Michael Kobbeloer
Overview
I held an in-house two-day train-the-trainer seminar for an airline focusing on communication between the cockpit and cabin crew. Since all internal trainers were also pilots and flight attendants, the goal was for them to experience the use of METALOG training tools and use them in their own training programs in an effective manner.
Topic
Identifying and optimizing essential communication needs and competencies.
Staging
a. Preparation
I set up Tower of Power Special during the lunch break while none of the participants were in the room. I placed six (of the eight possible) blocks on the floor at distances from each other. I covered the blocks with a black cloth so that no one could see them. I put the crane with the strings on top of the cloth and pulled the strings so far apart that they were easy to grab. I wanted the participants to be able to see the tool (the crane with the strings), but not the blocks.
b. Performance
I began the staging phase for Tower of Power Special: “Sometimes, as flight crew, it makes sense to keep your feet on the ground. Your task is to build as high and as safe a tower as possible from the blocks under this cloth – your Tower of Success. You can already see the tools you need. As you know from your working lives, most of the time you work in separate areas: some of you are in the cockpit and some in the cabin.
Communication simply has to be right, even if you can only communicate verbally. And, during the flight, the pilots cannot see what the cabin crew is doing in the cabin, and vice versa. That’s why some of you won’t see anything during this learning project. Every other second person will be given a blindfold and will be ‘blind’ for the duration of the learning project. On top of that, all strings must remain taut at all times and no one is allowed to let go of their strings. If a block falls over, it must stay as it is and not be put back up. Your time limit is twelve minutes.”
I asked all participants to stand up and form a circle around the tool. Then I handed out a blindfold to every second person and asked them to help each other to put it on. Next, they all picked up the ends of the strings and worked together to lift the crane. When the crane was in the air, I took away the black cloth and the blocks became visible to the “sighted” people.
“Now I’m really curious to see how well you communicate as a whole team and build a tall and safe tower using completely different channels of perception – good luck!”
Transfer to the real World
Elements in the learning project | Elements in the real world |
---|---|
Blocks and tower | Parts of flight/whole flight |
Strings | Scope of action/guidelines |
“Sighted” participants | Flight crew in the cockpit or in the cabin |
“Blind” participants | Flight crew in the cabin or in the cockpit |
Crane | Successful cooperation |
c. Progression
The team quickly began to communicate. The sighted conferred, analyzed the situation, and after some time appointed two seeing participants to take the lead. No block of wood had been moved yet. The blind stood aside and held back, at the beginning no one said anything. The sighted realized that the Tower of Power Special blocks could only be placed on top of each other using a very specific “puzzle-like” principle. A strategy was needed. So, the sighted began to define the sequential order of the blocks.
At this point, one of the blind participants tentatively asked if there was any chance someone could let them know what was going on. One of the sighted then started to describe the situation. The follow-up questions made it clear that the sighted person had not really put himself in the blind participant’s shoes. Those who could see had to repeatedly respond to detailed questions and describe in more detail what the blocks looked like and where they were.
Then the two leaders decided that the first block should be lifted and placed on the designated base block. Everyone pulled their strings up, the crane was hooked in, and the block was lifted. But one of the blind pulled in the wrong direction (no directions were previously defined for this group) and the block fell. It became clear that they needed more information and greater clarity in communication.
Gradually, the situation improved: the verbal communication became clearer, and a mutually comprehensible language emerged. Commands, directions, and status reports became increasingly more precise and could be understood and implemented, even by the blind.
After the fourth block was successfully placed, I intervened: “For a time-fee of two minutes, I’ll put the fallen block back up for you. Will you accept this offer?” The majority agreed and the time available was reduced to just under two minutes. Now the participants really felt put under pressure (a situation I also wanted to create through my intervention). It remained to be seen whether the previous communication strategy would also work under stress.
The stressful phase proceeded in a somewhat rougher manner with considerably less fun and laughter, but the team finally managed to put all the blocks on top of each other in the allotted time. At the end, everyone applauded and celebrated their success.
Reflection
For the evaluation of the learning project, I divided both teams into two separate rooms:
The sighted collected the following points in response to their question, “What competencies were needed for the process?”:
• Leadership
• Consulting each other
• Clear instructions
• Precise directions
• Mentors for the blind
• Technical view
By contrast, the “blind” gave the following responses to their question, “What needs did the ‘non-sighted’ have?”:
• Being integrated into the process
• Precise description of the situation
• Being noticed
• Precise directions
• Being seen
• Motivation
Afterward, both teams returned to the large group, where the charts were placed side by side and evaluated. This allowed them to gain a mutual understanding that communication should be appropriate and useful in order to adequately address the needs of the “blind” team members.
At the same time, I had prepared a special, further evaluation method beyond this first part of the evaluation, called the “Wow-Logger.” During the learning project, both I and my co-trainer had noted down almost word for word on facilitation cards some of the things the participants said during the learning project. We collected typical statements that occur in such work processes, such as “Oh, would you please shut up,” “It was obvious that so-and-so would get it wrong again,” to “Way to go,” or “It’s do or die,” and “We can do it.”
Finally, we had the participants use three red (negative) and three green (positive) sticky dots to rate which of these statements were more helpful and goal-oriented and which were more of a hindrance to achieving the goal. This is a wonderfully eye-opening method that usually does not even need any further commentary, because the results of the sticky dots speak for themselves.
Conclusion
This learning project is particularly important as a train-the-trainer course for airlines, because the trainers experience the purpose of the staging themselves in a dual context while at the same time acquiring a new training method for turning learning into a tangible and visual experience.