"Group Interaction in High Risk Environments"
Chair: Professor Rainer Dietrich, Humboldt-University, Berlin
Overview
Vanity, perfectionism and other risk factors
Collegium presents recommendations on risk communication at Final Conference "The better the team, the safer the world" - Handbook by the Collegium is published
The Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation contributed 1.5 million euros to finance research into behavior and communication in high risk workplaces. Having now concluded the project, the Ladenburg Collegium presented the results for the first time on May 6, 2004, in Rüschlikon by Lake Zurich, together with host Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue.
"There are numerous parallels between doctors and pilots. They belong to professions in which status awareness and professional pride are very high", said psychologist Bob Helmreich to an audience of 150 at the Collegium’s 
concluding event in Rüschlikon. "The idea that one always has to be perfect, and the belief that one should be able to keep personal problems in the background are also widespread in these groups”, added Helmreich. He has been researching the causes of human error in the aviation industry for decades, and was invited to transfer his know-how to intensive care facilities in this particular research project. Helmreich is a Professor at the University of Texas in Austin, USA, and managed one of the seven project groups of the Collegium on "Group Interaction in High Risk Environments”.
Research for greater safety
The Ladenburg Collegium investigated factors such as team organization, behavior, work morale and communication style and measured their importance as possible sources of errors. Headed by Rainer
Dietrich, Professor of Psycholinguistics at the Humboldt University in Berlin, the main research contributors to the project were psychologists, linguists and psycholinguists, although safety specialists from the aviation industry and representatives from hospitals and nuclear power plants were also involved. The Ladenburg Collegium presented the project results at the Centre for Global Dialogue of "Swiss Re", the reinsurance company, on May 6, 2004 in Rüschlikon by Lake Zurich.
Fatal communication
Peter Pronovost, a doctor, and Claude Nicollier, an astronaut, were the guest speakers. Pronovost estimates that in the United States alone, between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year because of the wrong treatments, of which as many as seven percent simply
because they are not given the right medicines. "The mortality rate could be reduced by 30 percent if we improved work organization", claims Pronovost, who is responsible for health management at the "Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine" in Baltimore, USA.
Nicollier came back in his talk to the causes of the Columbia tragedy in 2003, drawing parallels with the Challenger accident in 1986.
He concluded that in both cases, warnings about technical defects were ignored. The tragedies could have been averted by better error management.
New safety culture
All the specialists consulted were unanimous in their belief that "non-punitive reporting systems" are one of the best ways of eliminating sources of future errors. Under such systems, employees can report mistakes and unsatisfactory situations without fear of punishment. This is generally done via computer databases into which nurses, doctors, pilots or flight attendants can enter their observations on an anonymous basis.
Practical recommendations
The research results have been translated into specific recommendations and published in a book entitled "The better the team, the safer the world", which is available from the Foundation. Gisbert Freiherr zu Putlitz, Chairman of the
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Prof. Gisbert Frhr. |
Rudolf Kellen- |
"The better the team, the safer the world" is available in English, free of charge:
The handbook may be ordered from the Foundation:
haag [at] daimler-benz-stiftung.de (Key word: GIHRE Handbook)
Download as a PDF file (370 KB) here ...
Other downloads (in English):
- Description of the Collegium (PDF, 96 KB)
- Statements by speakers at the Final Conference (PDF, 448 KB)
Press review (all articles in German, in different resolutions)
- medium resolution (PDF 3.2 MB) ...
- high resolution (PDF 11.2 MB) ...
More publications by the Collegium
Published: July 2004
Group Interaction in High Risk Environments
edited by Rainer Dietrich with Traci Michelle Childress
300 p., 40 b&w illustrations, Hardback
Size: 234 x 156 mm
Ashgate Aldershot, 2004
$89.95/£49.95
ISBN: 0 7546 4011 6
More details at the publisher ...
Published: September 2003
DIETRICH, Rainer (ed.)
Communication in High Risk Environments
In Coordination with Tilman von Meltzer.
Sonderheft 12
179 p. , paper-bound.
Helmut Buske Verlag, Hamburg, 2003
Euro 34,80
ISBN: 3-87548-342-1
Folder of the supplement as pdf-file (152 KB)
More details: www.buske.de
Book on the 6th Berlin Colloquium
(published: April 2004)
Teaming Up: Components of Safety Under High Risk
edited by Rainer Dietrich and Kateri Jochum
146 p., 73 b&w illustrations, Hardback
Size: 234 x 156 mm
Ashgate Aldershot, 2004
$69.95/£39.95
ISBN: 0 7546 3435 3
More details at the publisher ...
About the Ladenburg Collegium
"Group Interaction in High Risk Environments"
Air traffic accidents like the crash of a Birgen Air plane in 1996, medical malpractice like surgery on the healthy lung of a cancer patient in Kassel or the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl - all are examples of severe accidents in which people were involved whose work environment exposes them to high risk. Frequently referred to as caused by 'human error', these events can originate in the lack of communication within the team. Communication deficits can lead to a situation in which the team is no longer able to handle a crisis adequately.
Since spring 1999, the Ladenburg Collegium addresses these questions. Chairman of the collegium is Professor Rainer Dietrich of the Humboldt University, Berlin. Participants are experts in the field of aviation, of surgery, and nuclear reactor safety personnel as well as academics in the fields of linguistics, psychology and medicine. It is the objective of the group to analyze different aspects of communication in high stress situations and to develop a concept for special training of personnel in high risk work.
Projects of the Ladenburg Collegium "Group Interaction in High Risk Environments"
I. Behavioral Patterns in a Dangerous Situation
Three projects of the collegium use original data and observation of actual behavior in simulation experiments with cockpit crews and surgical teams in the US and in Switzerland to analyze behavioral change in situations of danger.
"Group Interaction in a High-Risk Environment: Aviation"
Captain Werner Naef, Swissair, Zürich
"Group Interaction under Threat and High Workload"
Professor Dr. Robert Helmreich, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Psychology
"Group Interaction in a High-Risk Environment: The Operating Room"
Dr. Stephan Marsch & Professor Dr. Daniel Scheidegger, Anesthesiology, Kantonsspital (concluded in spring 2001, data will be evaluated further in the project of Gudela Grote)
"The Effects of Different Forms of Coordination in Coping with High Work Load"
Professor Dr. Gudela Grote, Institute for the Psychology of Work , ETH Zürich
II. Structuring Highly Focused Mental Efforts
Four project teams analyze procedures to process information in various conditions of stress.
"Task Load and the Microstructure of Cognition"
Professor Dr. Werner Sommer, Humboldt University, Berlin, Institute of Cognitive Psychology
"Answering Questions Under Conditions of High Work Load"
Professor Dr. Rainer Dietrich, Department of Psycholinguistic
"Group Interaction under Threat and High Work Load: Linguistic Factors"
Professor Dr. Manfred Krifka, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Linguistics
"Team Interaction in the Nuclear Power Plant"
Dr. Oliver Straeter, Society for the Safety of Nuclear Reactors, Garching
III. Cultural Variations of Behavioral Patterns
Behavioral patterns of people are subject to social regulation. Obeying rules and orders, trust in technology or the belief in faith are not always the same in different parts of the world. Although cultural variation is not in the center of the present project, it should not however, be neglected and will be included in the near future.