Habits to Optimise Our Performance When It Counts

Since the introduction of Part 61, CASA has defined Airmanship & Threat & Error Management elements under the NTS1 and NTS2 Units of competency, respectively. For anyone who’s ever been assessed in an aircraft, these competencies were front and centre of the examiners mind! The latest neuroscience and psychology look not only at how we can perform these elements better when it counts in the cockpit, but how we can set ourselves up for success before getting anywhere near the aircraft. When we are in a compromised state of health, unfortunately we often don’t know our thinking is fuzzy because our thinking is fuzzy! Contributors to this can include poor diet/hydration, inadequate sleep, lack of exercise, feelings of disconnection, and inability to focus.

Also supporting this more holistic view of safety is Dr Erik Hollnagel’s work with Safety-I & Safety-II. These can be loosely summarised as Safety-I taking the traditional view of looking for faults and hazards, making accidents the focal-point of future prevention. Safety-II focuses more proactively on the positives of the human condition. It looks at the wellbeing approach and ensuring that as much as possible goes right. Laurie Shaw, former Cathay Pacific Captain and Peer Support Facilitator, draws parallels between Hollnagel’s work and Wellbeing I & II, where the more traditional focus was on the cause of disease, whereas the latter focuses on a holistic view of healthy behaviours providing positive outcomes (think of it like positive psychology). Adrian Park discusses HF 3.0 in his course, where the humanity is put back into human factors by discussing the vigilance attributes and character strengths that make safety safe.

So, what can we do as individuals to enhance our wellbeing, performance of NTS in flight, and overall safety? It is said that much of our emotional state and day-to-day interactions are determined by our diet, exercise, and sleep. Nothing new there. Life and personal stresses can lead to a regularly aroused sympathetic nervous system and raised cortisol levels over the longer term. Not only will this affect our resilience, it will affect our ability to regulate during times of uncertainty, including in the cockpit. The responsibility here is ours.

Mindfulness is becoming a more popular topic these days, and for good reason. Regular practice has been proven to promote emotional awareness, widening the gap between stimulus and response. Additional benefits include regulation of the nervous system, enhanced focus, and better-quality sleep to name just a few.

Human connection is another important wellbeing attribute pointing to the significance of having quality relationships in our lives. The more we feel like we have close relationships, the longer we live and the more we continue the cycle to integrate socially. Laurie Shaw suggests that if peer support and connection in the workplace are done well, it will perpetuate feelings of belonging and wellbeing. The knock-on effects of this to performance and safety are undeniable.

There is equal ownership of this construct between organisations and individuals. Perhaps a good starting point for now is to ask ourselves which lifestyle habits we can adopt or change to not only enhance our wellbeing, but to also make us safer aircrew members.