Situational awareness

Situational awareness (hereinafter, the Awereness) is maintaining a complete mental picture of surrounding objects and events as well as the ability to interpret those events for future use. The Awareness encompasses such concepts as attention, and vigilance.

Definitions

According to the FAA AC 120-72,

Situational awareness. Maintaining a complete mental picture of surrounding objects and events as well as the ability to interpret those events for future use. Situational awareness encompasses such concepts as attention, and vigilance.

Applications

In aviation maintenance

According to the FAA AC 120-72,

1. Situational awareness is one of the foundational concepts of MRM. Typically, situational awareness is thought of in terms of individual maintenance personnel. In addition, situational awareness also encompasses other related concepts such as mental arousal and vigilance. Many of the most common maintenance errors involve the loss of situational awareness among different individuals, often across different teams or shifts. The concept of team situational awareness relates to maintaining a collective awareness of important job-related conditions and events.
2. Five elements and activities are necessary to improve Team Situational Awareness in the maintenance environment. These are:
   1. Shared mental models.
   2. Verbalization of decisions.
   3. Better team meetings.
   4. Teamwork and feedback.
   5. Individual situational awareness training.
3. Shared mental models. A mental model is simply how to depict a system mentally - how the subsystems are put together and how the system works. Good situational awareness at the team level depends on all team members having a clear understanding of what information means when it is conveyed to team members. Such shared mental models are provided by developing a good understanding of what other team members know, don't know, or need to know. Team members need to share not only data, but also the significance of data relative to their jobs and the team's goals.
4. Verbalization of decisions. At times team members may find it necessary to take actions that deviate from the norm or are otherwise unexpected. These unexpected actions may cause confusion or other adverse reactions by other team members. It is very difficult to know why a team member has taken a course of action unless he or she tells us. Individual team members need to do a better job of communicating information regarding why they decide to (or not to) take a particular course of action.
5. Team meetings. Team meetings are critical to sharing valuable and necessary information. Team meetings may be used to share information among team members on the same shift and for passing information across shifts. To increase the effectiveness of team meetings in attaining team situational awareness, Team Leads need to receive training in the following:
   1. Running a shift meeting and stating common goals for the team.
   2. Providing a common understanding of who is doing what.
   3. Setting up an understanding of the inter-relationship between tasks and personnel activities.
   4. Providing expectations regarding teamwork.
   5. Maintaining good communication practices.
6. Teamwork and feedback. It is important that maintenance personnel receive feedback on the outcome of their work. Such feedback is crucial to the development of better mental models. Without such feedback, it is difficult to improve a person's diagnostic skills. For example, a complex diagnosis and repair may have been totally successful, but the unit may have failed again a few days later at another station; a person would be unable to correct the diagnosis without feedback on the subsequent failure.
7. Individual situational awareness training.
   1. Many common problems can be linked to situational awareness failures, including the following:
      1. Forgetting information or steps - frequently associated with task interruptions.
      2. Not passing information between shifts or team members.
      3. Missing critical information due to task-related distractions.
      4. Misinterpreting information due to false expectations.
   2. Training maintenance personnel to recognize threats to situational awareness and to cope with their effects can minimize these problems.

Related concepts

• Human factors.

Related lectures

• Employee Resource Management Training.