5 Common Misconseptions about Human Factors
Jan 31, 2024
There are a lot of misconceptions about Human Factors and in this blog I’d like to try and clear some of them up. Most of the misconceptions seem to happen because of misunderstanding of the ideas and concepts, some are a lack of knowledge and some are simplifications.
"Human Factors is just common sense." There is the often quoted comment that “Common sense isn’t {common}”. Common sense is a shared understanding that emerges over time, but human factors is an evidence-based practice that goes beyond mere intuition. A lot of the concepts seem in hindsight like common sense but often until they’re explained, people may not have thought about them in that particular way before. While things can appear to be obvious, people often need to be consciously aware of them before we start to change our way of seeing things or our practices. Also, many concepts are difficult to see when you’re directly immersed in them (for example the normalisation of deviance), so as ‘obvious’ as they may seem, they still may not be seen by the people involved.
"Human factors only deal with human error." Human error is often used as an all encompassing reason for mistakes, which can mean missing all the factors that caused the human to make the error. Human error is just a component; human factors looks at not just the fact that someone made a mistake but all the steps that led up to that, and the reasons behind them. This means things like system design, team dynamics, and the operational, social, and technical environment. Forgetting your house keys when you leave the house is human error- but what caused you to forget them? Were they in a different place, did you have your mind on other things, or did you think you had already picked them up?
"Focusing on technical skills is enough to ensure safety." Technical skills are vital, but learning how to deal with an out-of-gas emergency will make sure you can survive if it happens- human factors looks at ways of stopping it happening in the first place. Non-technical skills like decision-making, communication, situational awareness and leadership are equally important in reducing risk. Someone who has the best buoyancy in the world may be competent but if they don’t have any awareness of the world around them, make poor decisions or let their ego get in the way of admitting to mistakes they won’t be particularly safe.
"Human factors are just about personal limitations." We all have our own limitations but these can be expanded with the right training. If we look at the interaction of individuals with each other, with equipment (hardware), within their environment, and with processes (software) we can see where we can improve. Just because someone isn’t making good decisions doesn’t mean that that person will always be like that. With debriefing and learning that person can see why those decisions were poor and see what decisions may be better in the future. The same applies to giving feedback (it’s a skill that many people aren’t taught), mask removal and time keeping; these are all skills that can be built on.
"It's solely about the individual's behaviour." Every one of us is different and reacts differently in each situation. Human factors takes into account organisational, national, and cultural components that influence individual actions and outcomes. There are parts of us that we can’t and probably don’t want to change, instinctive reactions that are often unconscious. But we also do things that we may look back on and wish we could have done differently. When we become aware of behaviours that we have, we can sometimes learn to change them if we want to.
Bonus misconception: “Just Culture means no one gets punished for making mistakes.” When we talk about Just Culture many people think that it’s only about looking for systemic problems, or ways to improve, and that there cannot be any blame assigned. This is not the case. It is true that a Learning Review is different to a traditional investigation. But Human Factors doesn’t advocate for one over the other, often both are needed. One will help people to learn and do things differently in the future. The other may need to decide if anyone (and therefore who) is to blame.
You’ll notice I talk a lot about change and learning in this blog. That’s because a huge part of Human Factors is looking for improvements, which only happen through change. That doesn’t mean everything has to change immediately, or that the changes have to be big. I’d once said to a friend “I had to fail my student”. He questioned why I didn’t say “The student failed”. That simple question changed my mindset on how I think about passing and failing people- a tiny change in language, but at the same time a big difference for me.
Summary
Human Factors is a huge subject with many parts. Some people use the misconceptions to justify their behaviour and avoid learning more about the different topics, understandable as change can be difficult and scary, and when we start looking inside at ourselves and our own behaviours we may well find things we don’t like. But learning about these things and learning how to change them is part of it. It really does make it easier to do the right thing and harder to do the wrong thing, not just in diving but in many areas of life.
Jenny is a full-time technical diving instructor and safety diver. Prior to diving, she worked in outdoor education for 10 years teaching rock climbing, white water kayaking and canoeing, sailing, skiing, caving and cycling, among other sports. Her interest in team development started with outdoor education, using it as a tool to help people learn more about communication, planning and teamwork.
Since 2009 she has lived in Dahab, Egypt teaching SCUBA diving. She is now a technical instructor trainer for TDI, advanced trimix instructor, advanced mixed gas CCR diver and helitrox CCR instructor.
Jenny has supported a number of deep dives as part of H2O divers dive team and works as a safety diver in the media industry.
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