Hi,

Thought I would post this link up as it is a great intro to the work of Gary Klein who is well known for his work on Naturalistic Decision Making.

http://edge.org/conversation/insight

This has come up many times in this forum in a number of guises.  This theory is about the abilities of the "old hands" to make the right decisions where newer staff don't always make the right choice.

This is especially important as more and more companies head down the procedural line telling staff how the job is to be done and removing much of the freedom that the industry grew up with and attracted alot of us to it.

Gary's books are well worth a read, some great stories in there. 

Cheers

Al

ART: I feel sorry for people working in the outdoors these days. Why? Because back when I started there was virtually no 'paperwork' except the form the client signed to say they knew the risks involved and still wanted to take part in a bit of adventure.
Back in the day (sorry yes I know that is a boring cliche), people who wanted to work in the outdoors had to have skills, experience and commonsense and when it was known they had those things they were employed.
Today, the industry is dominated by bureaucracy, protocols, risk management criteria for every possible scenario down to a swordgrass cut, constant pressure to reduce risk as if every possibility can be controlled, parental expectation, the stress of possibly being sued, etc etc etc.
I sometimes wonder where the fun can now be found in doing the job?
It is actually quite ironic that someone has now created a theory about Naturalistic Decision making!
I can't see any end to it all because now everyone has to show how high their CARE (cover cheeks retain employment) factor is and keep constantly raising the bar to prove they are 'controlling the risk'.
And, there are thousands of people out there (lawyers, bureaucrats to name a couple) who make their living by looking for people to blame in the unlikely event something does go wrong. So they have a vested interest in making sure there are never ending enquiries, protocols and a million forms to fill out!
As a very good outdoor instructor I worked with used to say, "What is more dangerous? Driving a car down a two lane road at 100 kmh separated from other vehicles by a thin white line or going for a walk in the bush?" Yet parents will stress to the max about their child going camping and not think twice about driving them to school. It's all about the perception of risk.

Naturalistic Decision Making has been around for about 25 years or so, its just getting more popular thanks to Malcolm Gladwell's book "Blink". 

Another great mind in safety is really pushing the failure of over regulating, Sidney Dekker is blaming the separation of the operational and front line staff from the decision making process.  He writes that Human Error is often blamed but hardly responsible for accidents as system and human/technology interfaces fail as decision are removed from those on the ground.

I see it more and more throughout all industries, usually it comes from someone in an organisation trying to make themselves alot of work to justify their existence, they are the ones who usually complain about how busy they are.  A new piece of paper for this, a new procedure for that.

Personally I see paperwork for outdoor staff as a manual handling hazard and should be minimised.