Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to Diving

This episode looks at the idea that all technical divers are leaders, even if they don’t see themselves that way, because their experience, behaviour, and decisions influence others in the water. Leadership in diving isn’t about giving orders; it’s about building trust, staying calm, communicating clearly, and creating an environment where everyone feels safe to speak up. The discussion explains how leadership roles in technical diving can change during a dive and highlights key qualities of good leaders, such as technical competence, good decision-making, strong situation awareness, and leading by example. It also shares practical tips, like fostering psychological safety, being consistent with procedures, understanding and explaining the reasons behind decisions, and always trying to improve. The main message is simple: as a technical diver, you are a role model, and by being the diver you would want to follow, you can help your whole team dive more safely and effectively.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-technical-cave-divers-leadershipTags: - english cave diving human factors lanny vogel leadership psychological safety technical diving

This episode explores why teamwork is a critical survival skill in technical diving, not just a nice extra. Using a real training story where a teammate caught a dangerous mistake during an emergency drill, it shows how even well-trained divers can fail under pressure and why a strong team can prevent small errors from becoming fatal. Technical diving involves higher risks, more complex equipment, and smaller margins for error, which means no diver, no matter how self-reliant, can be their own backup for everything. Effective teams plan dives together, position themselves deliberately, use clear and layered communication, manage ego and authority, practise emergencies as a group, and debrief honestly to improve the next dive. The key message is simple: great gear matters, but a cohesive, well-practised team is just as important, because in technical diving, your team is part of your life support.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/Top%20Tips%20for%20Technical%20Divers:%20Teamwork%20-%20It%27s%20more%20than%20a%20back%20up%20planTags: mike mason teamwork

This episode looks at why communication in technical and cave diving often fails, even between skilled and experienced divers. Using two real dive stories, it shows how serious risks can come from small breakdowns, such as mislabelled gas bottles or missed signals during a valve problem, and how teams often rely on assumptions rather than confirmation. A key message is that sending a message does not mean it has been understood, especially when stress, task overload, poor visibility, hierarchy, or equipment get in the way. Communication in diving is not just hand signals or words, but also lights, behaviour, technology, and the environment itself. To reduce errors, teams need clear briefings, shared mental models, closed-loop communication, and honest debriefs that explore what really happened, not just whether the dive ended safely. Improving communication is about slowing down, checking understanding, and creating a team culture where questions and challenges are welcomed before small issues turn into big ones.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-technical-cave-divers-communicationTags: - english communication gareth lock teamwork

This episode explores how instructor decisions in diving are shaped long before an accident happens, often by habit, pressure, and past success rather than careful thought. Using real-world accounts from a fatal training dive in poor visibility, it shows how instructors often rely on fast, instinctive decision-making that usually works but can fail when conditions are complex, rushed, or risky. When dives end without incident, messy decisions often get hidden behind a “successful outcome,” which can lead to normalising higher levels of risk over time. The key message is to separate luck from skill, challenge assumptions, and judge decisions by how they made sense at the time, not just by the outcome. Simple tools like pausing to ask why you’re acting, what you expect to happen next, and whether the risk matches the benefit can slow thinking and improve safety. Reflective debriefs and open sharing of near-misses help instructors learn, adapt, and make better decisions before small issues line up into serious harm.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-decision-making-the-big-ones-not-the-little-onesLinks: Learning in the Heat of the Moment: An Interview With Sabrina Cohen-Hatton‘Storytelling to learn’Tags: - english decision-making gareth lock instructors top tips

This episode looks at a common teaching challenge: when a student can complete the required skills but still isn’t ready to be certified. Through a personal story, the author explains how the missing piece was situation awareness — the ability to notice what’s happening, understand what it means, and think ahead. The student was using so much mental effort just to manage basic skills like buoyancy and trim that there was no capacity left to track their buddy, navigation, or decompression. The key lesson is that learning and performance are limited by mental capacity, and when students are overloaded, awareness drops. Instructors can help by building basic skills slowly, watching for signs of overload, using debriefs to understand where attention was focused, sharing their own experiences, and remembering that instructors can lose awareness too. Developing situation awareness takes time, practice, and the right focus — and recognising this helps instructors support students more effectively.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-instructors-situation-awarenessTags: - english jenny lord situation awareness situational awareness

