plan for what I want to do?
Are my ideas or knowledge on this issue correct?
Am I aware of my thinking; what am I trying to do?
Am I using all of the resources for what I want to do?
Am I evaluating my thinking; what would I do differently next time?
Am I aware of how well I am doing; do I need to change my actions or intentions?
Monitoring is checking the quality or testing the accuracy of a situation
on a regular basis. It is keeping a close watch over
parameters and supervising the outcome.
It is checking for threats in our thinking.
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Critical Thinking — Knowledge
Improving your thinking — Knowledge
About yourself
–
–
–
Commitment: to safety, not following feelings or preference
Positive attitudes: persistence, resourcefulness, learning from failure
Attention to detail: seeing the big picture, determining relevance, assessing risk
About the thinking processes
–
–
–
Knowing the facts necessary to do a task by seeking information
Knowing how to do a task, how to scan, understand and think ahead
Knowing why certain strategies work, when to use them, why one is better than another
Knowledge to control the thinking processes
–
–
–
Self evaluation: assessing current technical knowledge, setting objectives, selecting resources
Self regulation: checking progress; reviewing choices, procedures, objectives, resources
Planning: choosing and planning a path to the objective, using procedures
Planning is the process of thinking about what you will do in
the event of something happening or not happening.
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Critical Thinking — Habits
Improving your thinking — Habits
Changing our thinking habits requires effort; clear thinking is an essential
part of airmanship and has to be developed throughout our careers.
Unskilled: Basic training only provides those skills necessary to be safe.
Safe:
Continuation training and experience enable an effective operation.
Effective: More technical knowledge, practiced skills and experience give an
efficient operation.
Efficient:
Skillful command in controlling the aircraft and team leadership move
toward a precision operation.
Precision: An operator who has gained and maintains precise technical and nontechnical skills as a result of great personal effort.
Expert thinkers
Focus on central issues
Identify relevant information
Consider information on merit
Test and check the basis of their awareness and decisions
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Critical Thinking — Personal briefing
Improving your thinking — Briefing
Before flight, self-briefing reinforces memory cues and knowledge, which aid the recall
of information for use in situational assessment and decision making.
Know what, who, where and when to prioritize your attention
Always brief routine operations — repetition aids memory
Structure the briefing along the intended flight path
Visualize your actions (plane, path, people)
Consider the significant threats
Recall lessons from training
Refresh SOPs
Questions
Do not rush:
Your thoughts control your actions.
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Critical Thinking — Personal debrief
Improving your thinking — Debrief
After each flight, consider the following points — Plus, Minus, Interesting
Plus:
What was good
What went according to plan
Minus:
What was not so good, and why
What didn’t you know; find the answer before the next flight
Interesting:
Have you changed the way you see things: threats, risks, people or procedures
What did you learn, why, and where did the information come from?
Will you share this with others; if not why not?
Anything for an air safety event report?
Any issues for confidential reporting?
Did you experience:
High workload
Poor attitudes
Biased opinions
Mismanaged time
Unanswered questions
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Plus
Minus
Interesting
Debriefing
Thinking about Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Situational awareness and decision making depend on our ability to think.
Thinking enables humans to be very successful, but this ability also enables errors
that, if not controlled, present risks in our daily activities.
Value
your
it wisely
All flight
andability,
ground use
operations
Threats
Senses:
See
Hear
Errors
Undesired States
Feedback
Situational
Action
Awareness
Decision Making
Response
Touch
Smell
Monitor
Pattern recognition
Comparison
Taste
Working memory
Long-term memory - knowledge, biases, beliefs
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Choice
Selection
Review
Critical Thinking — for Situational Awareness
Critical thinking for situational awareness — seek information
Essential components:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Accuracy — Is the information true?
Clarity — Can the information be understood?
Precision — Seek detail to understand the situation.
Relevance — Is the information connected to the situation?
Depth — Does the information address the complexity of the situation?
Breadth — Are there other points of view or other ways to consider this
situation?
Logic — Does your understanding of the situation make sense?
Whenever you do not understand something,
ask yourself a question for clarification
?
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Critical Thinking — for Decision Making
Critical thinking for decision making — the choice of action
Essential components:
–
State the objective of the decision to be made
–
Identify information to be used in making the decision
–
Gather the evidence and information required to make a decision
–
Make a decision based on criteria (a safe outcome), information and risks
–
Ask what the evidence and information mean, considering the objective
Situation
Routine
Trained
For
Unusual
Novel
Needs
Skill
Think about the situation, compare with
SOPs, training and previous experience
Rules
Uses
Requires
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Think about which SOP applies to
the situation, compare with training
Knowledge
Almost automatic action; SOPs have
been thought through during training
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is at the center of all safety processes and human activity.
Threat and Error
Management
Critical Thinking
Situational
Awareness
Critical Thinking - Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Decision
Making
Information
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