The Master s Leadership Role in the Safety Culture - A Training Need (A paper delivered to the UK MCA Human Factors Seminar 26 th October 2004)

Transcription

1 The Ideal World The Master s Leadership Role in the Safety Culture - A Training Need (A paper delivered to the UK MCA Human Factors Seminar 26 th October 2004) Philip Wake, MSc FNI Chief Executive The Nautical Institute I doubt that anyone would seriously doubt that the master of a merchant ship has a primary leadership role aboard his ship. Even those owners who merely want their sea staff to be glorified lorry drivers getting the ship from A to B would hopefully recognise that this still requires more than just technical competence. However, I hope today will convince you that more than the master have a leadership role in providing a safe and efficient shipping service for the world. For the moment though we will remain with the master and the qualities that he or she needs to have to professionally lead the officers and crew: The ability to build and lead a team The ability to be assertive with the crew and outside agencies Being fair and consistent An understanding of human nature and human limitations Being supportive and interested in the crews personal and professional development The ability to give clear and concise orders when necessary This list is certainly not exhaustive and we will consider other skills and knowledge required for good leadership in a moment. From a legal and practical standpoint, the master must lead his team to ensure that the ship is seaworthy at all times and should apply the ISM Code in a pro-active manner. He must ensure his officers navigate and run the ship in a safe and seamanlike manner, applying best practice at all times. Many of these aspects require technical skills but what binds them all together are people skills and that is where leadership becomes crucial. The master also requires professional integrity before commercial expediency and he will also be helped by a thorough understanding of the shipping business. In summary, he must be a leader and set a good example for his crew to follow. The Real World One of the key roles of a professional body is the identification of a problem within the industry often before most people realise there is a problem. This far sightedness comes from having members in all sectors of the industry and listening to what they have to say about life at the sharp end of operations and commerce. Some 60% of our 6500 members are serving at sea so what they have to say is from the real operational world and they tell us they are ill prepared to lead in today s environment. The Institute gathers and disseminates this evidence, and in so doing raises the awareness of the industry to the problem. The next step is to propose solutions and generate a debate about the issues. This produces feedback which can be incorporated to produce workable solutions 1

2 that are more likely to be acceptable. Finally, the Institute will influence the industry bodies to apply the solution to resolve the problem. What we are told and observe is that there is a training need to make up for the lack of experience due to promotion at a younger age and less time in each rank. Personally, I believe that learning by experience can only develop leadership to a certain extent and that understanding the underlying principles of how to lead can only be provided by structured training. Equally, I do not subscribe to the view that there are only natural leaders (i.e. born leaders), although there are certainly a few of these, and that leadership skills cannot be taught. Even born leaders would benefit from training to enhance their skills and develop their understanding of how they lead. The Institute Working Group Our current work on the role of leadership in the safety culture began in 2001 as a result of members concerns that increasing regulation was developing a tick box mentality rather than a real belief in and knowledge of how to operate safely and efficiently. For example, it is well known that there are fundamentally two ways of implementing the ISM Code. One is based on belief that the procedures will really benefit the company and its personnel through improved safety and efficiency so adding value to the bottom line. The other looks on it merely as a necessary piece of paper with additional costs and no benefit apart from the means to continue trading. I put it to you that the first way requires leadership from the top of the company and the top of the sea staff to be implemented effectively - without that leadership the SMS will not be effective. We identified a lack of knowledge of leadership skills as a major issue in commercial shipping and little awareness of the need for training in this area. The Nautical Institute has therefore run a number of seminars and set up a Working Group in Glasgow to formulate a viable strategy to encourage leadership training in the industry. Their work took into account existing national and international regulations and was influenced by market forces. There is little or no point proposing a solution that is so expensive or academic that it will be completely unacceptable to the industry. The Working Group comprised an inter-disciplinary mix of personnel from the ship owning / management, ports, academic, training, and sea-going sectors of our industry with access to information from the main crew supply countries and the principal examination administrations. The Working Group was tasked to: 1. Assess what training is already available internationally 2. Assess usage of that training so as to estimate the need for a new Training Scheme. 3. Draw up and agree a specification of best practice as regards Leadership and Teamwork Training, and assess whether this should include some management training due to the inter-relationship of these subjects. 4. Assess the scope for the Scheme to be accredited by The Nautical Institute on an international basis. I will not take you through the results of the surveys although I would be happy to send the information to you on request. Suffice it to say that the overwhelming majority of the 602 officers questioned supported the need for training and 41% of them wanted it provided in short course format. 27% wanted it incorporated within STCW and the majority of these were 2

3 from Eastern Europe. However, I would like to share with you the real need for and the benefits of effective leaders at sea. Justification for Leadership Training A convincing case can be made on the basis of the survey results of the needs and benefits of providing and funding leadership training. It can be shown that this training is essential, as the value of shipping assets, the environment in which maritime people work, the risk/reward ratios, and the expectations of the world community place greater demands on owners, managers and seafarers. Because of this, the shipping industry must focus on the qualities of leadership which it needs to promote, and apply leadership training. It should also look to identify and train leaders early on in the management process as would any non-maritime business. This early identification of leaders will shape the young people and ensure that the company retains and promotes the right personnel to add value to the business and reduce risk. Quality, safety and success are all tied together, therefore, leadership training can be seen to be an investment with dollar value, when it reduces risk and leads to a reduction in claims and adverse publicity from accidents. Any measure could be used: Number of lost time incidents Number of serious accidents such as groundings, or loss of life or limb Number of claims and costs being dealt with by the P and I Club Staff turn over rate Number of ships in management. Who should be the leaders in the sea staff? Some may think that leadership need only be applied by the master or chief engineer and that earlier leadership training is merely preparation for these ultimate positions of responsibility. However, we contend otherwise virtually anyone on board a ship may be called upon to be a leader in certain situations and certainly all officers and senior ratings will regularly have to display leadership as well as technical skills. There are some courses that involve leadership firefighting, Crisis Management, Bridge Team Management, etc. but few of these, if any, overtly explore the underlying principles of leadership. This is a gap that must be filled to improve the safety and efficiency of shipping. Let me give you two real examples of grounding incidents that were just waiting to happen. Case 1 This was in a blue chip UK liner company but the grounding was avoided through good leadership. The ship was in the buoyed approach channel to an Arabian Gulf port, daylight, good visibility, but of course few identifying features or navigation marks on the shore. The pilot was due to board close to the harbour entrance so the master had the con with the 2 nd Mate as OOW, helmsman on the wheel in manual steering. The OOW was plotting by visual and radar fixes and advising the master of progress regularly but the master was not viewing the chart himself he had the picture of the channel in his mind. The ship was approaching a 3