This episode explores why calling a dive can be harder in practice than the famous “any diver can end any dive” rule suggests, especially for instructors under time, money, or reputation pressure. Using a real cave-diving example, the blog shows how small equipment issues and disrupted routines created warning signs that the team wasn’t ready, even though nothing had gone seriously wrong yet. The dive was safely called, and the team later recognised how important psychological safety was in making that decision feel acceptable and supported. The key message is that psychological safety — feeling able to speak up, admit mistakes, or stop without fear of criticism — is essential for safe and effective training. Instructors play a major role in creating this by staying calm under pressure, reacting constructively to small problems, and leading by example when it’s time to call a dive.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-psychological-safety-and-the-thumb-ruleLinks: Some previous blogs about psychological safety:https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/HFforD-part-10-psychological-safetyhttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/what-if-just-culture-and-psychological-safety-is-not-enoughhttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/the-challenge-of-psychological-safetyhttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/what-we-get-wrong-about-psychological-safety-in-divinghttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-psychological-safety-just-culturehttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/team-building-psych-safety-1 - Part one of a four-part series.Tags: - english cave diving human factors lanny vogel psychological safety

This episode looks at why students — and instructors — sometimes struggle in dive training, even when the skills seem simple, and explains how performance is shaped by more than just ability. Factors like fatigue, stress, cold, time pressure, anxiety, social expectations, and difficult conditions can all affect how people think, learn, and perform. When these pressures stack up, students may panic or stall, and instructors may rush, lose patience, or make poor decisions. The key message is that good instruction means recognising these performance influences early, managing what you can, and adapting your teaching and self-care to match the situation. By slowing down, checking in, normalising mistakes, managing comfort and stress, and using thoughtful debriefs, instructors can create safer, more effective learning environments where both students and teachers perform at their best.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-performance-influencing-factorsLinks: Blog about having difficult conversations: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-communication-the-difficult-kindTags: - english fatigue mike mason performance influencing factors performance shaping factors stress

This episode explores why people in diving often don’t speak up, even when something feels unsafe, and why being “heard” matters just as much as being allowed to talk. Using a real boat-diving story, it shows how authority gaps, hero culture, social media status, and tight-knit groups can silence both new and experienced divers. Research highlights that people stay quiet mainly because they fear looking bad or upsetting others, not because they lack knowledge. Titles, reputation, and tribal loyalty can make unsafe decisions hard to challenge, while weak feedback systems hide problems rather than fix them. The key message is that safety depends on leaders actively creating spaces where speaking up is worthwhile, not risky, by listening with curiosity, lowering power barriers, valuing informal conversations, and rewarding honesty over conformity. In diving, real learning starts when people feel they belong, can question decisions, and know their voice will truly be heard.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-leadership-creating-the-space-for-others-to-be-heardLinks: One of the studies by ReitzGareth’s MSc research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRXqeQvRFK0&t=4sLinnea Mills caseBrian Bugge caseTags: - english gareth lock instructors leadership psychological safety top tips

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-teamworkLinks: Team Players: How Social Skills Improve Team Performance study by Ben Weidmann and David DemingMore 'Top Tips for Diving Instructors' blogsGuy’s blog about teaching teamwork: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/HF_Into_ArchaeologyDEBrIEF model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debriefTags: - english communication gareth lock instructors teamwork top tips

This episode explains why the diving industry struggles to learn from fatalities and argues that the problem is not one bad decision or one person, but the whole system. Using the death of 18-year-old diver Linnea Mills as an example, it shows how normal people, doing what made sense at the time, can be caught by gaps in training, supervision, equipment, communication, and emergency planning. The focus is on moving beyond neat, blame-based “first stories” and instead telling messier “second stories” that explore context, pressure, trade-offs, and gradual drift away from safety margins. The episode looks at ideas like normalisation of deviance, weak feedback loops, authority gradients, and the gap between what rules say should happen and what really happens on dives. The key message is that safety improves when we change conditions, not just criticise people: by building psychological safety, matching supervision to the real task, checking equipment properly, planning for emergencies that fit the location, learning from near misses, and raising standards above the bare minimum. Learning from tragedy requires courage, honest stories, and system-level change, but it is possible—and it starts before the next dive.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/we-don-t-learn-from-diving-fatalities-and-here-s-whyLinks: Webinar about Linnea Mills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu4tc8gtNio&t=3sNo learning focused investigation process in diving: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/learning-reviews-in-divingCompliance can give an illusion of safety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNhmxz2_adcWhat conditions made it harder to do the ‘right’ thing and easier to do the ‘wrong’ thing?Creating the conditions and space for speaking up: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-leadership-creating-the-space-for-others-to-be-heardHaving difficult conversations as an instructor: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-communication-the-difficult-kindTEDS open question acronym: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/communications-ask-better-questionsPsychological safety blogs: Blog 1. Blog 2. Blog 3.a...

