Jim Perks – Human Factors Training
Understanding human factors better, so we get … and this was one of the Captains of Sea Training that started it, with a Teacher actually that came after me, decided to build a relationship with British Airways Pilots to do their Human Factors Training.
Simon: What is Human Factors mean?
Human Factors, well it’s the human part of leadership isn’t it? It’s understanding what is affecting the individual at any given time. How does pressure make people behave I guess.
There’s much more to it than that but there’s a huge amount to learn from other places, so Airline Pilots, you know, they’re not going to fight a war but they’ve got 300 or more people sitting behind them and they have their lives in their hands and when it goes wrong, what do they do? We have some great discussions and oil and gas, surface guys as well.
There’s lots to be learned, so we’re getting better at understanding the human better. And that’s a Navy thing, that’s not just a submarine thing because we have to do everything that we can, so yeah in that side but from a Warfighting perspective, your kits changed, how are we going to go out and deliver it is the same.
You know someone from the very early submariner days only had a Periscope, a piece of paper and a pencil, could still come onboard an Astute Class and well he couldn’t use a Periscope but a piece of paper and a pencil, bit of mental Maths, still the same.
What you’re trying to achieve is the same, when you’re trying to put a submarine in a certain position, that’s the same.