Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to Diving

Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to Diving

Hosted by: Gareth Lock at The Human Diver

Human factors is a critical topic within the world of SCUBA diving, scientific diving, military diving, and commercial diving. This podcast is a mixture of interviews and 'shorts' which are audio versions of the...

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Episodes

SH157: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

In this episode, we explore the pitfalls of blindly trusting technology through two cautionary tales—one about a GPS mishap in snowy Quebec and another about divers relying solely on their computers. Automation offers...
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SH156: CCR pre-dive checks and checklists are not always enough to prevent an equipment-based accident!

In this episode, we explore how safety in diving is not just about avoiding accidents but about building systems that can fail safely. Drawing on a real-life incident shared by Phil Short, we examine how a small...
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SH155: How safe is your diving?

In this episode, we dive into the concept of psychological safety and its critical role in diving and team performance. Psychological safety, defined as a shared belief that it's safe to take interpersonal risks,...
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SH154: The Importance of Decision Making in Setting Goals: Ensuring “The Juice is worth the Squeeze”

In this episode, we explore the double-edged nature of goal setting—how it drives achievement but can also lead to risky decisions when pressure and commitment override safety and judgment. Using examples from...
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SH153: Why ‘They should have’, ‘...could have’ or ‘I would have..’ do not improve diving safety

In this episode, we explore the concept of counterfactual reasoning—our tendency to imagine how incidents could have been avoided by different actions—and why it falls short in improving safety. While this type of...
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SH152: The Bend is Uninteresting...The Related Decisions Are Much More So

In this episode, we explore a personal account of a Gareth’s experience with decompression sickness (DCS) and the critical decision-making process that followed. The story dives into the internal monologue, biases,...
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SH151: When the holes line up...

In this episode, we explore Professor James Reason's Swiss Cheese Model, which helps explain how incidents occur when multiple safety barriers fail at different levels within a system. We discuss how organizational,...
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SH150: Are you a good enough diver?

In this episode, we dive into the concept of "good enough" in diving and how it relates to decision-making, risk, and safety. We explore why terms like "safe" and "good" are subjective and often influenced by context,...
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SH149: 'Choices': Guaranteed small loss or a probable larger loss, injury or fatality?

In this episode, we explore how decision-making under uncertainty plays a crucial role in scuba diving, drawing insights from Prospect Theory and real-life scenarios. We discuss how psychological factors, like loss...
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SH148: Risk of diving fatality is 1:200 000. However, you cannot be a fraction of dead…!

In this episode, we explore how risk is perceived and managed in diving, where emotions, biases, and mental shortcuts often outweigh logic and statistics. Diving fatalities are statistically rare, but those numbers...
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SH147: Dive safety leads to nothingness...and nothingness is unemotive!

How do you measure safety in diving? This episode dives into a real story of a dive team that adapted to an emerging safety risk when two divers, certified but inexperienced in drysuits and challenging conditions,...
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SH146: Why ‘everyone is responsible for their own risk-based decisions’ isn’t the right approach to take to improve diving safety.

In this episode, we explore the decision-making challenges in diving, sharing a personal story of risky dives and lessons learned. A diver reflects on their early diving experiences, from breaking training depth...
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