WORK SAFE continued
4. Distractions: Anything that diverts your attention from the job constitutes a distraction. Focus on the task at the moment and set aside time to handle distractions. I bet your phone is your biggest distrac- tion. Learn how to harness it!
5. Lack of Teamwork: If you and your crew are unable to come together to complete a common task, your work will suffer. Everyone has an opinion. Some of you will have more experience than others, but all of you bring something valuable to the table or you wouldn’t be there. Learn how to communicate respectfully with one another and appreciate your team members’ input.
6. Fatigue: You know yourself better than anyone, and that includes knowing when to stop working. Recognize when you’re taking a shortcut you wouldn’t normally take. If you’re working with some- one else, recognize when they, too, aren’t perform- ing as usual and speak up.
7. Lack of Resources: If you don’t have what you need to do the job correctly, mistakes can happen. Usually, in our field, the resource we’re most often short on is time.
8. Pressure: Do you find yourself cutting corners to meet someone else’s expectations? If so, stand up for yourself. Be clear about the task and what you feel you need to complete the job successfully. That may be more time, extra help, or additional material resources such as parts or tools.
9. Lack of Assertiveness: Speak up when you’re unclear about expectations or are clear about expec- tations but aren’t being forthright about what it will take to complete the job within the expected param- eters. If you don’t relay your concerns, it’s unlikely anyone else will.
10. Stress: Stress is the perceived inability to meet a demand. Think through what’s causing your stress and take measures to alleviate it. Share your thoughts with someone on your team who can help reduce your stress. Develop a realistic plan and fol- low it.
11. Lack of Awareness: You don’t know what you don’t know. Educate yourself as much as possible about a task before performing it.
12. Norms: These might include unwritten rules, guid- ance, or expectations that should be brought into question. “We’ve always done it this way” isn’t a good enough reason to continue a past approach. Follow good safety practices and discourage nega- tive behavior and thought patterns in your shop.
78 ROTOR MARCH 2023
I’ve put my own twist on the Dirty Dozen because sometimes seeing or hearing something a different way resonates with people. Managers and mechanics/techni- cians can scale down the Dirty Dozen to small, manage- able areas by doing the following:
Managers ■ Communicate your job expectations to your team (tasks, parts, tools, and time).
■ Train your mechanics/technicians and require them to do recurrent training.
■ Manage and minimize your team’s exposure to distractions.
■ Promote teamwork and train for it. Human resources departments and private businesses know profession- als who specialize in team-building training.
■ Clearly illustrate the norms you want to maintain in your shop. Make them tangible and accessible, such as through safety programs and printed materials.
Aviation Mechanics/Technicians ■ Ensure that you understand the job requirements, including parts, tools, time, and assistance, if needed.
■ Adjust your expectations. Don’t expect the same out- come on similar jobs. Think inspections! Just because something was OK the last time doesn’t mean it will be this time.
■ Seek education, on-the-job training, recurrent training, or assistance from someone who’s performed the given task correctly many times before.
■ Minimize distractions and follow shop standards. Set aside time to check emails, texts, or calls after com- pleting important work tasks.
■ Take advantage of your company’s training opportunities.
■ Set your own personal standards and stick to them. Do the job in accordance with published and accepted practices, and set your own pace. Don’t give in to pressures that cause stress and fatigue. As you can see, boundaries whose lines shouldn’t be
crossed exist for both managers and mechanics/techni- cians. If boundaries are addressed and managed prop- erly, the rest will fall into place. We must do all we can to minimize maintenance and
pilot errors. These are errors we should be able to control. If we eliminate the human-factor aspect of accidents and incidents, we’ll soon achieve the seemingly elusive goal of zero crashes, because material or aircraft compo- nent failure is very rare these days. Fugere tutum!
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