Under Pressure: Diving Deeper with Human Factors - audiobook
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The Great Dive Podcast has an interview with Gareth and they touch on his book. Sounds pretty interesting. It was done on Nov 1st of this year, and a quick search shows other podcasts with Gareth as well. Doesn't give you what you asked (I haven't heard it), but might help.
OP
king_of_battle
Contributor
thanks - appreciate the recommendation. I'll listen to the podcast and see if it helps.
There are some tables in the book. Not a ton.
I'm going to have to buy this book and it's audio companion. I think it will be more a scientific angle to our sport which would make it very enjoyable to read (at least for myself).
OP
king_of_battle
Contributor
I went ahead and bought both (ebook and audio) but I havent had a chance to dive into it yet. I'm thinking itll be my next audiobook though so I should have some feedback soon.
I went for the free deal from audible but haven't had a chance to listen. I'd be interested in your review.
OP
king_of_battle
Contributor
Give me about a week and I should have something. I have about 4 hours left in my current book so I should finish that before the weekend and I'd start his then next monday. A friend of mine is reading it right now and has only had good things to say so far.
Hi again: I am 1/2 way thru it.
It is a very good book that could fit well in a rescue diving course as well as leadership course.
The narrator for the audiobook has a heavy British accent. Not an issue in particular but for my ears, I have to listen even more intently.
It is a very good book that could fit well in a rescue diving course as well as leadership course.
The narrator for the audiobook has a heavy British accent. Not an issue in particular but for my ears, I have to listen even more intently.
OP
king_of_battle
Contributor
I haven't written a book review in a while so be kind....
TL;DR On a star rating system I gave it 4 of 5 stars. The narrator was a little fast. The content timely and compelling. I wish he had spent more time talking about how to change the culture in diving. I would recommend to any divers.
I finished listening to the book on audible this afternoon on my way home from work. I'll briefly touch on the audio content then jump into the content of the actual book. I ended up buying the ebook and audiobook through amazon. As @Marie13 said above there are a few tables but nothing crazy. The narrator does a good job describing them and I referenced them later when I wasn't driving.
The narrator was a little fast for me but manageable with audible's speed settings. I normally listen to books at 1.5x but dropped it down to 1.25x for him to sound 'normal' to me. Unsurprisingly (as @Compressor mentioned) he spoke with a British accent but it was clear to my Texan ears. Sound mixing probably could have been a hair better - a few places they dubbed over were louder than the bulk of the book but not a major distraction. Overall no complaints with the narrators performance.
A quick background about me - I'm in the pharmaceutical industry and my current role has me heavily involved in continuous improvement and trying to deploy human performance principles to our management teams on down to the manufacturing floor. My industry is moving away from 'human error' and agencies like the FDA are becoming less accepting of that as a root cause to manufacturing issues - which is a great trend. A lot of what Gareth talks about wasn't new to me but it was interesting seeing its deployment to a different yet familiar environment.
The book builds on itself explaining one principle and then using that as a building block for the next component. Each chapter has at least one case study that highlights the principles of the chapter. It flowed well and didn't force you to jump around much (the exception could be if you wanted to review an earlier case study to re-examine it based on later chapter principles). The way I view the book is it starts by giving you the right language to understand Human Performance (HuP) then guides you from looking internally, for example how we understand our role in risk analysis, to a more external view; just culture and how we view the risks others took. To me the book follows this internal/external mindset of first looking at how we view the principles in ourselves and then how we take that into a team/organizational setting. I thought that was a great way to communicate the ideas and effectively showed how bias can play into perception of events.
I also enjoyed his discussions on teamwork and what that means. He reiterated several times the differences between 'buddy teams' and teams demonstrating teamwork. I know I've been guilty of mistaking one for the other and developing that team mentality is something I'll work on with several of the people I consistently dive with.
I also liked that he spent a chapter talking about failure. Failure scares the hell out of me but he hit the nail on the head that we learn the most from the things we fail to do. When I was in the army I failed air assault school because I didn't pay enough attention to properly staging a HMMWV to be sling loaded. Specifically I missed a roll of duct tape sitting on a wheel and that one front window pane had an 'x' of tape across only the outside, not both the inside and outside. It was awful. But once I accepted the failure and reflected on it I gained more from that then I ever would have from completing the course (we were heavy artillery - a helicopter isn't moving my paladin). I gained a new found respect for situational awareness and taking time to understand my surroundings before jumping into anything. This has served me well both in my post army career and my diving. I am happy that he brings this topic up and spends a chapter on it. All too often failures are hidden and the opportunities that could come from them are lost. Hopefully this starts a trend.
Which leads me to my one real criticism of the book. I wish there had been more discussion on how to implement these principles in the larger diving scene. It feels like a chapter is missing from the book. Beyond role modeling best behaviors there isn't really a discussion on changing the culture as a whole. Gareth reflects on several industries that are highly regulated (energy, aviation, healthcare) that have government over site, mandates, and - to some degree - legal protection that allows more open discussion without the fear of reprisal. Diving has none of that. Instructors, dive buddies, etc. have no protection if discussing their part in an accident no matter how minor. I'm not sure how we as divers will open up and conduct widespread accident analysis without it nor did it seem like Gareth had an answer to that either. I agree we have to start somewhere and the people who opened up with the case studies are a huge leap in the right direction however I'm not sure if we are moving significantly closer to a tipping point in the industry that allows the frank and honest discussions that are needed to better the sport.
