Abstract
WOCRM is based on the Crew Resource Management (CRM) training program developed in the aviation industry in the 1980's. It is an attitudinal and behavioural training methodology; used to continuously engage the crews in repetitive, hands on and interactive exercises and simulations, providing structured feedback to develop each crew members’ non-technical skills. The training was first developed for airline cockpit crews in the 1980's and has since flourished within commercial and military aviation, mining and medical industries. A review done for Qantas by David Hainsworth, (Briefing to Qantas safety management, 2000) indicated that 96% of their LTI's root causes were behavioural in nature.
According to Edkins (2002), it follows that if we agree that the focus of CRM is to modify and reinforce effective safety Behaviour, it is reasonable then to assume that LTI's will be reduced. If LTI's are reduced, so too then is the costs associated with them, which in Oil and Gas can go into the billions and so a very good Return on Investment (ROI).
Focusing on Oil and Gas, the IOGP reports clearly indicate that Well Operations Crew Resource Management (WOCRM) training is required and that it should be incorporated into the mandatory International Well Control Forum (IWCF) and International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) Well Control Training. This is all well and good, however, if anything is to be learned from Dr Graham Edkins, (The state of the nation: How mature are HF/NTS programs within the Australian Airline Industry?, 2012) training alone is not enough.
From a psychological standpoint, to change or correct a Behaviour takes 66-270 days of repetition and constructive feedback. Therefore, the new Behaviour, process or procedure must be repeated for at least 3 months, to ensure that the Behaviour or procedure will in fact be applied when needed, especially in a stressful situation. This then implies the need to add coaching techniques to the methodology, which this paper will introduce.
The major benefit to Oil and Gas, is that all of the techniques mentioned herein have already been created and developed, and our Industry simply has to apply the lessons learned from those that are more advanced, to create a continuous personal development methodology to reduce Lost Time Incidents (LTI's) caused by human error, which would have a potentially massive effect on the financial loss associated with these errors, concluding that this methodology could have a very impressive Return on Investment (ROI) for companies large and small.
