non-technical+skills

= Non-technical skills = toc (also known as "human factors") Non-technical skills are important to everyone who takes part in outdoor activities; when effective these skills make it more likely you will return home in one piece. They are different from technical skills (e.g. map reading), but just as necessary - especially if you are leading a group.

Non-technical skills can be viewed as the interpersonal skills and cognitive skills required for effective teamwork. The interpersonal skills include communication, followership (being a team member) and leadership. Cognitive skills include situational awareness and decision making.

**Watch this video if you're not convinced non-technical skills are important ** media type="youtube" key="JzlvgtPIof4?version=3" height="360" width="640"

Human behaviour dominates risk. Human error is NOT the same as negligence or sloppiness.

A knowledge and understanding of how our behaviours affect the level of risk - a knowledge of human factors - will increase safety (and effectiveness)

Human factors involve
 * TASK: what you are trying to achieve
 * INDIVIDUALS: competence, attitudes, behaviours
 * GROUP: leadership, communication - even in informal groups



 The non-technical skills model used on this site comprises:  @Leadership  Safety (covered in the "outdoor topics" part of this wikispace)  @Assessment <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> @Decision making <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> @Communication <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> @Teamwork & mutual support

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The model starts with **leadership** because teams that lack effective leadership may not even get as far as using the other elements.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Safety** comes next as the first leadership task is to determine if there are any immediate threats to safety. If any are identified these must be addressed as the top priority.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"**Assessment**" is used on this site rather than "situational awareness" as it sounds less jargony and is shorter. They are synonymous, though. Assessment means to establish what is going on - both with the activity being undertaken, with the casualty if there is one, with the environment (critical in the wilderness setting), and - crucially - with the team members and the team as a whole.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Decision making** should come //after// the assessment step, to increase the likelihood of good decisions.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Communication** includes communicating any decisions to team members and also communication between team members once work on the "task" starts.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Teamwork** is the behaviours that will make a team as effective as possible. They include //mutual support//, which is members helping each other to maintain a high level of performance.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This model (deliberately) overlaps substantially with the NOTECHS model (of behavioural markers for assessing the quality of human factors performance), which comprises: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Leadership & managerial skills <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Situation awareness <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Decision making <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Cooperation

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">There is a mini-industry modifying the original notechs system (designed for use in aviation) for use in a medical setting. One of the first initiatives was the ANTS project in anaesthesia. The rating form developed can be accessed [|here].

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Human factors refer to environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics, which influence behaviour...in a way that can affect health and safety.** (HSE definition)

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**We are likely to make errors!**
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Perhaps the most fundamental part of human factors is that human beings are prone to getting things wrong. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">If we set off for a day in the hills with the mindset that we are invincible and immortal, we are at risk of getting something wrong and getting injured (or getting someone else injured, especially if you are leading a group) in the process. If we set of with the mindset that unless we take precautions something could well go wrong, we are more likley to return intact.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The two errors we are most likely to make are:
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Underestimating hazards** (and not, therefore, using adequate safety measures)
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Failure to notice change** (in conditions or in people - ourselves included - and not altering plans when needed)

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Why do we make these errors?
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">There are two key human factors areas where the seeds of these errors are sown: assessing (and understanding) what is going <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">on around us (known as "situational awareness") and the decisions that we make (or fail to make). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">of something changing (e.g. the weather). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">this could apply to navigation or to tying onto a harness. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">are about all the group enjoying the day and getting back safely, things are more likely to go wrong. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">major issue we tend to go along with the group. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">alcohol or drugs.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Inexperience** makes us more likely to overlook a hazard (or underestimate it) or to fail to understand the significance
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Complacency** makes us likley to underestimate hazards, and is more likley to occur if previous trips have all gone OK.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Distraction** from what we're doing (which can be external or internal) increases the risk that we'll not do it correctly -
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Disordered priorities** increase the risk of errors. If we are more concerned about getting to a specific summit than we
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Other people** may influence what we do. Even if we think a hazard is significant, if the rest of the group say it is not a
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Stress** may make us rush, affecting the quality of situational awareness and decision making.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Physical impairment**, such as an injury sustained on the hills, cold or other medical condition, or problems related to

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This model is based on Brad Mayhew's, developed for firefighters - accessible here

LTEM: leadership & teamwork in emergency medicine: [| ltem v2.pdf] The better the team, the safer the world

Teaching HF to medical students: lessons learned:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Links
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">HSE briefing paper introducing human factors

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This Health & Safety Executive document introduces human factors and their impact on error and safety

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Books
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Outdoor leadership] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Build that team! <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Multitasking myth] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Crisis management in acute care settings]

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Mastery quiz
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">