HindSight is a magazine on human and organisational factors in operations. HindSight magazine is free and published twice a year, reaching tens of thousands of readers in aviation and other sectors worldwide. Published in December 2022, HindSight 34 focused on the theme of Handling Surprises: Tales of the Unexpected. You can download the full issue, and individual articles on SKYbrary. You will find an introduction to this Issue below, along with links to the magazine and the individual articles.
Welcome to issue 34 of EUROCONTROL’s HindSight magazine, the magazine on human and organisational factors in operations, in air traffic management and beyond.
This issue is on the theme of Handling Surprises: Tales of the Unexpected. You will find a diverse selection of articles from front-line staff, senior managers, and specialists in operations, human factors, safety, and resilience engineering in the context of aviation, healthcare, maritime, and web operations. The articles reflect surprise handling by individuals, teams and organisations from the perspectives of personal experience, theory, research, and training.
HindSight magazine emphasises the value of multiple perspectives, and there is often a tension between these. In this zone of tension, we can find much insight as well as reasons for different understandings. There are differences in perspectives within and between researchers, specialists, senior managers and front-line staff. What is surprise and how does it differ from startle, or simply ‘the unexpected’? How do surprises emerge? How can we be prepared to be surprised at individual, team, and organisational levels? How should we respond after surprises? There is rarely one correct answer, and the topic itself is surprising.
In this packed issue, including the online supplement articles, leading voices from the ground and air, and from academia and other industries, share perspectives on these questions. I hope that the articles help you to prepare to be surprised. It is also recommended to review issue 15 of HindSight on Emergency and Unusual Situations in the Air.
Special thanks are extended to the authors and the operational reviewers, who help to ensure that HindSight magazine is relevant, interesting and useful. While the primary readers are operational staff, especially those involved in aviation, it is read much more widely, by different people in different sectors.
We hope that the articles trigger conversations between you and others. Do your operational and non-operational colleagues know about HindSight? Please let them know. Search ‘SKYbrary HindSight’ for all issues, covering a wide variety of themes.
HindSight 34 Articles
Forewords
- EUROCONTROL Foreword; “Managing the unexpected”, by Tony Licu
- Invited Foreword, by Georgi Peev, Director General, BULATSA
Editorial
From Research to Practice
- On being prepared to be surprised: 20 key insights from David Woods in conversation with Steven Shorrock
Views from the Ground
- The Chicago fire, by Tim Arel
- A day when (almost) nothing happened: A personal perspective, by Tom Laursen
- “If what you write is correct, we Must shut down our tower”, by Sebastian Daeunert
- How one incident changed my approach to handling the unexpected, by Glen Watson
- Jet blast: How small changes can lead to big outcomes, by Ulf Henke
- Is that the fire alarm? Surprise in the simulator, by Lucy Kirkland
- Air con down: Ops room air conditioning system failure, by Francis Bezzina
- Human and organisational factors Q&A: Just culture for all, by all, by Lea Sophie Vink
Views from the Air
- Surprise and startle, by Captain Ed Pooley
- Dispatches from hell: Reflections on surprise and personal resilience, by Dai Whittingham
- Three approaches, two go arounds, and one diversion, by Eric Carter and James Norman
- Keep calm and reframe: Essential elements of dealing with surprise, by Annemarie Landman, Eric Groen, René van Paassen, Max Mulder
- Training for surprises: Research and implementation, by Jeroen Van Rooij and Edzard Boland
Views from Elsewhere
- Surprises and survival: Lifeboats and learning, by Adrian Woolrich-Burt
- Handling the unexpected: A vascular and trauma surgeon’s perspective, by Mark Edwards
- From surprise to normalise: How can we become culturally intelligent?, by Nippin Anand
And Now for Something Completely Different
Human Performance in the Spotlight
Diversity and Inclusion
The Long Read
- The day that changed everything: From paralysis to growth. A conversation with Dennie Coumans, by Steven Shorrock and Dennie Coumans
The Lighter Side
- Cartoons, by Daniel Avram
See all editions of HindSight magazine
Humanistic Systems 