All Episodes
Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to Diving — 286 episodes
SH286: The Shortcut That Gets You Home — and the One That Doesn't
SH285: When Skill Alone Isn't Enough: The Resilient Performance Model
SH284: LEODSI and PETTEOT: A Systems Approach for Understanding How Diving Really Works
SH283: You're Accountable. You're Responsible. You're It!
SH282: Isolation Amplifies Drift: When Remote Operations Make Small Deviations Invisible
SH281: HMS Scylla Wreck Penetration Tragedy: Two Perspectives on Learning
SH280: This Could Happen to Any Dive Operator: What We Can Really Learn From The Perth Diving Academy Incident
SH279: The Tower Was Already Full of Holes
SH278: Be Curious, Not Judgemental
SH277: You are entering water with known problems, and don't kid yourself that it's any different.
SH276: If there are no silver bullets, build capacity to fail safely
SH275: The death of a child in diver training. There are no ‘silver bullet’ solutions
SH274: When Do We Stop Asking “Why?”
SH273: What story gets told? What words are used? Who gets to the tell the multiple stories?
SH272: Seeing what is ‘unseen’: applying human factors to citizen science
SH271: When the Story Hurts Too Much to Change
SH270: Safe diving starts from the system. Not from the human.
SH269: What Is the Purpose of an Investigation in Diving?
SH268: The Hidden Cost of "Never Show Weakness": Why Hiding Instructor Errors Undermines Dive Safety
SH267: “Diver's depression” It's time to tackle stigma and taboos
SH266: A Review of 2025. Looking Forward to 2026.
SH265: Analysis from a Human Factors Perspective - Cave Double Fatality: Calimba 2004
SH264: Teamwork in Diving: The Power of Clear Roles & Task Division
SH263: The desperate need for blame
SH262: So what can we do? The Practical Steps/Tools for Bringing HF/NTS into Diving
SH261: “Would you speak up to the Commander?” - “No. They already know” - Making changes to your team's diving
SH260: Top Tips for Technical/Cave Divers: Decision Making. To manage risk, we have to be exposed to uncertainty and harm
SH259: Top Tips for Technical/Cave Divers: Situation Awareness. Risk Perception is a critical skill - Experience Doesn’t Equal Judgement
SH258: Top Tips for Technical/Cave Divers: Psychological Safety and Just Culture
SH257: Top Tips for Technical/Cave Divers: Performance Influencing Factors - Even the best of us are only human
SH256: Top Tips for Technical/Cave Divers – Leadership
SH255: Top Tips for Technical/Cave Divers: Teamwork - It's more than a back up plan
SH254: Top Tips for Technical/Cave Divers: Communication
SH253: Top Tips for Diving Instructors: Decision Making
SH252: Top Tips for Diving Instructors: Situation Awareness
SH251: Top Tips for Diving Instructors: Psychological Safety and the Thumb Rule
SH250: Top tips for Diving Instructors: Performance Influencing Factors
SH249: Top Tips for Diving Instructors: Leadership - Creating the space for others to be heard
SH248: Top Tips for Diving Instructors: Teamwork
SH247: At a system level, we don't learn from diving fatalities, and here's why
SH246: Top tips for Diving Instructors: Communication (especially the difficult kind)
SH245: Asking Why. Telling Stories. Owning Accountability
SH244: Top Tips for Beginner Divers: Decision Making
SH243: Top Tips for Beginner Divers: Situation Awareness
SH242: Top Tips for Beginner Divers: Psychological Safety & Just Culture
SH241: Top Tips for Beginner Divers: Performance Influencing Factors
SH240: Top Tips for Beginner Divers Leadership and Followership
SH239: Top Tips for Beginner Divers: Teamwork
SH238: Top tips for Beginner Divers: Communications
SH237: Decision Making: Normalisation of Deviance in Rebreather Cave Diving
SH236: Reframing The Dirty Dozen - Part 4
SH235: Reframing The Dirty Dozen - Part 3
SH234: Reframing The Dirty Dozen - Part 2
SH233: Reframing The Dirty Dozen - Part 1
SH232: Instructor Toxicity: Why one bad apple really does spoil the bunch
SH231: What do you mean, the damn box is missing again?
SH230: What We Get Wrong About Psychological Safety in Diving
SH229: Debriefing a Challenging Dive- a real-life experience
SH228: Designing Checklists that work. Slowing down to get it right.
