The twelve most common Aviation Maintenance-related, Human Factors causes of errors. (1) Lack of Communication: In general only 30% of verbal communication is received and understood by either side in a conversation. People normally remember what was said first and last in an exchange; consequently it is important to put the most important part of your message first and then repeat it at the end. Depending on the complexity of the message it might be more effective to provide some form of written instruction such as a checklist. (2) Complacency: Defined as: "Self-satisfaction accompanied by a loss of awareness of the danger." If an activity has become routine and you are feeling "fat dumb and happy", you may be missing important signals. There is a tendency to see what you expect to see. (3) Lack of Knowledge: Aviation Organization has a regulatory responsibility to ensure that their personnel have the required training. (4) Distraction (Dirty Dozen 4): Anything that draws your attention away from the task at hand. Psychologists say distraction is the number one cause of forgetting things. We are always thinking ahead. Thus, we have a natural tendency, when we are distracted before returning to a job, to think we are further ahead than we actually are. (5) Lack of Teamwork: An effective team will: (1) Maintain a clear mission; (2) Maintain team expectations; (3) Communicate to all team members; (4) Maintain trust; and (5) Pitch in. (6) Fatigue: Studies have shown that, similar to being under the influence of alcohol, we tend to underestimate the problem and overestimate our ability to cope with it. These studies have proven that after 17 hours of wakefulness, you are functioning as if you had an equivalent blood alcohol level of 0.05%. After 24 hours the level increases to 0.1%; a very sobering thought. The more fatigued you are, the lower your IQ. It is also noteworthy that the more fatigued you are, the more easily you are distracted. (7) Lack of Resources: A lack of resources can interfere with one's ability to complete a task because there is a lack of supply and support. Low quality products also affect one's ability to complete a task. (8) Pressure: Urgent demands, which influence our performance, include: (1) Company; (2) Client; (3) Peer; and (4) Self-Induced. Interestingly, people put the most pressure on themselves. Self-induced pressures are those occasions where one takes ownership of a situation, which was not of their doing. The "monkey on your back" is yours because you accepted it. Being assertive and not accepting the "monkey" will help. (9) Lack of Assertiveness: Assertiveness is the ability to express your feelings, opinions, beliefs and needs in a positive, productive manner. It is not the same as being aggressive. The following are examples of how a lack of assertiveness can be offset: (1) Get the persons attention and state the problem: John, I have a concern with. (2) Give consequences: If we continue. this will be the result. (3) Give solutions: We could. you may want to try. I'd like to. (4) Solicit feedback: What do you think? Remember to deal with one issue at a time (not multiples), do not embellish or exaggerate, stick to the facts, and stay calm. (10) Stress: There are two types of stress: acute and chronic. Acute stress relates to the demands placed on the body because of current issues; for example, time constraints for converting the aircraft from passenger to cargo configuration. Chronic stress results from long term demands placed on the body by both negative and positive major life events, such as divorce, or winning the lottery. Chronic stress can exaggerate the effects of acute stress. To handle acute stress, try to take a five-minute break and relax by deep breathing. Dealing with chronic stress is more difficult and usually involves a lifestyle change. (11) Lack of Awareness: Defined as, "a failure to recognize all the consequences of an action, or lack of foresight". To combat this, try asking yourself, "What if. Do I see the complete picture? What have we forgotten? (12) Norms: Norms are unwritten rules or behaviors, dictated and followed by the majority of a group. Norms can be positive and negative. A positive norm would be scanning the area inside the aircraft you have been working on prior to closing up. A negative norm would be pushing an aircraft into the hangar by yourself. (1) A side effect of working in teams is the use of norms to guide a person's behavior. For example, a maintenance team may meet regularly before and after a shift is over or even socially, during days off. If this meeting is not required by the organization, but expected by the team members, then it is a norm. (2) Norms are omnipresent in society. Norms are expected, yet implicit rules for behavior. That is, norms dictate fundamental rules of dress, speech, and basic interaction. Because they are rules for behavior that define others' expectations, norms facilitate social interaction by reducing the number of surprises one may encounter in a given social context. (3) Violation of a norm can prove distressing. For example, a group of maintenance technicians may vigorously enforce the wearing of proper personal protective equipment (PPE) when at work. Not wearing PPE may be not only a source of concern for the norm breaker, but may also elicit negative reactions from those who conform. In this case, others in the surrounding group may sanction the norm breaker. (4) Norms are usually developed to solve to problems that have ambiguous solutions. When faced with an ambiguous situation, an individual may use another's behavior as a frame of reference around which to form his or her own reactions. As this process continues, group norms develop and stabilize. Newcomers to the situation are then accepted into the group based on adherence to norms. Very rarely do newcomers initiate change in a group with established norms. (5) Some norms are unsafe in that they are non-productive or detract from the productivity of the group. Taking shortcuts in aircraft maintenance, working from memory, or not following procedures are examples of unsafe norms. Newcomers are better able to identify these unsafe norms than long-standing members of the group. On the other hand, the newcomer's credibility depends on his or her assimilation into the group. The newcomer's assimilation, however, depends on adherence to the group norms. Everyone should be aware of the perceptiveness of newcomers in identifying unhealthy norms and develop a positive attitude toward the possibility that norms may need to be changed. Finally, as newcomers become assimilated into the group structure, they build credibility with others. Once this has been done, a relative newcomer may begin to institute change within the group. Unfortunately, such actions are often difficult to do and rely heavily on the group's perception of the newcomer's credibility. (6) Norms have been identified as one of the dirty dozen in aviation maintenance and a great deal of anecdotal evidence points to the use of unsafe norms on the line. The effect of unsafe norms may range from the relatively benign, such as determining accepted meeting times , to the inherently unsafe, such as pencil-whipping certain tasks. Any behavior commonly accepted by the group, whether as a standard operating procedure (SOP) or not, can be a norm. MRM courses should attempt to help individuals identify group norms, ferret out unsafe norms and take appropriate action