SH248: Top Tips for Diving Instructors: Teamwork

This episode looks at what happens when a dive “team” isn’t really functioning as a team, using a real training story where strong individual skills weren’t enough to prevent things going wrong under stress. The key lesson is that the problem wasn’t technical ability, but poor teamwork: misaligned goals, weak communication, low trust, and a lack of shared awareness. Research shows that what really makes teams perform well is not personality, confidence, or experience, but social intelligence – the ability to read others, notice stress or confusion, ask good questions, and adapt when plans change. These team skills matter just as much as buoyancy, gas planning, or drills, especially in demanding environments like technical diving. The episode explains why teamwork must be taught and practised deliberately, not assumed, and offers practical ideas for instructors and divers: train teamwork on purpose, model good team behaviour, debrief the whole team, pay attention to emotional cues, and redefine success as how well the team worked together under pressure. In short, safe and effective diving depends on strong teams, not just strong individuals.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-teamwork

Links: Team Players: How Social Skills Improve Team Performance study by Ben Weidmann and David Deming

More 'Top Tips for Diving Instructors' blogs

Guy’s blog about teaching teamwork: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/HF_Into_Archaeology

DEBrIEF model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debrief

Tags: - english communication gareth lock instructors teamwork top tips