As the Captain you have a problem solving, decision making and managing role that needs to much more highly refined and developed than when you were an F/O.
You have to apply good judgement taking into account all the things happening around you (Situational Awareness; or, the “Big Picture”). Only by noticing and recognising all these myriad Big Picture details that are continually occurring about you will you have an up to date, accurate and correct view of your situation. And you need accurate, correct and up to date information to enable you (and your team) to assess current and future situations and make high quality, accurate and correct plans and decisions and then to manage your resources and people to achieve your desired outcome.
As professional aviators we can tend to be very focussed and goal oriented and sometimes when presented with a problem we can also develop “tunnel vision” and focus almost solely on solving that problem.
This is NOT good!
If the flight is going smoothly and as you desire and planned, then you can be in a “maintenance” state of mind. You are just mentally monitoring the flight and its’ progress.
But, if you get some unforecast poor weather, an unusual MEL item, an ECAM/EICAS caution, a PAX or crew personnel problem; in fact any time you get something unusual or out of the ordinary; you’ll need to snap out of your “maintenance” mode to your “I’m the Captain and I have to run the show” state of mind pretty quickly.
Don’t get sucked into the problem solving, task oriented mind set immediately. Remember that there is always lots of stuff going on around you in your Big Picture – sometimes more important and urgent than your latest problem.
Take A Mental Step Back
ANY time ANYthing unusual happens try to make yourself Stop & Think.
When you Stop & Think, also take “A Mental Step Back” and look at the “Big Picture”.
Ask yourself mentally – what’s changed, what has just happened, how does this affect me, the current flight, the next flight, today’s duty or tomorrow’s, what systems have been lost/affected and how does this affect my flight, where is the terrain, other aircraft, weather, where are we headed (and is it suitable in these changed circumstances), is the configuration suitable, do I have fuel/time to sort this out, do I need to divert, hold, go around, delay the take off, return to the bay (where, how far, fuel required, ATC etc.), does my team know what is going on, who’s flying and are we still Aviating, Navigating, Communicating, Managing, who should be PF/PM, is someone “Heads Up”.
You know - all that Big Picture SA stuff.
By taking a mental step back you can possibly utilise some of your “massive” mental brain power, gather in all the changing things that are occurring about you and fulfil your Captain and Leader, problem solver, decision maker and manager roles more effectively.
You need to expand your area of attention to encompass a strategic, broad, global, long term, wide angle Field Of View (FOV). Don’t go immediately into your problem solving, task oriented mind set otherwise your attention will have contracted your area of attention to a tactical, narrow, focussed, short term, telephoto zoom FOV.
If you haven’t read the Photographic Situational Awareness (SA) article then get on over there and check it out. It goes more into to changing your FOV from wide angle to telephoto zoom.
You will often find that by taking a mental step back you suddenly see relevant and pertinent things that you might have easily missed if you remained locked onto the problem. Don’t forget that you are now required to run the entire show now, which may include aircraft utilisation (present and future), aircraft serviceability (can it be fixed at your destination or can it be deferred?), Flight Time Limitations, cockpit and cabin crew (and their possible rostering).
If it seems like you have to do everything – well sometimes that’s the way it is! If you want an easy day out then remain as an F/O.
Taking a mental step back is a valuable Command skill. It requires continual practise. So start to incorporate this new skill into your Command toolbox now.
So whenever anything unusual happens to you spend a few valuable seconds/minutes to Take A Mental Step Back, view the Big Picture and update your SA. You’ll find that your judgement, problem solving, decision making and managing will be of a higher and more correct quality. And that’s what we want from Captains.
You have to apply good judgement taking into account all the things happening around you (Situational Awareness; or, the “Big Picture”). Only by noticing and recognising all these myriad Big Picture details that are continually occurring about you will you have an up to date, accurate and correct view of your situation. And you need accurate, correct and up to date information to enable you (and your team) to assess current and future situations and make high quality, accurate and correct plans and decisions and then to manage your resources and people to achieve your desired outcome.
As professional aviators we can tend to be very focussed and goal oriented and sometimes when presented with a problem we can also develop “tunnel vision” and focus almost solely on solving that problem.
This is NOT good!
If the flight is going smoothly and as you desire and planned, then you can be in a “maintenance” state of mind. You are just mentally monitoring the flight and its’ progress.
But, if you get some unforecast poor weather, an unusual MEL item, an ECAM/EICAS caution, a PAX or crew personnel problem; in fact any time you get something unusual or out of the ordinary; you’ll need to snap out of your “maintenance” mode to your “I’m the Captain and I have to run the show” state of mind pretty quickly.
Don’t get sucked into the problem solving, task oriented mind set immediately. Remember that there is always lots of stuff going on around you in your Big Picture – sometimes more important and urgent than your latest problem.
Take A Mental Step Back
ANY time ANYthing unusual happens try to make yourself Stop & Think.
When you Stop & Think, also take “A Mental Step Back” and look at the “Big Picture”.
Ask yourself mentally – what’s changed, what has just happened, how does this affect me, the current flight, the next flight, today’s duty or tomorrow’s, what systems have been lost/affected and how does this affect my flight, where is the terrain, other aircraft, weather, where are we headed (and is it suitable in these changed circumstances), is the configuration suitable, do I have fuel/time to sort this out, do I need to divert, hold, go around, delay the take off, return to the bay (where, how far, fuel required, ATC etc.), does my team know what is going on, who’s flying and are we still Aviating, Navigating, Communicating, Managing, who should be PF/PM, is someone “Heads Up”.
You know - all that Big Picture SA stuff.
By taking a mental step back you can possibly utilise some of your “massive” mental brain power, gather in all the changing things that are occurring about you and fulfil your Captain and Leader, problem solver, decision maker and manager roles more effectively.
You need to expand your area of attention to encompass a strategic, broad, global, long term, wide angle Field Of View (FOV). Don’t go immediately into your problem solving, task oriented mind set otherwise your attention will have contracted your area of attention to a tactical, narrow, focussed, short term, telephoto zoom FOV.
If you haven’t read the Photographic Situational Awareness (SA) article then get on over there and check it out. It goes more into to changing your FOV from wide angle to telephoto zoom.
You will often find that by taking a mental step back you suddenly see relevant and pertinent things that you might have easily missed if you remained locked onto the problem. Don’t forget that you are now required to run the entire show now, which may include aircraft utilisation (present and future), aircraft serviceability (can it be fixed at your destination or can it be deferred?), Flight Time Limitations, cockpit and cabin crew (and their possible rostering).
If it seems like you have to do everything – well sometimes that’s the way it is! If you want an easy day out then remain as an F/O.
Taking a mental step back is a valuable Command skill. It requires continual practise. So start to incorporate this new skill into your Command toolbox now.
So whenever anything unusual happens to you spend a few valuable seconds/minutes to Take A Mental Step Back, view the Big Picture and update your SA. You’ll find that your judgement, problem solving, decision making and managing will be of a higher and more correct quality. And that’s what we want from Captains.
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