SH227: Navigating Online Narratives and Learning from Feedback in Diving
SH226: 'They Lost Situation Awareness'
SH225: The Challenge of Psychological Safety
SH224: CCR Diver Goes Hypoxic on Surface – What Causal Reasoning Taught Me About Learning from Events
SH223: The Effect of your Environment on your Decision Making: Performance Shaping Factors in Diving
SH222: You can’t risk assess a hazard you don’t know about: DeltaP
SH221: The First Human Factors in Diving Liveaboard- Living our values
SH220: I thought: "WTF did you just say?" I actually said: ....nothing. How to say when it’s not okay
SH219: Why are dive briefings important? How to deliver them effectively
SH218: Being Understood, not just Transmitting
SH217: Normalization of Deviance (Risk): How Socially Accepted Drift Can Impact Your Diving
SH216: Diving Deep into Diving Safety: The death of Linnea Mills through a lens of HF and System Safety
SH215: Situation Awareness and Mental Models: Making it easier to the do the right thing
SH214: What if Just Culture and Psychological Safety is not enough?
SH213: The Diving Professional: Leadership is not Optional
SH212: Stress - A challenge we all face
SH211: Teams. Buddies. The Difference.
SH210: Communications - Ask better questions
SH209: You're biased, I'm biased, We are all biased!
SH208: The Lost Fin: A Lesson in Situation Awareness
SH207: Change your Language. Change the World
SH206: Single Diver Fatality in Cenote Nariz, 3 February 2024. CREER Report
SH205: What one thing...
SH204: Follow me! Trust me! I am your Leader!
SH203: The Importance of Psychological Safety in Debriefs
SH202: Accountability? Just another word for blame?
SH201: Knowledge is not enough. We must apply. What can you do to build HF into your training or education?
SH200: Why we find it so hard to say no or change...the sunk cost fallacy
SH199: Safety is boring...
SH198: Were you lucky or were you good?
SH197: We’ve got an attitude problem!
SH196: They broke the rules! So...?
SH195: Murphy was wrong!
SH194: Surely if we blame and punish, things will be safer?
SH193: The problem with bringing Human Factors into Diving is...
SH192: Quarks and Meows - the state of diving safety!
SH191: Are there Cobras in diving?
SH190: You can't learn from adverse events if you are going to blame
SH189: ‘Pilot error’. Don't 'fix' the Pilot. ‘Diver error’. 'Fix' the diver.
SH188: The Status Quo Bias. We don’t like to change
SH187: The risks we take. The decisions we make. The lessons we MIGHT learn.
SH186: Being Efficient? Being Thorough? Which One Did You Choose?
SH185: “Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt.”
SH184: Why change is hard in diving
SH182: Joining Dots is Easy, Especially If You Know the Outcome
SH182: My Biggest Mistake: Context Driving Behaviour
SH181: “Blame is the enemy of safety” - moving from blaming to learning
SH180: Challenger Safety: As an Instructor, don't I lose control?
SH179: How and Why Checklists Work
SH178: The Importance of Experience: Expertise is different to Experience
SH177: We see what we think we’re looking for
SH176: How to Integrate Human Factors Education into a New Diving Class: A Real World Example
SH175: You can't pay MORE attention: the myth of 'loss of situation awareness'
SH174: When The Rescuer Nearly Needs Rescuing! - Task Fixation
SH173: How to conduct effective pre-dive checks on a busy dive boat
SH172: Making sense now to see what the future might bring
SH171: If A=B and B=C, then why A≠C?
SH170: From an acorn to a two-day global virtual conference in four months!
SH169: “The root cause of an accident is our imagination”
SH168: What is a mistake? What is an error? Words have meanings.
SH167: Only 20% of surgeons would like to use a checklist in their operations…
SH166: You can’t run before you can walk...
SH165: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” Or can you..?
SH164: Plan to fail safely – Part 2: Passing the test doesn’t say it all
SH163: Who owns the risk in diving when something goes wrong?
SH162: Plan to fail safely - teaching students/candidates for the real world
SH161: ‘One mistake and you are dead’ – isn’t how accidents normally happen
SH160: Outcomes are so sexy and attractive…
SH159: The best is the enemy of the good
SH158: Predictive Profiling & diving: “what deviates, deserves attention!”
SH157: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!
SH156: CCR pre-dive checks and checklists are not always enough to prevent an equipment-based accident!
SH155: How safe is your diving?
SH154: The Importance of Decision Making in Setting Goals: Ensuring “The Juice is worth the Squeeze”
SH153: Why ‘They should have’, ‘...could have’ or ‘I would have..’ do not improve diving safety
SH152: The Bend is Uninteresting...The Related Decisions Are Much More So
SH151: When the holes line up...
