Summary

This module provided information on team performance from two perspectives. The first was the use of teams in office, factory, and other non-safety critical environments. The second was the use of teams in safety critical applications, characterized by high risk, time critical, and high stress environments. In the former case, the use of teams to flatten organizations, increase productivity, and increase job satisfaction was described as well as factors contributing to the development of high performing teams. In the latter case, teams and team work were presented as the front line defense against adverse events with the introduction to concepts of Crew Resource Management (CRM) for safety critical operations.

Concepts of human error causality were presented, both the "name, blame, and shame" traditional approach and the more realistic and successful systemic approach to identify contributing factors to errors. Reason's "Swiss Cheese" model was chosen to describe the systems approach to error management and its applicability to CRM error management. In addition, The importance of CRM training and incorporation of CRM principles into Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to positive outcomes were reviewed. The success of CRM in aviation and its adoption by other safety critical applications was presented.