Complacency at Sea? Managing Risk

How many incident or accident reports have you read where complacency on the part of one or more crew members is cited as a contributing factor? How often is the OOW accused of losing his or her situational awareness? How do well-trained, experienced mariners come to apparently neglect their responsibilities and miss the signs of impending failure?

The term complacency is frequently misunderstood. It is often applied with the benefit of hindsight to those involved in an incident, implying that they were not paying attention or were otherwise neglecting their duty. This is generally not the case - no professional deliberately ignores the signals of approaching doom.

Routine, familiarity, stress, distraction and overload, amongst other things, can catch any of us out. We misjudge risk. We pay attention to the wrong things. To onlookers, we become complacent.

When we concentrate on what we think is important, filtering out potentially vital clues to what is going on around us, our awareness of the actual situation is compromised. We become increasingly vulnerable to uncertainty.

This film introduces a couple of simple tools that can be used by anyone to help them remain more aware of their situation and the events unfolding around them.

Complacency at Work? Managing Risk, Routine & Uncertainty explores the causes of complacency, showing how we can all avoid the potential complacency trap by being aware of its existence and by becoming more mindful.

Using a drama set onboard a modern merchant vessel combined with the accompanying Facilitator Guidebook, this resource has been specifically developed for delivery to seafarers and shoreside staff, as well as those working in other industries, with the aim of increasing awareness of the risks and providing tools to help avoid them.

Two mnemonic devices are introduced - the acronyms EAST and STiR. EAST is a tool intended to encourage taking personal responsibility for action, while STiR serves as a reminder that risk and uncertainty are ever-present, regardless of the apparent stability of our situation.

Written and developed by the same organizational psychologists and production team that brought the ground-breaking The Human Element to life, this new resource follows the same basic principle of delivery by combining high-quality drama with a comprehensive Facilitator Guide that encourages viewers to think about the subject for themselves, thus increasing the learning potential.

Complacency at Work? Managing Risk, Routine & Uncertainty is available for pre-order now from KVH  at a £50 discount off the launch RRP of £245.