4 bend in the channel and the master ordered the helm over but he was one buoy too early. He had not checked the positions on the chart nor asked the advice of his navigating officer. The 2 nd Mate heard the order, realised the master s mistake, and countermanded the order direct to the helmsman who fortunately obeyed instantly (they were regular watchkeepers together and had developed a team understanding and respect). I need hardly tell you that the master first went ballistic, then as white as a sheet when the 2 nd Mate showed him the chart. However, it was not in his nature to apologise and the 2 nd Mate s warning to the Chief Officer to watch him on the departure from the port a few days later paid dividends when he nearly did the same again! Had the liner company given the 2 nd Mate leadership training? No but he had had leadership training and roles at school, college, and in the Naval Reserve in addition to normal technical training which had given him a professional confidence. He had also sailed with some good masters! The master was not a leader and certainly needed training; the 2 nd Mate would also have benefited from further leadership training to improve his effective communication and teamwork with the master. Case 2 In contrast, a recent casualty highlights what happens when there isn t a leader on the bridge. Again this was in a major western fleet with a high reputation in the industry. A ship under pilotage constrained by her draft, the narrowness of the channel, and other ships in the vicinity. The pilot was clearly inadequately professional in his attitude to the ship s personnel (not unusual in this part of the world) and reacted sarcastically to their concerns regarding the ship s speed. Eventually, he shared their concerns and attempted to slow the ship down by a combination of engine and helm orders. The ship swung first to starboard and then to port but did not respond to a further starboard helm order due to the reduction in speed and shallow water effects. The master ordered full ahead and hard to starboard but it was too late. The ship grounded fore and aft, was out of service for over 5 months and costs to the owners/insurers amounted to over $15m. What was the cause of this casualty? The professional shortcomings of the pilot? The incorrect handling of the ship in trying to slow her down? The old chestnut of the Master/Pilot relationship? Yes, to all three, but the real cause was the lack of leadership skills of the master and his bridge team. They could and should have communicated assertively with the pilot much earlier and before a point in the pilotage where the ship could have been safely anchored to await a replacement pilot if he could not or would not navigate safely within the bridge team. Leadership training could have helped avoid this accident. Structure of Leadership Training One of the conclusions of the Institute s seminar in Glasgow, which was also supported by the survey, was that Leadership Training should not form part of STCW, but any course should be suitably accredited to give international recognition to anyone who has successfully participated in it. The survey showed that short courses would be more attractive, and it is envisaged that these should be at two levels Foundation and Development. We have deliberately moved away from specifying them in terms of sea-going ranks for the following reasons: 4

5 They should be applied to shore based staff as well as seafarers, especially those with responsibility of ships safety Some (many?) senior officers and managers should do the Foundation course before moving onto the Development course There is benefit in these courses being conducted with a mix of senior and junior staff as well as a mix of sea and shore staff The courses should be a mix of learning about and applying the underlying principles of leadership Content and Form of Learning Programme So what do mariners need to know about to be effective leaders in their demanding environment? We believe the following topics with two levels for each should be included: Cultural Awareness & team impact Behavioural Models Human Limitations including fatigue Effective Communication Teamwork Principles Decision making & problem solving processes Personal & professional development Coaching & Mentoring Appraisal systems and techniques The Working Group has now expanded these course specifications into Guidance Notes on delivery methods, timescales and outcomes. Maritime/industry related terminology has been used in the curriculum and academia buzzwords have been avoided. The tabular format of training specification, as in STCW, has been adopted, for familiarity and ease of future integration with IMO standards. It is interesting to note that the Philippines are already likely to make a Leadership course compulsory before gaining a Master s Certificate and it is encouraging that the MCA is working to identify the role of leadership in improving safety. It is hoped that the MCA will adopt our course specifications and introduce them to the IMO, initially as Guidance. Conclusion It is gratifying that the work that we, and others in the industry, have been doing on this subject over the past three years has indeed raised the awareness of many key industry bodies and companies that this leadership issue needs to be addressed. There is a real demand for training courses to be more widely available and we believe there is a need for these to be offered on the basis of an agreed standard. The result, over time, will be mariners with developed leadership skills applying these to improve safety on board as well as the retention of competent crews so improving the efficiency of the ship and the value of the commercial company. The master and other mariners need more than just the technical skills provided by STCW to run an efficient ship in this increasingly complex marine environment and the industry needs to embrace these people skills before it is forced to do so by yet more regulation. 5

6 I look forward to hearing your views and I trust that the remaining presentations today will support and add weight to my call for action. If you require further information on the work of The Nautical Institute, please me on cpw@nautinst.org. 6