By no means do I want to dissuaded anyone from reading the book. If you internalize the lessons and build the capabilities out with your team you'll gain soft skills that are rarely taught in diving that can also be used in many professional settings. Y'all will become a more cohesive and responsive team. You can be safer. This is an area largely ignored in the diving community and I'm glad this book is out there fostering discussion. Until we have a workable solution to true accident analysis it will take individuals being brave enough to withstand potential criticism and open themselves up by explaining what went wrong and the context that lead to that event. As Gareth said - we don't choose to make a mistake. Understanding the chain of events culminating in the accident, especially as perceived by the divers at those moments, is critical to us making the sport safer, accidents and failures becoming learning opportunities, and everyone becoming better divers.
TL;DR On a star rating system I gave it 4 of 5 stars. The narrator was a little fast. The content timely and compelling. I wish he had spent more time talking about how to change the culture in diving. I would recommend to any divers.
I finished listening to the book on audible this afternoon on my way home from work. I'll briefly touch on the audio content then jump into the content of the actual book. I ended up buying the ebook and audiobook through amazon. As @Marie13 said above there are a few tables but nothing crazy. The narrator does a good job describing them and I referenced them later when I wasn't driving.
The narrator was a little fast for me but manageable with audible's speed settings. I normally listen to books at 1.5x but dropped it down to 1.25x for him to sound 'normal' to me. Unsurprisingly (as @Compressor mentioned) he spoke with a British accent but it was clear to my Texan ears. Sound mixing probably could have been a hair better - a few places they dubbed over were louder than the bulk of the book but not a major distraction. Overall no complaints with the narrators performance.
A quick background about me - I'm in the pharmaceutical industry and my current role has me heavily involved in continuous improvement and trying to deploy human performance principles to our management teams on down to the manufacturing floor. My industry is moving away from 'human error' and agencies like the FDA are becoming less accepting of that as a root cause to manufacturing issues - which is a great trend. A lot of what Gareth talks about wasn't new to me but it was interesting seeing its deployment to a different yet familiar environment.
The book builds on itself explaining one principle and then using that as a building block for the next component. Each chapter has at least one case study that highlights the principles of the chapter. It flowed well and didn't force you to jump around much (the exception could be if you wanted to review an earlier case study to re-examine it based on later chapter principles). The way I view the book is it starts by giving you the right language to understand Human Performance (HuP) then guides you from looking internally, for example how we understand our role in risk analysis, to a more external view; just culture and how we view the risks others took. To me the book follows this internal/external mindset of first looking at how we view the principles in ourselves and then how we take that into a team/organizational setting. I thought that was a great way to communicate the ideas and effectively showed how bias can play into perception of events.
I also enjoyed his discussions on teamwork and what that means. He reiterated several times the differences between 'buddy teams' and teams demonstrating teamwork. I know I've been guilty of mistaking one for the other and developing that team mentality is something I'll work on with several of the people I consistently dive with.
I also liked that he spent a chapter talking about failure. Failure scares the hell out of me but he hit the nail on the head that we learn the most from the things we fail to do. When I was in the army I failed air assault school because I didn't pay enough attention to properly staging a HMMWV to be sling loaded. Specifically I missed a roll of duct tape sitting on a wheel and that one front window pane had an 'x' of tape across only the outside, not both the inside and outside. It was awful. But once I accepted the failure and reflected on it I gained more from that then I ever would have from completing the course (we were heavy artillery - a helicopter isn't moving my paladin). I gained a new found respect for situational awareness and taking time to understand my surroundings before jumping into anything. This has served me well both in my post army career and my diving. I am happy that he brings this topic up and spends a chapter on it. All too often failures are hidden and the opportunities that could come from them are lost. Hopefully this starts a trend.
Which leads me to my one real criticism of the book. I wish there had been more discussion on how to implement these principles in the larger diving scene. It feels like a chapter is missing from the book. Beyond role modeling best behaviors there isn't really a discussion on changing the culture as a whole. Gareth reflects on several industries that are highly regulated (energy, aviation, healthcare) that have government over site, mandates, and - to some degree - legal protection that allows more open discussion without the fear of reprisal. Diving has none of that. Instructors, dive buddies, etc. have no protection if discussing their part in an accident no matter how minor. I'm not sure how we as divers will open up and conduct widespread accident analysis without it nor did it seem like Gareth had an answer to that either. I agree we have to start somewhere and the people who opened up with the case studies are a huge leap in the right direction however I'm not sure if we are moving significantly closer to a tipping point in the industry that allows the frank and honest discussions that are needed to better the sport.
By no means do I want to dissuaded anyone from reading the book. If you internalize the lessons and build the capabilities out with your team you'll gain soft skills that are rarely taught in diving that can also be used in many professional settings. Y'all will become a more cohesive and responsive team. You can be safer. This is an area largely ignored in the diving community and I'm glad this book is out there fostering discussion. Until we have a workable solution to true accident analysis it will take individuals being brave enough to withstand potential criticism and open themselves up by explaining what went wrong and the context that lead to that event. As Gareth said - we don't choose to make a mistake. Understanding the chain of events culminating in the accident, especially as perceived by the divers at those moments, is critical to us making the sport safer, accidents and failures becoming learning opportunities, and everyone becoming better divers.
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