During their former extensive military careers, Touchstone Leadership consultants have enjoyed some of the best teamwork and leadership training available.  As aviators, the consultants were subject to a concept known as Crew Resource Management designed to maximize team safety and efficiency.  The concept, designed in the 1970s, underpins the open and learning culture of commercial aviation that we enjoy today.  It is also used as a bedrock to military aviation and can be seen across all aspects of military operations. 

During his final year in the Royal Air Force, the founder of Touchstone Leadership undertook an MSc in Strategic Leadership.  As part of his degree course, Gp Capt Rob Adlam completed a paper examining the leadership failures surrounding the Deep Water Horizon disaster.  (Paper attached for download).  During his research, Rob Adlam found that there was a nascent awareness by some in the oil and gas industry of the benefits of adopting Crew Resource Management principles into their own organization.  A series of papers written in early 2014 (IOGP 501, 502 and 503) outlined how the oil and gas industry could adopt Crew Resource Management in order to improve the 'soft skills' of the workforce.  The International Well Control Federation (IWCF) termed the concept Well Operations Crew Resource Management (WOCRM). 

Touchstone Leadership have followed the IOGP  and IWCF recommendations and has adapted Crew Resource Management training for the oil and gas industry in order to improve the effectiveness and safety of crew operations in the oil and gas industry.               

It is an accepted principle that effective teamwork is an essential component of organisational performance. Team training appears in multiple forms ranging from outward-bound courses to psychodynamic analysis of individuals. It is likely that some of this training is ineffective because courses are usually generic and do not focus on the precise teamwork factors which are inherent to a given set of operating conditions. 

Crew Resource Management (CRM) is a proven and effective team-enhancement process that has been adopted by the aviation industry for the last 35 years and is gaining traction in other domains such as the energy industry and the medical profession. The CRM approach focuses on the non-technical skills of the individuals that make up a team. They include 7 core principles; Situational Awareness, Leadership, Teamwork, Communication, Assertiveness, Decision Making and Shaping Factors. Each of these topics can often be presented as stand-alone subjects, however research has demonstrated that an effective team requires a sound understanding of all of the 7 core principles.

The Touchstone Leadership CRM (TLCRM) model has been used to train oil drilling crews for the last 5 years to great effect.  Using immersive simulators to replicate the difficulty of decision making under a well-control situation, the TLCRM model has provided unparalleled training for all crews involved.  To date, over 200 crews have been subjected to the TLCRM model with an overwhelming level of trainee satisfaction.

The key to the success of the TLCRM model is the standard of the CRM instructors and how they 'manage' the immersive simulator training environment.  All too often, the training focuses on the technical aspect of a simulator session, with little consideration given to a team's CRM performance.  The TLCRM model embraces both technical and CRM aspects in the  debrief in order to maximize the training opportunity of an expensive immersive simulator.

The TLCRM model assesses individual's performance in the simulator by the use of 'behavioral markers' as outlined in IOGP 503.  

The TLCRM model is complemented by an end of course personal development plan where candidates are given a candid debrief of their performance in the simulator and how they may wish to consider developing as leaders.  This part of the model is always very well received, even by 30-year drilling veterans.