SH150: Are you a good enough diver?
SH149: 'Choices': Guaranteed small loss or a probable larger loss, injury or fatality?
SH148: Risk of diving fatality is 1:200 000. However, you cannot be a fraction of dead…!
SH147: Dive safety leads to nothingness...and nothingness is unemotive!
SH146: Why ‘everyone is responsible for their own risk-based decisions’ isn’t the right approach to take to improve diving safety.
SH145: Cognitive Dissonance - Why you are right and I am wrong...Or are you?
SH144: Just another brick in (under) the wall...taking action
SH143: 'Entirely Predictable' vs 'Managing Uncertainty': How many rolls on the dice?
SH142: The standard you walk past is the standard you accept
SH141: We cannot improve if we don't learn. We can't learn if we don't understand.
SH140: Safety is not _the_ priority...
SH139: What does Human Factors in Diving mean?
SH138: Why ‘Human Error’ is a poor term if we are to improve diving safety
SH137: Stop making stupid mistakes. If only they’d follow the rules
SH136: Nine ways to stop your dive team improving
SH135: 17 Cognitive Biases which Contribute to Diving Accidents
SH134: Human Error in Diving: Is it really that simple?
SH133: Blood, Banks and Diving: The value of knowledge, experience and training
SH132: Leadership in Diving? Why is it needed, it is only a sport...
SH131: With Errors: Aviation Blames The System, The Diving Community Often Blames the Individual
SH130: The Power of One
SH129: We judge based on outcomes, not on process
SH128: I am biased...you are biased...we are all biased...!
SH127: Can divers learn from the US Forest Service?
SH126: Why did he make such an obvious mistake...?
SH125: "Known Unknowns" - Are they considered enough in diving...?
SH124: Congratulations on surviving. Dude, you’re one lucky f***er
SH123: Why is it so hard to thumb a dive, or end something that you have committed to?
SH122: "Human Error" or "Diver Error": Are they just an easy way of blaming the individual?
SH121: We all make errors. Let’s not judge those involved without understanding the ‘how’ it made sense.
SH120: Why is it so hard to talk about failure?
SH119: Local Rationality: Why an old lady vandalised art and how to improve diving safety!
SH118: Being a deviant is normal...
SH117: Complacency: The Silent Killer... But it's not that Simple!
SH116: Incompetent and Unaware: You don't know what you don't know...
SH115: It's the little things that catch you out...
SH114: What relevance does Human Factors have to recreational and technical diving?
SH113: How to help correct the biases which lead to poor decision making
SH112: Authority Gradient - Why people don't (or can't) speak up.
SH111: Big Data - Use as a Predictor? Or Not?
SH110: Looking in the (Cultural) Mirror...
SH109: Anyone could have done that...!
SH108: How Much Are You Willing to Risk?
SH107: Summary of RF4 Paper: Human Factors in Rebreather Diving
SH106: Language Matters: An HF Approach to Reviewing an ‘Accident Analysis’
SH105: Mistakes are good- learning from mistakes is sometimes better than getting it right
SH104: Communication- What stops people speaking up?
SH103: The Dunning Kruger effect- Incompetent (or Competent?!) and Unaware
SH102: Decision Making- How do we explain our decisions to others?
SH101: Running out of gas- Why does this happen and how can we prevent it?
SH100: Illusory Truth Effect
SH99: Standards- why do we have them and what can we do if someone breaks them?
SH98: How do novices know what questions to ask?
SH97: Survival instinct: Reaction to stress
SH96: What do we mean by experience?
SH95: Speaking the right language
SH94: Practical Guide to Applying Teamwork in Diver Training
SH93: Who is responsible for learning?
SH92: Diving accidents: the want to know what happened and why
SH91: Mind Reading for Beginners
SH90: The Backfire Effect: Why our brains make it difficult to change our mind
SH89: To Dive or Not to Dive? The Power of Decision Making
SH88: Cognitive dissonance or why we don't always follow our beliefs
SH87: The road to excellence: Systems and structure form the foundation of a culture of improvement
SH86: Selective Attention Exists! 5 Tips to Increase Situational Awareness in Diving
SH85: Ergonomics- not just about comfy chairs
SH84: Why is it so hard to admit to our mistakes?
SH83: The Curse of Knowledge
SH82: Familiarity as Distraction: Operating on Autopilot
SH81: Complacency and Efficiency
SH80: Why is it so hard to concentrate?