Many dive instructors are facing a growing challenge: some students believe that paying for a course means they are guaranteed a certification card. This can lead to difficult conversations when an instructor decides a student needs more time to reach a safe and confident level, even if they attended all sessions and tried hard. This episode explores why clear communication is essential, especially before a course begins, so students understand that they are paying for training, not an automatic qualification. It explains the importance of describing why standards exist, using kind and supportive language, staying firm but empathetic, and normalising the idea that people learn at different speeds. By setting expectations early, explaining decisions clearly, and being honest and caring in tough moments, instructors can protect safety, maintain trust, and help students see certification as something earned through readiness, not something bought.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-communication-the-difficult-kindTags: - english communication instructors mike mason

This episode explores how the diving community responds when something goes badly wrong and why the choice between blame and learning really matters. Drawing on three university research projects, it explains that after serious incidents people look for meaning through justice, learning, and sometimes punishment, and that visible learning can itself be a form of justice. The episode looks at why divers often struggle to share honest stories about near misses and accidents, including fear of judgment, legal worries, and online criticism, and why sharing clear, context-rich stories is essential for real safety improvement. It also explains that accountability is not just about finding fault but about choosing fair, forward-looking ways to improve systems, training, and teamwork. The key message is that diving becomes safer when we replace silence and scapegoating with open storytelling, curiosity, and accountability that focuses on learning and change rather than blame.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/asking-why-telling-stories-and-owning-accountability-lessons-for-divingLinks: The three theses: Møller (2023), Lock (2024), Parris (2025)Summary of Lock’s thesis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRXqeQvRFK0&t=3sChanging the language to help learning: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/change-your-language-change-the-worldDEBrIEF model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debriefThe documentaries ‘If Only…’ and ‘Just a Routine Operation’Tags: English, Gareth Lock, Incident Reporting, Just Culture, Psychological Safety

This episode looks at how many decisions can happen during a single dive and why decision-making is often harder underwater, especially for new divers. Using a real-world wreck dive story, it shows how focus on a goal, strong currents, stress, and missed checks can slowly lead to poor outcomes, even when basic skills are sound. The discussion explains how pressure, mental overload, common thinking biases, limited experience, and social influences can affect the choices divers make without them realising it. It also introduces simple, practical tools—like clear dive plans with decision points, pausing to reassess when stressed, regular scanning of key information, and honest post-dive debriefs—to help divers recognise problems earlier and make safer decisions. The key message is that good decisions are a skill that can be learned, and every dive is a chance to improve judgment and dive more safely.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-decision-makingTags: English, Beginners, Cognitive Biases, Decision Making, Gareth Lock

In this episode, we explore situation awareness, a key skill that helps divers notice what’s happening around them, understand what it means, and anticipate what might happen next. Using a personal story from a first open water dive, we show how beginners often rely on instructors to manage the “big picture” and don’t realise how much awareness is needed until they dive on their own. The episode explains why situation awareness is harder for new divers, introduces the simple three-step model of perception, understanding, and prediction, and shares practical tips to build this skill from the very start, such as good dive briefings, clear communication, staying curious, managing stress, and learning from debriefs. The key message is that situation awareness is a skill anyone can develop, and improving it makes diving safer, calmer, and more enjoyable.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-situation-awarenessLinks: Blog about dive briefings: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/Why%20are%20dive%20briefings%20important%3F%20How%20to%20deliver%20them%20effectivelyBlog about debriefing: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/debriefing-a-challenging-dive-a-real-life-experienceBlog about communication: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-communicationTags: English, Beginners, Mike Mason, Situation Awareness, Situational Awareness

In this episode, we follow Paul, a diver who joins an unfamiliar group and stays silent when he feels unsure, leading to stress, separation from the team, and a risky situation underwater. His story shows how being part of a group doesn’t automatically mean being part of a team, especially when people don’t feel comfortable asking questions or speaking up. We explore the ideas of psychological safety and just culture, and why they matter in diving, so that everyone can raise concerns, admit mistakes, and learn without fear of blame or embarrassment. The episode also shares practical ways divers can support each other, encourage open communication, and challenge unsafe behaviour, helping teams become safer, stronger, and better together.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-psychological-safety-just-cultureLinks: Blog about Performance Influencing Factors: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-performance-influencing-factorsTags: English, Beginners, Just Culture, Pedro Paulo Cunha, Psychological Safety, Teamwork

