​The New Year: a time of self-analysis; looking back and looking ahead. 'New Year, New You' is an overused line that you will probably see almost everywhere.

So here's our piece of advice. Let's look beyond ourselves and reflect on your teams work environment too.

If we concentrate on our model of Whirlwind Debriefing – what is one thing we do well? What is one thing we could do more of or indeed less of ?

In general it is accepted that few of us emphasise our successes and share what we do well. Let's try and change to doing that.

That doesn't work for us

In aviation it is mandatory to have an in depth initial course with each new company that a crew member joins and by international law it must be refresher trained and assessed 2 or 3 times a year. Even then our human frailty and fallibility is still susceptible to error.

Human Factors training is about transforming behaviour to create safer more efficient staff. You cannot completely error-proof the human but you can provide the right training and support to give them the best chance to get it right and be safe under quite trying and stressful conditions.

This can't always be achieved in one brief intervention. In order to see noticeable effects your team should be allowed the time to fully digest the learning points from the training sessions and attend refresher sessions so that they can begin to embrace a new way of thinking.

Make achievable targets

Do you want your team to be part of the solution? We don't need to tell you that motivation is one of the first steps to making positive changes.

If you're struggling to make a New Year's resolution that's achievable for you and your team, here are a few suggestions:

This year we will:

  • Gain the confidence to raise issues
  • Be more motivated and effective
  • Find long term solutions to recurring issues and everyday challenges

Once you've decided on your resolution, we can help you stick to it.

Start your team on the journey to a successful New Year...

We offer help for individuals and small teams in the form of Open Courses click here to visit the page on our website. We can also provide training and support for departments and larger teams click here.