SH79: 5 Common Misconseptions about Human Factors
SH78: Work as Imagined vs Work as Done
SH77: Analyzing the Hidden Consequences of Undermining Standards
SH76: Navigating the Depths Safely: Risk Management & Incident Reporting with a panel of experts
SH75: Psychological Consequences of a Diving Accident
SH74: Who is responsible for change?
SH73: Why we need change
SH72: Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda
SH71: The Five Hazardous Attitudes
SH70: Mentoring: Both sides of the story
SH69: Leadership in a Short Term Team
SH 68: Scientific Diving: Trust and Communication in the depths
SH67: Diving Liability Insurance: Enabler or Barrier to Diving Safety?
SH66: The Value of Loops for Learning: Don't Just Fix the Diver /Instructor
SH65: Building a Short Term Team
SH64: Price vs Quality: The Efficiency-Thoroughness Trade Off
SH63: Unlocking the Secrets of Safer Diving: A Guide to Learning Reviews in Diving
SH62: Blame vs Learning
SH61: Racing through courses- how fast is too fast?
SH60: Facing One's Own Shadow
SH59: Drift vs Advancement: How do we push limits safely?
SH58: Changing the way we think about training
SH57: My Attitude Impacts Your Behaviour...
SH56: Navigating the Authority Gradient #2
SH55: Navigating the Authority Gradient #1
SH54: Brrrr- Cold water and the effects on our brain
SH53: Hot, hot, hot- Challenges of diving in the heat
SH52: Change is difficult- consider the opposite
SH51: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly- learning from achievements, challenges and mistakes
SH50: Learning from stories isn't easy...here's why
SH49: Unleashing Your Sixth Sense: Building capacity and directing attention
SH48: Lost in Translation: Unravelling Misunderstandings, Assumptions and Communication breakdowns
SH47: They should have lined in. I would have done that.
SH46: You need more than mistakes to learn
SH45: It’s obvious why it happened!! (In hindsight)
SH44: Near-misses: Were you lucky or were you good?
SH43: Please sir, my brain is full...We're not stupid
SH42: Would you do the same thing again?
SH41: Assumptions: A paradox
SH40: Watch what you say
SH39: Risk Management in Diving: Using Best Practice
SH38: How to Improve Diving Checklist Design and Use - Part 2
SH37: How to Build an Effective Checklist - Using Human Factors Principles
SH36: What does safe mean? How would you measure safety in diving?
SH35: Risk or Uncertainty in Diving: What’s the difference? Why it matters.
SH34: Success or Failure. Success and Failure. What do they mean?
SH33: Introducing Human Factors into Scientific Diving: first impressions
SH32: Five Key Principles to Adopt: How to Improve Individually and Organisationally
SH31: Do you trust me? Can I trust you?
SH30: DEBrIEFing Capturing the experience and improving learning
SH29: Making a deviation to end up with a better outcome
SH28: Whose job is it to create change?
SH27: Teamwork in Diving - What I Learned From a Recent Training Course
SH26: Why diving incident stories are ‘good’ and ‘bad’
SH25: Human Factors Analysis of a Maltese Diving Fatality
SH24: Don't just focus on the errors
SH23: The Four Stages of Learning
SH22: The Need for a Different Perspective
SH21: A 'Just' Culture or a 'Just Do It' Culture?
SH20: Common Sense: It doesn't exist, or if it does it isn't what you think it is
SH19: Speaking up to prevent an adverse event
SH18: What are we pretending not to know?
SH17: Human Factors. What it is. What it isn't. Why you need to knw.
SH16: How do I improve Situation Awareness?
SH15: Normalisation of Deviance
SH14: Building a Team. Part 4. Challenger Safety.
SH13: Building a Team. Part 3. Contributor Safety.
SH12: Building a Team. Part 2. Learner Safety.
SH11: Building a Team. Part 1. Inclusion Safety.
SH010: HF for Dummies. Part 10. Human Error. Psychological Safety
SH09: HF for Dummies. Part 9. Performance Shaping Factors.
SH08: HF for Dummies. Part 8. Leadership.
SH07: HF for Dummies. Part 7. Teamwork.
SH06: HF for Dummies. Part 6. Communication.
SH05: HF for Dummies. Part 5. Decision Making.
SH02: HF for Dummies. Part 2. Human Error.
SH03: HF for Dummies. Part 3. Just Culture.
SH01: HF for Dummies. Part 1. Human Factors.
SH04: HF for Dummies. Part 4. Situation Awareness.