This episode looks at Ellie’s first overseas dive trip, where she discovered that being “ready” on paper doesn’t always mean performing well in real life. Even though she knew her skills, a rushed boat, unexpected changes, stress, and small mistakes left her overwhelmed and unsure underwater. We use her experience to explore why divers don’t always act the way they intend, using the WITH/TWIN model to explain how the environment, individual limits, task load, and human nature all shape performance. You’ll hear practical tools for managing stress, spotting error traps, asking better pre-dive questions, and debriefing the human side of a dive. The message is simple: safe diving isn’t just about technical skills — it’s about understanding what affects your performance so you can learn, adapt, and be better than yesterday.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-performance-influencing-factorsLinks: HALT: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/stress-a-challenge-we-all-facePACE model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/navigating-the-authority-gradient-pt2SBAR model: https://www.ihi.org/library/tools/sbar-tool-situation-background-assessment-recommendationDebrief model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debriefTags: English, Beginners, Gareth Lock, Performance Influencing Factors

This episode explores what happened when an inexperienced diver, John, assumed he was “just meant to follow” his far more experienced buddy, Shona- and how a simple sea dive turned stressful when expectations weren’t shared. Their miscommunication shows that good teamwork in diving isn’t automatic: leaders need to notice when teammates are struggling, and followers need to speak up, ask questions, and stay involved in the plan. We look at how beginners can build both leadership and followership from day one through curiosity, clear expectations, simple pre-dive questions, and short debriefs. The story highlights that safe, enjoyable dives come from shared mental models, mutual accountability, and the courage to communicate- no matter how new you are.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-leadership-and-followershipLinks: Debrief model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debriefTop Tips for Beginner Divers- Teamwork: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-teamworkDive briefings: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/Why%20are%20dive%20briefings%20important%3F%20How%20to%20deliver%20them%20effectivelyPsychological safety: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/HFforD-part-10-psychological-safetyTags: English, Beginners, Communications, Followership, Gareth Lock, Leadership, Teamwork

In this episode, we look at how two new divers learned the hard way that being a true buddy team takes more than just diving side by side. A simple dive on a house reef became stressful when assumptions replaced communication, and neither diver had agreed on roles, pace, or what to do if something went wrong. Their experience shows that teamwork doesn’t happen automatically—it’s built through clear plans, shared expectations, and honest conversations before and after the dive. We explore how new divers can avoid “assumed coordination,” develop a shared mental model, and grow stronger as a team using practical tools like pre-dive role discussions, simple communication habits, quick debriefs, and psychological safety. Effective teamwork helps divers stay connected, learn together, and enjoy safer, more relaxed dives.   Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-teamwork   Links: Debrief model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/debriefing Building psychological safety: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/the-challenge-of-psychological-safety   Tags:  English, Beginners, Brief, Debrief, Gareth Lock, Teamwork

In this episode, we look at how a simple miscommunication during a fun dive turned into confusion, and why clear planning and shared understanding are essential for safe and enjoyable diving. Because you can’t talk underwater, communication has to start at the surface, and most problems come from assumptions, unclear plans, or people being too nervous to speak up. We break down practical tools to avoid this—like agreeing on the dive plan, using shared hand signals, confirming understanding, carrying a slate, and doing short debriefs after each dive. Good communication builds confidence, strengthens teamwork, and prevents small misunderstandings from turning into big issues.   Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-communication   Links: Shared understanding: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/lost-in-translation Blog about psychological safety: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/the-challenge-of-psychological-safety Ask questions: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/communications-ask-better-questions   Tags:  English, Briefing, Communication, Communications, Mike Mason, Teamwork

In this episode, we explore how easy it is for divers to drift into unsafe habits when risky behaviour seems to have no consequences, especially in small or high-performing cave and technical diving teams. A real example from a cave rebreather class shows how a simple shortcut- only a few metres and seemingly low-risk- could have broken a key rule of always maintaining a continuous guideline. Even when a team is skilled and conditions look perfect, small deviations can become normalised and lead to bigger risks later. We talk about why psychological safety, honest communication, and clear team standards are essential for spotting drift, challenging unsafe ideas, and learning from each other.   Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-blog-normalisation-of-deviance-in-rebreather-cave-diving   Links: Normalisation of deviance: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/normalisation-of-deviance-not-about-rule-breaking Psychological safety: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/what-we-get-wrong-about-psychological-safety-in-diving   Tags:  English, Cave Diving, CCR, Decision Making, Lanny Vogel, Normalisation of Deviance, Teamwork